So for Christmas my wife bought me the expandable tube from A-MAZE-N but having lots of grill/smoker options I haven't gotten around to trying it out. I had high expectations because I have two AMNPS trays and I love them. I had defrosted a beef tenderloin that I was going to cook for the Super Bowl but I had a much smaller turn out than I expected and decided not to cook it. So here is the process followed by some photos.
1. Preheated my Weber Genesis 310 to the lowest temperature I could (which ended up being about 215-220). Far left burner was set to the lowest setting and other two were off. Once it got to about 215, it stopped climbing.
2. Zapped some hickory pellets (estimated 2-3 hour cooking time so I used the amount of pellets called for in the tube instructions)
3. Lit the tube according to the directions (it was a bit windy so the flame was getting massive or blowing out completely. Conditions fault, not the tube so it took a bit of babysitting but no big deal)
4. Blew gentle, long breaths into the tube every 2 minutes or so to really get the "coals" going. Always worked with the tray so I figured I'd try it with the tube. Todd mentions in the manual that this might help.
5. After about ten minutes, I blew the flame out, put the rack onto my Weber and placed the tube in the place where the smoke seemed to blow smoke right in the path of where the beef would be places.
6. Shut the lid of the grill and watched and smelled sweet blue hickory smoke. Impressive as always.
7. Placed the Beef tenderloin that I rubbed with Good Times BBQ Beef Rub up on the rack, probed it with my maverick set to 120.
8. Pulled the tenderloin at 120 and let it rest for about 10 minutes while I cranked two burners onto high to sear it.
9. Seared the tenderloin for about a minute a side until the IT was 125.
Sliced it up and served myself two nice big hunks, one with St. Augur creamy blue cheese which is my favorite steak topping lately and the other with some horseradish sauce.
Some final thoughts before the pictures:
Again, I am absolutely impressed by A-MAZE-N products. The tube puts out the same sweet smoke as my trays do and I am so excited that I can take a tube full of pellets to any friend's or family member's house who only has a gasser and smoke ribs, butts, beef, etc. The finished product had a nice smokey flavor but was by no means overly smokey. Smoking on my gasser like this is also a great way to use up some of the many propane tanks I have in my yard that just have a little bit of gas left in them. As far as the tenderloin is concerned, flavor wise it was right on, really interesting flavors in the rub (savory but a slight, pleasant sweetness). However I haven't cooked beef at such a low temperature in a while so I forgot how the texture can be different. For me, it was a little too raw in texture. I should have thought about Bear's gloriously pink wall to wall beef roasts pulled at a much higher final IT. I am so used to cooking beef roasts and steaks in the 275-310 range on my pit barrel or on my kettles that I forget that there is a bit more carryover causing the final product to be more medium rare than rare like this one was. With hotter temps, pulling at 120, it probably carries over to 125, then I sear it and its probably in the 130s. I also think the end that I didn't eat (the last picture) had a higher IT and was probably more in my ballpark of what I like. Next time I would turn the roast about half way through as that side being closer to the lit burner is probably what caused it to cook more. No big deal, still made a great meal and the leftovers can now be grilled to reheat or seared in a cast iron pan and they will end up perfect for my liking. Well thanks for looking and highly recommend the expandable tube and as always, Todd being the great business man he is, threw in a nice size bag of the Pitmasters blend which is my favorite for smoking cheese.
-Chris
1. Preheated my Weber Genesis 310 to the lowest temperature I could (which ended up being about 215-220). Far left burner was set to the lowest setting and other two were off. Once it got to about 215, it stopped climbing.
2. Zapped some hickory pellets (estimated 2-3 hour cooking time so I used the amount of pellets called for in the tube instructions)
3. Lit the tube according to the directions (it was a bit windy so the flame was getting massive or blowing out completely. Conditions fault, not the tube so it took a bit of babysitting but no big deal)
4. Blew gentle, long breaths into the tube every 2 minutes or so to really get the "coals" going. Always worked with the tray so I figured I'd try it with the tube. Todd mentions in the manual that this might help.
5. After about ten minutes, I blew the flame out, put the rack onto my Weber and placed the tube in the place where the smoke seemed to blow smoke right in the path of where the beef would be places.
6. Shut the lid of the grill and watched and smelled sweet blue hickory smoke. Impressive as always.
7. Placed the Beef tenderloin that I rubbed with Good Times BBQ Beef Rub up on the rack, probed it with my maverick set to 120.
8. Pulled the tenderloin at 120 and let it rest for about 10 minutes while I cranked two burners onto high to sear it.
9. Seared the tenderloin for about a minute a side until the IT was 125.
Sliced it up and served myself two nice big hunks, one with St. Augur creamy blue cheese which is my favorite steak topping lately and the other with some horseradish sauce.
Some final thoughts before the pictures:
Again, I am absolutely impressed by A-MAZE-N products. The tube puts out the same sweet smoke as my trays do and I am so excited that I can take a tube full of pellets to any friend's or family member's house who only has a gasser and smoke ribs, butts, beef, etc. The finished product had a nice smokey flavor but was by no means overly smokey. Smoking on my gasser like this is also a great way to use up some of the many propane tanks I have in my yard that just have a little bit of gas left in them. As far as the tenderloin is concerned, flavor wise it was right on, really interesting flavors in the rub (savory but a slight, pleasant sweetness). However I haven't cooked beef at such a low temperature in a while so I forgot how the texture can be different. For me, it was a little too raw in texture. I should have thought about Bear's gloriously pink wall to wall beef roasts pulled at a much higher final IT. I am so used to cooking beef roasts and steaks in the 275-310 range on my pit barrel or on my kettles that I forget that there is a bit more carryover causing the final product to be more medium rare than rare like this one was. With hotter temps, pulling at 120, it probably carries over to 125, then I sear it and its probably in the 130s. I also think the end that I didn't eat (the last picture) had a higher IT and was probably more in my ballpark of what I like. Next time I would turn the roast about half way through as that side being closer to the lit burner is probably what caused it to cook more. No big deal, still made a great meal and the leftovers can now be grilled to reheat or seared in a cast iron pan and they will end up perfect for my liking. Well thanks for looking and highly recommend the expandable tube and as always, Todd being the great business man he is, threw in a nice size bag of the Pitmasters blend which is my favorite for smoking cheese.
-Chris
