Month: December 2017

@PKGrills #PK360 Setup For Two Full Racks Of Ribs

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Prepped the St Louis pork ribs by first trimming off the silverskin membrane, light slather of mustard to hold the rub and then hit it with my pork rub.

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Next filled right side of PK 360 with a full chimney of unlit coals. Placed 10 briquettes in the chimney to get going and dumped on one corner of the unlit coals and sprinkled on some cherry wood for smoke. Put down a sheet of tin foil and aluminum trays on the charcoal grate under where the ribs will be placed on the opposite side of the grill from the coals. Fill the foil pan a quarter of the way with warm water to help retain a moist smoking environment. The foil will keep the bottom of the grill easy to clean from the fat drippings that will render throughout the low and slow cooking session.

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Place a remote thermometer in , leave all the vents wide open and wait for the pit to come up to 200 degrees. Once it does place a rib rack over the foil pan and bend the ribs into the slots making sure they don’t touch each other so all sides of the meat get exposed to the smoke. If they touch, in those spots they are touching you won’t develop bark.

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Once you have your ribs placed, close the lid close the bottom left vent and the top right vent. This will draw air up from the bottom of the PK 360, through the coals and wood and the smoke that is a result will pass over your ribs out the top vent on the opposite side of the grill. It forces the air flow the way you want it when smoking meat.

It was extreme cold here so those were the vent settings that allowed the coals to burn at a rate that resulted in 250 pit temps throughout the cook without having to adjust the vents. If it was 80 degrees outside instead of 8 degrees I’d simply choke down those two vents a little more to keep the pit temps in the smoking range rather than hotter for direct grilling.

This cook was pretty much set it and forget it, the PK 360 held the temps like a champ despite the frigid cold temps

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6 Degrees Outside- No Problem- Full Packer Brisket On The @WeberGrills Simpsons Kettle

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

My buddy Eric Lorden got me a full packer brisket for Christmas.  As there doesn’t look like there’s any end in sight to these frigid temps here in the northeast it was getting time to put up or shut up.  So I trimmed this beautiful Angus Brisket which had a considerable about of fat to remove.

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You can see how much fat was trimmed away in this pic.  I left a quarter inch or so on the fat cap side which was cooked fave down on the Kettle.

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After trimming away the unwanted fat it was time to season.  Coarse salt, crushed black pepper, John Henry’s Brisket Rub and a little Montreal Steak Seasoning.  Fat cap side up in this picture.  She was wrapped in cello and refrigerated overnight.

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Got a late  start at 8AM but set up the kettle for the snake method, placed a large aluminum pan on the charcoal grate and lit ten briquettes in the chimney.  Cherry wood for smoke.  Once the coals in the chimney were glowing orange I dumped them on the start of the snake.  It took til 9AM to get the pit up to 200 degrees with the extreme cold temps outside. 6 degrees.  Brrrrr.

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Once the kettle got up to 200 degrees I placed the brisket on the cooking grate and it barely fit across.  It was definitely poking out over the coals from the 10:30-1:30 O’Clock position on the Kettle.  I start my snakes at 7 O’Clock so I knew I’d have to check and rotate the cooking grate once the fuse of the snake were going to have lit coals under the meat.  I got about three and a half hours in when I needed to rotate it.

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You can see in the next photo how I just kept rotating it. I placed a piece of foil to protect the meat from the coals you can see.  Because of the extreme cold I needed to add charcoal twice.  Here she is 5 hours in.

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She hit the stall at 180 degrees and stayed right around there for over an hour.  At 196 degrees I wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven at 275 til the Brisket hit 203 and was probe tender.  The point was probe tender a full two hours before the flat.  I wasn’t pulling it out to rest based on the internal temp, I was looking for the probe to slide in easily without any resistance.

Here’s the final result-

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Delicious!

Shrimp Stuffed Bell Peppers On the @pkgrills #pk360

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

OK here we go…

Started the PK Grills 360 set up for indirect heat with 2/3 a chimney of lit charcoal on the right side of the grill.

Sliced 3 red peppers in half, de-seeded them and coated with olive oil.  Placed the red peppers on the opposite side of the grill from where the coals were.  The goal is to soften them up.

Fired up a package of brown rice on the stove, sliced up a half a red onion into small bits and softened them up in a pan over medium heat with butter. Seasoned the onion/garlic with Old Bay seasoning, salt, pepper while getting the onions to a translucent state.  once Onions and garlic were softened placed them in a bowl.

Next added some uncooked shrimp and jalapeno to the same pan, added some olive oil and butter and seasoned them the same way i seasoned the onions and garlic.  Cook the shrimp 90% of the way.

