Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff
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@dogmeat said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@Hooroo Did some picanha indoors on a griddle last weekend as it was monsoon season outside and it took me back to Buenos Aires. Possibly best steak I have ever had just with rock salt and cracked pepper crust for a couple of hours before cooking and checking the internal temp like a crazy person. Bloody magnificent cut
So did I, on Friday. It was magic over the coals. I am going to do it on skewers/rotisserie over coal next time rather than on the grill.
I can see it would be easy to overcook. I did mine to 120f and let it rest for about an hour. It ate like cake!
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Ha. For me the key to catering numbers is all in having everything done well in advance. Only assembly or finishing required at the end.
I did do a friends wedding once where they wanted whole roasted Scotch Fillets to be sliced thickly like steak and the venue had no ovens.
Had to time cooking them at the restaurant the wrap in foil and drive to the venue at the right time while others organised the rest of the food. Was probably more fluke than plan that I got them pretty good (plus you have the option of having more done pieces on the ends for those that want them).
Only thing I can suggest is that you cook the meat to desired point once cooled then reheat gently but I admire your ambition and hope it goes well. -
@dogmeat said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@RoninWC I'd be looking to hire some equipment It seems like from a technical pov you have everything covered and the two dangers are lack of equipment and assistance.
So borrow or hire additional BBQ's and get some help in so that you revert to being the executive chef making sure that its all going to plan rather than running around like a crazy man and getting distracted.
Also more than one really good digital thermometerLong slow cook with a greater margin of error is the way to go and you seem to have that covered I ran a few large BBQ's back when I was in Catering (Henly Regatta etc) and spit roast and slow cuts worked a treat for us. We did it on site and most of the time was spent sitting round knocking back a few cold ones. I wasn't doing it on my own though so seriously get the right gear and some help and you'll have a great time. Good luck
A fuck off white board with all yr timings working back from service so everyone can see the plan always helps too.@Hooroo Did some picanha indoors on a griddle last weekend as it was monsoon season outside and it took me back to Buenos Aires. Possibly best steak I have ever had just with rock salt and cracked pepper crust for a couple of hours before cooking and checking the internal temp like a crazy person. Bloody magnificent cut
@dogmeat all very good advice. I should go through all the equipment and help I do have at my disposal.
1 Kamado Joe
1 spit
2 x Gas BBQ's - one 5 burner and one 4 burner which came with a tray to add wood chips for smoking so I can do a form of low and slow in that as well
2 x Electric Slow Cookers
2 x good digital thermometers
1 x iGrill 2 with 3 probes and a grill probeI have my Dad, a retired butcher to help with all the meat preparation. He will bone out and tie up the 2 legs and 2 shoulders of lamb. He will also trim the the whole rump and the brisket. I will also have my brother around to help out.
During prep, my focus while Dad is trimming and deboning the meat is to prepare the dry rubs and get the other various together to put on the brisket and butts.
My brother owns the spit, and I'm doing all this at his house as it is more convenient. He has done quite a few cooks using that and I've helped him several times. So I am making him "Spit Master"
So on the spit, I plan to put both beef rumps (around 4 kg each) plus 1 each of a deboned leg and shoulder of lamb.
The other deboned and rolled leg and shoulder of lamb will go into the gas bbq with the wood chips, again, thinking of using Manuka chips for that.
The brisket goes into the kamado of course and then I am pretty sure I can get 2 (3-4 kg) Boston Butts in with the brisket at one time.
The third (and maybe 4th) butt, what to do with them? I can try put them into the Kamado once the first 2 butts in their come to temp (which I am estimating to be about 10 hours). Or I can put them into the slow cookers and just let them do their thing in there.
To ensure consistency of flavour, I will use the same rubs and wet ingredients on the Butts for both the Kamado and slow cooker(s).
From past experience, a 9 kg brisket will take about 18 hours but I'm giving it 20 in my plan. And I plan to wrap it and the boston butts as soon as they get to the stall.
At all times, I will be carefully monitoring using the iGrill 2. The benefit of having 3 probes and a dedicated grill probe. The only real problem is that the iGrill 2 is Bluetooth only, rather than WiFi, so if you go out of range you lose connectivity and then in danger of missing an alert for either grill or meat temperature.
