BBQ Grunnkurs – Røkt Bratwurst

Posted on August 3, 2014 by bbqviking

Smoked bratwurst is great "waiting food" if you've got some spare room and you're doing a long cook.

Røykt bratwurst er perfekt ventemat hvis du har litt ledig plass i grillen og driver med ett langtidsprosjekt som for eksempel pulled pork

Så du har grillet en stund, og vil prøve deg på ekte “low & slow” BBQ? Da er dette det definitive stedet å begynne!

For mange betyr det å fyre opp grillen en ting: pølser. Det som ikke er så bra er at pølser ofte betyr kjedelige, usmakelige, ferdigkokte gufne greier fra en eller annen fabrikkprodusent. Jeg blir svimmel bare jeg ser på ingredienselisten til enkelte grillpølser man kan finne hos de store butikkkjedene. En god pølse skal stort sett inneholde tre ting: kjøtt, fett, og krydder. Og en god pølse skal deifnitivt ikke være ferdig trekt/kokt på fabrikk. Når du først har smakt pølser som var rå da de ble lagt på, og så har fått røyke sakte på grillen i ett par timer kommer du til å være kurert for å spise vanlige grillpølser, det er helt sikkert. Hvorfor skal pølser være ferdig trekt? Ville du kjøpt en ferdigstekt biff til å varme på grillen? Ferdig kokt svineskulder? Ferdig kokte spareribs? Hvis du alt dette høres flott ut, er du på feil blogg. Så, som utgangspunkt trenger vi rå pølser. I Oslo fås min favoritt, rå bratwurst, hos Strøm-Larsen. Men sommeren 2014 selges også rå pølser i vanlige butikker over det ganske land. Kvaliteten er ikke helt som Strøm-Larsen sine, men de er uendelig mye mer smakfulle enn sine ferdig trekte søsken i pølsedisken. Anni’s Pølsemakeri i Mathallen har også ett bra utvalg.

Serveringsforslag:

Jeg serverer disse pølsene på hjemmelagde burgerbrød, med litt coleslaw, pickles, litt hjemmelaget ketchup, en god hjemmelaget sennep, og noen ganger også litt rødløkskompott. Denne kålsalaten med grønne epler er også perfekt til pølsene!

Total tid: 90-120 minutes
Vanskelighetsgrad: Nybegynner/Middels
Grilloppsett: Indirekte, en-sone
Grill temperature: Cirka 110-120 grader celsius på risten

Du trenger:

Rå kvalitetspølser (bedre med for mange enn for få, restene fungerer nydelig til omelett eller frokost neste dag)
Rundstykker eller brød (hjemmelaget er selvsagt best)
Tilbehør som nevnt over
Grillkull eller briketter (jeg bruker kun naturlig kull, hvis du bruker briketter sørg for at du bruker noen av god kvalitet)
1 kopp med røykflis (Jeg liker å blande hickory og eple til disse pølsene, les mer om valg av røykflis her)
Ett hurtig termometer, som for eksempel ThermaPen

Fremgangsmåte:

Fyr opp skorsteinen din ca. halvfull med briketter eller kull (basert på standard Weber kulegrill)
Mens kullet blir klart, putter du en brikettkurv på ene siden av grillen, og en stor rustfri stålpanne full av vann i midten av grillen (se bildet). Du kan også bruke engangs grillpanne, men det er både mer økonomisk og mer miljøvennlig å kjøpe seg en stålpanne som kan brukes igjen og igjen (de har en billig en på Ikea). Hvorfor vi skal ha vann på grillen? For det første gjør massen i vannet at det er letter å holde jevn temperatur når man røyker, for det andre bidrar vannet til å holde miljøet fuktig i grillen gjennom hele røykingen.
Oppsett for røykt bratwurst. Liten kurv med kull på ene siden, og røykflis som har ligget i bløt og så pakkes i alufolie.
Når kullet er hvitt, heller du det over i brikettkurven på grillen.
Putt to røykbomber (en håndfull bløtlagt røykflis pakket i aluminiumsfolie) over det glødende kullet. Vent til de begynner å produsere røyk før du legger på pølsene.
Legg på pølsene og lukk lokket. Bruk nederste ventil til å justere temperaturen, prøv å holde den rundt 110-120 grader.
Legg på nye røykbomber nå det slutter å røyke, men ellers bør lokket være på mest mulig, ingen sniktitting!
Slik ser pølsene ut når de er klare til å spises. Se den nydelige fargen pølsene får av røyken fra flisen!