Remove the shrimp and jalapenos from the pan and chop it up into bite sized pieces.

Combine the brown rice, onion, garlic, shrimp and jalapenos with some drained black beans and shredded Mexican three cheese blend.  Add amounts according to what you like best.

At this point your red bell peppers will have sweated down and softened considerably.  before I pull them off the grill I put them directly over the coals for about a minute to get a little char.  the smell is amazing and they look beautiful.

Before adding your shrimp stuffing add some shredded Mexican cheese and then stuff.

Last step before placing back on the grill is to mound up more cheese on top.  top with cheese and a dusting of Old Bay seasoning (any Mexican or creole seasoning will do)  Place the stuffed peppers back on the grill offset the coals.  Grill temps anywhere between 250-350, no big deal.  Just looking to melt that cheese in.

Just before pulling them off after about 15 minutes, place them over the coals for another minute or so to get a little more char (just some black grill marks not completely burnt).

Done and delicious!

Christmas Eve Roast Recipe For The @PKGrills #PK360

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

It’s pretty straightforward.

Trim away any huge globs of visual fat.

Use some butchers twine to form up the roast so it is symmetrically circular by cinching up the twine.

Make slits every three inches or so on the roast and insert thinly sliced slivers of garlic.

Slather on some Worcestershire sauce, then a mix of coarse salt/restaurant grind black pepper/ garlic /sage/rosemary/thyme.

Let it sit on counter for an hour or so to get up close to room temp.

Put about a chimney full of unlit charcoal in the right hand side of the PK 360 liberally sprinkled with wood chips.  I used cherry.

Light about ten briquettes in the chimney and once glowing place them on one corner of the unlit charcoal.

Place some foil or foil trays under where your roast will sit.

Place remote thermometer probe and close the lid.

Once the temps climb to 200, close the top vent over the lit charcoal, leave the vent on the opposite side open.  Close the bottom vent under where the meat will be placed and leave the bottom vent under the coals about 2/3 open.

Place the meat opposite the coals, over the drip pan or foil, stick the meat thermometer probe in the thickest part of the roast.

You’re looking for 250 degree pit temp.  If it wants to run at 275- no problem, If it wants to run at 225, no problem.  Wherever it settles in that range, you’re good.

If you follow these directions you’ll have edge to edge pink meat with a nice crust.

When the internal temp gets to 117, pull it off and lightly wrap it in foil .

Open the lid so the remaining coals fire up and get a little orange glow going.

Place the roast back on the pit, but this time directly over the coals.

Pay close attention, you want a sear but not a burn.   About a minute and roll, then a minute and roll, til the roast is seared all around.

Once you get that sear all the way around place it on a tray and then loosely tent the foil around it.  You can keep it like that for a couple hours.  it will retain the meat.

Slice it and you’ll discover a perfectly cooked even pink edge to edge roast.

 

 

1989 Grey @WeberGrills One Touch Plus – Such A Beauty

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

1989. Yes, you read that right, 1989. People often ask me about my obsession with Weber Grills. After spending thousands on supposedly premium stainless steel gas grills from the big box stores only to have them rust away in the matter of a couple of years I’ve discovered the perfect grill costs way less and will be around for years.

I cook just about every day on my charcoal Weber grills, at work and at home and they just plain work, you can get replacement parts cheap and I can set my vents for high convection type heat or low and slow, reliably.

These grills are everything right about American manufacturing and distribution.

Tail of the redfish being prepped for the @webergrills performer. A www.northeastbbq.com joint.

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Dried the fish off with paper towels, cut slits in the sides, brushed with peanut oil, Himalayan salt and some seafood rub.

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Set up the Performer to smoke using the snake method. A couple of handfuls of lump fired up in the chimney and tossed on the beginning part of the fuse. Foil under the fish on the charcoal grate. looking to smoke around 250 degrees.

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One hour in the spawn was ready.  Incredible.  Creamy.  Smokey.  Sort Of like a smoked poached egg yolk.

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Giving the redfish a little more time-

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Vintage @WeberGrills Kettle Commercial. It’s Never Out Of Season

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Smoked/Braised Ox Tail On the @WeberGrills Performer

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

First Season with coarse salt/pepper/garlic and whatever seasonings you like on your beef.

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Next smoke offset the coals at 275 for three hours.

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Once the oxtail has reached the color you’d like to achieve add some beef broth in the corners and cover with foil to braise.  allow to braise for at least a couple hours more or until the meat is fall apart tender.

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