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Weber Adventures


rajncajn
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In this day of fancy ceramic smokers & pellet grills, I'm still holding strong with my old-fashioned Weber Kettle charcoal grill. I've had my current one for so long that I can't even remember when I bought it. I want to say that I got it sometime not long after Katrina, but not 100% certain. Anywhere between 10-15 years with grates being the only replacements. Maybe when this thing finally kicks the bucket I'll upgrade, but upgrade for me will probably be a better model Weber. This is a look at my chintzy setup, but I guarantee I've gotten more mileage out of this thing than most get out of their expensive grills. It was raining the day I decided to do a brisket, so I set up a cover. The table to the left of the grill is hinged to the fence, so I have a workspace that folds away when not in use. The scorched-looking bricks and charcoal trays on top of the cinder block are what I use to cook over when doing indirect cooking. They hold the heat in much the same way that a ceramic grill does, but more on that another time.

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One of my favorite things to do on the grill is brisket. I got the method/recipe not long ago from Cooks Country. My wife watches a lot of cooking shows and they did a show on brisket on the Weber. I tried it out and it's one of the best things I've ever done on the grill. Below is the process, with pics. Some of the pics may be from different briskets. I tried picking the best ones to represent what I was trying to show.

 

You will need:

Recipe calls for 10-12 lb untrimmed brisket, but I've done up to 14 & 16 lbs as well

1/4 cup coarse black pepper

3 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp mustard powder

5 - 3" wood chunks (I used mesquite)

Large disposable aluminum roasting pan

6 cups Capri Sun (thanks bier)

Wireless probe thermometer (you can get a cheap one from Walmart for about $20 and works great)

Heavy duty aluminum foil

Plastic wrap

Cooler

Oven or grill mitts

 

Meat prep:

At least 12 hours before cooking, with a very sharp knife, trim the fat cap to about 1/4" thick, then trim out fat pockets in & around the point. On the flat tip, trim off any meat that's less that an inch thick. Mix seasoning well, then rub mixture evenly over every surface of the brisket. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

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Grill prep:

(I usually do this the night before) How to set up your charcoal snake. Count 58 lumps of regular charcoal and starting at about 4:30 on the grill (location, not time) start lining up the charcoal along the very edge of the grill in two side-by-side rows with each next set leaning on the previous. By the time you place all 58 lumps of charcoal you should be at or around 7:30 on the grill. It's ok not to be exact, just as long as there is about an 8" gap between the ends. Now add another layer of 58 on top of the first layer using the same method. Once your charcoal is set up, space your wood chunks evenly across the top of the charcoal snake starting at about 4" from the end. Place the aluminum pan in the center of the snake.

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Time to smoke

 

Stage 1:

Take your brisket out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter while you finish getting the grill ready. In a chimney starter, pile 10 lumps of charcoal up the side of the chimney and light. After you light the chimney, open both top & bottom grill vents fully, clean and oil your grate and fill your aluminum pan with 6 cups of Capri Sun. Once the coals are covered in ash, pour them over only one end of the charcoal snake. Any charcoal touching the other end, remove. Replace the grill grate and put your grill cover on while you retrieve the brisket. Lay your brisket directly over the pan, fat side down and the point end (thickest part) towards the center of the gap in the charcoal snake and insert the grill probe into the thickest part of the point end Replace the grill cover with the vent situated directly over the gap in the charcoal snake and allow to cook undisturbed, without lifting the lid until the meat probe registers 170 degrees. Should take about 4-5 hours.

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That stuff at the bottom of the pic is some of the trimmed fat. I smoked it unseasoned for the dog and crumbled little bits of it in his food during the week.

 

Stage 2:

Place two large strips of foil criss-crossed on a large baking sheet. Using grill mitts, remove the probe from the brisket and lay the brisket in the center of the foil, fat side down. Wrap the brisket as tightly as possible to limit and air pockets and add another layer of foil if needed to seal. Remove the cooking grate and add another 3 qts of charcoal to the unlit end of the snake. It's not necessary to stack them at this point, but try to pour them in the same circular pattern. I've done several briskets this way and the snake usually doesn't get  that far into the poured coals. Replace the grate and replace the foil-wrapped brisket in the same position as before. Insert the probe thermometer through the foil and back into the thickest part of the point end. Replace the lid on the grill and cook undisturbed until the probe registers 205 degrees, usually another 1-2 hours.

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Stage 3:

Remove the temperature probe and put the baby to bed in a cooler, flipping the brisket over so that the fat side is now up. I usually lay a towel under the brisket to protect the cooler from the heat and have a baking tray that fits perfectly under the brisket to catch any liquid that may seep out. Close the cooler & let the brisket rest undisturbed for 2-3 hours.

