Category: Product Review

New Toy Tool – Thermapen Splash-Proof Thermometer

 

I’ve had the older version of this model for a number of years and swear by it – it’s fast, accurate, and easy to read. There’s no better instant-read thermometer out there. In fact, it’s so good that I often find it missing from my grill drawer because my dear wife is using it inside.

About the 4th or 5th time I had to go searching for it, my dear sweet wife said these magic words, “If you can find a deal on another one of those thermo-thingies, get one just for you.”

Whoohoo!

Thermoworks posts deals and give-a-ways on their site. I signed up for the RSS feed from their blog, and within about a month they announced that they had open-box Thermapens for $69 plus shipping. That’s a $20 savings, so I jumped on it.

Performance
The new Thermapen performs much like the older version, and that’s a good thing. It gives you precise internal temperature readings in 3 seconds flat. There is no on or off button, swing the probe out and it’s on (and yes, it was a hot one the day I got it).  The very thin tip slides right into the meat and gives you a reading at the center of the food. The hole it leaves is so small it usually seals up right away and doesn’t let the juices leak out.

The new version adds a splash-proof seal, which is nice since my grill table isn’t as water-proof as I would like. You don’t want to go scuba-diving with it, but it’ll shake off a rain storm. It also has a new bacteria-resistant case to keep you from getting the gleep.

The new probe doesn’t have the old lanyard, but I didn’t miss it. In fact, one of my frustrations with the old probe is getting the probe caught on the strap.

The Verdict: ★★★★★
This is a really nice redesign of an already great product. Thermoworks kept all of the features that made the previous version so handy and added a couple of valuable tweeks that I really appreciate. I’ve lost a couple of cheap timers due to water damage, so if the splash-proof seal works as advertised, it’ll more than pay for itself. 

I also dig the bright orange color – easy to find and hard to swipe from my drawer 😉

 

Great Grate Upgrade

I was doing some spring cleaning on my large Big Green Egg when I noticed that my fire grate (the metal plate at the bottom of the firebox that lets air in and keeps the charcoal from falling through) had not only cracked, but also deformed so that it was domed upward.

This is the second time this has happened in 5 years. The last time I just called my dealer and he had a free replacement for me in about a week. So, kind of a bummer, but not a huge deal. I put the broken grate back in and figured I’d pick a new one up when I got a chance.

But when I checked my email that night I had a note from the fine folks at High-Que wondering if I’d be interested in testing out their grate upgrade.

Talk about timing.

A couple of days later I had a new fire grate in my mailbox.

The BGE grate is cast iron and built like a floor drain with holes in it. The High-Que one is stainless steel and built like a grill grate. High-Que says that this design not only allows more air to get to the charcoal, but it won’t clog up with with ash either.

The High-Que grate fits perfectly, sitting on the same little bumps inside the firebox that hold the original grate in place. I loaded the firebox about a third of the way up with lump charcoal from a bag that was about half empty. You lump charcoal aficionados out there know that that means the lump was about 50/50 large chunks versus little chunks. There was very little dust (the few bits of lump you see in there are what was left when my shop-vac crapped out).

I lit the lump like I usually do – one Lightning Nuggets fire starter in the middle of the lump and then hit it with the MAPP torch just long enough to get the starter going. I closed the lid and the bottom vent screen, but left the upper daisy wheel vent off and the top open.

About 10 minutes later I had this little inferno going and the dome thermometer was just shy of 700°F.

I put the upper daisy wheel vent on and adjusted it the where I usually get 375°F (main opening covered and the little daises opened all the way). After 10 minutes the temp settled down to 425°F and stayed there for the 20 minutes it took to cook dinner.

The Verdict: ★★★★★
I’ve used the High-Que grate 6 times so far, and so far it performs just as advertised – the Egg comes up to temp faster and burns between 25°F and 50°F hotter than it did with the old grate. I’ve not had any problems with ash clogging the grate, even though I’ve reused the lump that was left from the last fire every time and the and lump keeps getting smaller as I work my way to the bottom of the bag. I’ve not had to use my wiggle rod once to get the fire to take off.

It does feel like I’m using a bit more charcoal with the new grate, but I can’t tell if I’m really burning more, or if more of the little bits are falling through the grate. Also, all of the cooks so far have been medium to medium-high heat. While I don’t doubt that it will rock at nuclear temps, I’m curious to see how it does on an overnight low-n-slow cook.

The grate is made in the USA, has a 5 year warranty, and retails for $32.88 plus $4.99 shipping.

