- Joined
- Jun 27, 2017
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- Age
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- Location
- Langdorp, Belgium
We were supposed to go to the Dutch BBQ Phorum annual winter bash (like Phubar) but we couldn't make it. Mother-in-law has been in the hospital for weeks now and things have been CRAZY busy to say the least. So we opted out of the bash but decided to have some 'US' time at home and do some outdoor cooking before/after the hospital visits.
I had been looking at replacing our Traeger for a bigger pellet grill and had looked at what's available in Europe. Sadly, not much and I ended up spending a lot of time reading up on the Yoder pellet grills. And this brought me to the YS640 (thanks Chef Tom @ ATBBQ...:mrgreen
. Ideally, I'd get one with the comp cart but the Yoder stuff is expensive here AND the comp cart is just stooopid expensive. While reading up, I found not one but 2 YS640s with cart for sale in Holland, both 2016 models, both floor models that were never used. I got in touch with both dealers and came to a deal with one of them.
Decided to take some overtime on Thursday afternoon to make the 1.5h drive to the dealer to check out the Yoder and buy it. Store has stopped selling Yoder as they have specialized in kamado BBQs. I drove to their storage facility and was greeted by a YS480. UGH. Not the model I wanted, such a let down, not to mention waste of time. I was disappointed but I wasn't going to let that ruin the weekend. We had already started prep for the cooks we were going to do. On Thu evening, we agreed that we'd buy a YS640 in a few months, unless I could find another deal. But what about the 2nd one for sale? Well, I had been in contact with the dealer but communications weren't going smoothly. I had send them an offer but got no response, so I send them another mail. On Friday, we exchanged a bunch of emails and we came to a deal that was even better than the previous one. YS640 with black comp cart, never used floor model and a load of pellets. So Saturday morning, we drove to this dealer, checked it out, had a nice chat and loaded it into the van. Got back round noon and immediately did the burn it. I LOVE IT when a Plan B comes together :mrgreen:
We also did some cooking. Prep started on Wednesday, I brined a turkey breast and we thawed a bunch of meat for the weekend. A few weeks back, I cured/smoked some pork and then air-dried it. We checked it and they were done, so we had to taste them out. Both were amazing and worked REALLY well with our pre-weekend beers :laugh:
Turkey brine
2 types of 'schincken'
On Friday, our outdoor cooking started with 2 badges of jerky, on the Traeger. 1 regular and one extra spicy with hot sriracha saus.
I cooked breakfast in our newly acquired skillet on the joy stove.
In the afternoon, I fired up the stickburner to cook the turkey breast and also do a slab of ribs with Oakridge Smoked Chile Lime rub. The turkey had been brined for 40hours and I rubbed it with a no-salt homemade cajun style rub. Both came out great, the ribs were fantastic, a bit spicy and fresh taste because of the lime. The Turkey was super moist, we tried some but most of it will be for this week's lunches.
I had arranged to pick up the Yoder on Saturday morning. So after the trip we had more cooking to do. Did the burn in on the Yoder, seasoned the inside with Crisco. Then it was time to do a 1st cook on it, moinkballs and the obligatory fatty. The fatty was loosely based on Meathead's meatloaf recipe. Tasted great but I should have cooked it at a higher temp. I only sauced half of it because the misses doesn't like sauce. I thought that the 2nd grate in the YS640 would run a higher temp as I get in my stickburner, but that was a rookie mistake, it's actually a bit lower temp. Moinkballs and fatty came out great anyway, just a bit more time needed.
In the stickburner I was smoking pork cheeks, meatballs and some hamburgers (all this cooking makes me hungry). The pork cheeks were smoked for 3 hours, then into a skillet with sauteed onion/garlic and some dark beer. Let it simmer for another 2-3 hours until the meat falls apart. This will be our dinner later this week, a quick taste test was VERY promising.
The meatballs are going into a spicy tomato sauce, which the misses cooked on the joy stove. Going into the freezer for future dinners. We had to try the meatballs!
We like to keep busy so we were also running an open fire and cooking some spaghetti sauce for future dinners: minced beef, onion, garlic, carrots, lotsa spices, passata and let it simmer for a few hours.