Etter ca. 60-90 minutter burde pølsene være klare. Hvis en av dem sprekker, har du for høy temperatur, lukk nederste ventil helt og la temperaturen synke, og hold lokket på. Bruk ThermaPen til å sjekke temperaturen, det er viktig at rå pølser er gjennomstekt! Jeg pleier steke mine til 85 grader celsius, de er fortsatt ekstremt saftige og gode på grunn av den lave grilltemperaturen.
Da er det bare å spise da!

BBQ101 – Perfect, juicy smoked chicken breast filets (with bacon!)

Posted on August 1, 2014 by bbqviking

Tastes great with some grilled corn salsa, coleslaw and homemade bourbon-pickled jalapenos!

The last year I have had a personal focus on eating healthier and working out. Does that have to mean less BBQ? No, of course not. It means more BBQ. And one of the most protein-rich, low-fat foods you can put on your smoker is the chicken breast. However, due to the low fat content and the temperature levels you have to cook them to, they can easily end up being dry and bland. Some months ago I saw a (stupid) comment from someone about how you “had to” employ sous vide techniques to make a good chicken breast. Of course you don’t, as we all know EVERYTHING tastes better smoked or grilled (don’t get me started on the whole sous vide first and then smoke it debacle, it doesn’t even come close to real BBQ, and you know it). So I have experimented for a while, and believe now that I have found a very good (perfect?) way to make chicken breast! We will combine low and slow BBQ with the method known as the reverse sear, and some glazing in the end to achieve perfection while cooking outdoors. Let’s go!

What you will need for 6 filets:

6 large chicken breast filets
6 strips of quality dry smoked bacon
Some BBQ sauce for glazing (I like to use this one, but you can buy a good one too of course)

Serving suggestions:

I like to serve with some good coleslaw, maybe some grilled corn salsa (recipe to come later…) and some good homemade bourbon-pickled jalapenos. Some bratwurst is never a bad idea either!

Preparations (15 min):

Set up your grill or smoker for indirect cooking and try to stabilize grate temp at around 100C/212F
I like to rinse the filets under cold water and then pat them dry with kitchen towel. You can brine them too if you like that, but I don’t find it necessary using the method we will use
Season the filets. I use salt and pepper only for this, but you can use your favorite rub for more spiciness too if you like.
Once rinsed and dry, roll/fold the filets lengthwise into a ball that is uniform as possible. This together with low temperature smoking will aid in even cooking throughout, plus it looks cool. Wrap a strip of bacon (or two, cross-wise if you’re feeling like partying) around the filet, and use a small wood skewer to hold it all in place.
Chicken is now ready to go!

How to cook it (120-150 min):

Place your chicken balls safely on the cold side of your grill smoker. Throw some (cherry/apple) wood chips on if you like, I don’t find it necessary on my lovely Primo Oval XL, I get enough smokiness just from the lump charcoal I use. Either way go easy on the smoke, poultry is easily oversmoked.
Stick a thermometer probe in the largest one and keep an eye on the temperature throughout cooking. On around 100C/212F grate temp it usually takes a bout 90 minutes to get to the desires temp, which should be about 65C/149F (not safe for eating, but we are not done yet!)
Once the chicken has reached 65C/149F, take them off the grill, and get the temp up a bit. Heat up a grate over the coal side of the grill, because we will do some searing next
When the grate is nice and hot, get the chicken balls nicely seared on all sides. This should bring them up to around 70C/158F.
Once searing is done move them over to the cold side of the grill again, and brush them with the BBQ sauce selected earlier. I normally have a grate temp of around 150C/300F at this point, try and keep it at that or lower, or the sugar in your BBQ sauce will burn and create bad flavors
Let the filets glaze for 5-10 minutes. At this point I check each one with my ThermaPen, to see if I have reached the safe temp for chicken (USDA says 165F/74C, and I agree)
Once they reach the correct temp, take them off the grill and let them rest 5-10 minutes. Serve it up and enjoy the juiciest, most delicious smoky chicken filets you have ever eaten. Perfection!

BBQ Grunnkurs – Perfekte, saftige kyllingfileter med nydelig røyksmak (og bacon!)

