family
Two giant ribeyes and bone in strip steaks. The ribeyes were 2.5 pounds each and the strips were about 1.5 pounds. Cooked indirect until internal temp was 110. Then added some more coals and got the fire nice and hot. Direct sear a minute or so each side flipping a couple times. Made these Saturday for my parents and family.
Seasoned with garlic powder, black pepper, and salt.
Ready for the sear
And a bit of a rest
Done
Last weekend we spent Friday thru Monday camping in Mohican. We stayed at Mohican Reservations campground (https://mohicanreservation.com/). The campgrounds were a bit muddy in spots and the rain over the weekend did not help. The tents stayed dry as we had them on a little hill. Others were not so lucky and a few tents at other sites were flooded. Sunday the place emptied out and we had the whole area to ourselves. Went on a hike to Lyons Falls (trail map), which was nice. The campgrounds can get a bit rowdy on Friday and Saturday so probably not the best place for young children at those times. The sites are large probably 30 feet wide by 60 feet deep on the river. Fishing was not so great as the water was very muddy and moving fast. Kids had fun being this was their first camping trip.
So my char-griller offset was looking a little ragged after the winter. Still works okay so I will probably recondition it and maybe find it a new home. However I have been looking for a new smoker/grill for a bit and decided to go look at some new grills. Went to three different Walmarts to see if any of them had the Oklahoma Joe Highland smoker on display so I could see it in person. None did. Went to Home Depot to check out the Brinkman Trailmaster Limited Edition. The displayed version of the Brinkman looked ok from what I could tell but they had it on an elevated display so I could not reach th elid and feel the wait and check the lid fit. Like I said, none of the Walmarts had a display unit for the Oklahoma Joe but one did have a partially opened box so at least I got to knock on the metal to kind of judge its thickness. Checking reviews each had their drawbacks in design but in person the Brinkman’s burn chamber seemed a bit smaller. So I decided to go pick up the Oklahoma Joe Highland.
Overall, I think it is not a bad grill/smoker. Did a test burn and seasoning and temps ranged from 50 degrees off to almost 100 at full open. The more you reduce the intake the lower the difference between right to left. I am thinking I will just ad some tuning plates to help with the heat difference after a few cooks. The main smoker/grill area is solid, welds although not pretty in all spots are fully sealed and the lid fits proper. The bolts for the burn chamber to the smoker went together well and I noticed no leaks between the two chambers. However, the design of the offset/burn chamber is not great. It comes in two seperate section and bolts with 4 bolts. There is quite a gap on the front and back that is noticeable. Some high temp gasket could fix this or I may weld it. I don’t think it affected the function that much. I could pretty easily control the temps using the intake damper and was happy with the range.
The temperature gauge is in the wrong location and I do not like. The thread was pretty rough and if you are like me, you just over tightened it and screwed up your gauge. Not a huge deal though since it is not a very good spot for watching your cooking temps.
After the test burn, there was paint on one spot of the firebox that bubbled. This was partially due to the hot coals and wood touching that side. I did not see any other issues with paint.
Pictures
The strip loin roast came out pretty near perfect for Christmas. To recap, I started with a 16.5 pound roast that I picked up from Sam’s club. After trimming it, it was probably closer to 15 lbs.
The trimmings.
Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and some lawry’s seasoning salt.
Wrapped it back up and let it sit in the fridge till Christmas morning. I think it got about 36 hours or so to sit in the seasoning. Christmas morning after the kids opened their gifts, onto the grill. Temps were running about 275-325 during the cook. Smoked for about an hour and a half until roast reach 120. Wrapped it up and off to the grandparents.
Roast was finished in the oven at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes.
After resting, the roast got to 140 degrees internal which was a bit higher than I was shooting for, but it came out really well.
Made some au jus to go with it. Had a pan under the roast in the drill with some onion, leeks, garlic, carrots, tomato paste, my homemade beef stock, and some salt and pepper. This was finished on the stove with some corn starch to thicken it just a bit and a dash of worcestershire sauce. No pics.
Save-a-lot ran an add this week for a Rib Roast for $4.99 per lb. Thought I would check it out and see if I could find a decent one to do as a practice roast this week in preparation for next week. I think they had two in the case. One was about 3 lbs but had zero marbling so I decided to pass. They also had some eye of the round at a decent price so I picked up one that was about 3.5 lbs. Seasoned it last night with salt, pepper, and Olde Thompson steak and burger seasoning, then vac sealed it. I will be cooking this either tonight or tomorrow.
I always wanted to try this french dip au jus, so picked it up with some cheap beef broth.
There is a lot of sodium here. For Christmas I will be using my beef stock and adjust the ingredients if I like the flavor profile of this concoction.
Also here is this year’s Christmas tree.
Update – Cooked the roast last night. First thing, the Au Jus was not good. Had a heavy soy sauce taste that was off putting. I made it per instructions. After I tried to dilute it with the beef broth and some shallots to try to even out the taste, but it was a lost cause. It got dumped.
The roast I smoked until internal was 135. Temperature started around 340 and I just let it ride out without adding any more wood. Towards the end it was running at 260 or so. I did not time it. The flavor was very good and I would say it came out about medium after resting. The roast was in the vacuum pack with the seasoning for almost 48 hours which I think helped with the flavor.
Celebrating Edward’s 2 year birthday and a special note from Grandpa to Marcella.
Build your own pizza. Had a multitude of toppings to choose from. Was going to cook them all on the grill but only managed to do one as it looked like we were going to get a pretty good storm.
Toppings
Getting the stone heated up (scrap piece of soapstone)
Getting the crust rolled out and brushed with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and parmesan cheese.
First pizza and the only one done on the grill was pepperoni for the kids
The rest were done in the oven at the highest temp (550)
Some pictures from my camping trip to Pymatuning.
Got back on Monday. I managed to get some pics but a lot of the food went fast. No fish was cooked cause we probably had one keeper out of the bunch.
The fatty consisted of, italian sausage, ground lamb, cheese, onions, mushrooms, bratwurst, and wrapped in bacon and seasoned with Old Thompson steak and burger seasoning.
The chuck was seasoned with Oakridge BBQ black ops.
The wings were done with Oakridge BBQ habanero death dust and cayenne hot sauce.
http://www.oakridgebbq.com/
I was not going to make the seeds this year, but did not want to waste them. So I ended up making a bunch (we had 5 pumpkins). Made them the normal way by rinsing, salting generously while wet and then putting them in the oven for 10-15 minutes at around 275. Found this method though to boil them slightly first before roasting to break down the outer shell a bit. May try that next time.
http://ohsheglows.com/2012/09/17/how-to-roast-perfect-pumpkin-seeds-easy-crunchy-addictive/
http://www.heggshouseofhorror.com/
Located a bit south on broadview from us is a halloween display that has been going on for quite awhile. It appears this is the last year for the grand display. As long as the weather is good, we will stop by to see it for the last time.
Took the kids to see this guy’s Transformer replicas.
4807 wichita Ave, cleveland 44109
https://imnotallowed.com/pics/transformers/