P.S. High-Que also carries a Nomex gasket with adhesive backing that I’m looking forward to tying out when my current gasket dies.

Carnitas

I finally got a chance to try out the lovely 4.2 qt Dutch oven that Emile Henry sent me on the Big Green Egg. For its maiden voyage, I decided to try a batch of carnitas. To make these tender, yet crispy bites of porky wonderfulness, you need to provide a nice, even heat while the fat is rendering from the meat. Then after the fat has rendered, you need to reduce the liquid and crisp up the meat.

4 pounds pork shoulder roast (aka Boston Butt)
Juice of 3 oranges (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

Set your grill up for a 5 hour cook over indirect heat at 350°F. On the Big Green Egg I used an inverted plate setter with a trivet on it to diffuse the heat and keep the bottom from burning.

While the grill is heating up, cut the pork into big (4 to 6-inch) chunks, discarding any nasty pieces of connective tissue, but keeping all of the fat.

Combine all of the ingredients in a Dutch oven, and stir to combine. Cover the oven with a lid and set it on the grill. Let it simmer for an hour. The hot juice should have started to break down the fat in the meat.

Remove the lid and let it simmer for another hour. Keep checking and stirring once an hour until most of the liquid has evaporated and the pork has started to fry in its own fat (about another 2 hours).  Then check it every 15 minutes to make sure the meat is getting crispy, but not becoming dry or burned. Total cook time for this batch was just over 4 hours.

The Verdict: ★★★★★
I dearly love carnitas, and this batch was one of the better ones I’ve made. Making a smaller batch (just 4 pounds) and cutting the meat into larger pieces gave me a better crisp/tender ratio. There was lots of nice crunchiness, but the meat didn’t break down too much or dry out. Perfect.

The Emile Henry Dutch oven performed flawlessly. The lid sealed nice and tight to keep the heat and juices in for the braising part of the recipe, yet the pot is wide enough to let the liquid evaporate when I wanted to crisp the meat. This is part of their Flame-Top line, so even when the fire got a little too hot at one point, the pot handled being “flame-licked” just fine and provided nice, even heat.

I really like the design of the lugged handles and the knob on the lid. They really fit the hand and it’s easy to get a good grip on them, even while wearing grilling gloves. I’m sure looking forward to more cooks with this great Dutch oven.

Friday Link Love

Just one big unsolicited plug here for Dizzy Pig Barbecue Company. Over the years I have had nothing but good luck and tasty results using their barbecue rubs and it’s about time I told everybody out there how good they are.

Dizzy Dust is my “go-to” rub for ribs and butts.
Raging River is a huge hit on salmon.
Spicy Swamp Venom is great on wings.
Shaking the Tree is a better-than-lemon-pepper rub for chicken and pork.
Red Eye Express, Raising the Steaks, and Cowlick are all in my rotation for  steak and burger seasoning.
Jamaican Firewalk is the jerk king, mon.
Pineapple Head rocks on sweet potatoes.

They have a new newsletter out this month and they’re in the running for About.com’s 2011 Readers’ Choice Award for Barbecue Rub (vote early and vote often). They’ve also just moved into a new production facility and have great plans in the works.

Thanks to Chris and the gang for producing some of the best fresh, hand-blended rubs out there!

Emile Henry Flame-Top Cookware

The fine folks at Emile Henry have been kind enough to send me some of their new Flame-Top clay cookware to try out. While they have been making cookware in Burgundy, France since 1850, this is their first line of flameproof ceramic designed to go directly on a live flame, like a gas burner or a barbecue grill.

I can’t wait to try the pieces out on the Big Green Egg, but so far the weather hasn’t been cooperating. In the meantime, I made this chicken pizza in our oven on the Emile Henry pizza stone.

1 12-inch pizza crust (Against the Grain Gluten-Free in this case)
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 large cooked chicken breast, diced
2 cups (8-ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon Greek oregano
1 (6-ounce) can ripe olives, sliced
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup pepperoncini peppers, diced
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

Place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 350°F. Put crust on stone and pre-bake for 10 minutes. Remove stone from oven and top crust with the sauce, chicken, olives, feta, peppers, and onion. Cover with mozzarella and sprinkle with oregano.

Return pizza and stone to oven and bake for 20 minutes, until crust is crisp and the cheese is brown and bubbly. Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

The Verdict: ★★★★★
It’s pizza – what’s not to love? I’m usually more of a pepperoni and sausage kind of guy, but the chicken is good with the contrasting salty/spicy peppers, olives, and feta.