Posted on August 1, 2014 by bbqviking

Smaker fortreffelig med grillet maissalsa, coleslaw, hjemmelagde bourbon-pickled jalapenos og en iskald IPA

Det siste året har jeg hatt en personlig fokus på å spise sunnere og trene masse. Betyr det mindre BBQ? Nei, selvsagt ikke, det betyr mer BBQ. En av de mest proteinrike, magre tingene du kan slenge på grillen er kyllingfilet. Men, pga det lave fettinnholdet og den forholdsvis høye kjernetemperaturen vi må tilberede filetene til for å unngå sykdommer, ender kyllingfileter ofte opp som tørre, smakløse greier. For noen måneder siden så jeg en (idiotisk) kommentar om at man “måtte” bruke sous vide teknikker for å få til ett godt kyllingbryst. Det må man selvsagt ikke, og som vi alle vet smaker ALT bedre når det er røykt og grillet (og ikke nevn disse sous vide først og så røyking teknikkene, det er ikke engang i nærheten av ekte BBQ, og det vet dere!). Så, nå har jeg eksperimentert noen måneder og mener å ha funnet en metode for å lage veldig god (kanskje til og med perfekt) kyllingfilet på grillen. I denne oppskriften kombinerer vi “low and slow” BBQ (varmrøyking) med teknikken kjent som “reverse sear” (dvs at vi brunner kjøttet til slutt istedetfor først), før vi avslutter med å glasere filetene.

Hva trenger du for 6 fileter:

6 store kylling brystfileter
6 remser med tynn, røykt kvalitetsbacon
BBQ saus for glasering. Jeg liker å lage og bruke denne, men du kan kjøpe en også selvsagt.

Serveringsforslag:

Jeg liker å servere disse med litt god coleslaw, litt grillet maissalsa (oppskrift kommer senere), og noen gode hjemmelagde bourbon-pickled jalapenos. Litt bratwurst er aldri en dårlig idé heller!

Forberedelser (15 min):

Sett opp grillen eller røykeren din for indirekte grilling og prøv å stabilisere en temperatur (målt på risten) på ca. 100 grader celsius.
Jeg liker å skylle filetene i kaldt vann og så tørke dem med kjøkkenpapir. Du kan legge dem i saltlake noen timer også, men jeg synes ikke det er nødvendig med den metoden vi skal bruke for tilberedning her.
Krydre filetene. Jeg bruker kun salt og pepper på disse, men du kan bruke din favoritt-rub også for litt mer krydret smak.
Når filetene er klare, rull eller brett dem på langs og form dem til en ball som er så uniform/rund som mulig. Dette sammen med den lave temperaturen i røykefasen vil hjelpe oss til å dem jevnest mulig ferdig, og dermed få ett ekstremt saftig sluttresultat. Legg en stripe bacon rundt “kyllingballen” (eller to striper på kryss om du er i festhumør), og bruk en cocktailpinne til å holde alt sammen.
Kyllingen er nå klar til å tilberedes, og bør legges i kjølen om ikke alt er klart til røyking enda.

Hvordan du griller dette (120-150 min):

Sett kyllingballene pent på en ren rist på den kalde siden av grillen/røykeren din. Hiv inn litt eple- eller kirsebær-flis om du ønsker det, på min nye Primo Oval XL har jeg ikke behov for dette, fordi jeg får nok røyksmak fra selve grillkullet. På en vanlig kulrgrill er litt flis å anbefale. Vær uansett forsiktig med mengden røykflis, det er lett å overrøyke fjærkre, og det smaker ikke noe særlig godt..
Putt en termometer-sensor i den største kyllingballen, og hold ett øye med temperaturen mens du røyker filetene. Med en temperatur på 100C på grillristen, pleier det å ta cirka 90 minutter å komme til ønsket temperatur, som er rundt 65C (ikke trygg temperatur for konsumering, men husk, vi er ikke ferdige enda!)
Når filetene har nådd 65C, ta dem av grillen, og få temperaturen opp litt i grillkammeret. Varm en rist på kullsiden av grillen, for nå skal vi brune filetene litt.
Når risten er passe varm, bruner du kyllingballene pent på alle sider. Dette bringer vanligvis temperaturen i filetene opp til rundt 70C.
Når bruningen er ferdig, flytter du filetene til den kalde siden av grillen igjen, som nå bør holde rundt 150C. Pensle dem med ett strøk BBQ saus eller to. Pass på at du ikke går over 160C her, for da kan du svi sukkeret i BBQ sausen, noe som lager dårlig smak.
La filetene glaseres for 5-10 minutter. På dette tidspunktet pleier jeg å sjekke hver av filetene med ett termometer (jeg bruker ThermaPen), for å se om de har nådd sikker temperatur for å spises, som bør være minimum 70 grader. Jeg pleier å gå ett par grader over, for sikkerhets skyld.
Når filetene har nådd korrekt temperatur, ta dem av grillen og la dem hvile 5-10 minutter. Server og nyt den søte, røykfylte smaken av den saftigste, deiligste kyllingfileten du noengang har spist!

