Gravy's Cooking Thread

Lanx said:

the ash collector is the obvious thing you can see, but also the grill grates are the more advanced ones where they fold up so you can fill in charcoal w/o removing the grate.
oh also a basic thermometer on top

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The thermometer and being able to add charcoal without picking up the grate are both good QOL features, I think it was worth the extra $100. Also the being easier to empty out the ashes with no mess.

Lanx said:

yea, just time it, theres different times when coals become white coals and when wood just becomes ember

how long are we cooking for? like from meat on grill to meat off?

are you doing ripping hot then slow, or what?

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I usually get the coals glowing red and on fire, then dump them into the grill, spread them around, and add things.

Tried the wood chips again, this time soaked in water for 20 min as per the instructions, and in the smoker box. They never emitted any smoke. I think the coals were too dim by then, maybe I needed more heat. The food finished and the box was just sitting there.




Wait, when people say to put the wood right onto the hot charcoal, do they mean the metal box (or foil)? Cause all this time I assumed that meant just dump loose chips on them. When I do that all they do is burn up. The box might work better. Goal for tomorrow night is to get the box to heat up enough ugh to actually smoke the damn wood.

Gave up on the smoker box and brought it back to Home Depot to get my $50 back. Lawl. Tried a few methods for getting it to smoke wood, none worked. Whether the chips were wet or dry, didn't matter. The box would heat up and everything in it would just sit there.

What I do now is drop some wood chips on the side of the burning charcoal after I pour it into the grill. Putting it on top just causes all the wood to burn up right away. Putting it on the side causes the burning to get to it more slowly and "creep across" as it were, giving me some nice smoke circulation once the top is down. Haven't had a chance to try "smoking" any meat yet with this rudimentary method.

What's the best time to dump charcoal from a chimney starter? I get the mug to where it's got a nice fire going in it and the charcoal are all glowing orange, then I pour it in. Last few times, the embers died down a little too fast and the food took a while to cook. Not sure if I'm dumping the charcoal in too soon or too late. If I do it too soon, most of the charcoals are still unburnt, if I do it too late, the charcoal are all pretty much ashes. So I try to find a medium ground where it's like dumping a bunch of lava into the grill. Wondering if there's some visual "tell" of when to pour the starter in. I wait until the top charcoals are orange/on fire, and if the fire is still lower down, it's easy to tell because the top charcoals are all black shadows over the fire.

Burns said:

Since I use cast iron skillits, where they sit empty over a high flame until smoking, the olive oil seems to perform better than the lower smoke point butter

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Clarified butter ?

If you’re gonna smoke your oil stop using olive oil. It’s a culinary war crime, smoking it is way past the point that you’ve literally burned off all the healthy stuff, and probably is indicative of you using some cheap olive oil that’s doctored with other oils anyways.

You 100% should be using clarified butter. If you’re too stupid to make it, use vegetable oil.

There’s also avocado oil; neutral taste, higher smoke point

Burns said:

The reason I don't generally care to use clarified butter is because I absolutely hate wasting food

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No prob man, for me that little amount of milk I dump when I make clarified I don't sweat over. Every time I think about conservation there's another article about grocery stores dumping billions of dollars of food rather than lowering the prices a penny. Here in Canada it's criminal how the government lectures us on rapefugees going hungry when we dump oceans of milk every year to keep prices artificially high, then they give away billions of dollars in aid/graft and lecture us on racism. It's all fake and gay.

When I make clarified butter I dump it in a bowl and keep it in the fridge covered in plastic wrap for easy access. Since the smoke point is so much higher, it's great for cast iron steaks. The wife always used oil for eggs, but when I made her some with clarified even she had to admit they're much better, and you know how hard it is to get a woman to admit they're wrong about something...

If anyone is on the fence, just grab a pot with a handle, melt over medium heat half a stick or whatever amount of butter, and after it all melts let it sit for a few minutes at heat. If it's sputtering too much, cant a lid over it with an air gap and turn it down a bit, or if it's not doing much turn it up a bit. Give it a few minutes to separate, then take it off the burner for a few minutes so it doesn't spit in your eye. Take a spoon and gently skim off the crust, tipping the pot at an angle as needed, but don't stir up the milky bottom. After you skim and just have golden goodness top layer and the milky bottom, pour the golden layer in a bowl and let it cool a bit before you cover and put it in the fridge. As you're slowly pouring the golden layer you can gently block the milk with the back of a big spoon. Don't let any mix in with the gold, so when you cook there should be no sputtering and no burnt taste, just smooth buttery goodness.

After I heat up the cast iron to medium-high for tenderloin, I add the clarified and there is no reaction if I made it well with no milk particles. The room temperature salted tenderloins sizzle/sear perfectly, 2 minutes a side flipped twice for the square grill marks, then if they're not passing 125deg yet I keep flipping them for 15-30 seconds a side until they are. Pull 'em off and put them in a covered bowl with garlic/pepper to rest, then serve them on a plate after pouring the garlic/pepper/steak runoff juices back on top of them.