My Dad will come back on Friday morning to help prepare all the meats for transport.
This is where I am still undecided, to pre-slice the meats (lamb and beef rumps) taking advantage of my Dad's years of skill or, transport whole and slice when I get to the office?
The brisket and butts I will definitely transport whole because they will travel really well like that all comfy in the faux Cambo.
Once on site, I can slice and prepare the brisket and have someone else pull the butts. LOLIn terms of final prep and putting the sliders together, I have a heap of volunteers to assist with that but I was thinking I will only need 4, 2 on pork and 2 on Brisket, with me as "head chef" barking orders like crazed Gordon Ramsey as I am thinking I won't be getting a lot of sleep that night.
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@roninwc What could possibly go wrong?
Kidding - sounds like you have it well under control. As for your question - take the meat whole (how far away is it?) and take your Dad with you.
Maybe try to be more Jamie Oliver than Gordon Ramsey? Helpers might still like you afterwards. However you would get to say "fuck" a lot, and the whole nice guy Jamie thing can be irritating. Tough one.
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@roninwc said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@dogmeat said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@RoninWC I'd be looking to hire some equipment It seems like from a technical pov you have everything covered and the two dangers are lack of equipment and assistance.
So borrow or hire additional BBQ's and get some help in so that you revert to being the executive chef making sure that its all going to plan rather than running around like a crazy man and getting distracted.
Also more than one really good digital thermometerLong slow cook with a greater margin of error is the way to go and you seem to have that covered I ran a few large BBQ's back when I was in Catering (Henly Regatta etc) and spit roast and slow cuts worked a treat for us. We did it on site and most of the time was spent sitting round knocking back a few cold ones. I wasn't doing it on my own though so seriously get the right gear and some help and you'll have a great time. Good luck
A fuck off white board with all yr timings working back from service so everyone can see the plan always helps too.@Hooroo Did some picanha indoors on a griddle last weekend as it was monsoon season outside and it took me back to Buenos Aires. Possibly best steak I have ever had just with rock salt and cracked pepper crust for a couple of hours before cooking and checking the internal temp like a crazy person. Bloody magnificent cut
@dogmeat all very good advice. I should go through all the equipment and help I do have at my disposal.
1 Kamado Joe
1 spit
2 x Gas BBQ's - one 5 burner and one 4 burner which came with a tray to add wood chips for smoking so I can do a form of low and slow in that as well
2 x Electric Slow Cookers
2 x good digital thermometers
1 x iGrill 2 with 3 probes and a grill probeI have my Dad, a retired butcher to help with all the meat preparation. He will bone out and tie up the 2 legs and 2 shoulders of lamb. He will also trim the the whole rump and the brisket. I will also have my brother around to help out.
During prep, my focus while Dad is trimming and deboning the meat is to prepare the dry rubs and get the other various together to put on the brisket and butts.
My brother owns the spit, and I'm doing all this at his house as it is more convenient. He has done quite a few cooks using that and I've helped him several times. So I am making him "Spit Master"
So on the spit, I plan to put both beef rumps (around 4 kg each) plus 1 each of a deboned leg and shoulder of lamb.
The other deboned and rolled leg and shoulder of lamb will go into the gas bbq with the wood chips, again, thinking of using Manuka chips for that.
The brisket goes into the kamado of course and then I am pretty sure I can get 2 (3-4 kg) Boston Butts in with the brisket at one time.
The third (and maybe 4th) butt, what to do with them? I can try put them into the Kamado once the first 2 butts in their come to temp (which I am estimating to be about 10 hours). Or I can put them into the slow cookers and just let them do their thing in there.
To ensure consistency of flavour, I will use the same rubs and wet ingredients on the Butts for both the Kamado and slow cooker(s).
From past experience, a 9 kg brisket will take about 18 hours but I'm giving it 20 in my plan. And I plan to wrap it and the boston butts as soon as they get to the stall.
