Pretty drab here in nola. Weather as well as the morale. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to cook, but on Friday I was in Costco and their prime beef ribs were calling my name. We love the beef ribs because you can do so much with the leftover meat. I’ve been on a Mexican kick, so tacos were on my mind from the get go.
Costco’s prime beef never lets me down. Just look at the marbling on that meat, not to mention the thickness.
I just went in half with my boss, on a 10lb bag of Oak Ridge Black Ops brisket rub, I absolutely love it for flavor and bark on beef. It also worked really well with the flavor profile for tacos. I’m not sure all the ingredients in the rub, but I definitely get a hint of cumin/chili powder. Added bonus for this meal.
I used wire racks and foil pans for this cook. I wanted to keep my Lang clean. I Don’t normally do this, but I was feeling kind of lazy yesterday. So on the smoker they went, at temps of 250 using hickory wood splits I bought from academy.
I mentioned the wood because that ended up being a slight problem with the cookout. My woodpile was damp because of all the rain we’ve been getting, which is part of why I bought hickory from academy (plus I love cooking with hickory). Well, the bag I bought, the splits were waaaay too big. So that presented a challenge keeping the temps up. My coal bed could never keep the large splits burning enough before they began to smolder. I usually cook in the 250-275 range, yesterday it was more like 225 average temp. That slowed things down but everything still turned out great.
As mentioned I was doing tacos, so I decided to make a smoky salsa. Fresh Roma’s, jalapeños, onions and garlic mixed with olive oil and some of the black ops rub. This ended up being one of the highlites of the cook. I kept the veggies in the smoker about an hour, then into the ninja they went with some cilantro and lime juice. As good as it was yesterday, it will only get better w age...
And finally, last thing on the smoker was cream cheese. I mentioned this in another thread, but I got the idea from another site, philly cream cheese hot smoked in its original wrapping. Scored as in the pics. I know, it sounded crazy and I half expected a dripping mess of lava. But it came out great...
I can’t even decide what I want to do with the rest of this. I ended up just crumbling some on the tacos and it really was outstanding. Very distinct, nutty smoky flavor.
Coming along nicely but those 50 degrees I lost really slowed things down. Beef ribs normally take me 4-5 hours. This cook went for 7.
That’s home made masteca corn tortillas. If you haven’t made your own, your missing out. Blows store bought away and easy to make.
We’ll break this spread out again today for the game. Even though no one around here wants to watch (I do and will). Was a great meal, looking forward to this evenings leftovers!
Costco’s prime beef never lets me down. Just look at the marbling on that meat, not to mention the thickness.
I just went in half with my boss, on a 10lb bag of Oak Ridge Black Ops brisket rub, I absolutely love it for flavor and bark on beef. It also worked really well with the flavor profile for tacos. I’m not sure all the ingredients in the rub, but I definitely get a hint of cumin/chili powder. Added bonus for this meal.
I used wire racks and foil pans for this cook. I wanted to keep my Lang clean. I Don’t normally do this, but I was feeling kind of lazy yesterday. So on the smoker they went, at temps of 250 using hickory wood splits I bought from academy.
I mentioned the wood because that ended up being a slight problem with the cookout. My woodpile was damp because of all the rain we’ve been getting, which is part of why I bought hickory from academy (plus I love cooking with hickory). Well, the bag I bought, the splits were waaaay too big. So that presented a challenge keeping the temps up. My coal bed could never keep the large splits burning enough before they began to smolder. I usually cook in the 250-275 range, yesterday it was more like 225 average temp. That slowed things down but everything still turned out great.
As mentioned I was doing tacos, so I decided to make a smoky salsa. Fresh Roma’s, jalapeños, onions and garlic mixed with olive oil and some of the black ops rub. This ended up being one of the highlites of the cook. I kept the veggies in the smoker about an hour, then into the ninja they went with some cilantro and lime juice. As good as it was yesterday, it will only get better w age...
And finally, last thing on the smoker was cream cheese. I mentioned this in another thread, but I got the idea from another site, philly cream cheese hot smoked in its original wrapping. Scored as in the pics. I know, it sounded crazy and I half expected a dripping mess of lava. But it came out great...
I can’t even decide what I want to do with the rest of this. I ended up just crumbling some on the tacos and it really was outstanding. Very distinct, nutty smoky flavor.
Coming along nicely but those 50 degrees I lost really slowed things down. Beef ribs normally take me 4-5 hours. This cook went for 7.
That’s home made masteca corn tortillas. If you haven’t made your own, your missing out. Blows store bought away and easy to make.
We’ll break this spread out again today for the game. Even though no one around here wants to watch (I do and will). Was a great meal, looking forward to this evenings leftovers!
