Hi gang! I had a great first weekend with my new camp chef, jumping right in!
Started Saturday with two pork butts and beans, rubbed the night before, neither had a fat cap, my local grocers have much to be desired.
Here they are on the grill...
They were 3 and 4 lb roasts so I was expecting about 7-8 hours, actually was 9.5 due to ridiculous temp swings in the camp chef. I foiled the larger one to see the difference in the final outcome, I think I prefer foiling, but like the mix of one foiled one not, so there was a little more char taste in the mix.
Also learned the back corners of my grill run a bit hotter, the small roast had one small hockey puck growing out of the end, I ate it anyway :) Here's the done shot, with wife's hobbit hands in the mix!
They were both awesome, little more juice for the foiled one, but the smoke rings looked nice. Baked beans made same day, went on later in the smoke session. I somehow missed pics of them, but they are in the final shot, slightly altered from Dutch's wicked beans, thanks for the recipe Dutch, they were awesome! Saturday was ribs and chickens. Ribs rubbed sunday night and chicken went in marinade at the same time. I have a marinade I worked out years ago for bbq chicken when I cooked on coals but it's delicious without sauce too, pretty basic rub on the chicken we also use on wings. My rib rub is a bit different from most, equal parts salt, pepper, garlic, onion, cumin and one half part ground sage. I also used a red rub that's an alteration of the big time bbq recipe, and cook an altered form of the big time bbq sauce as well. I settled into what I like over a few years ago.
The racks I bought worked very well. Ribs were 2-3-1 and grill stayed at 250 or high smoke all day (225) I had applied a fire black gasket that arrived on Saturday that evening, temps held MUCH better, usually within 4 degrees, so I'm quite pleased.
One chicken came off earlier than the other, and having forgotten Saturday's lesson of the back of the grill, I had to flip the whole rack around to let the front chicken finish in the back. The one that came off first, had a beer can in it, with angry orchard crisp apple with extra seasoning and a bit of lime juice. I'm a sucker for any citrus chicken. Here the ribs are done, plain on the left for sauce of choice and on the right a very light coat of my sauce. One of each rub both ways.
Good bend test!
Nice smoke ring too
You could eat these things easily without teeth, they were great! Ribs have long been my favorite, and I learned to cook them right years ago, but now 6 hours smoked not baked :) Here are the birds side by side. The beer can chicken actually came out a bit more moist, but I'm still anxious to try the spatchcock method too. The hollow bird picked up more smoke flavor and was juicy enough, I preferred that more. Wife and I disagree. Beer bird on the left.
And the full spread! ( beans are in there, I swear!)
Great first weekend on the new smoker, thanks for all the generously shared advice and recipes here, you folks rock!
Started Saturday with two pork butts and beans, rubbed the night before, neither had a fat cap, my local grocers have much to be desired.
Here they are on the grill...
They were 3 and 4 lb roasts so I was expecting about 7-8 hours, actually was 9.5 due to ridiculous temp swings in the camp chef. I foiled the larger one to see the difference in the final outcome, I think I prefer foiling, but like the mix of one foiled one not, so there was a little more char taste in the mix.
Also learned the back corners of my grill run a bit hotter, the small roast had one small hockey puck growing out of the end, I ate it anyway :) Here's the done shot, with wife's hobbit hands in the mix!
They were both awesome, little more juice for the foiled one, but the smoke rings looked nice. Baked beans made same day, went on later in the smoke session. I somehow missed pics of them, but they are in the final shot, slightly altered from Dutch's wicked beans, thanks for the recipe Dutch, they were awesome! Saturday was ribs and chickens. Ribs rubbed sunday night and chicken went in marinade at the same time. I have a marinade I worked out years ago for bbq chicken when I cooked on coals but it's delicious without sauce too, pretty basic rub on the chicken we also use on wings. My rib rub is a bit different from most, equal parts salt, pepper, garlic, onion, cumin and one half part ground sage. I also used a red rub that's an alteration of the big time bbq recipe, and cook an altered form of the big time bbq sauce as well. I settled into what I like over a few years ago.
The racks I bought worked very well. Ribs were 2-3-1 and grill stayed at 250 or high smoke all day (225) I had applied a fire black gasket that arrived on Saturday that evening, temps held MUCH better, usually within 4 degrees, so I'm quite pleased.
One chicken came off earlier than the other, and having forgotten Saturday's lesson of the back of the grill, I had to flip the whole rack around to let the front chicken finish in the back. The one that came off first, had a beer can in it, with angry orchard crisp apple with extra seasoning and a bit of lime juice. I'm a sucker for any citrus chicken. Here the ribs are done, plain on the left for sauce of choice and on the right a very light coat of my sauce. One of each rub both ways.
Good bend test!
Nice smoke ring too
You could eat these things easily without teeth, they were great! Ribs have long been my favorite, and I learned to cook them right years ago, but now 6 hours smoked not baked :) Here are the birds side by side. The beer can chicken actually came out a bit more moist, but I'm still anxious to try the spatchcock method too. The hollow bird picked up more smoke flavor and was juicy enough, I preferred that more. Wife and I disagree. Beer bird on the left.
And the full spread! ( beans are in there, I swear!)
Great first weekend on the new smoker, thanks for all the generously shared advice and recipes here, you folks rock!
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