Well I finally made it up to Vermilion Ohio for my friends wedding. I want to thank all of you that chimed in when I was looking for advice on cooking the Steamship Round but also those who helped me locate a cooker.
On Thursday, I picked up the joint of beef at the Restaurant Depot on the outskirts of Cleveland. It weighed in at 56.7lbs and rang up at $2.29/lb. I neglected to take any pics of her nekkid, but I did get pics of her after she was dressed in her skimpy outfit of garlic cloves and rub.
The cooker I ended up renting on Friday did not have a spit rotisserie, it had a basket style rotisserie.
Also since I had never used this cooker I dropped in about 10lbs of Royal Oak and did a test run to see how well she came up and held temp. This was a critical step and I highly recommend this to anyone who ends up in a similar situation. I learned quite a bit during this practice burn and it served me very well for the cook on Saturday. For instance I learned that there was quite a difference in the heat distribution from the top of the basket to the bottom of the basket.
I unfortunately had to cut along the 'gam' in order to get the meat to wrap around the center shaft and remain more or less balanced. I almost wept as I made the incision. I pulled out my butcher's twine and performed a little cosmetic surgery to help close up the gash.
After I got her trussed and in the basket I dusted and gently rubbed her with a liberal amount of ground black pepper.
Here she is showing her more trim profile
She went back into the walk-in until the following morning.
On Saturday I arrived onsite at a little after 6am and started to get going. I built a small fire in the cooker and put the meat on at 7am when the temperature was at 200*.
I smoked her at approximately 220* from 7 till 11am. This what she looked at 11am.
At this time I also added more charcoal and opened her up to get the temp up to 350*. I 'mopped' her with a little mop sauce I made up at 11am, noon, 1, 2, and 3pm.
Here she is at the 2pm check in.
I pulled her at 3 and set her in an Alto Sham to rest till serving time at 6:30.
After all I did have a dozen birds to smoke up and needed to get them on as well. I also borrowed A.P. Lang's recipe for melting garlic and had to get that going as well.
Here she is on the buffet line just before serving time.
The pan closest to the front has a BBQ Au Jus I concocted from the drippings, BBQ Sauce, butter and a little bit of Beam. It was quite tasty. The big round pan has the Melting Garlic.
You can see some of the smoked chicken under the acrylic dome on the right. I smoked whole birds and then split them into quarters for serving.
In truth I was a bit disappointed as I looked at her being carved up. People were raving about how good it was. But I thought she was over done. She looked grey and dry. I managed a slice and wondered how could something this grey and dull taste so wonderful.
Boy was I wrong. this is what she looked like after coming off the serving line.
I guess the combination of blue tarp and the heat lamp really played tricks with the colour meat as it was being cut.
Should be soup, stew and shepherd's pie enough for this week. Not to mention bones enough for several dogs.
I will gladly do more of these if asked. It was tasty, tender and received high praise from everyone, including the restaurant staff.
On Thursday, I picked up the joint of beef at the Restaurant Depot on the outskirts of Cleveland. It weighed in at 56.7lbs and rang up at $2.29/lb. I neglected to take any pics of her nekkid, but I did get pics of her after she was dressed in her skimpy outfit of garlic cloves and rub.
The cooker I ended up renting on Friday did not have a spit rotisserie, it had a basket style rotisserie.
Also since I had never used this cooker I dropped in about 10lbs of Royal Oak and did a test run to see how well she came up and held temp. This was a critical step and I highly recommend this to anyone who ends up in a similar situation. I learned quite a bit during this practice burn and it served me very well for the cook on Saturday. For instance I learned that there was quite a difference in the heat distribution from the top of the basket to the bottom of the basket.
I unfortunately had to cut along the 'gam' in order to get the meat to wrap around the center shaft and remain more or less balanced. I almost wept as I made the incision. I pulled out my butcher's twine and performed a little cosmetic surgery to help close up the gash.
After I got her trussed and in the basket I dusted and gently rubbed her with a liberal amount of ground black pepper.
Here she is showing her more trim profile
She went back into the walk-in until the following morning.
On Saturday I arrived onsite at a little after 6am and started to get going. I built a small fire in the cooker and put the meat on at 7am when the temperature was at 200*.
I smoked her at approximately 220* from 7 till 11am. This what she looked at 11am.
At this time I also added more charcoal and opened her up to get the temp up to 350*. I 'mopped' her with a little mop sauce I made up at 11am, noon, 1, 2, and 3pm.
Here she is at the 2pm check in.
I pulled her at 3 and set her in an Alto Sham to rest till serving time at 6:30.
After all I did have a dozen birds to smoke up and needed to get them on as well. I also borrowed A.P. Lang's recipe for melting garlic and had to get that going as well.
Here she is on the buffet line just before serving time.
The pan closest to the front has a BBQ Au Jus I concocted from the drippings, BBQ Sauce, butter and a little bit of Beam. It was quite tasty. The big round pan has the Melting Garlic.
You can see some of the smoked chicken under the acrylic dome on the right. I smoked whole birds and then split them into quarters for serving.
In truth I was a bit disappointed as I looked at her being carved up. People were raving about how good it was. But I thought she was over done. She looked grey and dry. I managed a slice and wondered how could something this grey and dull taste so wonderful.
Boy was I wrong. this is what she looked like after coming off the serving line.
I guess the combination of blue tarp and the heat lamp really played tricks with the colour meat as it was being cut.
Should be soup, stew and shepherd's pie enough for this week. Not to mention bones enough for several dogs.
I will gladly do more of these if asked. It was tasty, tender and received high praise from everyone, including the restaurant staff.
