Out east, especially in Baltimore, they eat "Pit Beef"...It's top-round, seasoned with a dry rub (salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, onion, oregano), cooked about 12-18" above a bed of hot coals (grilled, not indirect smoking) turning it throughout the cook to blacken the outside, and cook till about 130 inside (rare). Let rest for a few minutes, then slice thin and serve on a kaiser roll with fresh horseradish sauce.



I took some hot coals out of the bottom of my firebox, put them on a cooking shelf, and cooked on the next shelf up...turned out pretty good:


Fresh horseradish sauce:






...a nice "variation" of BBQ that I enjoyed, it's always fun to try a new style of cooking - anyone else ever make "Pit Beef"?

Never have done "pit beef" but I do see one in my near future! How big was that bad boy and how long did you cook it?

I'm looking for a new smoking wood.
I've gone through all the big box stores selection:
Hickory, apple, cherry, mesquite, pecan (my all around favorite)..

Typical cooks are bb and spare ribs, boneless turkey breast, wings, occasional larger pork cut like a shoulder, occasional beef shortribs.

I've been checking some wood vendor's websites and there's a whooole lot to choose from.
Some places offer woods I've never heard of for smoking like persimmon (oh god, that site plays music so bad, you have to check it) and mountain mahogany.

I haven't tried white oak and it is topping my list. I like pecan and hickory so maybe another nutwood like walnut or almond (I know, not a true nut).
A coworker has promised me some maple and I'm looking forward to trying it.
Anyone have any particular recommendations?

rubbbqco wrote:...a nice "variation" of BBQ that I enjoyed, it's always fun to try a new style of cooking - anyone else ever make "Pit Beef"?

I've done it two or three times, but I am a little bit underwhelmed by it. Since discovering barbecued/smoked medium rare top round (or top sirloin), that's what I go for when I'm in the mood for medium rare smoked meat.

Never have done "pit beef" but I do see one in my near future! How big was that bad boy and how long did you cook it?

JSM - This was 5 pounder, and it took about an hour to get it to 130 inside. You cook with a hot fire, about 12 inches above the coals.

Next up: Tro Steak on my new wood-fired charbroiler I just picked up at auction!

BrendanR wrote:I'm looking for a new smoking wood.
I've gone through all the big box stores selection:
Hickory, apple, cherry, mesquite, pecan (my all around favorite)..

Typical cooks are bb and spare ribs, boneless turkey breast, wings, occasional larger pork cut like a shoulder, occasional beef shortribs.

I've been checking some wood vendor's websites and there's a whooole lot to choose from.
Some places offer woods I've never heard of for smoking like persimmon (oh god, that site plays music so bad, you have to check it) and mountain mahogany.

I haven't tried white oak and it is topping my list. I like pecan and hickory so maybe another nutwood like walnut or almond (I know, not a true nut).
A coworker has promised me some maple and I'm looking forward to trying it.
Anyone have any particular recommendations?

If you can get your hands on some larger quantities of sugar cane, it might be worth a shot. Some traditional methods for andouille specify sugar cane.

=R=

JSM - This was 5 pounder, and it took about an hour to get it to 130 inside. You cook with a hot fire, about 12 inches above the coals.

Thanks, I picked up a 3 pounder today that I plan on putting on the UDS rotisserie tomorrow afternoon. Need to bust out of my pork rut!

BrendanR wrote:I'm looking for a new smoking wood.
I've gone through all the big box stores selection: ...

I buy what I can't find locally. Mesquite is something I'll probably never find around here.

I procured black walnut, box elder (actually a maple), mulberry, cherry and lilac without leaving my property. Walking around the neighborhood after a big storm I found maple, oak and hickory.

If you watch Craigslist for free wood you can occasionally find other stuff like crab apple and cherry.

A followup on my search for cheap chicken. I wound up with Perdue roasters at $1.99/lb, BOGO. I also got a butterball turkey. Last Monday I fired up the 22.5 WSM for the first time and discovered that it will easily hold three eight pound chickens on one grate.



The fourth went into the mini-WSM and gave me a chance to try out pecan wood for smoking.



Turkey on the bottom grate



Needless to say, we now have a pretty good supply of smoked turkey and chicken. I think we also got a couple gallons of stock from the bones, skin and necks (or does the inclusion of some meat on the bones make it broth?)

And I'm happy to not be outside smoking today with temperature reported at 8º F and the wind howling.

I made some pastrami over the last week or so. Here are some shots of the process.
After 6 days in the brine getting rinsed and soaked


With the rub, I let it sit overnight in the fridge like this


On the smoker, I used oak and charcoal and smoked for about 6 hours


Fresh off the smoke


Money Shot


Reuben Time the following day

Nice job! I'll be right over.

pastrami making posts are always the best

drshoebocks wrote:Money Shot

Gorgeous. Just awesome!

=R=

I was in Pinch today picking up my sassafras, Shoebocks told me about/showed me pics of the pastrami....but didn't offer any samples! Manners, please! nice work buddy, look forward to seeing you in the restaurant

So I finally got a WSM (18 inch), and for my first smoking attempt, I followed the recipe for Whiskey-Glazed Smoked Chicken in "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman. Of course my day off was this past Tuesday, so I started the smoker up when it was only 2 degrees outside, and I think it was only about 6 degrees when I finished. I used GWiv's method for the actual smoking (how to fire up the smoker, how NOT to constantly check the smoker's progress, etc) and I ended up with a really nice little smoked chicken. It took a little over 2 hours once the chicken was in the smoker; the cold weather didn't seem to affect anything, but there was little to no wind to speak of, which helped I'm sure. Tomorrow I'm smoking a leg of lamb and some linguica links from Butcher & Larder. It's a whole new world!

geli wrote:So I finally got a WSM (18 inch)

Congratulations! (and nice to hear from you).