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Time to eat!

Remove the brisket and place on a large baking sheet. Slowly tear away foil from the top. There will be lots of juice and steam and it's still very hot. Transfer the brisket to a carving board and slice against the grain to desired thickness. Since the flat & point end grains are opposite each other I typically cut at their intersection, turn the point and slice. I also use two plates to serve because some people prefer the leaner flat meat & some prefer the more fatty point end.

 

I now realize that at this point I haven't really taken any pictures of the finished product. Mostly because I'm too busy carving the meat and it goes too fast. :lol: I do have one pic of some of it sliced.

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Edited by rajncajn
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Something I have done when smoking.... instead of water, use another liquid that you would like the essence of... IE: I have used different variations of capri sun.  I started doing that about 15 years ago when i was doing ribs and was out of apple juice.  grabbed young daughter's juice boxes and i preferred it.

 

Cherry, tropical, mixed berry, passionfruit/mango

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6 hours ago, Bier Meister said:

Something I have done when smoking.... instead of water, use another liquid that you would like the essence of... IE: I have used different variations of capri sun.  I started doing that about 15 years ago when i was doing ribs and was out of apple juice.  grabbed young daughter's juice boxes and i preferred it.

 

Cherry, tropical, mixed berry, passionfruit/mango

Funny that I never thought of doing that because when I do my beer can chicken I season the beer with my rub. Will definitely try that. 

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Love me some Weber cooking. I have three - one that I bought years ago. My neighbor gave me another one - that's my backup Weber in case I'm cooking for a large group. The third one my brother in law gave me. Someone gave it to him after it fell out of a truck. He never used it but it's practically brand new.

 

Still works great. That one stays behind the knee wall at the front of my house in case I ever want to cook in the driveway. Saves me from having to drag a Weber around from the back. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Doing salmon tonight on the grill. I know, we have wonderful gulf fish here,  why would we get salmon? Sometimes you just get a want. Just doing something simple,  butter, dill and green onion. A few minutes per side and its dinner time. I'll post some pics later.

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Lol, well,  we had a slight mishap as the butter never marries well with very hot coals. I knew better,  but thought I could get away with it. So, I ended up charring the skin when it flamed up on me,  but it still turned out well.

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20211113_180145.thumb.jpg.22d9e013d12d56137496a01c2a43b59c.jpg

 

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A few things I'll do better next time:

-Just say no to the butter, go with olive oil instead.

--I got impatient and let the grill get way too hot and put the fish on anyway. I should have waited for the temperature to level off first.

- This sort of goes with the last two items, I should have used my fire bricks.  Having the fish completely over direct coals didn't give me with a clean, even and steady temp. It cooked way too fast for my taste. I think I would have been happier with it starting off over the bricks, which would have helped prevent the flare up and then I could get just a quick sear over direct instead.

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@rajncajn

 

While i an not a big fan of salmon, i would always include it on my menus. At home mrs and daughter both like it, so sometimes when we do seafood, i will make that for them while doing something else for myself.  I typically use a rub, butter, sear, then finish in the oven.  I like making beurre blancs.  I will sometimes grill over a cedar plank.  And other times, they really like a citrus mirin glaze (juice of orange, lime, lemon, mirin...reduce to a syrup).

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48 minutes ago, Bier Meister said:

@rajncajn

 

While i an not a big fan of salmon, i would always include it on my menus. At home mrs and daughter both like it, so sometimes when we do seafood, i will make that for them while doing something else for myself.  I typically use a rub, butter, sear, then finish in the oven.  I like making beurre blancs.  I will sometimes grill over a cedar plank.  And other times, they really like a citrus mirin glaze (juice of orange, lime, lemon, mirin...reduce to a syrup).

I like salmon. It's just so heavy compared to what we get locally. A glaze sounds good,  we talked about doing that next time we have it.

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  • 5 months later...

Friday I wanted to do something quick, so I picked up some speckled trout on the way home from work. I was looking online for a grill recipe and saw a really simple one I thought I'd try. It turned out pretty well,  but I forgot to take a picture of the fish before I fileted them and again when i had the finished product. 

 

So for this you just slice a couple of lemons into thin rounds and lay them as a bed over foil. Halve another lemon, squeeze the juice and mix with 3 tbs of melted butter and finely chopped chives, dill or your herbs of choice. Wash and pat dry your filets and dust them with your seasoning of choice. I used Seafood Magic because that's what the recipe came for and I had some on hand.

