[deepsouth]

When I get back to the office Ron. For sure.

[bluesman]

When I get back to the office Ron. For sure.

Thanks!

[deepsouth]

forgive the copy/paste, but it's much easier than typing it out again.

home grown sage, basil, thyme,rosemary, italian flat leaf parsley, chives..... all from my dad's herb garden..... i had some fennel seed on hand, but could not find whole corriander, so i went with corriander powder. fresh garlic, kosher salt, fresh cracked peppercorn medly.

i scrubbed the skin side good with kosher salt and vinegar. i scored both sides at this point. i applied most of the fresh herbs as well as the salt and pepper and put in the tenderloins and rolled it up and vac-sealed it overnight.

yesterday i unsealed it and cut it open and added more fresh herbs along with some more salt and pepper and the fresh minced garlic and i rolled it back up and re-tied it.

set it up indirect and ran it at about 275 for about 2 and a 1/4 hours....

i ramped the temp up to 350 after that 2 and 1/4 hours and let it run like that for an hour before pulling it off the grill.

the skin was like pork cracklins. pretty hard to beat. the fat from the belly melted like butter and the meat was as tender as it could be.

the thick end was 145 when i pulled it, but the smaller end was a little higher in temp, thus not as pink....


this was the post in the bbq forum (with all the pictures)

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167734

[euge]

Haven't had any real BBQ since last November. Boneless thighs seasoned and tied. Rested for 48 hours uncovered on rack in fridge to concentrate the chicken flavor. Low and slow BBQ on pecan wood. I like it hot, sweet and sticky. Cured Spanish-style chorizo I made a few days ago.

[HoosierBrew]

Man, that looks fantastic, Euge !  Chicken thighs are so much more moist (and better)than the white meat, not even close. Now that the effing Antarctica winter is over here, I'm firing up the smoker for spare ribs this weekend, apple and hickory for these. I love pecan though, it's really underrated.

[gmac]

Is that an Egg?  I love mine. 

[euge]

Is that an Egg?  I love mine.

I hope you got a plate setter...

[gmac]

Is that an Egg?  I love mine.

I hope you got a plate setter...

You mean a "convEGGtor"?  Stupid marketing.  Yes, I love my plate setter as much as I love my egg.  Been making a lot of bacon lately, indirect smoking with apple wood.  I have a whole apple tree cut up so everything is now apple smoked...  2nd best thing I ever bought (best was an engagement ring of course - she may read this...).

[euge]

I broke down and pulled the trigger on a BBQ Guru DigiQ DX2 and a PitViper fan. I'm anxiously awaiting their arrival.

Any words of advice on usage in the BGE?

[mchrispen]

Euge...


I have the same setup - love it. Can't imagine smoking anything without it now.


Make sure you have a good seal on the felt of the egg. For some reason, replacing my fairly baked on old seal with a new one - really helped stabilize the temperature. Probably just helps for better convection. Also -- make sure that the pitviper fan fitting seals in properly. Ultimately you only want the air coming through the fan, and the grate door should seal up over the flange. You will need to play with the opening on the fan itself to balance how often it needs to push air. If you see the fan rapidly pulsing and smoke coming from the bottom - it needs adjustment open. I start with it about half open.


I start a very small hot fire that heats up the egg, before I stack everything in... So a small fire with a starter and just a handful of small lump charcoal, and 1 - 2 small pieces of hardwood. Let that go hot with the lid down and fully open until you heat the temp to about 50 degrees past your target temperature (say 250F or 300F). Smother or spritz that down, and then build your coals around it mixing in hardware and large chunk charcoal.  For a long smoke, you will need to fill the firebox, and I use roughly 40% cured hardwood. Let this heat/smolder until your grill dome temperature is about 10 degrees lower than your target temp. Then turn on the DigiQ and let it do its thing - pit probe at grate level. You might need to drop in a fire starter into the center if you killed the first fire too much. Then set the plate setter and your configuration. It is important to start low and let the DigiQ ramp the fire up - it doesn't do well when the fire is too hot.


