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Any Time is Grillin Time

Okay, my cold smoked cheese has been removed from the cooker, wrapped in parchment paper and then placed in the refrigerator. Before I could get the cheeses all wrapped, my entire kitchen and dinning area was heavy with the aroma of smoke. I decided to put my wrapped cheeses in a baggie full of air. Otherwise, everything in my fridge will be smoked. :) I'll burp the bag daily and hope for the best.

I smoked the cheeses for three hours. My cold smoke tube easily has another hour of smoldering pellets going. Temps here were pretty steady at 45° and the tube kept the temp probe at the other end of my smoker at 65°. It's the perfect tool for smoking cheese and I wouldn't be afraid to try the cook in the hot summer months.

Now it's a wait and taste game. They want at least two weeks rest before serving. I hope my cheese isn't bitter with smoke.
 
just grilled the last of the new york steaks that i bought from costco a couple of weeks ago. along with some grilled sweet peppers(i swear i am addicted to them) and some corn, the meal was amazing.
 
Steak sounds great... it always does :)

I had to change my mind on the storing of my smoked cheeses.
The ziploc bag collected moisture out of the cheese to the point there was water droplets all over the inside of the baggie. The parchment wrapping was wet to the touch. Needing to breath as suggested, I took them out of the bag and put them in my little beer fridge. I'll be drinking smoked Shiner Bock tomorrow. :) The parchment feels dry to the touch now. Lesson learned.

I'm looking forward to my pork loin smoke tomorrow. I think I'm going to smoke some asparagus spears to go with it.
 
My pork loin smoked super fast today. It was a small cut but I did not anticipate the speed it cooked. I was guessing around three to three and a half hours at 200°. At the two hour mark I probed it for temp and found it at target temp. I had rubbed it prior to smoking and planned to finish it with a sweet glaze the last hour of cook. No glaze today! I wrapped it in foil and put it in my hot box to rest. The rest was three hours instead of my planned 1.5 hours. It was still very hot and I rank the end result the best loin I've ever smoked. You just get lucky sometimes. :)

My hot box was a gift from a friend. His wife is insulin dependent and they order online. Shipments of insulin and dry ice arrive in what looks to be a Styrofoam cooler but the walls and lid are close to three inches thick. It makes an outstanding hot box.
 
The wife scored three nice ribeye steaks and I smoked then seared them today. My daughter ate with us and took some home for her boyfriend. They turned out great. It's impossible to beat the smoking slow and searing red hot to produce the perfect steak. Tomorrow I think it's hamburger helper. :)
 
I'm smoking out a brisket point today. I had my brisket all seasoned up and went to put it on the smoker only to find it stone cold. I needed to get my cook started so I torched my pellets to get them going and started the smoker again. It could have been a glitch or my hotrod is done. This morning was not the time to do a deep analysis. It's supposed to be nice tomorrow so I'll have a good window to figure out what's wrong. A hotrod replacement is not a biggie but if needed I'll be a bit disappointed. I'm guessing I only have around 200 cooks on this smoker.
 
Two updates: My smoked cheese turned our very good. It has a very heavy smoke taste... not bitter... but very smoky. It was well received and went faster than the cheese platter my wife bought for the occasion. I do think it was a bit dry. Not a put off but dryer than I would have preferred. I unwrapped it from the parchment paper on the eleventh day of resting. I will try cutting that back to a week or maybe six days next time.

I may be cold smoking for a week or so. Starting the pellets with a torch is a pain. I had to order a new igniter for my Green Mountain Daniel Boone Prime. My cost is 26 bucks from Amazon. It is easy enough to replace but I am disappointed it went out as quickly as it did.
 
I froze the smaller half of my brisket point and tonight we ate the leftover meat from last night. I sliced the meat fairly thin and cut the strips into chunks. I caramelized some onions and a bit of garlic then added the meat to warm it up. Served up on a hoagie bun with provolone cheese. I've never used brisket point for Philly Cheesesteak before but it's now in my leftover brisket rotation.
 
I grilled out chicken thighs tonight. It was just a bit cold out but there was very little wind. The thighs were boneless skinless which makes for an easy cook. Especially seasoned with my new go to store bought chicken seasoning. Anything would have tasted great after a few days straight of left over sausages, cheeses, and crackers from Xmas. :)
 
I smoked out my ham at the cabin yesterday as planned. It made for a great meal with all the sides everyone brought. With bad weather moving in, we stayed up most of the night and then broke camp this morning. Everyone wanted daylight to travel back home on slick roads. I was home in time to cook up a small pot of beans with some of my leftover ham. Tomorrow I plan to make some ham salad out of the remaining ham.
Just I was leaving yesterday to head to the cabin, my mail came and with it my replacement igniter for my GM smoker. It should be a very easy chore to replace but I plan to wait for it to warm up some. Tomorrow the predicted high is 24°. That wouldn't bother me if I was smoking something. :) But laying on my back in the snow and ice to do the wiring tomorrow doesn't sound appealing. Another smokeless Sunday... bummer!
 
