Egg Central

Oct 10 / 5:26pm

Hot Smoked Salmon

First try at smoked salmon. Brushed the filets with a little EVOO, then sprinkled with dill, and some Potach seasoning mix. Put them on the egg skin side down, and lightly smoked them for about an hour at 210 degrees. I cranked up the heat at the end to 350 for about 15 mins. The skin came off easy at he end, and the salmon tasted great.

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Aug 8 / 4:48pm

Pork Chop Pizza

Another grilled pizza variant. I had marinated some pork chops in chipotle mojo, but was in the mood for grilled pizza so I decided pork chop pizza sounded good. I grilled the pork chops first. Then I rolled out the dough and brushed with olive oil. I grilled the dough direct until crispy, flipping once. I sliced up the pork chops, and the other toppings were fresh mozzarella, and carmelized onions. Once topped the pizza goes back in the egg, indirect, for about 10 minutes @ 400 degrees, or until the cheese nice and melty.

Pretty. Tastey.

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Jun 21 / 10:22am

Eggs Porkaddict

Tony, this one is for you.

This is basically eggs benedict, but with pork tenderloin and bacon. I made this once before, and it was so good I had to make it again for father's day. I used thick cut bacon and a pork tenderloin. I seasoned the tenderloin with a little adobo. I set the egg up for indirect cooking with the platesetter. This helps with flair-ups when cooking the bacon. I did place the bacon as close to the edges of the platesetter as I could for more heat. The bacon finished before the tenderloin, so I removed the platesetter and grilled it direct for about 5 minutes to finish it.

While I was doing the grilling, my lovely assistant (aka wife) was poaching the eggs and making the hollandaise sauce. I let the loin rest then sliced it thin. Start with a toasted english muffin, put a layer of tenderloin, then a layer of bacon, a poached egg, and top with the hollandaise sauce. Seriously good eats, and a great way to start father's day.

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Sep 7 / 10:16am

Pulled Pork

A terrible cold may may put a damper on my Labor Day weekend, kept me from going to the Driveinvation, and generally been miserable, but it can never take my BBQ!

8lb. Boston butt: I started with a rub of chili powder, cumin, red pepper, adobo, and turbinado sugar. I applied the rub, then a thin coat of yellow mustard, then more rub.

Put the butt on around 5pm on Sunday, 16 hour hours later after plenty of hickory smoke and a temperature average of 230 degrees, it was done. I tented it for about 30 minutes, then double wrapped it in foil, and put it in a cooler for an hour.

It was definitely tender, had a great bark, and was super tasty. Take that cold, you suck.

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Jul 19 / 5:00pm

Tournados- Flank Steak and Bacon Rolls

This is a recipe from our family cookbook. You start with flank steak, which you pound out as thin as possible. Then you add sauteed mushrooms, parsley, and mostly cooked bacon. Roll all this up like a meat burrito, secure with toothpicks, and then cut into 1" rounds.

I grilled them direct around 400 degrees until done (slightly well done unfortunately). This took about 15 minutes turning often.

The rounds firm up during the cooking process and almost become a solid. Really delicious, but what is not to love with steak, mushrooms and bacon. The recipe called for a Bearnaise sauce to top them off, but we didn't get that done this time. Still great and in the rotation from now on.

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Jul 17 / 11:59am

Burgers and Fries

I picked up some awesome looking premade burgers at Kroger. They were 1" thick, 100 percent ground chuck and the edges were rolled in some sort of black pepper mixture. Not bad for $2.50. I also needed to heat up some frozen fries. I got the egg heated up fast with my new portable fan and cooked the burgers direct at 450-500 degrees.

I scattered the fries on a perforated platter and threw that on my webber gas grill. Yes, I had a gas grill before the egg, and it occasionally needs a little love too.

Burgers were awesome, I served them on a small wheat bun with a little mayo, so nothing could get in the way of their burgery goodness. The fries were good too, a couple that were directly over the flame got a little charred, but the rest were tasty and crispy.

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Jul 12 / 4:17pm

Ribs

I smoked some ribs today. I trimmed them down by removing the "skirt" and end. For a rub I used the leftover steak rub (ground mustard seed, Montreal Steak, Adobo, garlic, black pepper, and red pepper), and added chili powder and brown sugar. I brushed a very light coat of yellow mustard over the rub.

