Had a go at a brisket yesterday using the amazing ribs recipe. Sourced a bolar blade roast from Costco - 3.2kg Angus - cooked this for 11 hours in a old 4 burner Beefeater BBQ using the indirect method - 2 burners on low - meat over a roasting pan with water in in it. Purchase a cast iron smoker box from BBQs galore and filled it with apple/cherry/mesquite chips that had been smoked overnight - not overly impressed with the smoke generated but it did leave a faint smoke ring inside the meat. Controlling the temp was the hardest part, particularly with the southerly that was howling (120-150c).
Stupidly did not take the internal temp before double wrapping in foil and towel - then into esky but the temp @10hour mark was 88c. I left it in the esky for just under 2 hours. The meat pulled apart rather than sliced, for me the meat was a overcooked and on the verge of drying out BUT the missus love it as did my 15yr old daughter so I am happy.
Any local melb folk have suggestions on where to get a good brisket (for cooking) ?
I usually go to prahran market for butchery items but i’ve not looked around or asked for brisket at any of those stores.
Also if anyone is down in Launceston, try smokey joe’s creole cafe…Awesome brisket and southern food there
Try one of the vietnamese run butchers at queen vic market. Pretty sure I’ve seen it before for cheap and I will double check on Saturday if you don’t go before then.
I got a half price Baby Q from the ebay sale. Not bad for $140. Cooked some pork on it tonight and it came up good for a first go, it’s definitely going to be getting a lot of use over the summer.
Tried something different last night and upped the temperature by piling 25 heatbeads together on one side of the grill. I got a couple of hours @ 325F. I cooked the chicken on the other side to about 150F, then flipped it skin down and moved it over the coals when almost done to crisp it up.
The original idea was to spatchcock the chicken but I’d had a few beers beforehand and cut the wrong side out, so ended up halving the bird entirely. I took the wings off as they cook quickly so you can get them off earlier for a mid-roast snack. Also threw a couple of extra drumsticks on there too, it’s not a GM octo-chicken.
Worked really well, chicken was very moist inside but skin was still crisp, tasty and BBQ-y
(Crappy phone pictures)
Hey Ezy I got inspired and had a crack at BBQing on Saturday. I copied your pork shoulder technique from page one and it turned out pretty well!
I used the snake method but it took a while to get going and I had to adjust it a few times. I ended up heating up some coals in a separate brazier and adding them throughout the day to keep the heat going.
I dry rubbed beforehand and basted throughout the day with a pretty watery BBQ sauce that I made.
After about 7 hrs in the Webber, I took it out, and let it ‘cook’ in it’s own heat for another hour-ish. It pulled off the bone quite easily and served with some coleslaw went down really well with our guests.
I think one of your fancy digital thermometers would make the whole process a bit easier. Can’t wait to give it another crack!
When you say it took a while to get going? how did you lay it out - essentially if you do it correctly (I stuffed up the first time) it’s a bit of a set and forget thing.
Did you add any smoking chips?
I can’t wait to do my next BBQ. I really want to perfect my brisket which is proving to be quite difficult.
No pics unfortunately. I was too paranoid about getting it set up and going. Next one I’ll document properly
I thought I set up the snake correctly - domino style, with two bricks side by side and one on top. I think my problem was I didn’t start with a big enough pile of really hot dudes. It was more of a smaller pile of dudes that had only just got going. I put it down to impatience and unpreparedness. Ultimately I got it to stay hot enough, it just wasn’t as set and forget as i would have liked.
I used some woodchips toward the start of the snake with some success. It wasn’t an overly smokey flavour in the end though. Perhaps there was too much going on with dry rub, bbq sauce baste, and wood smoke.
As a pretty non-confident-in-kitchen guy, I was super happy with my efforts though.
We had a ‘Pork Power’ consolation BBQ for Grand final.
Ribs/ pulled pork/ home made pork & fennel sausage/ home smoked bacon sarnies/ caramelised pork belly.
To finish…porklova. Caramelised some bacon in maple syrup and made a smoked chantilly cream. Tasted better than it sounds!
BBQ patron:
Coincidentally the local butcher were selling pork shoulder @ $4 / kg, so I gave it a go. First I dry brined the shoulder for a day, then made the marinade as per the link (with a couple of extra chillis for luck) and marinaded for a day.
Next brown off the meat on all sides ( I left the fat cap on as well)
Put on the smoker and baste with more marinade. After around 7 hrs (using the fuse method started with three firelights on a mound of brickettes at the start of the fuse) I got this
I’d tried to crisp up the crackling by moving it over the coals and it burnt, next time I need to remember that crackling straight out of the oven is always soft and it hardens as it cools. But the meat itself was awesome and the missus reckons it was one of the best I’ve made. We served with simple salad and home made pickles, with spare marinade warmed up as a sauce.
Found a Webber Kettle on roadside pick up the other day and am keen to try smoking / roasting some vegetables. Anyone of the vegetarian persuasion have any hints?