At all times, I will be carefully monitoring using the iGrill 2. The benefit of having 3 probes and a dedicated grill probe. The only real problem is that the iGrill 2 is Bluetooth only, rather than WiFi, so if you go out of range you lose connectivity and then in danger of missing an alert for either grill or meat temperature.
My Dad will come back on Friday morning to help prepare all the meats for transport.
This is where I am still undecided, to pre-slice the meats (lamb and beef rumps) taking advantage of my Dad's years of skill or, transport whole and slice when I get to the office?
The brisket and butts I will definitely transport whole because they will travel really well like that all comfy in the faux Cambo.
Once on site, I can slice and prepare the brisket and have someone else pull the butts. LOLIn terms of final prep and putting the sliders together, I have a heap of volunteers to assist with that but I was thinking I will only need 4, 2 on pork and 2 on Brisket, with me as "head chef" barking orders like crazed Gordon Ramsey as I am thinking I won't be getting a lot of sleep that night.
You could always finish some of the meat in the oven low and slow too if needed, once the meat has reached the stage where it will take on no more smoke
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@roninwc said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan I was thinking of that but there are no ovens here on site so I would have to do that at my brothers place.
And that certain is an option to get the boston butts done.
Thanks for the suggestion. Cheers
Also remember if you wrap some of the big cuts in tinfoil and towels and put in a chilly bin, it will remain serving temp hot for hours and hours
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@hooroo said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@roninwc said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan I was thinking of that but there are no ovens here on site so I would have to do that at my brothers place.
And that certain is an option to get the boston butts done.
Thanks for the suggestion. Cheers
Also remember if you wrap some of the big cuts in tinfoil and towels and put in a chilly bin, it will remain serving temp hot for hours and hours
Yup, a faux Cambro, got that covered! Nothing like a repurposed esky (chillibin) or two to transport meat.
I've got catering level aluminum foil from Costco which is brilliant for wrapping meats during a cook and for transport.
These days however, you are seeing more and more "pit masters" using brown butchers paper to wrap rather than the traditional foil.
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@roninwc said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@hooroo said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@roninwc said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan I was thinking of that but there are no ovens here on site so I would have to do that at my brothers place.
And that certain is an option to get the boston butts done.
Thanks for the suggestion. Cheers
Also remember if you wrap some of the big cuts in tinfoil and towels and put in a chilly bin, it will remain serving temp hot for hours and hours
Yup, a faux Cambro, got that covered! Nothing like a repurposed esky (chillibin) or two to transport meat.
I've got catering level aluminum foil from Costco which is brilliant for wrapping meats during a cook and for transport.
These days however, you are seeing more and more "pit masters" using brown butchers paper to wrap rather than the traditional foil.
YEs and it isn't easy to get hands on. "Peach" paper is the most popular with those types.
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@hooroo said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@roninwc said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@hooroo said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@roninwc said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan I was thinking of that but there are no ovens here on site so I would have to do that at my brothers place.
And that certain is an option to get the boston butts done.
Thanks for the suggestion. Cheers
Also remember if you wrap some of the big cuts in tinfoil and towels and put in a chilly bin, it will remain serving temp hot for hours and hours
Yup, a faux Cambro, got that covered! Nothing like a repurposed esky (chillibin) or two to transport meat.
I've got catering level aluminum foil from Costco which is brilliant for wrapping meats during a cook and for transport.
These days however, you are seeing more and more "pit masters" using brown butchers paper to wrap rather than the traditional foil.
YEs and it isn't easy to get hands on. "Peach" paper is the most popular with those types.
@Hooroo you are right about the peach paper. I've seen that as well.
If you follow Rich Franklin's video's on Youtube, he did an excellent video cooking 3 as identical as possible briskets - size, prep and rub - and used three different wraps - traditional Al foil, butchers (but it may have been peach paper) paper and nude, not wrapped at all.
Very interesting to see how the final products turned out at the differences each method and wrap varied the taste and texture.
One thing to note, I have now probably cooked 15 or so briskets and not one time have I managed to make it all the way through the stall and not wrapped. I have wrapped every single time, most often due to worry about not hitting time constraints.