Sweet and Smoky BBQ Sauce

Posted on March 29, 2014 by bbqviking

Been a long time since I posted a BBQ sauce recipe, so here is another favorite. Not very spicy, but smoky and sweet. Goes great with sausage, pork ribs, chicken and pulled pork sandwiches, and a favorite at my house for the people who can’t take the heat of a lot of my other stuff.

Time: 30 minutes
Skill Level: Easy

You’re going to need:
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/4 cup of honey
1/4 cup of molasses
4 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp liquid smoke
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp maldon salt or more to taste
2 tbsp fine grain mustard
2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 cups of ketchup

How to do it:
This couldn’t be easier. Chuck everything except the ketchup in a saucepan, stir well and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Add the ketchup, bring to boil. Taste. Add vinegar, sweetener, salt and pepper until you get your preferred flavor. Let cool, put in jars. Keeps for months in the fridge if you use sterilized jars.

BBQ 101 – Baby Back Ribs

Posted on March 29, 2014 by bbqviking

Once you have mastered the art of Smoking Bratwurst – it is time to up your game a little and try your hand at another BBQ staple: Baby Back Ribs!

A lot of people’s favorite food of the smoker, BBRs are not to be taken lightly. I like to make mine tender, but not fall-off-the-bone tender. A lot of (gruesome) chain restaurants have made people think that BBRs should be cooked (I believe they steam/braise them at most of those restaurants) so they can be eaten without teeth. I tend to disagree, and go more for the BBQ competition level of doneness, ie tender, but not doughy and fall-of-the-bone. Anyway, if you want fall-of-the-bone and/or do not have teeth, I will teach you how to do that too.

Serving suggestion:
I like to serve my BBRs straight up with a coleslaw on the side and some homemade pickles. For this occasion photographed, I made my regular creamy coleslaw recipe but substitued regular cabbage with the red one for some interesting color combos. Some people like extra sweet and smoky bbq sauce on the side!

Total time: 3-5 hours
Skill level: Intermediate
Grilling method: Indirect, one-zone
Grill temperature: About 110-120 degrees centigrade (230-250F), more for the finishing

You’re going to need:

As many racks of ribs as there are people, at least. Some people can muster 1.5 racks too
A rib rack can be a nice way to fit more BBRs on your grill, they do take up a lot of space
Some lump charcoal or charcoal briquettes (make sure you get good ones with no chemicals and food starch as a binder)
1 cup of wood smoking chips (I like to use apple or cherry for baby back ribs, read more about smoke wood here.)
An instant-read thermometer like a Thermapen is useful too
Your favorite BBQ rub – this one works well for ribs too.
Your favorite BBQ sauce for glazing at the end if you want to. I like a sweet and smoky style sauce for ribs, not too spicy. Your favorite store bought or homemade one will do!

How you do it:

We are going to use the three step method for doing BBRs. That means step 1 is smoking the ribs, step 2 is foiling and steaming, step 3 is finishing/glazing. This method is sometimes referred to as the 3-2-1 methods, where the numbers refer to number of hours in each step. Anywho – the goal is not to achieve 3, 2 and 1, but to achieve rib perfection, so your mileage on those may vary, but as a guideline it is sound.
Prep the baby back ribs by removing the membrane from the bone side. It’s very easy to do, check out a video over here if you don’t know how.
Fire up your grill or smoker and try to stabilize the temperature in the desired range of 110-120C (230-250F). On my Webers I will use a water pan to help me out in the stabilizing, it adds both mass and moisture inside the grill. On my Primo Grill I don’t really need that, and I also like to put the meat in when the grill is warming up, so it can get the maximum amount of smoke time. Remember to get good smoke going before putting in the meat.
Smoke the meat for as long it takes for the racks to reach 80-90C (175-195F)in the meatiest parts. The longer you spend on this step, the more smokey flavors.
Once they are smoked, it is time for step 2, the foiling and steaming of the ribs. Put them in a stainless steel pan on top of a rack, or on top of some crumbled up foil so they don’t touch the bottom, add a cup of water or apple juice, and cover with two layers of foil so it’s fairly airtight. Place the pan back on the grill.
Now for steaming time, this can take anything from 45-120 minutes. The best way to find out if they are finished is to check every 15 minutes towards the end. Take the foil off, wiggle the bones, pole them a little bit. When they are close to done, the meat should loosen from the bone with not too much effort. If you want them chain restaurant style, toothless done, they should start coming apart if you try to lift from one end.
Whenever your preferred doneness is achieved, take the pan of the grill, and increase the grill temp to about 150-160C (300-320F). This is the best temperature for the third and last step – finishing the ribs.
The reason you don’t go above 160C/320F for the finishing, is that at about 175C/350F, sugar will burn. This means your BBQ sauce and possibly your rub will turn from sweet to nasty in no time.
So, once stabilized at the new higher temp, lay out the ribs again, and brush them with a layer of your favorite BBQ sauce on both sides. Leave them on the indirect side 10 minutes, add another layer and flip, and leave them for another 10 minutes. After this they should have a nice, glossy laquer to them, and they should be finished, so serve it up!
ENJOY!

Chipotle Beef BBQ Sauce

Posted on March 15, 2014 by bbqviking

Came up with a new BBQ sauce today. The plan is to use it for beef short ribs, so that’s what I thought about when coming up with the flavour profile for it. It’s slightly sweet, very tangy, and as spicy as you want to make it. I ordered some delicious dried Chipotles from iHerb. They’re kinda hard to come by in Norway. If you can get them locally where you live, consider yourself lucky. Here’s what I did.

Time: 45 minutes
Skill Level: Easy

You’re going to need:
1 yellow onion
6 dried, whole chipotle peppers
4 whole fresh chillies (I use some medium to mild ones)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup A1 Steak Sauce
1/2 cup of ketchup
2 tbsp bourbon
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp paprika powder (preferably the Spanish, spicy variety)
2 tbsp freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup of brown sugar
2 tbsp molasses

First thing you want to do is heat up some oil in a saucepan. Then add finely chopped onions, garlic, fresh chillies, and the chipotle peppers. Let them caramelize on low for about 15 minutes, then add the other dried spices and cook another 5 minutes.

Now you can add the A1, the vinegar, the ketchup, and the sugar. let it simmer until you get the desired thickness, and remember the sugar will make it thicker when it’s cold, so if you plan to primarily serve it cold, you should consider that.

Once it reaches it desired thickness, it is time to blend. The cool thing here is you can take out one or more whole chipotles, blend, taste and see how spicy it is. If it’s not hot enough for you, add inn chipotle(s) and blend again until it’s just right for you. How cool is that!?

Grilled duck breast with winter vegetables

Posted on March 2, 2014 by bbqviking

Duck breast is my wife’s favorite dinner. I can only agree, it’s got that light gamy flavor, and the duck fat is widely known to be bacon’s only challenger in the world of fats. All the fat on a duck breast also makes it perfect for grilling – because fat takes up a lot of smoky flavors. This is a nice and quick weeknight or weekend dinner, nothing fancy – but man it tastes good!

Serving suggestion:
This time I served it straight up like this, just the duck and the vegetables, but adding a little red onion compote probably won’t get you a lot of complaints either – it goes perfect with duck meat. If you want a sauce a simple balsamic reduction works really well too.

Total time: 60 minutes
Skill level: Beginner/Intermediate
Grilling method/setup: 50/50
Grill temperature: About 170-200 degrees centigrade (340-400F)

You’re going to need:

Duck breast – one per person might be a bit too much, usually two filets is enough for 3 people
Some sweet potatoes and some parsnips
Lemon infused olive oil (or just mix up some lemon juice and olive oil)
Some lump charcoal or charcoal briquettes (make sure you get good ones with no chemicals and food starch as a binder)
1 cup of wood smoking chips (I used cherry wood and it worked well. Pretty sure apple or hickory would work too, go read more about smoke wood here.)
An instant-read thermometer like a Thermapen, or a leave-in probe style thermometer

How you do it:

Fire up your chimney starter full of briquettes or lumps of charcoal (this is basedon my 22.5″ Weber kettle, and your mileage and/or method may vary on other grills and smokers)
While the charcoal gets ready, score the fatty side of the duck breasts with a sharp knife. The goal is to increase the surface area of the fat to ensure crispy fat and ease rendering, so a fairly tight diamond/cube pattern is best. Make sure you don’t cut all the way through the fat and into the meat.
Peel and dice parsnips and sweet potatoes, and put them in a perforated grill pan (like this one for instance),on a griddle or even some foil. I highly recommend getting a perforated grill pan of sorts, it is a useful tool.
Once the charcoal is ready, fill up one half of the grill with the charcoal, and leave the other half to be the “cold/indirect” zone. Throw some cherry wood chips on the coals at once, because you want smoke going for real when you put the cold duck breasts on for the first time.
Here is a neat trick: Put the duck breasts on instantly when the coal is in place, on a cold grate. Starting the duck breasts carefully/slowly, renders a lot more of the fat off than going direct to high heat, and rendering is necessary for that crisp finish you want on the fat side. It also means fewer flame-ups later on. I usually leave them like this for 7-8 minutes, to let a bit of the fat melt off. If you put a drip pan underneath, you might even be able to catch some fat for use on the vegetables.
After rendering some fat off, put the duck on a plate off the grill while you grill vegetables, let it rest a while.
Using the vegetable grill pan, fry up the vegetables directly over the coalswith duck fat and/or olive oil, turning over often with a spatula so nothing gets burnt. Gloves are nice to have.Once the vegetable are nicely browned, move them to the indirect side and cook with lid on for 20-30 minutes, turning them over every 5-6 minutes to get even cooking. When they’re done I usually stash them in the kitchen oven on low to keep warm while I focus on the meat.
Now it’s time for the fun part, sear the duck breast properly on both sides over direct heat. Be aware, there will be flame-ups, especially when searing fat side down. Just move them around, burnt food is never tasty.
Once seared check the internal temp using a Thermapen or other instant read thermometer. I like my duck at 55C (131F) which is sort of medium rare. If you want medium go to 60C (140F). If the duck isn’t finished after searing, put it on the cold side, lid on, and let it have another short round before checking again.
Let the duck breasts rest for at least 7-@8 minutes before cutting them in thin slices and serving.
Enjoy!

BBQ 101 – Smoked Bratwurst

Posted on June 30, 2013 by bbqviking

Smoked bratwurst is great “waiting food” if you’ve got some spare room and you’re doing a long cook.

So you’ve been grilling a little, and want to try your hand at low & slow style BBQ. This is the definitive place to start!

For a lot of people firing up the grill means hot dogs. Which is great. What is not so great, is that it all too often also means bland, cheap, mystery meat pre-boiled sausages with about 20+ ingredients in them. A good sausage should have three basic ingredients: Meat, fat, and spices (and a casing of course). No preservatives, potato flour or corn starch. No secret chemicals. And once you’ve tasted slow-smoked sausages that were uncooked when you started, you’re never going back to pre-boiled ones. Would you buy pre-boiled ribs? Pre-boiled pork butt? If you would, please step away from my blog. So, either make yourself some sausages, or head down to your local butcher or quality food store and get you some of the real stuff. They’re much more filling too, so instead of eating five, you might eat two. In this recipe I like to use raw bratwurst from my local sausagemaker / butcher shop here in Oslo, Strøm-Larsen. One of few places in Oslo that sell uncooked sausage.

Serving suggestion:
I serve these sausages with homemade hamburger buns, a creamy coleslaw, some pickled gherkins, some homemade ketchup, some quality mustard and sometimes also a little red onion compote.

Total time: 90 minutes
Skill level: Beginner/Intermediate
Grilling method: Indirect, one-zone
Grill temperature: About 110-120 degrees centigrade (230-250F)

You’re going to need:

Quality uncooked bratwurst, chorizo or other uncooked sausages.
Some form of bun or bread
Condiments as mentioned above
Some lump charcoal or charcoal briquettes (make sure you get good ones with no chemicals and food starch as a binder)
1 cup of wood smoking chips (I like to mix hickory and some apple or cherry for sausages, read more about smoke wood here.)
An instant-read thermometer like a Thermapen, or a leave-in probe style thermometer

How you do it:

Fire up your chimney starter with 20 briquettes or lumps of charcoal (this is based
The setup for smoked brats. A great place to start when you’re getting into BBQ style grilling.