The Emile Henry stone really made a difference in the crispness of the pizza crust. The Against the Grain crusts are great, but this time it was considerably more crisp, but still nice and chewy. The stone also cleaned up easily with a little soap and water. Can’t wait to try it on the Egg.

Suck Creek WFR Hot Sauce

I take my hot sauces pretty seriously and have amassed a respectable collection, limited only by my dear wife’s desire to have room in the fridge for actual food and my desire to remain happily married.

In their application, I tend to take the terroir approach – sauces from a given region goes best with foods from that region. So Louisiana-style sauces (Crystal, Frank’s, Trappey’s) go with southern cooking like jambalaya or biscuits and gravy, and Mexican sauces (Cholula, Valentina, Búfalo) go with tacos, enchiladas, etc… I do a little mixy matchy (Valentina with a little mayo is killer on sushi), but have yet to find a single hot sauce that really works to compliment a wide variety of foods.

That said – I take my hat off to Suck Creek WFR Hot Sauce.

The Verdict: ★★★★★

This sauce complements everything I’ve tried it on. So far, I’ve had it on eggs, in my cherished biscuits and gravy, and as a way to brighten up some beef stew. I’ve used it to add some heat to my wing sauce, tacos, and ranch dressing. It has a nice, tangy base of warmth that’s wrapped with black pepper and herbs, and then finished off with a straight up habanero heat.  It’s not as vinegary as Crystal, nor as hot as Marie Sharp’s. The heat is considerable, but not overwhelming. It does, however, build and linger for a while. It may be a bit much for some folks, but’s that’s their own fault. I can see it as my “go-to” heat source for barbecue sauces and marinades.

The versatility of the sauce means that a bottle of WFR now sits on our dining table right next to the salt and pepper. My only wish is that it came in a bigger bottle ;).

Tasty Licks Salmon

This is another rub courtesy of Fred’s Music & BBQ Supply. Fred helpfully included some recipes and suggestions to use as a starting point. His salmon recipe looks like a real winner.

1 salmon fillet (Alaskan wild in this case)
1-2 teaspoons of Signore Bernardo’s Salmon Seasoning
Olive oil

Use a food-grade plank that’s been soaked in water for at least an hour. Set your grill up for a direct cook over medium-high heat (about 400°F).

Oil both sides of the salmon and season with Signore Bernardo’s Salmon Seasoning.

Put the plank on the grill by itself for about 5 minutes, just until you can smell the smoke coming off the plank. Put the salmon on the plank, close the lid, and let it cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the fish hits 130°F internal and the flesh just starts to flake.

The plank almost wasn't wide enough for this lovely fillet.

Serve hot off the grill. If you’re being fancy schmancy, cover a serving platter with a bed of damp lettuce leaves and set the plank (with the fillet still on it) on the platter. The lettuce makes sure the plank is extinguished and serving off the plank makes for a nice presentation.

The Verdict: ★★★★★
When Fred sent this rub to me he said that it was “something special” and I have to agree with him. I’m a big salmon fan, and I really don’t like to overwhelm its natural flavor too much. Fred’s salmon seasoning does a great job of accenting without covering anything up. The garlic and black pepper in the rub are nicely balanced with sugar and citrus. You taste the salmon, but you also taste all of these other flavors at the same time. Outstanding rub!

Tasty Licks Wings

Fred, of Fred’s Music & BBQ Supply, was kind enough to send me some of his Tasty Licks rubs for me to try out. Since I was dying for wings (when am I not dying for wings?) I decided to try a batch with his Original Rub.

I usually cook wings in the medium-high range (350°F or so) without any added wood smoke, but this time I decided to slow smoke them for a couple of hours over apple wood before cranking the heat up to crisp the skin.

6 fresh chicken wings
Olive oil
1-2 tablespoons Tasty Licks BBQ Company “Original” All Purpose BBQ Rub and Seasoning

In  medium bowl, lightly coat wings with olive oil. Dust the wings with some of the rub and give them a toss. Dust and toss again, making sure that all of the wings are covered with the rub.

Set a cooling rack on a cookie sheet or jellyroll pan. Lay wings out on a rack and let them sit uncovered in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, and preferably overnight.

Set the grill up for an indirect cook at 250°. Once the grill is up to temperature, add your smoking wood and arrange the wings on the grate top side up. Close the lid and smoke for an hour. Flip the wings and smoke for another hour. Now bump the heat up to 350°F and cook for 15 minutes. Flip the wings and cook for another 15, or until they are brown and crispy.

