Beef and Chicken-

The other day it was a beef roast and a Cornish game hen. I did my oil and rub. Set things up in the usual way. Cooked for four hours. Turned out good. Quite good, actually.

The only change this time was to feed fuel more regularly. Every thirty minutes I checked the fire, added hickory chips, and added briquettes. As a result, I got very good and consistent heat. I reached temperature at around three hours, and let it ride the last hour. I kept the fuel level up, and the finish was very good.

I have chopped up about half of the beef and chicken, and mixed them in a bowl to use as chopped meat over a couple of days. I did a barbecue spaghetti, which was pretty good. I was surprised to find a barbecue restaurant (mentioned on the Travel Channel) was also doing barbecue spaghetti. They use their barbecue sauce (proprietary) as the spaghetti sauce, as well as using their barbecued meat.

Soon I hope to find the time and resources to explore creating my own sauce. I plan to begin with an apple and an onion. I am not yet sure what I shall add to that.

One step at a time.

Beef Pot Roast

I really don't know cuts of meat. I do know when it looks good. This one looked very good, with a nice ratio of fat to lean. It had some bone, but not too much. Best of all, it was discounted because it expired the next day.

Today was the next day. I mixed garlic sea salt, seasoned salt (from the Dollar Tree), a bit of table salt and some black pepper in a bowl. After washing the meat I rubbed it with a blend of olive oil and vegetable oil I also found at the Dollar Tree. Hey, cheap is good. It's a discounted cut of meat! I seasoned the meat with my mixture, and slapped it on the barbecue.

My coals today were lump charcoal from K mart, because that is where I happened to be when I recalled that I needed charcoal. I hadn't looked around there before. They have some good stuff. Bags of hickory and mesquite wood chips. Things and stuff. I will be back.

I set my thermometer for 160 degrees, and fired up my coal starter chimney. I waited a bit longer before pouring the coals in the fire box this time. We did some grilled burgers a few days ago and I discovered that the fire was harder to manage when I didn't wait long enough for the coals to get going. It was a nice bed, with good ash and a workable distribution of heat. I added some more lumps and settled back with a Blue Moon Belgian White beer.

Once I had a solid fire going, even heat in the chamber, and the meat temperature was starting to rise, I went about my business for a little while. I estimated three hours to cook this roast, but scheduled four.

I periodically tossed in dry chunks of mesquite, since that is what I had left. I will probably be going with chips in the future, since they give me better smoke. Even so, these chunks worked out just fine. I turned the meat at an hour and a half. It was looking good.

The temperature inside the meat was hovering around 155 degrees after about two and a half hours. I had just thrown in the last of my charcoal, and I knew I had to finish with that. So, the hair dryer came to the rescue. I applied it off and on over fifteen minutes and easily achieved my target temperature at just about three hours of cooking. I ran the dryer on low for a minute or two at a time, then would let things just cook for about four or five minutes.

I pulled the roast out and covered it with foil to rest. I had seen this done on some YouTube videos, and gave it a try. Supposedly it allows the temperature to even out and the juices to settle. I don't know if that is the case, but when I uncovered this beauty it looked marvelous. I ate the first cut, and it was a winner.

Moist, tender, and beautifully done. The smoke flavor was distinct, but not overwhelming. I just cut it into serving chunks and we had at it. Served with a green salad. It was fabulous, I must say. I ate mine without any sauce at all. It was as close to perfection as I might hope.

There are some chunks left. We have plans to do a pork shoulder tomorrow, and we have a cooked chicken quarter left over from another meal that I might throw in to smoke a bit, as well. I have visions of chopped pork, chicken and beef blended and served on a bit of bread.

This is proving to be a lot of fun, and tasty, too!

Smoked Beef Roast-

So, today we did a four pound round top roast from Safeway Select. It was a very nice looking roast, but I was not sure if it might not be too lean for smoking. However, being a novice has its advantages. I rubbed it down with garlic salt, salt, and pepper. I racked it on a v-shaped rack that sat nicely in a drip pan. Ready to go. I put it in the refrigerator for about an hour and a half, since it was too early to begin.

I planned for four hours. I prepped the Silver Smoker and got the fire going. For this one I pulled the food grates and set the roasting pan on the fire grate in the cooking chamber. This placed the racked meat in the center of the cooking chamber; not too high, not too low. I was just guessing that this would make any difference, but it seemed right.

The cooking chamber remained at 200 degrees pretty consistently over the four hours. I actually was wanting a bit more heat in the chamber, to get the center of the meat up to temperature. However, even with the vents opened all the way I only got up to 230 degrees at a few points.

I am measuring temperature at the grate, in the center of the cooking chamber. It is a simple dial thermometer, and I think I really will want to replace it one day with something more accurate. However, I think it will do for now. I still have a lot to learn, and going nuts buying equipment will not make me a better cook.

Or maybe it will. What do I know?

Anyway, it came out looking reddish brown, with a rich chocolate brown at the ends. I got it upstairs and we were ready to eat, so I cut into it. It was very nice inside. Juicy, with a bit of a smoke ring. It was done about a medium rare. There was some connective tissue that remained a bit tough to cut, so I cut around it. The dog liked the chewy bits just fine.

Oh, it was really good! The chips I had for smoking were mesquite, introduced from time to time along with a bit more fuel. They added a good flavor. I hope to experiment with other woods, both chips and chunks, over time. The mesquite was quite satisfactory.

As I wrapped up the left overs (about half was left after three people had their fill) I set aside some of the end bits to chop up. I made a mess of chopped beef and put it in a sealed container with a bit of soy sauce. I shall see how this is tomorrow. It is waiting in the refrigerator, hopefully getting better with time.

Thyme. I threw a bit of that in the water at the bottom of the drip pan. I didn't know if it would help, but it seemed a good idea. Just remembered that.

So, my second adventure went well. On the whole, this has been quite satisfying.