The Smokin Thanksgiving Turkey....The Finale!

Sorry for the delay in posting...we all passed around a cold this past week! We started out by stuffing the turkey with an orange, garlic, and an apple. All were cut up into managable pieces to fit within the turkey. Then we rubbed some (about a stick) on the outside of the turkey. While we were stuffing the bird, the egg warmed up to about 400 degrees. Then on it went. We tried to keep the egg at around 350-375 degrees, but the extreme cold and wind made it hard to keep a constant temperature. The turkey went on around 10am and we pulled it off around 2pm. All in all it turned out good, despite the inconsistant temperature. We prefered the white meat sections only, so next time we might just get a bone in breast to cook, since there were only 3 of us. The turkey had a nice smokey taste to it, thanks to the apple wood used. Even after the 2 days it spent in the brine it didn't leave a salty taste to it. Below are some pictures, enjoy!

All stuffed up!

Ready to cook!

Ready to eat!

A Birthday Treat for a King....Prime Rib!

Alan's birthday was yesterday and instead for going out for dinner and going through all that hassel with a 1 year old, I decided to cook a standing rib roast. Now since these cuts are usually very expensive, I decided to go with one rib, on sale due to the holidays. I like to think I scored a very good deal at $5.99/lb! This was my 1st attempt outside of grilled chicken and steaks, without the assistance of Alan. All in all I went with a 3lb standing rib roast with one bone in. I started out with a good soaking in some lea and perrins for most of the morning. I then pulled it out around 230pm and rubbed it down with some kosher salt and cracked pepper. I left it out for about an hour on the counter to come up to room temperature. I fired up the egg and let it get to about 600 degrees and then did a good sear on each side for about 5 minutes each side. Then I brought the egg back down to about 250 degrees. I was looking for an internal temp of around 125 degrees to pull it off. It only took me about an hour to reach this temp. I then pulled it off and wrapped it up while I waited for Alan to come home. After cutting into it I thought it was still a little rare for my taste and Alan sure wouldn't touch it, so I sliced it up and threw it on the indoor cast iron grill pan for a quick heat through. In the end it was delicious! Will definitely do this again! It was very tender and juicy dispite being a little red for our taste.

The soaking

The rub down

Going on for a good sear

After an hour at 250 degrees

A nice medium rare cook

The Smokin' Thanksgiving Turkey...Part Duece!

Alright, so we have moved the turkey from the brine mixture to the fridge to dry out for the next 24 hours. So far it is looking good! We turned the turkey in the mixture every 12 hours and then around 815am on Wednesday morning we rinsed off the brine and placed in a pan to dry out. Total brine time was just under 48 hours.

All done brining!

The Smokin' Thanksgiving Turkey....a work in progress!

We are in the process of preparing the bird for Thanksgiving, so I am trying to document the process as we go along. This is a 1st for us, so if it doesn't turn out good no other family members will be subjected to eating it! We went with a 12lb turkey. I took it out of the freezer last Wednesday to start the thawing process in the fridge, by Sunday the 18th it was completley unthawed. We decided to do a brine. After much research on the different brines we went with the kept in simple stupid method for fear of screwing it up. Our brine consisted of 3/4 cup of kosher salt, 3/4 cup of brown sugar, 1 gallon of water, 1/4 cup of peppercorns, a whole garlic head, one zest from an orange, and some dried rosemary. We boiled up some water on dissolved the sugar and salt, then added the rest of the mixture and water to the brining container. This set in the fridge overnight to come back down to a colder mixture, so we don't have to worry about bacteria contaminating the turkey. Monday morning I took the turkey out of the fridge and cleaned it all out and then in the brine it goes for 48 hours, it made it in the mixture around 8:45am.....stay tuned for more updates!

The ingredients

The mixture all mixed up and ready to cool in the fridge

The turkey ready for a good 2 day soak

A Treat....Pumpkin Pie!

So, Alan has been dying to do a pumpkin pie on the Egg since he went to visit Russ and they made one. Since I don't care for it, I figured with Thanksgiving come up this week it would take him a week to eat the whole thing anyways, so we started our turkey day dinner a little early. We decided to go with a frozen pumpkin pie, Mrs. Smith's brand I believe. I do have to say it did smell good, too bad I don't like it! We fired up the egg to about 375 degrees and placed the plate setter on and then on went the pie. Since, we forgot what time we put it on, we decided to open it up and rotate it for even browning on the crust, to check on it. We figured it was on for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Then the temptation factor set in for Alan because he had to wait 2 hours for it to set and cool, which gave us a good chance to run up to Wally World for a few things! When all was done, Alan dug in and gave it a thumbs up! I don't think this pie will last until Thursday!

Getting ready to pull it off the Egg!

After it set and cooled for 2 hours!

Pulled Pork...A Success!!

Sorry for the delay in posting this one, got busy and just kept putting it off. So, this was our second attempt at doing pulled pork, and it was just as good as the 1st time. The 1st one didn't make it to pictures because family was intown for Madison's birthday party. We started out with about a 6lb pork shoulder. I seasoned it with a little red pepper, salt, and onion powder. Then the hubby fired up the girl to 225 and on it went. We did it with the plate setter, drip pan filled to the top with water, and added some apple chunck for smoking flavor. We put it on around 9pm hoping we would have it in time for lunch. We were very wrong! Ran into a minor problem around noon we ran out of lump in the grill, so finally we ate around 9pm the next night. All in all it was a very good dispite our little set back, even the little one gobbled down her own weight in pork the next day for lunch! This didn't last as long as I hoped, but it made it for 3 days!