I smoked them at 225 for 2 hours, then put them in a foil pouch with mixture of apple juice, Williams Bros. BBQ sauce, and honey (about 4 oz. of liquid). I cranked the heat up to 325 degrees and let the ribs braise in the pouch for another 1.5 hours. I didn't put the skirt meat in the pouch, but I brushed them with BBQ sauce and let them cook until I needed a snack. After 1.5 hours I set the egg up for direct cooking and grilled the ribs, brushing on a mixture of BBQ sauce and the leftover liquid from the pouch, turning often, and reapplying the sauce for about 20 minutes.

These were the best ribs I have made by far, and maybe the best I have had period. I finally got that fall off the bone texture (without them actually falling off the bone). The rub was sweet and spicy, the sauce was tangy, and caramelized. Sometimes you get lucky and everything just comes together. Mmmmm ribs.

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Jul 12 / 9:58am

Strip Steaks

I picked up some nice strip steaks on sale. Marinated them in Mojo with a little chipotle Tabasco. I made a rub with ground mustard seed, Montreal Steak, black pepper, Adobo, and a little red pepper.

I wanted the egg to get HOT, so I setup a fan to blow extra oxygen into the bottom vent. It worked, the fire was ready to go in about half the normal time, and almost 600 degrees.

I seared the steaks for 2 1/2 minutes a side, let them rest for fifteen minutes while I cooled the egg down and finished them at 400 degrees, which didn't take long because they were practically finished after the searing.

Syb's turned out perfect, but mine got a little over done somehow, great flavor though.

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Jun 28 / 6:59pm

Pork Tenderloins with Coffee Rub

The AC went out and Hotlanta is living up to its name this weekend so I "needed" to cook on the egg to keep the house as cool as possible. I started off this morning with bacon and eggs. I scrambled the eggs and poured them in a muffin tin, and just threw that on the grate with the bacon. There is nothing better than bacon cooked on the egg, but that is not what this post is about. This post is about dinner. Specifically the pork tenderloins with a coffee based rub and honey ginger glaze.

The rub consisted of french roast coffee, cumin, curry powder, paprika and cinnamon. I made the honey glaze with about 1/3 cup honey and 2 tablespoons of fresh ginger I graded on the microplane. The glaze tasted amazing on its own.

I applied the rub a couple hours before the cook. I cooked direct at 450-500 and turned until I had a nice sear on all sides, then applied the glaze and closed the vents most of the way. This brought the temp down to 375ish. I turned them a couple times and glazed them until they reached 155 internal. I let them rest for about 15 mins while I grilled some veggie kabobs and romaine for our salads. Yes, I grilled our salads.

The tenderloins were awesome. I was worried the coffee would be too bitter or too strong, but it wasn't. It was a nice and somewhat subtle flavor, which was balanced nicely with the sweetness and spiciness of the glaze, which was also surprisingly subtle. Next time I will add something with a bit of heat to the rub, but otherwise it was a successful experiment.

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Jun 22 / 12:04am

Beef Brisket

I got a 4lb beef brisket flat to cook on Father's Day. I marinaded it overnight in oak aged stout, some bayou seasoning, Worcestershire sauce and a little red wine vinegar. I put a rub on made from Montreal seasoning, Montreal Spicy seasoning, garlic powder and onion powder. I combined all these in a spice grinder, and applied the rub on both sides of the brisket. I then brushed on a coat of mustard and Worcestershire sauce mix. The egg was about 200 when the brisket went on. I put the marinade in a drip pan under the meat. I started the brisket fat side up, after 2 hours I flipped it. I also brushed on some Fox Bros. sauce at 2.5 hours, and a couple more times throughout the cook. I started checking for tenderness at 185 degrees internal. I ended up pulling it at 200, when I put a fork in and was able to turn it without much resistance. One of the recipes I was following called for a 1/2 cup of beef broth to be put in a foil pouch with the brisket to rest, but I didn't have any so I substituted 1/4 cup of Worcestershire and a 1/4 cup of mojo. I wrapped the brisket up in double foil and put it in a cooler for 1/2 an hour to rest. When I unwrapped it I was surprised that it had soaked up almost all of the liquid.

It turned out great. Very tender and super flavorful. Definitely the best brisket to date.