Serve them hot off the grill with some Horseradish Mustard Sauce for dipping.

The Verdict: ★★★★★
This is a great rub! I tasted it right out of the bottle and it was a lovely blend of heat and sweetness. You could really taste the chili powder, but it wasn’t overwhelming – kind of a nice, long, low burn. The sugar and salt hit you right up front and really helped balance the spice in the rub.

The wings were very tasty done low and slow. The skin stayed crisp while the meat was melty and tender.  I loved the smoky flavor and the rub really complemented that. You could call them barbecue wings, but not in that just-slap-a-sauce-on-them kind of way. They had that true barbecue taste that you can only get from the blending of spices and smoke over low heat.

Thanks for sharing, Fred!

Gluten-Free Bisquick

General Mills is jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon by adding gluten-free Bisquick to its product lineup. I’m very excited about this for two big reasons:

  • While it’s not a new and innovative product (there are lots of GF baking mixes available), it is a General Mills product which means it’s going to be available everywhere. Even my Mom in small-town Iowa can buy it at her local Hy-Vee.
  • It’s Bisquick, and while it’s not a one-for-one replacement for the original, it does mean that there’s about a gajillion recipes out there that can now readily be made gluten free.

The first thing I wanted to try making with the GF Bisquick is my favorite recipe that I used to make with the original Bisquick – biscuits. I even broke out Grandma R’s dough blender to do the job.

2 cups Bisquick Gluten-Free mix
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup milk
3 eggs

Heat oven to 400°F. In a medium bowl, combine Bisquick mix and butter.  Cut in the butter, using pastry blender or fork, until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in the milk and eggs until a soft dough forms.

Drop dough by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown.

I served these right out of the oven, topped with butter and honey

The Verdict: ★★★★☆
Fair warning – I am not a baker, that’s my dear wife’s specialty. Even so, the biscuits turned out crispy on the outside and fairly tender on the inside. The dough was heavy and the biscuits ended up being a little dense. They weren’t the flaky bits of perfection that my grandmother used to make, but they were as good as any box mix biscuit I’ve ever made. Taste wise, I couldn’t tell they were gluten free, and that’s a huge plus.

BBQ 25 Chicken

I’ve said this before – I am not a big fan of boneless/skinless chicken breasts. They almost always end up being kind of dry and flavorless.  But my dear wife likes to have some around for lunches and chicken salad, so I decided to give this version from Adam Perry Lang’s  BBQ 25: The World’s Most Flavorful Recipes-Now Made Fool-Proof a try. I figure anything brined and basted can’t be all bad.

The Brine
8 – 12 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grated or finely chopped red onion
2 cloves grated or finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped scallions
1 bunch fresh marjoram or basil
1 bunch fresh thyme
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
Juice of one lemon
4 cups cold water

Combine everything but the chicken in a zip-top bag. Mix to combine. Add the chicken and turn to cover. Stash in the fridge for at least 3 hours, overnight is best.

The Glaze
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons chopped scallions
1 bunch fresh thyme, leaves only
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots

Combine all of the glaze ingredients in a shallow, flame-proof pan (a disposable 9×13 foil pan works great).

The Cook
Set your grill up for a direct cook at medium high (400°F) heat. Set the pan containing the glaze on the grill and heat until the butter melts. Stir the glaze to combine all the goodies, then remove the pan from the heat. I set mine right next to the Big Green Egg to keep it warm and handy.

Remove the breasts from the brine and put them on the grill. Grill the breasts 10 minutes on one side, flip and baste with the glaze. Grill 5 minutes on the second side. Brush with the glaze and grill for 5 more minutes. Flip, brush, and grill until just this side of done – the juices will be just a little pink  and the internal temperature of the chicken hits 155°F.

Remove the breasts from the grill and set them in the glaze pan. Turn them to coat with the glaze. Return the pan to the grill and heat until the glaze comes to a boil and the internal temperature of the chicken hits 160°F (about 5 minutes).

Remove the pan from the heat. Let the breasts rest for 10 minutes in the glaze before serving. Top with remaining glaze.

The Verdict: ★★★★★
Another winner from Lang’s BBQ 25! The breasts stayed moist and tender from the brine while picking up all the buttery/herby deliciousness of the baste. They not only made an excellent dinner, but were also great for lunch the next two days. Even nuking them in the microwave at work didn’t dry them out. Now that’s the test of a juicy chicken breast.

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