 

Place your foil directly over the hot coals and lay out your filets over the bed of lemons. Baste the filets with the butter mixture, close the grill lid and cook for 15 minutes, basting every 5 minutes.

 

This is what it looked like when I put the filets on:

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Today I'm doing pork tenderloin. This past weekend we were at the local grocery and they had pre-packaged, bacon wrapped, shrimp & andouille stuffed tenderloins and I just couldn't resist.

 

Shouldn't be a difficult cook. I'll be grilling it indirect over the fire bricks for about 30-45. Just long enough to reach temp and probably toss in some apple wood chunks for a little added flavor. I'll post some pics when I get er done.

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Finally getting around to posting some pictures. Tenderloin was a hit,  however,  next time in stuffing my own. For just being andouille and shrimp I thought they skimped a bit on the stuffing. Flavorwise though it was great.

 

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Grill set up for indirect cooking with my fire bricks in the middle.  I got a new grate as well. The old one was a bit worse for wear. I have a feeling this will be the last summer for this old boy.

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Tenderloin is on. Don't mind the flames. I forgot to soak my wood chips. But the flames die with the lid on,  so no worries.

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Almost did it again. Almost forgot to get a pic of the finished product, even after the 10 minute rest. So focused on getting it sliced and tasting. 

 

The Mrs made some sautéed spinach to go with it and wanted to try a recipe for Mexican street corn as well. The corn sounds like an of combination,  but it was very good. 

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19 minutes ago, rajncajn said:

Finally getting around to posting some pictures. Tenderloin was a hit,  however,  next time in stuffing my own. For just being andouille and shrimp I thought they skimped a bit on the stuffing. Flavorwise though it was great.

 

20220419_171657.thumb.jpg.2ff6d17640325a7d8a16ea5fe9b6ca15.jpg

Grill set up for indirect cooking with my fire bricks in the middle.  I got a new grate as well. The old one was a bit worse for wear. I have a feeling this will be the last summer for this old boy.

20220419_174103.thumb.jpg.09c567da86584c114ee4dd2851632430.jpg

Tenderloin is on. Don't mind the flames. I forgot to soak my wood chips. But the flames die with the lid on,  so no worries.

20220419_182911.thumb.jpg.48084ef539f9421c5242942c1994b2d1.jpg

Almost did it again. Almost forgot to get a pic of the finished product, even after the 10 minute rest. So focused on getting it sliced and tasting. 

 

The Mrs made some sautéed spinach to go with it and wanted to try a recipe for Mexican street corn as well. The corn sounds like an of combination,  but it was very good. 

 

Rajin, on a side note, do have any good Crawfish Boil or crawfish recipe suggestions? Heading out tomorrow morning and plan on a big crawfish boil but looking to do a few things with them. Thanks Man! 

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19 minutes ago, League_Champion said:

Rajin, on a side note, do have any good Crawfish Boil or crawfish recipe suggestions? Heading out tomorrow morning and plan on a big crawfish boil but looking to do a few things with them. Thanks Man! 

We've been talking about doing one soon as well now that the prices are coming down. What size pot do you have? I use a 60 qt, it's a bit smaller than a lot of people use,  but I'm typically not boiling for a large crowd. I think I've posted my method before. I'll see if I can find it.

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20 hours ago, rajncajn said:

We've been talking about doing one soon as well now that the prices are coming down. What size pot do you have? I use a 60 qt, it's a bit smaller than a lot of people use,  but I'm typically not boiling for a large crowd. I think I've posted my method before. I'll see if I can find it.

 

Let me clarify, it's a smaller boil. Probably 6-8 people. I have a 30 qt pot that I'll be using, small in comparison. I do have a slightly bigger one but don't think I'll need it. 

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9 hours ago, League_Champion said:

Let me clarify, it's a smaller boil. Probably 6-8 people. I have a 30 qt pot that I'll be using, small in comparison. I do have a slightly bigger one but don't think I'll need it. 

Alright, it took me a while because I don't know measurements and package sizes. 🤣

I don't know your experience with cooking crawfish,  so I figured I would just make a mew post for someone who's never done it. 

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  • 1 month later...

Anybody ever try smoking wings before? Were doing some for the first time today. Not sure how they'll turn out. I'm cooking with the coals in a basket to one side and a smoke box with apple chips to one side. My wife put a dry tub on them last night,  but I don't know what she put. Just something she made up on the fly. Letting them sit on the grill over a pan of water for an hour and check temp. Shooting for 185 internal temp.

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Ok  they were good,  but the smoke flavor was just too much as I worried about and that came from using wood chips instead of chunks. They just burned too fast and put off too much smoke giving them a little bitter taste to the skin. Next time I'll go with chunks.

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