I tend to let the white/grey smoke burn off first before placing any meat. The fan on the pit will cycle on and off - and try to bring your temp even with the target. This is with the plate setter and a drip pan in place under the grill grate. I also fill the pan with water, beer or cider to keep the heat somewhat moist. This also helps the smoke ring to develop. I do not use wet chips or chunks at all - no need. You should see a hazy barely blue smoke coming from the chimney. The water will boil, so you would need to replenish that occasionally.


When you are ready to place the meat - move the pit probe onto one of the meat probes at the top of the meat. I tend to wrap the wires in foil to keep them clean - so there should be room to easily clamp the alligator clip of the pit probe. There is usually a 10-15 degree temperature difference between the grill and the dome thermometer... having this right at the top of the meat seems to give a better temp. The bottom grate is fully sealed to the fan, and the top vent is cracked about halfway - you will want to check the first couple of hours regularly to make sure the grate balances with the fan input - all temperature driven.


On my Large egg - I can do three 12 pound shoulders or two well trimmed packer briskets at a time. The DigiQ really does a great job managing the temperature - last smoke (2 pork shoulders) I only opened the egg three times to replenish the water bath and spray the shoulders with cider vinegar. Took about 11 hours to bring those shoulders right to 195F, then I wrapped them in parchment and foil and let them rest in a heated cooler for about 8 hours. They were still hot as heck when I pulled them the next morning. Don't panic pushing through the plateau - seems to vary based on the meat - just keep going. If you are worried about too much bark, then tent the meats with foil after spraying with cider vinegar.


There was still enough charcoal to push another 6 hours or so - I tend to pull the remainder charcoal after it smothers and use it when grilling as there is some fat on it - and it burns a bit hotter. Only fresh lump charcoal and hardwood chunks when smoking. If your water bath doesn't boil dry - you can skim out some pork loveliness and make sauce. I pour that into a sauce pan and add a little vinegar - bring to a hard boil and spice it. Then into jars - when cooled and refridged, you can pull the fat cap off - the rest should be like jelly.


Sorry for the long post - BBQ is another passion of mine!

[euge]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply!

Especially about the probe placement and top damper position. That was a concern of mine.

[gmac]

Good luck Euge. I haven't graduated to electronics for the BBQ yet.

[euge]

I can keep the egg pretty stable but one has to check it frequently, which is part of the fun. But overnight or unattended cooks don't do so well. I want to be able to go to bed or work and not worry.

Could have gone with a CyberQ or a Stoker and have wifi/web access but I won't be cooking that much!

[mchrispen]

Now don't mock the wireless bit! A wifi-enabled smoker is - well nerdy, but fun.


I don't sleep well when smoking meats overnight, but it is nice to check the phone/ipad and see that things are stable. And the alarm is pretty loud if things get out of hand (on the CyberQ) if the phone/ipad are asleep. I also have mine send email alerts to my cell phone every hour, and when something is out of line.


There are some limitations with the wifi support on that device, but once it is setup - works well. And you can adjust all of the targets easily remotely (like drive the temp up 10 degrees if you want to push on the plateau of a long smoke).


The best thing here is only cracking open the Egg when absolutely necessary during a smoke. You aren't repeatedly losing all of that heat and it remains incredibly efficient. That alone can cut an hour off a 12 hour brisket.


Euge one last thing - this maybe just coincidence, but I get better performance from the Egg and the Cyber Q when the grill is fairly full. I assume this is a thermal mass thing and not just a fluke, but when I try to do a single pork shoulder or just a rack of ribs, the heat tends to come up - and I get a drier and less tender cook.


That chorizo got me thinking - how about a 10 lb turkey stuffed with chorizo, apple and onions, maybe rubbed with sage, black pepper and butter... laced up nice and tight, right on the grill over a bath of cheap lager. That would be a great short smoke to break in the new gear!

[bluesman]

Great to see the BBQ thread revived yet once again for another season of mouth watering, sensational, sweet, spicy, smoky delights!

The chorizo looks delicious euge. Care to share your recipe?

Welcome to the thread mchrispen!

I'm planning to smoke a brisket this weekend, if I can find a nice cut.