longwayfromhome
Full Fledged Farker
Well, after 12 years living in the US and loving the BBQ, we decided to give it a go down-under. Newbies here in quite a big way... just got us a 22" WSM, last/only one in the country... the country is New Zealand.
Virtually no one cooks like this in NZ, we are grilling champs and cold smokers (of fish). Lots of stuff to learn we have found. Firstly, the butcher's don't know what we are talking about when asking for 'Murican cuts. Second, meat is very expensive... the small pork shoulder in the pictures below, admittedly bought at a fancy organic butcher, was over US$35. Even the charcoal was a bit of a body blow price-wise. But against all that were the memories of some terrific meals all over the country. I even had a customer in Gallaway, TN, east of Memphis off the 40, so well remember lunch at Bozo's and that shotgun shack just across the road that harked back to what it must have been like before the war (WW2 that is, not the Civil, well maybe not!).
Now, the WSM. We got the 22" rather than the 18" because we thought if we like this gig, we might have more people than we would expect to cook for. We used the minion method to light the lump and she would have lasted a good 10-11 hours we think (we had the ribs off before this). In our second cook, we wanted max time, but I put too much in the chimney, so when I put it onto the ring of charcoal, even though I immediately saw the problem, it spread out too much and so actually burnt much faster... lesson, only a 1/4 chimney and a small pile in the centre. The temp is rock solid in the WSM for many hours, so that is great, you can definitely leave it and go and do something useful. Both times have used water in the diffuser bowl. I would say in general the WSM is too hot though compared to what I believe it should be. It was showing 245F on the Weber gauge in the lid, and knowing this is probably inaccurate, I used a Thermopen (yes, I tracked one down) and stuck it through the smoke outlet in the lid into the space above the meat... it was a stable 288F. The WSM has three sets of air inlets in the base... we closed these right up to try and drop the temperature, no go, it was a rock solid 245/288F. The little tangs on the air inlets stop them closing absolutely completely, and that is good. I left the outlet in the lid full open always. I think having a reliable, stable temp in the cooker is a greater benefit than having the lower temperatures. Any thoughts there? Oh, by-the-way, we use a local wood, Manuka, for the smoke. I think it was rather a good flavour. They believe the honey from Manuka has mystical, health-giving properties, and we are proving that it extends to the smoke as well J.
The first cook was the ribs which turned out pretty good. I think we overdid the cumin in the rub and that tended to overpower the natural flavours, but overall, while not the best ribs I've ever had, they were pretty darned good. Our second cook was the pork shoulder for pulled pork. This too was pretty good except for two things... the rub was too hot as the girls couldn't handle the heat in the cayenne pepper and the paprika. The other thing was that the meat right in the centre was dry-ish. As my wife does a pretty mean pulled pork in the crock-pot, one that is always very moist, this was a mark against the BBQ team! We pulled the pork at IT of 190F after about 10 hours (I would have liked a bit longer). Left it sitting for 1/2 hour. It pulled OK... that was a bit of fun with no heavy-duty gloves - so hot!
We see our challenges as:
a. The costs are quite high for charcoal and meat (also the WSM 22” was about US$850);
b. Getting equivalent cuts;
c. Getting time when my SIL and I are both off at the same time so we can get the experience together.
Overall though, we are quite excited by our startup and having some good memories of the US provides an excellent benchmark for what we are trying to do. We are also keen to try a straight roast (no smoke, just charcoal and no rubs), more akin to the roast pork found at Rosti Roti at the Farmer's Market on the wharf in downtown SF on Saturday mornings. In the pictures you see my SIL passing the arcane BBQ secrets (we wish!) to my grandson (oh, alright, his son if you must). He is English and I am Australian and we live in NZ but both of us are BBQ fans.
Virtually no one cooks like this in NZ, we are grilling champs and cold smokers (of fish). Lots of stuff to learn we have found. Firstly, the butcher's don't know what we are talking about when asking for 'Murican cuts. Second, meat is very expensive... the small pork shoulder in the pictures below, admittedly bought at a fancy organic butcher, was over US$35. Even the charcoal was a bit of a body blow price-wise. But against all that were the memories of some terrific meals all over the country. I even had a customer in Gallaway, TN, east of Memphis off the 40, so well remember lunch at Bozo's and that shotgun shack just across the road that harked back to what it must have been like before the war (WW2 that is, not the Civil, well maybe not!).
Now, the WSM. We got the 22" rather than the 18" because we thought if we like this gig, we might have more people than we would expect to cook for. We used the minion method to light the lump and she would have lasted a good 10-11 hours we think (we had the ribs off before this). In our second cook, we wanted max time, but I put too much in the chimney, so when I put it onto the ring of charcoal, even though I immediately saw the problem, it spread out too much and so actually burnt much faster... lesson, only a 1/4 chimney and a small pile in the centre. The temp is rock solid in the WSM for many hours, so that is great, you can definitely leave it and go and do something useful. Both times have used water in the diffuser bowl. I would say in general the WSM is too hot though compared to what I believe it should be. It was showing 245F on the Weber gauge in the lid, and knowing this is probably inaccurate, I used a Thermopen (yes, I tracked one down) and stuck it through the smoke outlet in the lid into the space above the meat... it was a stable 288F. The WSM has three sets of air inlets in the base... we closed these right up to try and drop the temperature, no go, it was a rock solid 245/288F. The little tangs on the air inlets stop them closing absolutely completely, and that is good. I left the outlet in the lid full open always. I think having a reliable, stable temp in the cooker is a greater benefit than having the lower temperatures. Any thoughts there? Oh, by-the-way, we use a local wood, Manuka, for the smoke. I think it was rather a good flavour. They believe the honey from Manuka has mystical, health-giving properties, and we are proving that it extends to the smoke as well J.
The first cook was the ribs which turned out pretty good. I think we overdid the cumin in the rub and that tended to overpower the natural flavours, but overall, while not the best ribs I've ever had, they were pretty darned good. Our second cook was the pork shoulder for pulled pork. This too was pretty good except for two things... the rub was too hot as the girls couldn't handle the heat in the cayenne pepper and the paprika. The other thing was that the meat right in the centre was dry-ish. As my wife does a pretty mean pulled pork in the crock-pot, one that is always very moist, this was a mark against the BBQ team! We pulled the pork at IT of 190F after about 10 hours (I would have liked a bit longer). Left it sitting for 1/2 hour. It pulled OK... that was a bit of fun with no heavy-duty gloves - so hot!
We see our challenges as:
a. The costs are quite high for charcoal and meat (also the WSM 22” was about US$850);
b. Getting equivalent cuts;
c. Getting time when my SIL and I are both off at the same time so we can get the experience together.
Overall though, we are quite excited by our startup and having some good memories of the US provides an excellent benchmark for what we are trying to do. We are also keen to try a straight roast (no smoke, just charcoal and no rubs), more akin to the roast pork found at Rosti Roti at the Farmer's Market on the wharf in downtown SF on Saturday mornings. In the pictures you see my SIL passing the arcane BBQ secrets (we wish!) to my grandson (oh, alright, his son if you must). He is English and I am Australian and we live in NZ but both of us are BBQ fans.
