A couple of recent cooks

Pacuare

I do a lot of reading and just wanted to share some of my recent cooks. For Christmas I got a high-que grate for my large and cooked pizzas tonight for the first time since then. It is amazing how much easier it was for me to maintain higher temps. Here are pictures of the pizza I made for the kids and a sausage, green onion, and garlic one I cooked for my husband and me. Yesterday I smoked a turkey breast for the first time. I put together a rub of salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, granulated garlic, and chipotle pepper powder. I smoked the breast indirect with apple wood at a dome temperature of around 300 degrees. It was about a 6 lb turkey breast and it took right around 2 hrs until internal temperature was 165. I was going to pull it a little earlier but my Maverick temperature probe stopped climbing when it was around 153 degrees. Finally I went to check the temperature somewhere else and other places read 165 and so I pulled it off the egg. The turkey was fabulous. The last cook I wanted to share was a tri tip I made shortly before Christmas. I cooked it direct at a dome temperature of 300-350 and rubbed it with a mixture of salt, seasoned salt, granulated garlic, and paprika. I also threw in some hickory with the lump. My husband thinks it was the best thing I have cooked yet. It was great the first day and made awesome sandwiches the following day. I also posted a picture of my plate just for comparison of what our meals are typically like with a toddler and preschooler (almost 2 and 4 years old) in the house. It is not as near as fancy as many of the plates I see here. I had planned on doing some nicer sides this meal but ended up chasing kids on their bike and scooter instead of cooking sides. Tomorrow I will hopefully be doing my first cook on my new wok! The recent wok threads have been some good inspiration.

Rick1

Some nice looking cooks there.

nolaegghead

That tri-tip looks beautiful!  Other stuff too, I was just drawn to it.

BuckeyeBob

Looks awesome. Enjoy those toddler years. They go by so fast.

Pacuare

The tri-tip was amazing. It was definitely one of my favorite cooks so far. I lived in the San Joaquin Valley in CA for a few years and ate quite a bit of tri-tip while I lived there. This tri-tip was just as good as any I had eaten there. I will hopefully be cooking another one in the near future whenever I can find another good roast. It is hit and miss for finding good ones where I shop.

Skiddymarker

BuckeyeBob said:

Looks awesome. Enjoy those toddler years. They go by so fast.

Absolutely. Best thing is they come back as grandkids, lots of time with them, enjoy the kids and the cooks - nice looking meals - Tri-tip is awesome. 

Kosko

I have never cooked a tri- tip. Is there a certain one I should look for when I buy one. And how do you guys recommend cooking. Sorry. Not trying to hijack thread, my mouth started watering after I saw how awesome @Pacuare is!

dgv

Very nice! the tri tip looks excellent!

Pacuare

Kosko said:

I have never cooked a tri- tip. Is there a certain one I should look for when I buy one. And how do you guys recommend cooking. Sorry. Not trying to hijack thread, my mouth started watering after I saw how awesome @Pacuare is!

I just look for one that is cut more like a roast than a steak. I shop at a commissary and see a lot of very thin and uneven tri-tip "roasts." The one I cooked was even select grade but still tasted amazing. Mine was cooked direct with a dome temp of 300-350 with a handful of hickory wood mixed in with the lump. I was doing some temperature chasing during the cook because my temperature had gotten too hot and I didn't have time to let it level out before throwing the meat on the egg. I didn't sear mine because my kids don't like meat that has been seared and complain that it is bad. However, I have read that a lot of people sear their tri-tip. I searched tri-tip using the search function to get a couple ideas of how others cooked their before I decided how to cook mine.

BuckeyeBob said:

Looks awesome. Enjoy those toddler years. They go by so fast.

I am definitely enjoying them most of the time! Kid number three should be making its debut in May so we will have a few more toddler years in our future.

BuckeyeBob

Congratulations on number 3. My "baby", the youngest of 4, is now 12 and its been fun over break to have my two oldest home from college. You have lots of fun to come!