Outdoor cooking - Barbecues, Barbecue, BBQs, BBQ, Smokers, Grills. And Ribs.

Are you dry brining? What temps are you using/aiming for? How are you prepping the meat? Slabs of 2? 4?

I had the opposite problem - bringing the meat up to temp without raising the BBQ levels too high. I could have gone a degree or two higher on the meat to help break down some of the tissue closer to the bone.

Dibs

Too late /burp
:)

Just a dry rub, then aiming for 85°C - 90°C - pit temp was set for 100°, but then I backed it down to 85° when the meat approached 80°

Then I went to bed, and came back to meat at 110° and pit at 85°

Given that the pit probe is next to the meat, this made no sense at all

Looking good.

I prefer individual ribs to the Jacobs ladder as there is more bone insulating and keeping moisture in. But those look mighty fine.

Have you calibrated the probes?

It's odd that your temp at the grill is lower than the food, are you sure the readings aren't inverted? Or are you monitoring pit temp at a place that is anomalously cool?

Have you calibrated the probes?

Only at room / ambient temperature - I'll chuck them in a pan of boiling water later, and calibrate them to my Thermapen

The pit probe is bang next to the meet on the grate - something odd would need to be happening for differences like that to be happening. Although it could be an airflow thing I guess.

I'll post a graph up later to see if I'm missing something obvious

So, a couple of questions:

Good places to source meat from en masse?

Good places to glean recipes/inspiration from?

Good places to learn about temperatures/timings etc?

a) cows & pigs

b) see c)

c) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Meathead-Science-Great-Barbecue-Grilling/dp/054401846X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469454710&sr=8-1&keywords=meathead

Smirk at a)

But will definitely pick up a copy of c)

Annoying I have at least two vegan and gluten free attendees. Toying with just cooking them instead and solving a).

How much salt in the rub?

GAH ! Celcius!
*spits
*does calculations

You want 95c as your stopping point for the short ribs with 107C as your pit temperature.

Sounds like your food / temp probes were plugged in backwards although without a graph, who knows? What is your thermometer? I have the Maverick wireless one.

I would have done pairs but they could only be purchased in 3s (annoyingly).

Still. Super tasty and the BBQ sauce I found was lovely. B even ate the entire slice I gave him which damn near made me cry as he embraced his cultural heritage. I'm pretty pleased with my temp control no so next up will be pork ribs.

The book is great but mostly a rehash of the website http://www.amazingribs.com but without the constant harrassment to sign up and pay money. Poke through the website and you can get a feel for usefulness of the content. It's the best site I have found that works for me. YMMV.

Large Portabello mushrooms. Grill separately. Crumble some blue cheese on the ones for the GF guests, close lid then melt. The vegan one is a poser - maybe a warm bean salad on top?

The food probes are maverick et-732 (near enough - they're Ivation branded, but apparently the same thing).

I use a thermocouple for the pit.

As I have three probe jacks, I may use one of them for the pit, and disable the thermocouple.

I'm pretty sure it's not the rub drying out the meat - I've used the same proportions when I've done ribs in the oven overnight (although I couldn't say what temp that was at).

The salt actually puts moisture back into the meat, that is why I was questioning the salt content - you may not have used enough. I salted mine liberally and then applied the rub.

The salt actually puts moisture back into the meat

What witchcraft is this?

Ta for the link.

I'm also suffering as we have a number of non porker eaters so will need multiple barbecues on the go to avoid cross contamination.

I'm thinking of just cancelling it, disavowing all knowledge of these people and moving to the southern states so I can actually enjoy barbecue unimpeded.

The maker of my grill has an online recipe section.

http://greenmountaingrills.com/recipes/

They have veggie and non-pork, once you get past the onion ring wrapped in bacon. You do need to google some of the cuts to find their UK equivalent name.

It lets the proteins in the meat absorb more water... It's what brining does...

It's science...

What witchcraft is this?

That's wiccanist.

places bad BBQ hex on @TW

Cooked a little bit of pork belly on my Weber Smokey Joe the other day. The semicircular inserts, which I picked up for a few quid from Lidl, are essentially a cheap version of the Slow'n'Sear in that they allow you to contain the charcoal and create a zone away from the direct heat. Anyway, I rubbed the pork belly with salt, pepper, garlic granules and fennel seeds, then put it on some veg in a tray with some olive oil and vermouth (as cheap as wine and lasts longer in the store cupboard). Filled one of the charcoal containers with chimney-started briquettes, put the tray in the cool-zone and popped the lid on. About 2.5 hours later I put some more charcoal into the other charcoal container, topped up the liquid and left it for about another 2 hours.

I almost ruined it by flipping it over for a quick sizzle right at the end to crunchify the crackling (after I took the photo). I left it for 10 seconds too long and charred it slightly, but it was ok in the end. The meat was really lovely, the fat had properly rendered out and it was tender and moist and subtly smokey. I really like this recipe as one to just put on the BBQ and leave alone while you do something else.

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Here's the temperature graph (°C on the right axis)

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Wierd.

That shaded blue - fan speed?
Did the food temp probe hit a bone? Fall out?

Yep - blue shade is fan speed. I also run a servo damper.

Orange is the pit thermocouple, the 2 bluey-green lines are food probes, stuck into adjacent lumps of meat.

I need to work on the PID settings a little to stop the temp dropping so far when I remove the lid / lower the temperature, but that's secondary to the weird goings on.

After about 10:30, your meat was hotter than your pit
And meat hit 100C at midnight and stayed there for 5h

Am I reading it wrong?