I've fired it up several times but actually cooked in it the first time last Sunday, an axis hindquarter roast. I really didn't have any recipes and simply rolled the roast (5-7 lb? in that range) in Montreal Steak seasoning. (A "rub"?) Cooked about an hour and 20 min with kiawe wood (mesquite). Along with a few sweet potatoes in butter wrapped in tin foil.
It came out awesome! A great success with the new toy, it cooked the larger meat even better than I thought. The sweet potatoes came out great too BTW.
Looking for something new to try on another axis or maybe elk roast this Sunday. (Steaks I still like the open kiawe grill. Those I have down... =D )
Looking forward to some ideas for a baste or mop!
hit the meat with the mop sauce about every 45 min or so.
I make my sauces. But the flavor comes from dry rubs. Some meats are inherently dry, others are juicy. You would never cook ribs and brisket the same way.
The secret is, practice. Just go cook and find somthing that suits you. Always remember, smoking is just a term. It is not a way of cooking. Anytime you put meat on a fire, you are smoking. The difference is the degree of smoke, the smoke wood and what you are trying to accomplish.
Do you want a smokey flavor or a BBQ flavor? They are not the same thing.
Man....just go char some meat. If you like it, what else matters. Unless you are in KC in the American Royal...who cares.
There are varieties of sauces. The most common are vinegar and molasses based. Now obviously one is tart and one is sweet. Major ingredients in both are mustard and brown sugar. I use a lot of Rotel tomaties with diced habnero peppers for my pork. I use no bastes on deer meat, it is always bacon wrapped if I am doing large cuts. On beef, especially beef ribs or a brisket, I make a special sauce to fit the cut.
Oh. the he11 with it. This aint a cooking show.
That's a joke, don't get pissed. I have 25 pounds on the grill, now. I better go check it.
Best piece of equipment you have ave is a quality meat thermomoeter. Take the meat off at 150-155 and let it stand for 20 minutes. Same with dead chicken.
I just licked the screen...it didn't work.
Served 25 tonight, smoked brisket, twice baked potatoes stuffed with seasoned crab, drunk chicken, nice salad with vinagrette dressing and a few other goodies.
Came out rather well. At least there wasn't much left. Now if I could just learn to bake. Good thing my sous chef is an expert at it. Her pies are just killer.
Couple days ago, Jeanne came home (that's my wife) and Donna and I were cuddled in my huge chair watching The Straight Story-fantastic movie. Jeanne said, "I don't care what you do with my husband but there better not be any cinnamon rolls downstairs.
I should mention, Donna is also my wife's close friend and she is fighting breast cancer. We kinda bolster each other up. No hanky and very little panky.
add a couple finely diced Roma tomatoes. Now lay your fillets on top and add one cup of white wine and cover the skillet. Cook for about five minutes and uncover the skillet. Cook for another minute or so.
Serve the veggies over rice with a nicely grilled asparagus or with butter'parsley new potato and broccoli with a tart hollandaise sauce. I have turned the calssic hollandaise into a tart bernaise served with a few pearl onions for appearance. I prefer the hollandaise.
Warning: You do this right, you may never fry a fish again.
Warning: the best fish I have ever found to do this dish is Talapia. Second best is bream (bluegill) but we catch them up to two pounds down here.
Warning: don't try this with flounder. You'll leave home and start banging your head on trees.
Warning: substitute butterflied pork for the fish and serve over pasta. Your tongue will slap your brains out.
Nothing like these though! Wow. Mine's just a backyard family thing. You could do a whole animal in those! (My store rents an open cage type 6' rotisserie that will take up to 200 lbs. a 5' spit type and a couple 3' spits that take up to 90lbs. Couple 5' open grills and a 4' propane grill.)
My daughter brought over some teriyaki sauce and I injected and marinated another 7 or 8 lb axis deer roast with it. Took some garlic, chives from the garden and some olive oil in the blender and basted it every 10 or 15 minutes.
Bowriter, I took your suggestion and used a meat thermometer (I must be slow, my wife said "well, duh...") Took it out at about 145+ and let it sit for 15-20 minutes before I cut it up for dinner. Came out awesome again. I'm having fun with this. Did some more sweet potatoes in tin foil with the roast and used the garlic/olive oil inside the foil and turned the "packets" ever now and then. Another big hit.
I've learned to wait until I get a really hot fire in the forebox going before putting anything in the oven. When the fire is going so well it almost quits visibly smoking it's prefect. A much more subtle "smoke" flavor and overall just cooks better. Like I said, I must be slow. At least my wife didn't say "well, duh..." on that one.
I'm really liking this type of cooking for the wild game. This weekend I'm going to try a couple of the things above.
I'll still have two here at the house. I just love to play with fire.
