Gratuitous pics of new setup...

[Papoo]

Well it's a good day for me, I happened to be in my local BBQ supply store getting some coals, and happened upon their demonstrator model Primo Oval ceramic grill for sale. I use ceramics, so I know all about this, though I literally JUST cracked mine by pushing it over! It has a new base and lid, so only the hinge and grates are used.

It comes with all the accessories, firebox divider, lower drip pan racks, upper "double decker" racks, an electric starter and the trolley which was cut with a plasma torch to fit the little guy in. Not bad for $350!! It cooks like a monster. I did some 5 hour ribs yesterday at 225f, then opened up the vents and it hit 750 in 10 mins to sear steaks. After closing the vents, it all died down in a short while, altogether using about 2 dollars worth of coals, so it's an efficient little bugger, too..

Really looking forward to competing with this, as I think the shape lends itself better than my last Big Green Egg in terms of heat distribution around typically non-circular meats. May not be as brill for Pizza, though..

Now I'm on Photobucket, I'll be adding to the pictures of food threads....

Edited by Papoo on Thursday 6th August 00:11

[Papoo]

Mobile Chicane said:

^^^ That's awesome. Presumably you cook with 'it' in situ with the racks and implements around it? I like that.

Yes, pretty much. We don't live in the biggest appartment, and space is limited. I've never had a table with decent work & storage space around it, mostly all the tools & gadgets piled into a big plastic box, so it's a rare treat to have everything on hand. I'm pretty taken with the performance of the Primo, which is nice. Shall be putting it through it's paces this weekend for sure.

Riddler, it's basically a BBQ/grill. It's made from ceramic. The advantage of that, is that it's incredibly insulated, so you only need a tiny amount of coals lit to achieve a decent temp. This can hold anywhere from 185F to 900F+. It's efficiency also means that once you shut the grills, the fire goes out, leaving you with a ton of unused charcoal. Cooking on a gas grill every night costs us around $15 a month. This will be around 20. Still works out cheaper than the cooker, especially as it heats our place up (we're in Arizona, where at this time of year, the A/C struggles!).

You can also place ceramic bricks between the grate and the fire, on lower racks. This is for 'indirect' cooking - low & slow bbq ribs/briskets/pulled pork etc..

My main attraction to ceramic grills is that if I'm cooking on a 'normal' sheet metal smoker for 18+hours, I have to constantly monitor the vent settings, and add fresh-lit charcoal every hour to maintain temps. This will burn at 250F for 16 hours on one load, having to adjust the vent maybe once in that time.

For everyday grilling - burgers, chicken breasts etc, the main difference is efficiency, though in my opinion, the insulation better maintains moisture within the meat..

So, in short, it's just a very easy to operate, fancy charcoal grill and BBQ/smoker..

Edited by Papoo on Thursday 6th August 02:16

[Papoo]

The Riddler said:

Thats me sold, where do i purchase?

PS.. Never got my Imitation American Cheese.

I was about to mention the spray-on cheese! I can't receive PMs as my email is basically keeling over. All I need is you address, I promise I won't stalk you!

I don't know where you can get them in the UK. I know Denmark sells them. There are a couple of brands that will ship to the UK for sure, I'll have a poke around.

You will be a fan. It's not the cheapest grill, but it'll last for 25 years if you're not a penis like me and push it on the floor.

[Papoo]

Well, no idea if this is allowed by those in ivory towers, but I have a 'gag' email address assigned to my wife's dog. It's [e-mail]

Send your address to that and I'll be sure to send you the extra-airated version. CFC's and all. Free of charge, too. I'm nice like that.

[Papoo]

Honestly, "PAPOO" squirted on your windscreen would provide all the gratification I need!

[Papoo]

The Riddler said:

And will probably give me the excuse i need to clean the damn thing.

ETA - Sorry for the thread-jack.

Edited by The Riddler on Thursday 6th August 04:33

I trust you'll only be cleaning around the "PAPOO"?

Apology accepted, and pardon granted.

[Papoo]

Think of it as a corporate endorsement. Next, you'll be next to Tiger Woods' Ray-Ban ad in Reader's Digest.

[Papoo]

prand said:

OzzyR1 said:

Papoo said:

It comes with all the accessories, firebox divider, lower drip pan racks, upper "double decker" racks, an electric starter and the trolley which was cut with a plasma torch to fit the little guy in.