The one thing with wrapping is that you get a lot of cooking jus at the end which makes for an amazing gravy. Just make a pseudo rue, butter melted then add flour to thicken, once you get a good consistency, add the cooking juices from your brisket and BAM!
I really keep wanting to do a nude brisket all the way through past the stall and to an internal of 204-205 F. Supposed to get the best bark that way.
BTW, I have to admit to a bit of a man crush on Rich, he's such a chilled, relaxed legend of American BBQ'ing and in most of his videos he has at least 1 beer.
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Okay since I shared with you all the planning for the big meat cook for our Friday 07 December work place EoY/Xmas/Farewell to Gladesville party, no doubt you have all been waiting with baited breath to see how it went so I'll give you a run through.
So here goes...
Started Wednesday going to both Costco for meat and onions, Aldi for the leg of Ham and then to Australian Meat Emporium in Alexandria for more meat. That took half a day just travelling from West to Inner South-West Sydney.
Picked up:
6 kg brisket, 4 kg brisket
3 x 4 kg pork boston butts
7 kg whole beef rump
6 kg leg of ham
3 x 1 kg sliced onion packets (not frozen)Then went to the local Woolies to buy all the spices and other things needed for the cook for:
Salt for dry-brining
Sugar and Spices for the rubs
Wet ingredients for the wrap (Sweet Baby Rays Hickory & Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce), Maple Syrup, Apple Cider vinegar, Apple Cider and I used my own bourbon.Thursday, cook day
Got up at 5 am, packed up my shit and got on the road. First stop, Lakemba to pick up the halal lamb. Very good quality lamb and not that pricey. 2 legs about 4 kg each and a shoulder that was about 5 kg for a total of 11 kgs of lamb.Then to the local butcher shop near my parents in Gymea for 80 thick sausages and then the local Woolies for 2 packages of 10 puff pastry sheets to make 160 sausage rolls, a late but worthy addition
Grand total meat: 48 kg's + 80 thick sausages
Put my Kamado Joe into my Dad's car and off we went to Loftus where my brother lives as he has the spit.
Got there at 11 and started preparation:
My dad deboned the 2 legs of lamb, trimmed up the briskets and rump
I prepped the Kamado and then got the meat dry brined and back into the esky for a while to let that salt do it's thing.1 pm, rubbed the butts with a slightly modified version of MeatHead's Memphis Dust dry rub then got the boston butts into the Kamado smoker. Plan was to give them 3 hrs in smoke and then into my brothers oven to finish there for another 8 hours or so. They had just purchased a new Bosch oven which came with a "low and slow" mode which he was keen to try which allowed you to set the temp at 100 C which is close enough to the 220-250 F temp that's best for low and slow.
At this point I realised that my iGrill 2 has mysteriously disappeared. WTF, looked everywhere and couldn't find it. Blind panic set in.
So a not so quick trip and $315 at the nearest BBQ Galore, I have a new Maverick that includes an attachement for Kamado style smokers to attached it to the air intake of the Kamado it has a built-in blower, like a mini hairdryer, to keep the grill temp even. Pretty damn cool and hopefully means I don't have to spend as much time monitoring pit/grill temps.
Left there thinking to myself "oh fuck the CEO/CFO/CPO will kill me for spending this much" but I couldn't wait to try it out.Okay back to the Bro's place a bit later than planned but things are still cool. Time for the butts to come off the Kamado, into a tray, in goes half a can of coke, a dash bourbon, apple cider, apple cider vinegar and a some maple syrup drizzled all over the butts like a good basting and then covered with foil and into the oven at 100 C.
Almost 4'ish, next the briskets, rub them both with slightly modified version of MeatHead's Big Bad Beef Dry Rub Recipe, add more hickory to the Kamado for smoke and in they go.
Whew! So far, so good.
Next is to prepare the lamb and the rump. Used a similar rub as I used on the briskets for the rump. Lamb I used a dry rub of salt, pepper, mustard powder, garlic powder and ground rosemary which I prefer to powder as you get a little bit of texture but they don't burn like whole fresh or dried rosemary.
