Posts Tagged ‘red oak wood’
Picanha (Sirloin Cap)
Picanha (Sirloin cap)
Today we are going to be trying a somewhat different cut of meat than what is normally done smoked on a bbq. This is going to be picanha, or sirloin cap, which you normally find served in Brazilian grills and steakhouses. There it is usually pushed onto a large metal skewer in a “C”-shape and roasted directly over a fire. This lets the thick fat cap render and keep the meat lubricated. This will not work over the lower temperatures used in low and slow bbq cooking. Read on to find out what we did differently to make this cut of beef turn out great.
Picanha (sirloin cap) on the cooker
Santa Maria-style Tri-tip (Reverse Sear)
Santa Maria-style Tri-tip
Wow, its been a while hasn’t it… ? A combination of lots of travel, meetings, holidays and other problems has meant that there has been a definite lack of barbecue action (and even what little BBQ action has happened such as the pulled pork I made for the Superbowl has not been written up here). Today we are going to try and rectify this by a cook of Santa Maria style Tri-tip. While I have cooked this before (I’m pretty sure cooking of it is mandated in CA’s overly long Constitution…), I don’t think I’ve recorded the process and I’ve also never been fully happy with how it has turned out (as the state BBQ dish pretty much, it seems important to me to get it right…). So inspired by a different method proposed by Meathead in his amazing book which Miss AdventuresInBBQ got me for Christmas, I decided to give it another go via the method of reverse searing.
The tri-tip undergoing its final sear over direct heat just before it comes off the grill.
Beef Short Ribs with Dalmation Rub
Today we are doing the somewhat badly named Beef Short Ribs. These rib bones are about 6″ long and can be up to 2″ thick and can weigh over a 1 lb each. They also need a long slow cook to get all the fat and connective tissue to melt and soften up and become tasty. Read on to see how they turned out after the long cook.
Ribs smoking in the Weber Kettle
Beef Brisket Flat
Brisket Flat
Today we are doing what many consider the quintessential barbecue cook, beef brisket. Since a whole so-called packer brisket, is a whole heap of meat for one person to be eating, this time we are cooking just the brisket flat (this sits on the bottom of a whole packer brisket under the point muscle and produces the long thin slices that people generally think of when say “brisket”. It is much leaner than the point with a lot less intramuscular fat so it can be hard to stop it drying it out in the long cook). Cook times for briskets can range anywhere from 8 to 16 hours depending of how big it is and how low a temperature it is smoked at. Read on to see how it turned out after this long cook.
Lamb Shoulder with Black Sauce
With predicted temperatures into the high 70’s F today in our bit of Southern California, winter seems to be over so why not get the BBQ out of the shed and fire it up ? If even more of excuse were needed, this weekend is the Superbowl and all across the country people will be firing up grills and smokers and cooking barbecue. Today we will be doing a somewhat less common meat for this country (it is far more popular in my original home country of Britain) and cooking lamb shoulder.
Lamb shoulder after the application of the rub paste
Smoked Turkey Breast
Smoked Turkey Breast
For the last day of the year in this first year (well eight months really so far) of starting these adventures in BBQ, we will be finishing the old year and ushering in the new with a Smoked Turkey Breast. Since there is only one of the household eating it, we went with a smaller turkey breast rather than trying to cook a whole bird. The smoked turkey breast will be done Central Texas-style with a simple salt and black pepper rub – the so called Dalmation rub (because its just black and white see…). Read on to see how it turned out.
Hot Oak Smoked Salmon
Hot Oak Smoked Salmon
Being a half-pescatarian (or as a friend of mine once put it: “Occasionally I’m a bit naughty with fish”…), half-meatarian household, fish, especially salmon, is a fairly common feature and that is especially the case around the Christmas holidays. Today we are venturing into the brave new worlds of fish cooking and wet brining by brining and then cooking some oak smoked salmon. (Note that this is hot smoking not the cold smoking process that produces the smoked salmon you see in packets in stores and (if you are smart) you put on bagels with cream cheese. Cold smoking is a much more difficult process which needs very careful control over lots of things to avoid ending up with dodgy microbes in your food – the FDA has lots of scary information on this but if Meathead at Amazing Ribs says it’s not a good idea to try, that’s more than good enough for me to steer well clear…). Read on to see how our (hot-) smoked salmon turned out.
Smoked salmon cooking on the grill
Beef Short Ribs
In a timely overlap with the Formula 1 Grand Prix happening in Austin, TX, today we are trying barbecue beef short ribs for the first time. These will be cooked low and slow Texas-style for 6+ hours.