Excuse my barbequeing ignorance but how does an electric starter work with charcoal?!?

I'd imagine its a hairdryer type gagdget to blow heat and air onto the lit charcoal to get it going.

Ozzy, it's not actually an airflow generator, it's just a heating filament on a handle. Plug it in and it hits huge temperatures, you shove it into your coals, and after a couple of mins, you've got nicely lit charcoals.


For fanning coals, there's sometihng great called the BBQ Guru. it comprises of a unit that goes in the vent, a thermometer that goes in the meat, and a thermometer that clips on the grate. You set the desired grate temperature, and it blocks air to cool, and fans air to heat it up. It's quite impressive that it maintains the desired temp to + or - 2f.

Cotty yes sir. Only quite a recent thing, but I've started doing BBQ competitions. Only entered ribs so far, but so far so good. It's not a bad way to spend a weekend I guess, and you learn a ton. I hope one day to open a real pit bbq restaurant, so I guess decent competition results give some credibility, and get your face known in those circles.

[Papoo]

Yep, those chimneys are great, except in ceramic units. The reason being, is that the unit has similar convective qualities as the cimney, but and the fact that you only need a fraction of a chimney's worth of coal to get it going. Otherwise yes, on a weber kettle or the like, they're a handy device.

Lighter cubes work great, it just bugs me that they smoke so much, with that acrid, white chemical fume. These electric starters avoid that. Lots of people use Mapp gas torch, like a hard-core creme brulee torch. My hardware store stopped dealing with them though, due to the 'legal' culture in which we're in!

Ozzy, with regard to taking BBQ seriously, you would laugh at some folks out here. Nearly saw one guy glass another over who invented a particular rib rub; Kansas City or the Carolinas. Awesome. BBQ Guru is great, because a brisket can take up to 24 hours to cook, the guru will just keep on regulating the temps for you. Oh, did I mention that the latest one can be controlled and monitored from your computer OVER THE INTERNET!! hahaha

So, if you see a pudgey guy sat in a Dunkin Donuts on the Moon, having a coffee, talking about increasing is pit temps in front of his beat up old laptop.... that'll be me then..

[Papoo]

juice said:

Still waiting for that brisket recipe

Edited by juice on Thursday 6th August 19:16

Juice, good natured human...

Brisket: well I'll go through what I think is relevant, the cooking is much like ribs, only for a lot longer, with a couple of extra steps thrown in.

First off, you need to soak your woodchips for a few hours to stop them burning. Hickory for beef, and I like to add cherry, too.

Meat:

A whole brisket, if you get one at your butcher, is called a Packer. It comprises of 2 pieces. One is called the point, and one is called the flat.

Brisket is basically cows pecs, so it is ordinarily a tough meat, due to the hard life that muscle has had.

The point is the smaller piece, and it is loosely triangular in shape. It is often not sliced up, rather separated during cooking, and fun things done to it. I'll explain later.

The flat is the bigger piece. It's rectangular-ish, and it is the piece you want, if you have to choose between the two. I'll go on as if we're doing a whole packer. The whole packer weighs in at 12+lbs.

There should be a healthy fat-cap on the top of the brisket. Depending on what unit you use to smoke it, you'll have to do some trimming. In my ceramics, moisture is retained brilliantly, so I cut off a lot, leaving about 1/4 inch left. Something not so insulated, you should consider leaving a little more.

I get my meat-fork, or a spiked tenderizer (not a tenderizing hammer) and put a few hundred holes in the piece. this allows the melting fat cap to penetrate and retain moisture.

I'll then pat the piece dry with paper towels, and slather with a coat of hot dog mustard. In a bowl, mix 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup paprika, 2 tbsp cayenne, 2 tbsp chilli powder, 1 tbps garlic powder, 1 tbsp onion powder, 1 tsp celery seed, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp pepper, 1 tbsp cumin.

That's a reasonably generic kansas city style rub, with a bit of heat.

GENEROUSLY sprinkle a nice layer of this all over the meat. Don't be stingy. Lots of rub=lots of flavourful bark.

Many people correctly say to let your meat come up to room temp before cooking. Not in this case. The reason being is that meat can no longer absorb smoke when it's temperature hits 140f. So, to maximise the smoke exposure time, throw it on the grill as soon as you've seasoned it.