At this point I should mention my Dad, he is in the mid-stages of dementia, but boy, can he still use his knives. A lifetime as a butcher and his skills are still just sweet as. He trimmed all the meat and deboned those two lamb legs in a quarter of the time it would have taken me and did a hell of a lot better job. He was even able to remove the bones from the lamb legs keeping the meat intact to make it easier to go on the spit. So I was able to work both the salt for the dry brine and then later the dry rub on both the outside and inside.
My bro got home from work about 6 pm and after a beer or two, we decided to get the spit on. To go back a step, I had asked him if it was okay to use his place for all of this including the spit and he was cool with it. He checked the spit to make sure it still worked and it did. At the same time I asked him, have you got some charcoal briquettes for the spit because if not, I will just get some and claim it back as an expense right. He assured me that he did, a whole bag.
Of course it turned out, he didn't have any!So I have brought over all my good lump charcoal for the Kamado and we had to use the rest of what I brought for the spit.
8 pm, the spit goes on, the rump and two legs of lamb. The shoulder has the same rub and goes into my brothers 4 burner gas BBQ with more of the hickory wood chips from the bottom of the bag, 1 burner on low and the shoulder on the far side of the BBQ. I used the grill temp prob calibrate and to get the grill temp to around 220 F. That did the job so all good for the lamb shoulder.
Sweet.11 pm, the spit breaks. The engine part still works and turns but the screw to hold the long spear that goes through the meat just shares off and the spear stops spinning. Farking hell. So after some thought we decided to go with a manual method based on how the Argentinians do their meat.
So we just kept moving it every 10-15 minutes. We also pulled off one of the legs of lamb to keep the size of the meat more reasonable and it went into the gas BBQ with the shoulder.Unfortunately, this meant the internal temps weren't going up as quickly but fuck me dead it sure looked good on the outside.
So at midnight after few more beers, my brother decides to go to sleep. I stayed up for a while keeping an eye on things and when the briskets had hit the stall, I wrapped them both, put in a basting of:
Coke (splitting the remaining half can), dash of bourbon, Sweet Baby Ray's and maple syrup. Back into the Kamado and I did a last check on everything and then set the alarm on my mobile to go off on the hour, every hour!0315 I wake up with a start first wondering where the hell I was and then it all came back to me. I quickly check the phone and the battery is dead.
Oh No!
So quickly I go outside to check on things and what do I find... It was quite a windy night and so the charcoal burned quicker than anticipated and it had basically burned itself out. Worse, it had happened some time ago and the meat was cooling.
FUCK... panic mode sets in and I'm wondering what the hell do I do next. I think to myself, okay, I can wrap the meat and get it into the gas BBQ but it will be a bit crowded in there. But it works and I get everything inside snug but all good.
Go upstairs, wake my brother and ask him to borrow a mobile charger. Get the phone charging, set the alarm again for every hour on the hour and close my eyes.
Just before 4 am what I thought was my phone alarm going off. I get up to see, no, not quite 4 am... what is going on.
Grill temp on the kamado is what was going on. Low, way too low. How the hell?
So I get everything off the kamado, thank god for Grill Grippers, and take a look and of course, the charcoal has all but burned out. And as mentioned previously, I had used all my lump charcoal in the spit. Fuck... big time fuck!Panic stations again and then it comes to me, of course.. use the oven as the two pork boston butts have to be done by now.
So I go inside to check the internal temps on the butts which have been in the oven at 100 C for 8 hrs after 3 hrs with smoke in the Kamado and when I took them off the Kamado, internal temps wear already 150+ F. I can't believe my eyes, the probe shows that internal temps on those are only around 160 F and they need to be around 200 F to pull really well. So I turned up the heat setting on the oven to 120 C and started hoping for the best.
Both briskets go into the gas BBQ. I move the Maverick probe across to the gas BBQ from the Kamado and at least this way I can keep an eye on temps. The Maverick comes with 4 probes, 3 for the meat and 1 for the grill.
So I put the 3 into the briskets and the lamb shoulder. I use the hand held probe to check on the temps of the others.
By now the gas BBQ is overloaded and the briskets are on top of the other meat. So inside the gas BBQ are:
2 briskets, 2 lamb legs, 1 lamb shoulder and the beef rump which was at the bottom. covered by the briskets.
