Cook 21 - Mesquite Pellet Smoked Blade Roast
19th April, 2015 06:31 PM by BBQ Phil
Today, still with my swelled up mosquito hands, I went for a nice family walk to Bunnings. The goal was to get to Bunnings and get some pellets after yesterday's bland cook. It just so happens that the Bayside BBQs & Outdoor Centre was on the way back and I'd been wanting to check it out for some time now. It was a good thing I did go there too, but more on that in a sec. First, we went to Bunnings and unfortunately, they don't sell any pellets or wood chunks -- only these boxes of wood chips made by Samba. I bought a box and thought, I'd try these out, but on the walk back home, I went and checked out the Bayside BBQs & Outdoor Centre and they had a very nice selection of smoke sources.

From them, I picked up two bags of BBQrs Delights pellets - Apple and Mesquite. I got the mesquite, because I've been very keen to smoke with it for some time now. After all, the two big woods in smoking are hickory and mesquite and I've used hickory before.

At 12pm, the fire went on and 30 minutes later, the meat when on with a nice rangehood temperature of 300°F. I managed to keep the pit temperature around 300°F for most of the cook, sometimes spiking to 350°F, but then I'd take the lid off the Weber for a few seconds. I then went inside and played some Mario Party 8 with my son Blake.

At 4:15pm, I noticed the temperature started to go down (260°F) and also noticed the briquettes looked like they were out. The meat's internal temperature was also stuck around 74°C. So, at 4:37pm I double foiled the meat adding some of the water pan/dripping pan juices in there as well. It was at this point that it started rain and I jerry rigged the umbrella up (see photo below). About 10 minutes later and the internal temperature was up to 77°C and I was happy.

The mesquite gave off a lovely, dark, rich, earthy smell to it -- my wife actually thought I was brewing beer :) and I thought, she's probably right, it would compliment the beer hoppy smell that you get from brewing. I'll have to keep that in mind.

How did the meat turn on ? Absolutely perfect. It was juicy, it was full of flavour; one of my best cooks to date.

Cook21-20150419
Cook 20 - Stubbs Rubbed Chicken
18th April, 2015 06:51 PM by BBQ Phil
This morning I woke up in a bad way. I had about 10 mosquito bites all over my hands and feet and they were really sore, not like normal bites. My fingers actually started to swell up (by Sunday night, I was in hospital). So, my heart wasn't really into this cook, but my wife wanted chicken for dinner, so chicken it is. I was pretty much running on autopilot, rubbing the chicken with some Stubb's Chicken Rub and putting it onto the smoker not long after that.

I also still didn't have any smoke (pellets or chunks) source to use and I didn't bother with my smoker box and rosemary, so there was no real smoke to this cook. More on that soon.

At 3:50pm, I put the chicken on with a range hood temperature of 235°F and 18°C internal. I then went off to lie down in bed and watch some Kill la Kill on Netflix and get some rest; I found out that my wireless temperature monitor works in my bedroom too. At 5:15pm, I brought some veggies out to be smoked and at 5:30pm, I noticed the internal temperature wasn't up to what I wanted (77°C), so I moved the chicken over to the direct heat to speed up the cooking process.

The chicken came out really juicy, the skin was nice, but you know what ... it lacked flavour ... that smokey goodness. Even my wife commented that it "wasn't as nice" and that it was rather bland. You know they say, if your heart isn't into it, you're not going to produce anything good and that's really what happened. I also said to myself, I'm going to get a smoke source tomorrow ...

Cook20-20150418