Now, start your grill, and set it up for indirect cooking at 225F. Don't use briquettes, use lump charcoal. Briquettes are nice and easy, even sizes and heat distribution, but are full of binders and crap which produces ash. On a long cook, the ashes will suffocate the fire without you even knowing.. You'll also want a 5 quid oven thermometer on the grate where the meat is going to be. That's what you'll be watching..

While that's firing up, get your 'spritz' together; in a spray bottle, mix 60% apple juice, 40% white vinegar. Also add a few good dashes of worcestershire sauce. This spritz needs to be sprayed all over the meat at 1 hour intervals. The apple sauce imparts moisture, and a sweetness, without being sugary enough to crystalize in the heat. The vinegar is an instant tenderizer, and the worcestershire sauce just brings savoury goodness.

When you're all set up, get a chunk of hickory and a chunk of cherry wood (if you can find it), and toss them on the coals. Place your meat in the designated indirect cooking space, and close the lid. Ensure that the lid is on in such a way that the meat is between the fire and the exit vent - so the smoke is forced over the meat. You'll want a meat thermometer. You can also get remote ones, where you can leave the probe in, and monitor your little receiver.

Now, the wait. You always BBQ to internal temp, not to time, but as a rough guide, 90mins/lb is good. Yep, that's 18hrs for a 12lb brisket!

Every hour, give it a good spritz of juice. As the smoke dies, add a chunk more hickory. You're not after thick white billowing smoke, you're after thin blue smoke. If a wood chunk errupts, pull it off and dip it in water. It shouldn't when the lid is on, due to oxygen levels.

Now, a few hours in, the meat's internal temp will be 140. After this, the meat is no longer capable of taking on smoke. It just stops absorbing it. Coincidentally, this is where the brisket can get tricky and dry out on you. So, wrap it tightly in 2 layers of heavy duty foil, with a few ounces of your left over spritz. At this point, you can put it back on the smoker, or frankly, in the oven, as all you need is a heat source. Allow the meat to braise itself in the foil until it's done.

For slicing, you want the internal temp to be 195f. For pulling, 205. I like my pork pulled, but my brisket sliced, so I take it off at 190. I leave it in the foil, and wrap it in towels, before putting it in a cooler. This will keep it piping hot for many, many hours. Leave it to rest for at least 2.

Then carefully remove, and slice! You'll see it's almost black. It ain't burnt, it just has a lot of smokey goodness. When you cut it, you'll see a pink ring around the outside of the meat, that's the smoke ring; the reaction caused by smoke penetration, and is essentially a medal of honour. Cherry wood produces a very pronounced one. Serve it up in the cheapest white stodge rolls with some bbq sauce, and enjoy...

Hope this helps. I'm sure I've forgotten some things, let me know any questions you havy...

[Papoo]

lockhart flawse said:

Good effort with the recipe.

I still think you're barking but I like enthusiasm.

L.F.

Oddly my friend circle increased dramatically when I started firing up the smoker on a regular basis.

It sez so on me myspace innit.

[Papoo]

WSM is the smoker, shy of getting very expensive stuff. At competitions, you'll see massive thick steel pits everywhere, except for seeing ceramics, and WSMs. Fairly efficient for a bullet smoker. I'd say you're good to go with a shade over 1/4 inch of fat. Some people say to place it fat-side down, to protect the meat from temp spikes. In a bullet smoker, you've a water pan to do that for you.

I would ask a butcher for a brisket flat, personally. A whole packer is quite tricky and unforgiving. You don't want to waste a day on something that turns out dry. It'll have great smoke flavour no matter what, though..

If you can maintain temps at 225F then you're all set. Don't mean to sound patronising, I don't know your experience, but remember; top vent stays put at 2/3 open. Bottom vent controls temp. Make small adjustments, and wait 15 mins to see the results. Don't go chasing, you'll get lost.

I'd get the WSM to 250f. When you throw the slab in, it'll drop to 225, and then you're ahead of the game. Just remember, only open the smoker up if you're spritzing or adding coal. You let out not only heat and smoke, but valuable moisture, too. It also causes flame-ups of the wood.

In short:

Thin blue smoke, no peeping, 225f, foil at 140, double wrap tightly in foil, pull & rest at 190, slice and gorge.

Good luck. Take pictures!

Edited by Papoo on Thursday 6th August 23:22