Quarantine Activities

[nittany03]

How's the searing ability? I looked hard at pellet grills when my gas grill needed replacing a few years ago and most still had limited ability to really do high temp searing.

I ended up with the old standby Weber Kettle. Added an aftermarket Slow and Sear and love it. After doing a ton of research I came across a post that said "if you want to spend X on a new grill, go buy a Weber kettle and spend the rest on good meat" and that resonated with my style.

But I still do cast jealous eyes at pellet grills...I really want to make a smoked apple pie.

I could have paid like $400 more for the Ironwood model that goes up to 500 degrees and lets you drop the grate an inch to allegedly help sear. But it’s really not its strong suit.

Best answer I’ve found is to reverse sear. Cook the meat up to about 5-10 degrees below the internal temperature you want on the Traeger, put a cast iron skillet on the stove with a little oil and get it cranking almost smoking hot, then drop the meat in there for 60 to 90 seconds a side. Stove vent fan on “high” highly recommended. Works really well; I just need to calibrate what temps work best for my steaks and burgers and how long to sear them to be perfect. As a bonus, it really helps keep a good seasoning layer on the skillet!

That said, it holds temps on its own, without me having to futz with burner dials or smoker vents. It has a temp probe to know exactly when and how well stuff is done. It lights off at the push of a button, and it’s up and ready without waiting on charcoal. And it’s Wi-Fi enabled; once I light it off, I can control it with my phone.

 

[IKE]

I could have paid like $400 more for the Ironwood model that goes up to 500 degrees and lets you drop the grate an inch to allegedly help sear. But it’s really not its strong suit.

Best answer I’ve found is to reverse sear. Cook the meat up to about 5-10 degrees below the internal temperature you want on the Traeger, put a cast iron skillet on the stove with a little oil and get it cranking almost smoking hot, then drop the meat in there for 60 to 90 seconds a side. Stove vent fan on “high” highly recommended. Works really well; I just need to calibrate what temps work best for my steaks and burgers and how long to sear them to be perfect. As a bonus, it really helps keep a good seasoning layer on the skillet!

That said, it holds temps on its own, without me having to futz with burner dials or smoker vents. It has a temp probe to know exactly when and how well stuff is done. It lights off at the push of a button, and it’s up and ready without waiting on charcoal. And it’s Wi-Fi enabled; once I light it off, I can control it with my phone.

Science says searing doesn't seal in juices, so reverse searing should be just as good as the legacy method.

This is how I did a Wagyu steak last week. Sous vide for 4 hours at 130 °F. ~90 seconds per side on a cast iron skillet to finish it (additional salt/dry spice before searing).

 

[scoolbubba]

Here's a tip for your sear: if the pan is seasoned, don't use oil. Dry the steak really well (even better if you have some time to shove it in the freezer. This stops the leftover cook and it dries the surface, too) and put a very thin layer of mayonnaise on it. Get the pan screaming hot, put the steak on AND DON'T TOUCH IT! After about 30s, you'll get the Maillard reaction and when the sear is good, the steak will naturally release from the pan. Flip it, dry it, Mayo it, slap it back on there. Remove and let sit for a couple minutes to let the meat relax.

While you wait, drink your old fashioned and think of how enjoyable taking time off the end of your miserable existence can be.

:::chef's kiss:::

I don't have a traegar, I've got a kamado Joe, but I do a lot of sous vide steaks. The Joe takes too long to get to heat so I just use my power burner to get cast iron damn near red hot. When I'm not worried about losing my job, I'll probably add a traegar to my backyard kitchen.

 

[nittany03]

I’ve just found that if I get the temps cranking on my cast iron, the oil is a bit of an insurance policy. If you preheat it too hot dry, you’ll burn off part of the seasoning, and then you have to put it in the oven on “clean” and start all over again.

If there’s some oil, it’ll start to smoke before you hit that point, and add a bit more to the seasoning as it does.

 

[scoolbubba]

I'm pretty sparse with my seasoning, so that's probably where my method works differently for me. I worry about VOCs from oil at the smoke point, but then again I crush red meat like a caveman so who fucking cares.

 

[AllAmerican75]

Ilegal Mezcal is pretty good, and relatively affordable. I'm not a mezcal aficionado but I've tried around 5 or so brands so far.

For tequila and mezcal, I think it's more about your aging taste (joven vs. reposado vs. anejo) as opposed to any particular brand allegiance.

I like Casamigos for tequila. I would never pay more than $50/bottle for either tequila or mezcal. In fact, I don't buy bottles period. I get a cocktail or two a couple times a year for $12-15 and that is enough for me.

I prefer reposado and anejo tequilla to joven. I wish Costco sold mezcal since that's where I buy all of the rest of my liquor.