Getting ready to go under for a while!

After a full day smokin'!

Only a small portion of it after we started pulling!

Ribeye's....ummm good!

So the Egg has been out of commision here lately, just haven't had time to fire it up and do some cooking on it. So we decided to do pulled pork on it this weekend, but before we get to the pork I came across these ribeye's at the store that I couldn't pass up. My intentions were to just go to the "real" grocery store, not Wally World, for a good pork shoulder, plus it was on sale so an added bonous! Grocery shopping for a good cut of meat was a bit difficult with a 1 year old in tow, she just didn't seem to have the patience for me to thumb through all the different cuts of meat. So when I came across these 2 boneless ribeyes at 1st glance, I had to snag them up right away! Once we were home I broke out the Lea & Perrins and gave them a good soak for about 6 hours in the fridge. Then I let them sit on the counter for about an hour before I put them on the Egg. I added a mixture of salt, fresh ground pepper, and onion powder for seasoning, while the egg was firing up to 600 plus degrees. Then on they went for 90 seconds each side and then pulled them off to rest for 20 minutes while the egg came down to 400 degrees. After resting for 20 minutes on they went again for 6 minutes each side. After resting for a few minutes, these were consumed in record time by the hubby. I served these with a side of real mashed potatoes and steamed brocolli. The steaks were a bit on the medium well side, too done for me but perfect for the hubby, but still a good eat! Next time I think I will cut the time down to 4 minutes a side to get that medium doneness.

Getting a good soak!

All seasoned up and ready to go!

After a good sear!

All ready to eat!

Smokin Burgers!

This past weekend we decided to smoke some hamburgers on the egg. They turned out eggcellent! We used the 85/15 hamburger meat and just added salt and pepper for seasoning. I fired up the egg to 250-275 degrees and added some apple wood with a plate setter. 45 minutes later they were juicy and had a nice smoke ring around the burgers. We served these with a crisp salad and some baked beans.

Brisket---Could have been better!

So we attempted our 1st brisket this past week and well it wasn't as juicy as I had wished it was still good. We smoked a 5lb brisket over apple chunks on Thursday. We started it around 9am and pulled it off around 630pm with an internal temp of 195 degrees. We maintained the Egg at round 225-250 degrees. We used a simple mixture of salt, red pepper, brown sugar, and onion powder as the rub. We will definatly try this one again with hopes that it doesn't dry out so quickly after slicing into it.

Wings!!

Well this was our 2nd long cook, our 1st (pulled pork) never made it to pictures because we had company over and way too much stuff going on to remember to document it. But, I do have to say these wings are my favorite now. Which probably won't last too long because we are going to attempt a brisket next weekend. I started out with 40 wings jam packed onto a medium egg over indirect heat at 250 degrees for 2.5 hours. I used 2 small chucks of apple wood for flavor and added a little red pepper to half of the wings (those would be basted in hot wing sauce later). After 2.5 hours they were about to fall off the bone, then I took them off and cranked up the heat to around 400 degrees for a quick searing to get the outside crunchy. While the Egg was heating up I took 20 of the wings and basted them in a Budwiser wing sauce (the best thing they have ever made!), 10 wings in a lemon pepper sauce, and 10 more wings in a cattleman's honey bbq sauce. Then back on the grill for a quick crisp, only a couple of minutes on each side. These were served with a diced potato and side salad. The hot wings and bbq wings were a hit. The lemon pepper ones flavor left after you ate the skin, next time I think I will marinade them over night before grilling to get the flavor all the way through. These wings were definately better than going to a wing place to eat!

40 wings just barely made it (might need to invest in a second rack to feed more people)

Lemon pepper on top and bbq on bottem

20 hot wings (umm umm good!)

Ribs---Good Eats!

Our 2nd attempt on the egg was a little bit more adventerous than the 1st one. We attempted baby back ribs and they turned out eggcellent! We used the 3/1/1.5 method except we switched the 1 and 1.5 cooking times. We started the whole process around 2pm, Saturday afternoon with plans to eat them around 8 pm, but ran into some difficulties lighting the egg and getting the temp. to a constant 250 degrees and didn't eat until after 930pm. But once we got under control it was a no brainer and were able to set it and forget for 3 hours.

Just before the foil wrap


After 1.5 Hours in foil

After 1 hour with sauce and turing every 15 minutes

All cut up and ready to EAT!

Note: we did this with a homeade plate setter and no bbq guru to maintain the temp.

My 1st Cook---Fajitas!

Our 1st cook on the BGE was Fajitas, and man were they good! We chose not to do them directly on the charcoal and went for the traditional grilling on the grates. We brought the Egg up to 500 degrees and then threw on the meat. We grilled on each side for 2 minutes and the shut the whole egg down and left on for 3 minutes and when they came off they were a perfect medium doneness (alan will argue that is was a little medium rare for his tastes), but a perfect temp for the wife! The thicker part of the skirt steak could have stayed on for a little bit longer.

The marinade is 2 limes squeezed, one serrano pepper finely diced and some chilli powder and red pepper, and salt and pepper to taste. Check out the good eats below!

It Finally Has Arrived!!!

We finally got our EGG! It has been on long month but it finally arrived Saturday morning. It only took 45 minutes for Alan to get it all put together. Just in time to cook some fajitas on it for dinner. So taking after Russ (the influence for making this purchase) you aren't truly and Egghead unless you have a blog and post your cooks for all the other Egghead's to see. I have never thought of or been so excited to see a piece of meat cook and document the whole process until we purchased the Egg.

One of the easiest things to put together!