on my 22.5″ Weber kettle, and your mileage and/or method may vary on other grills and smokers)
In the meantime, put a briquette basket on one side of the grill only, and a big water pan covering the whole middle part of the grill. Why water you say? The mass of water (I use a stainless steel pan from Ikea that holds about 4-5 liters or one US gallon) helps me maintain a steady temperature inside the kettle, because water stores (in this case) heat pretty well. It also helps the meat retain its moisture during the long cook by increasing the general moisture in the cooking environment.
When your briquettes are white hot, put them in the briquette basket you put on the one side of the grill.
Put two smokebombs (a handful of soaked wood chips wrapped in aluminium foil) on the briquettes. Putting them out towards the edge of the fire makes them last longer. Wait 5-10 minutes until they start smoking. Replace these as often as you please once they are smoked out. This is especially important the first 4 hours, after that the meat won’t really soak up the smoky flavours anymore.
Put the grate on, sausages away from the fire on the opposite side, put the lid on
Refill with wood chips when it stops smoking
The brats are ready to. Look at the fantastic coloration from the smoke. Oh man!

After about 60-90 minutes sausages should be ready. If one of them bursts, you’re running too hot. Don’t do that. Use your thermapen to check the temperature, uncooked sausage HAS TO be cooked all the way through, ground meat is something you don’t serve rare. I usually take them off the grill when they’re at 85C/185F
Enjoy!

Lamb Chops grilled with Hickory and Rosemary smoke

Posted on June 18, 2013 by bbqviking

Grilling and smoking lamb chops with rosemary and hickory smoke

There’s not much that can top some fresh young lamb for the grill. In this recipe we’ll pair it with some hickory and rosemary smoke, raw spring onions finely chopped and a delicious mint oil to go with your preferred side. Let’s roll!

What you need (to serve 4):

2 racks of young lamb (3 if they’re small, and small is good here)
A fistful of fresh rosemary
A fistful of hickory wood chips
6-8 spring onions
A cup of good olive oil of the extra virgin variety
A fistful of fresh mint
A Thermapen or similar instant-read thermometer is very useful for this one

How to make the mint oil (can be made a few days ahead, and should at least be made the night before for max flavor):

Finely chop the fresh mint
Combine with a pinch of good sea salt and about a cup of quality olive oil in a mortar, and crush away
Pour into a jar and leave it in the fridge overnight or for a couple days to let the oil take the flavor

How to grill the lamb:

Get your firestarter going, fill it up to the top with coals. For this you want the 50/50 setup so you can sear the chops on one side of the grill, and then move them over to the other side for finishing
Once your grill is nice and hot, might be a good time to dump some yams on there for a side dish, my recipe for ember-roasted yams is great with the mint oil.
Slice a nice little diamond pattern in the fatty parts of the rack, making sure not to slice into the meat. This is to help the fat render, and to help with the crispiness of the skin. Important!
Cut your lamb racks into “chops” in the order of two bones on each. Doing one boned chops is possible, but you’re going to need your grill to get REALLY hot to pull that off – so let’s go with two. It’s a handy compromise
Season the chops with salt & pepper
Once your yams (if youre doing those) are done and out of the way, get the grill real hot (you want the grate to be so hot it whitens for this one), and chuck in the rosemary and hickory chips right on the coals.
The smoke will start fairly instantly, so get your chops on there (I usually do fatty side down first), and put the lid on for about a minute. Repeat for all sides so you get a good sear all round.
When you’re done searing, move the chops to the “cold side” of the grill, and take their temp. Continue to do so until they’re all done (I usually go with 56C/132F, nice and pink in the middle, tastes great!)
Give the chops a five minute rest while you finely chop some spring onion
Serve on warm plates, with abovementioned yams sprinkled with mint oil and spring onion
Enjoy!

Quick tip: Roll’em Up!

Posted on February 20, 2013 by bbqviking

Another quick tip for you. It’s hard to fit more than 4 baby back rib racks on a standard sized Weber kettle if they’re laying flat. Sure – a rib rack helps, but not a lot. This idea is cheaper, and it works well. Roll up the racks, use a wooden skewer to hold them in place, make sure there’s room for air (smoke..) between the meat, so don’t roll them too tight. The only downside I can see to this is that it makes glazing harder, but I managed to roll mine back out again for the glazing part.

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A BBQ blog from the land of the midnight sun

Tag Archives: smoke

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