It warmed up enough today that I didn't mind laying on my back on the patio to do the wiring of the replacement igniter. The new igniter came with an extra insulating wrap which made it difficult to feed through the tube from fire box to controller. I managed to feed it through but it took excessive pushing and pulling that I didn't care for. Fortunately I did not pull one of the wires in two.
The replacement igniter is ceramic where the old was metal. I ran the smoker though its startup and it worked just fine. I think I'm back in business... whew! Here is a pic of the old igniter. You can easily see where the burn out occurred and how it disformed the hot rod.

igniter.jpg
 
olbriar said:
It warmed up enough today that I didn't mind laying on my back on the patio to do the wiring of the replacement igniter. The new igniter came with an extra insulating wrap which made it difficult to feed through the tube from fire box to controller. I managed to feed it through but it took excessive pushing and pulling that I didn't care for. Fortunately I did not pull one of the wires in two.
The replacement igniter is ceramic where the old was metal. I ran the smoker though its startup and it worked just fine. I think I'm back in business... whew! Here is a pic of the old igniter. You can easily see where the burn out occurred and how it disformed the hot rod.

View attachment 160747
Click to expand...
Wow, there are some miles on that igniter.
 
Unforgiven said:
Wow, there are some miles on that igniter.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing somewhere around 200 cooks but that's only a guess.
Years ago I had to replace the burn pot on my original Traeger somewhere around the 200 cook mark as well. I replaced the igniter while I was replacing. Although a fan has been replaced and it's on its third controller, the burn pot and rod are still hanging in there.

One of my cabin buddies inherited that old Traeger. He is quite the MacGyver and takes great pride and joy in rebuilding vs replacing.
He took that old cooker home and fabbed up a new grease trough and chute and a bracket on the high side to hold the drip tray. Now he has an old cooker that will last him years.
 
My local grocer had flatirons on sale today. My son tipped me off or I'd have missed the sale. They have been running in excess of $12.99 a pound and have seen them priced at $15.99. In the good ol days they were in the three or four dollars a pound range and then they became popular. Today they were $7.99 per pound... not cheap but I don't expect to see them cheaper. I stocked up on them and plan to smoke one tomorrow. I hope my repaired smoker works. :)
 
I smoked my flatiron and it was wonderful. However, my smoker did not function flawlessly. It did not ignite the pellets on startup. I am hoping that it was my fault. After installing the new igniter last week I turned on the smoker and began the startup sequence. Once I saw that the igniter was functioning I turned the smoker off. I'm now hoping that by not allowing it to complete the startup sequences I confused it. After it failed to light yesterday, I unplugged it, plugged it back in, and started it again. It started up as it should and ignited the pellets. I'm all but certain the cooker was confused and is now fixed. My next cook will tell the tale.
 
I'm grilling out some boneless skinless chicken breast today. I'll season them up and put a good crosshatch sear on them. I then will slow cook them with only one burner on and the chicken not over the direct heat. I've had great luck cooking them that way.
 
Tonight I'm grilling out some pork blade steaks. I was able to score up some beautiful steaks that were marked down for immediate sale.
I will grill half of the steaks tonight and I vac sealed and froze the other half. Marked down from $23 to $11 makes for a $5.50 meal of good eating!

I like to cook pork blade steaks on a ripping hot grill. I love the seared texture of the steaks. I'll lightly season the steaks with some pork rub and pepper. Honestly, they are tasty enough to see the fire without seasoning. I plan to bake some scalloped potatoes and serve a tossed dinner salad to compliment the steaks.
 
I smoked a blizzard brisket today. Temps in the teens, 3-4 and hour of snow falling, and 40-60mph winds. Things turned out pretty good.
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That looks super good! I'm taking a Sunday off smoking and concentrating on football. :) I will instead smoke out Monday.
I have some flatirons I might smoke or I might do a brisket after seeing yours. I won't be smoking in a blizzard whatever I decide.
Monday it is supposed to get into the mid sixties with a light wind.
 
It was so nice that I spent Monday playing golf in a short sleeve shirt. I opted to smoke a flatiron today being as it is much colder and windy. I put it on the smoker a half hour ago. Moistened with avocado oil then generously seasoned with coarse salt and pepper. I'm smoking it at 225° and will wrap it when it reaches 160°. My target temp is 195° and I hope to let it rest at least an hour and I hope more before serving.

My last smoke I experienced a problem with my new hotrod igniting my pellets. I theorized it was my fault for not shutting the smoker down properly after testing the new igniter. Today my smoker started without any problem. Whew! I feel better!
 
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