Turn off phone alarms as I know I am not get any more sleep.
0530 the gas runs out for the gas BBQ... What can go wrong, has gone wrong!!!
My Dad saves the day as he was already coming over to give some help if it was needed. Fortunately we asked him to get a gas bottle and he had a fresh one he had just brought at home so he brought that.
Now we are cooking with gas... and that stupid oven.
At this time, Internals on the 2 briskets are 184 F so only more 3 hrs to get to the 200F mark on those as well.
0730 check the boston butts and the temps haven't risen at all... WTF?
So out of the useless oven and wrap individually and then into the gas BBQ which is now frankly overloaded. I keep a close eye on temps and finally, the lamb gets to temp.Oh yeah, after all this mess, I gave up trying to get the lamb legs to a nice medium rare and instead decided to the same as with the shoulder and take them to an internal of 200-204 F and pull them.
Unfortunately, the one thing I missed and had forgotten about was the whole beef rump. By the time I checked the internal on this, it was already way over... was in the well done zone - 160 F. Medium rare is around 140 F.
So I quickly took it off and into the faux cambro. First piece of meat off.
Next to get to temp was the lamb. Another wrap of foil and into the faux cambro.
Now it was 0930 and the brisket temps are looking good getting close to 200 F but the butts are just stuck... WTF?
Now according to my original plan, I was going to be at Gladesville no later than 10 am to give myself 3 hours to complete preparation for service. To get there by 1000 I would have to leave by 0900. No chance of course.
1000 the briskets are both finally done but those damn butts... finally internals are rising but still not there yet.
1030, WTF, suddenly the butts get to 200 F!!! Not looking a gift horse in the mouth I get them off, another layer of foil wrap and into the eskies.
Now, this whole time I have the feeling I'm missing something and then I see it. 3 kg of sliced onions that need to be cooked and caramelized to put onto the brisket sliders. Oh shit so my dad has two frying pans going and I have the hot plate into the gas BBQ and we are both cooking like mad.
1100 hrs, everything is done, packed away and I'm in the car heading to Gladesville from Loftus. Google maps says 50 minutes to get there. I make it in under 40 and yeah, I may have a ticket or two as I was on a mission.
So 1 hour to prep and I get my whole team together and I get:
1 person slicing the ham and rump
3 people pulling the butts and 3 people pulling the lamb
I'm on slicing the brisket
1 person mixing mayonnaise with sriracha sauce
4 people cutting the slider bunsWhen that is all done, we set up 3 working stations to make sliders.
4 people at each station and it goes like this:
We decide on just doing even numbers: 70 pulled pork, 70 pulled lamb and 70 brisket
Pulled pork is some sriracha mayo sauce on the base of the bun, pulled pork and home made apple slaw on top.
1 person saucing then passes to the next to pork it and then one person to put on the slaw and the last person to put the top on the slider and put it onto a serving tray.Same goes for each but the lamb was also using the siracha sauce and some normal slaw.
Brisket slider was some siracha sauce at the bottom, a half slice of brisket, some pulled brisket from the point of both briskets, some caramelised onion and finally a dollop of Sweet Baby Rays.
210 sliders done in less than 1 hour and we made service! The left over pulled meat, and there was a lot, went out to be served.
Ham was amazing but unfortunately, the rump was overcooked but still moist which was its saving grace. Wrapping it really helped to keep it moist inside so it didn't dry out even if it was cooked to well done.
Heaps of thanks and people saying how good it was so in the end, all worth it. In the end, we served almost 150 people so a hell of an effort, not just by me but to my other colleagues who contributed almost as much.
Now the question is... Would I do it again?
I would say, Hell Yes!
But only because of those very hard lessons learned like always have more charcoal than you think you will need and test an oven before you try to use it for real for the first time.Now I'm even to starting to have thoughts of BBQ comps
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@canefan They look fantastic!!! Love lamb ribs and more importantly, true-love does also
I can't stop using the rotisserie over coals at the moment. Helps that I have a cracking butcher that lets me select from out the back. Rolled pork shoulder and picanha are the regulars at the moment