Congratulations! (and nice to hear from you).

Thanks Steve! I guess I just haven't had much to add to the conversation lately...but now I have a smoker, and I just started to learn how to can, so I might have a little too much to say in the near future. Leg of lamb is marinating in the fridge right now, I'm hoping the wind isn't too crazy for the smoker tomorrow.

Also, just as a data point, I found 5 pound bags of wood chunks for smoking at the Kmart on Addison for $3.99 as compared to $6.99 for the exact same ones at the Home Depot right next door. Kmart also had several types, whereas Home Depot only had cherry and mesquite in chunks as opposed to chips. I think Kmart had those plus hickory, pecan, and apple.

geli wrote:Kmart also had several types, whereas Home Depot only had cherry and mesquite in chunks as opposed to chips.

My Home Depot (Niles, on Waukegan/Oakton) has the pecan chunks with the Weber accys, not with the other smoking wood. I'll check KMart, though, that's a good price.
I hope you love your WSM as much as I love mine.
You're right about wind giving you a harder time. It is harder to keep it steady with all that exposure to air movement and I find that long cooks are hit & miss since the lump burns more quickly. This is true in summer, too.

BrendanR wrote:I'm looking for a new smoking wood....

Anyone have any particular recommendations?

Be careful with Walnut, I'm not a big fan of it for smoking (it tastes pretty acrid to me) although I've had some luck with it as a grilling wood.

White Oak is excellent for both smoking and grilling, it also burns pretty hot so is a good choice for cold weather cooking. Another good one to try is grape branches for grilling, as well as oak wine or bourbon barrel staves.

drshoebocks wrote:Money Shot

I was lucky enough to eat some of that Pastrami on Monday - it was just as delicious as it looks!

My first smoke pics here, but my best ever brisket effort, especially considering I used a whole grass-fed packer from Wallace Farms. I have been tremendously unsuccessful doing grass-fed briskets as they are quick to dry out, but perhaps I found the magic. Started the Big Green Egg and used Cherry, a little oak, and a bit of Alder wood over the coals. Rubbed brisket with peanut oil and Lawry's. Then rubbed with Dizzy Pig Cow Lick and Red Eye. Slow smoked for 6 hours then wrapped in plastic wrap with a little beef stock, and then wrapped in foil (jestly pronounced fawl in our house) and put in oven for 3 hours on 200. Let brisket rest, halved lengthwise and then sliced. Poured a little mix 3 parts au jus from the foil to 1 part Tennessee Red that reduced for 10 minutes over the meat. Result was absolutely perfectly tender meat that just about fell apart, but had just a little bit of bite left and was full of flavor. One other note, I should mention that I put the brisket on and it was only 80-90% defrosted from the freezer. I wonder if that had any affect as far as keeping moisture in.

sorry pics are a little blurry.

Attrill wrote:Be careful with Walnut, I'm not a big fan of it for smoking (it tastes pretty acrid to me) although I've had some luck with it as a grilling wood.

White Oak is excellent for both smoking and grilling, it also burns pretty hot so is a good choice for cold weather cooking. Another good one to try is grape branches for grilling, as well as oak wine or bourbon barrel staves.

I have some black walnut trees so I tried it and found it to be rather mild. Perhaps the difference is that I was using branches several inches in diameter. There was very little of the dark heart wood.

Nevertheless, it's easy enough to find oak, cherry and apple around here and all are good. I'll add maple to that list as well. I've even found hickory following particularly violent storms.

maple syrup flavored brine then hickory smoked on the BGE

Took me a second to parse that. Oh, Bulgaria, you're an odd place.

Does anyone know where in the city I can buy two-gallon Ziploc (or ersatz Ziploc) bags for the purposes of brining larger chunks of meat? I realize that I can get them from Amazon, but I have some pork belly that I want to start turning into bacon tomorrow. Thanks!

geli wrote:Does anyone know where in the city I can buy two-gallon Ziploc (or ersatz Ziploc) bags for the purposes of brining larger chunks of meat? I realize that I can get them from Amazon, but I have some pork belly that I want to start turning into bacon tomorrow. Thanks!

You might want to give GNR Northwestern Cutlery a call. Also, in a pinch a turkey roasting bag works well. You can pick those up at pretty much any Grocery store. Even the likes of Jewel carries them.

Northwestern Cutlery
810 W Lake St
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 421-3666

Hi,

I have bought two gallon ziplocs at Jewel without any issue.

Regards,

Thanks SteveZ and Cathy2! I just picked up a five pound slab of pork belly, so hopefully the Jewel near me has either the appropriate Ziplocs or turkey bags--perhaps I just wasn't looking in the right place before.

Heading to Chicago next weekend and will be filling up a cooler of stuff to bring back in the Twin Cities. I'll be grabbing some Italian Sausage, local beer, etc.

One thing I wanted to ask the BBQ crowd: is there a place I can pick up TX style sausage for smoking? I'm thinking of Smoque-type of sausage. Maybe Chicago hot links as well. I'm guessing Peoria Packing (from the searches I've done on LTH - yes, I tried searching first) is a good option but if anyone out there has other ideas, please let me know. It's been a few years since I've been shopping for food in Chicago.

I'll be staying in Wicker Park / Ukrainian Village and will have a car. I may find myself out in Aurora on Saturday as well. Thanks much!