And finally, around midnight Saturday evening, I fired up the Yoder again to do a L&S cook for pulled pork. Made more Yoder-rookie mistakes regarding temp etc, so it took a lot longer then expected to get done. I'm sure the below 0C temps during the night and early morning didn't help either. The PP came out great and was a worthy closer of the weekend.
I had been looking at replacing our Traeger for a bigger pellet grill and had looked at what's available in Europe. Sadly, not much and I ended up spending a lot of time reading up on the Yoder pellet grills. And this brought me to the YS640 (thanks Chef Tom @ ATBBQ...:mrgreen
. Ideally, I'd get one with the comp cart but the Yoder stuff is expensive here AND the comp cart is just stooopid expensive. While reading up, I found not one but 2 YS640s with cart for sale in Holland, both 2016 models, both floor models that were never used. I got in touch with both dealers and came to a deal with one of them.Decided to take some overtime on Thursday afternoon to make the 1.5h drive to the dealer to check out the Yoder and buy it. Store has stopped selling Yoder as they have specialized in kamado BBQs. I drove to their storage facility and was greeted by a YS480. UGH. Not the model I wanted, such a let down, not to mention waste of time. I was disappointed but I wasn't going to let that ruin the weekend. We had already started prep for the cooks we were going to do. On Thu evening, we agreed that we'd buy a YS640 in a few months, unless I could find another deal. But what about the 2nd one for sale? Well, I had been in contact with the dealer but communications weren't going smoothly. I had send them an offer but got no response, so I send them another mail. On Friday, we exchanged a bunch of emails and we came to a deal that was even better than the previous one. YS640 with black comp cart, never used floor model and a load of pellets. So Saturday morning, we drove to this dealer, checked it out, had a nice chat and loaded it into the van. Got back round noon and immediately did the burn it. I LOVE IT when a Plan B comes together :mrgreen:
We also did some cooking. Prep started on Wednesday, I brined a turkey breast and we thawed a bunch of meat for the weekend. A few weeks back, I cured/smoked some pork and then air-dried it. We checked it and they were done, so we had to taste them out. Both were amazing and worked REALLY well with our pre-weekend beers :laugh:
Turkey brine
2 types of 'schincken'
On Friday, our outdoor cooking started with 2 badges of jerky, on the Traeger. 1 regular and one extra spicy with hot sriracha saus.
I cooked breakfast in our newly acquired skillet on the joy stove.
In the afternoon, I fired up the stickburner to cook the turkey breast and also do a slab of ribs with Oakridge Smoked Chile Lime rub. The turkey had been brined for 40hours and I rubbed it with a no-salt homemade cajun style rub. Both came out great, the ribs were fantastic, a bit spicy and fresh taste because of the lime. The Turkey was super moist, we tried some but most of it will be for this week's lunches.
I had arranged to pick up the Yoder on Saturday morning. So after the trip we had more cooking to do. Did the burn in on the Yoder, seasoned the inside with Crisco. Then it was time to do a 1st cook on it, moinkballs and the obligatory fatty. The fatty was loosely based on Meathead's meatloaf recipe. Tasted great but I should have cooked it at a higher temp. I only sauced half of it because the misses doesn't like sauce. I thought that the 2nd grate in the YS640 would run a higher temp as I get in my stickburner, but that was a rookie mistake, it's actually a bit lower temp. Moinkballs and fatty came out great anyway, just a bit more time needed.
In the stickburner I was smoking pork cheeks, meatballs and some hamburgers (all this cooking makes me hungry). The pork cheeks were smoked for 3 hours, then into a skillet with sauteed onion/garlic and some dark beer. Let it simmer for another 2-3 hours until the meat falls apart. This will be our dinner later this week, a quick taste test was VERY promising.
The meatballs are going into a spicy tomato sauce, which the misses cooked on the joy stove. Going into the freezer for future dinners. We had to try the meatballs!
We like to keep busy so we were also running an open fire and cooking some spaghetti sauce for future dinners: minced beef, onion, garlic, carrots, lotsa spices, passata and let it simmer for a few hours.
And finally, around midnight Saturday evening, I fired up the Yoder again to do a L&S cook for pulled pork. Made more Yoder-rookie mistakes regarding temp etc, so it took a lot longer then expected to get done. I'm sure the below 0C temps during the night and early morning didn't help either. The PP came out great and was a worthy closer of the weekend.