 

[Pags]

Regardless of whether I'm cooking steak inside or outside I use the reverse sear method. If you do it well you'll get a good crust outside and pink inside all the way to edges with no grey band.

Outside: I use the Weber with two zone setup. Cook first on the cool side to 127deg then sear over direct heat for a minute or so per side. Perfectly medium rare.

Inside: cook the steaks at 250 or so until 127deg. Sear in a skillet over high heat for a minute or so a side. Perfectly medium rare.

I've heard good things about sous vide but haven't got around to getting one because I really enjoy grilling over fire.

 

[scoolbubba]

Sous vide has its place. I do enjoy grilling over a fire, too...i think sous vide loses a bit of the texture sometimes, but it's consistency is the attraction.

 

[Dontcallmegump]

This thread needs to be edited into a cookbook called "Boozing, grilling and embracing your mortality: the middle aged white male, path to nirvana"

 

[Homer J]

I decided to take on the task of building a treehouse for the kids. I should have looked at lumber prices before I promised the little one's. Holy crap, $6 for a common (Prime) stud! $10 for a treated 2x4, nearly $50 for 1/2 PT plywood. Pics to follow

I'm surprised you could even find lumber. Spoke to a builder here awhile back and he tells me he has had to go to multiple vendors to get enough materials to build a deck.

 

[ABMD]

Here's a tip for your sear: if the pan is seasoned, don't use oil. Dry the steak really well (even better if you have some time to shove it in the freezer. This stops the leftover cook and it dries the surface, too) and put a very thin layer of mayonnaise on it. Get the pan screaming hot, put the steak on AND DON'T TOUCH IT! After about 30s, you'll get the Maillard reaction and when the sear is good, the steak will naturally release from the pan. Flip it, dry it, Mayo it, slap it back on there. Remove and let sit for a couple minutes to let the meat relax.

While you wait, drink your old fashioned and think of how enjoyable taking time off the end of your miserable existence can be.

:::chef's kiss:::

I don't have a traegar, I've got a kamado Joe, but I do a lot of sous vide steaks. The Joe takes too long to get to heat so I just use my power burner to get cast iron damn near red hot. When I'm not worried about losing my job, I'll probably add a traegar to my backyard kitchen.

+1 for the Komado style (I'm a Big Green Egg guy myself). If you let it go full vent, they will get incredibly hot. I'm pretty sure I had mine well past it's safe limit, the thermometer on the done was actually making a second rotation when I caught it. If you haven't checked it out, take a look at the DigiQ, it makes maintaining temps so easy a caveman could do it.

For straight grilling the BGE takes a while, so I have thought about adding a Traegar pellet grill to the patio as a back-up.

 

[ABMD]

I'm surprised you could even find lumber. Spoke to a builder here awhile back and he tells me he has had to go to multiple vendors to get enough materials to build a deck.

Without a doubt I couldn't find everything I needed at the local HD, thankfully the Lowe's 4 miles away had the 16' 2x6 I needed. It's making me double and triple check everything because a mistake could cost me $50-$100 and anything I'm not using is getting returned to claw back some of my money. Also to note, some of the lumber they did have was total junk. PT plywood that looked like a lasagna noodle, decking boards that, I kids you not, looked like they were buried under a pile of mulch. I get that it is just decking, but where the heck did they have it stored??

I also spoke to several contractors about an addition, the quotes were out of this world. I'd say they are double what they would have been a year ago. Needless to say I'm not adding onto anything in the current environment.

 

[nittany03]

Ugh. Not cool. I’m starting to reach out about getting mine rebuilt. Previous owner painted it crappily instead of staining and sealing it, so it’s all flaky and nasty. And whoever built it did a redneck DIY job that isn’t in the same zip code as . . . well . . . the code. So I’m going to have to have someone rip out this Bubba job and build me a code-compliant deck before this trashy thing rots.

 

[scoolbubba]

+1 for the Komado style (I'm a Big Green Egg guy myself). If you let it go full vent, they will get incredibly hot. I'm pretty sure I had mine well past it's safe limit, the thermometer on the done was actually making a second rotation when I caught it. If you haven't checked it out, take a look at the DigiQ, it makes maintaining temps so easy a caveman could do it.

For straight grilling the BGE takes a while, so I have thought about adding a Traegar pellet grill to the patio as a back-up.

Yea I came out to my kamado after replacing the gaskets on it thinking it would be around 500* or so with the vents wide open. It was off the scale hot...best guess is it was going past 1050. A guy I know would tell ya to give that thing a crack of air before you throw it wide open if you want to have equally hairy arms.

 

[scoolbubba]

This thread needs to be edited into a cookbook called "Boozing, grilling and embracing your mortality: the middle aged white male, path to nirvana"

Why's it always gotta be about race?