New CyberQ WiFi / Italian Sausage Smoke Bomb Pix

jfm0830

Hello to all. It has been a while since I have been able to post. Work and life got rather busy, but a busy work schedule gave me the funds and the use case to get a pit controller. As a backyard griller using the very stable Big Green Egg I never thought I needed a pit controller. Big expense, little benefit..or so I thought. Boy was I wrong! One of the things that changed my mind was cooking meals on now 3 Eggs makes for a busy cooking session. Letting a pit controller run the show for my main dish frees up time to do other things. Also I can sleep like a baby while the pit controller takes care of an overnight cook.

CYBERQ WiFi: I bought the CyberQ WiFi by the BBQ Guru company. I really liked the possibilities of remote control of my Egg, even from remote locations. I ended up writing a rather detailed series of blogs on my site about the CyberQ WiFi. So rather than try to sum it up here, if you are interested in learning more about the CyberQ WiFi my reasons for deciding to buy it, set up, usage etc. I will post links to the series of blogs at the end of this post.

CYBERCOOK: One of the reasons I got the CyberQ WiFi is I heard about the availability of 3rd party software that gave some extra ease of use and additional features such as the ability to log your cooks. I tried 3 other apps before I discovered CyberCook for iOS which comes in a separate iPad and iPhone version. It has a clean easy to use interface, is easy to set up and I love the graphing capabilities I now have. FULL DISCLOSURE: I downloaded and paid $6.99 for the iPad version of CyberCook. I had some setup questions and I had some email exchanges with the developer where he helped me out and I gave him some feedback on the app. He evidently valued my feedback and gave me a free copy of CyberCook Mini, the iPhone version. He didn't know about my blog or the fact I often write reviews on my blog of iOS software for Cooking and Grilling. I did write a blog entry on my site and for those are interested I will post the link below. It is your choice to decide whether getting the $6.99 iPhone version of the software would color my judgment.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE SMOKE BOMB: I fond this interesting recipe on the AmazingRibs.com website. It was a stuffed meatloaf recipe that used ground Italian sausage in lieu of the typical beef, veal pork blend. I used a pound each of Sweet & Hot to get a medium hot blend. The recipe had a variation cooked on a cedar plank, which is what I did. I liked the idea of having the CyberQ controlling the Egg so I wouldn't run the risk of the temps getting to high and starting the plank on fire. I am going to move onto the pix, but let me mention that my 3 guests and I all felt this was the best meatloaf we have had. This includes several other smoked meatloafs I have made in the past. 

The CyberQ WiFi is attached to the Egg. I had a bag over the controller unit to help keep a swirling rain off it.

This interesting coffee mug makes a great weight for soaking cedar planks. Adding just the right amount of water allows it to keep the plank submerged but not bottomed out.

The filling used: Diced green & red peppers, onion, mozzarella cheese plus oregano, salt, black pepper & olive oil. The meat was a blend of equal parts sweet & hot Italian sausage. 

The ground Italian sausage blend was pressed into a rectangle over two sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil.

The filling was spread out in a single layer on the sausage and held back an inch from the edge.

The foil was used to help roll the meat up into a loaf. All of the edges and seams have been sealed & the loaf is on the soaked cedar plank.

The meatloaf is wrapped with bacon. The CyberQ has the Egg up to 400 degrees. 

This is the Control Screen I see on CyberCook on my iPad. You set the status and set points for the 4 probes. The display can be read from a good distance away. The readouts are color coded with low pit temps in blue and high pit temps in red. Normal temps are green. High food temps are shown in red. The color coding helps when you are too far way to read the specific numbers. You can also turn on audible alarms.

This graph is from a different cook. I didn't save a graph of the meatloaf cook which was rather short. This is from a 14 hour whole brisket cook. What I am showing here is how you can click on any point on the graph and get a reading for the current pit temperature and the temperature for your 3 food probes. The graphs can be set to show more or less information to suit your needs.

The meatloaf has reached 160 degrees and is done.

Time to eat! As I mentioned this was the best meatloaf  I or any of my guests have ever had.

Jim

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LINKS: 

MY CYBERCOOK / CYBERCOOK MINI BLOG ENTRY: iOS softwere for the CyberQ Wifi

CYBERCOOK - CYBERQ WiFi SOFTWARE

Website:  http://www.iportablesolutions.com/iPortable_Solutions/CyberCook.html

MY CYBERQ WiFi BLOG SERIES:

EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL - Part 1 What is a Pit Controller & why would someone want one?

EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL - Part 2 Why did I choose to but the BBQ Guru CyberQ WiFi?

EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL - Part 3 WiFi Networking overview and setting up an Adhoc WiFi connection on the CyberQ WiFi.

EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL - Part 4 Setting up an Infrastructure mode WiFi Network Connection. More difficult but more capabilities.

EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL - Part 5 Attaching the CyberQ to a grill/smoker.

EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL - Part 6 First impressions after several cooks.

GATraveller

Coming in loud and clear

NoobZero

Nice write up and pics. You just sold a CyberCook as well. Headed over to your blog right now!

caliking

I always look forward to your cooks  

I'm also about to pull the trigger on a controller, and have been wavering between the CyberQ and the Stoker, so I'll be taking a look at your blog posts too. 

jfm0830

Thanks guys for your comments!. 

@NoobZero CyberCook is one of my favorite things about having the CyberQ. 

@caliking I think you will be happy with either choice. I have had my CyberQ for a little over a month now and I have zero complaints.

Jim

skellis614

@jfm0830 Jim, great post. Like you I own the cyberq and believe it has its place. I've looked at several apps but not tried the cyber cook. Do you recall if the graph tracks fan output? I've always thought that helpful to know when to make larger adjustments.

jfm0830

skellis614 . The answer to that is yes and no. If you want to see a line on the graph showing Fan Output as a percentage the answer is no. While you are cooking the Control Panel has a display as part of the Pit Temp settings that shows fan output. Also you can click on a Pit Temperature measurement point and it brings up a detail popover that shows the fan output for any point you click on. That is shown in one of the screen captures above. You can also export the graph as a PDF and it contains a log chart showing the fan output for each of your measurement points. I have included a screen capture of this. My measurement frequency is every 5 minutes, but you can increase that to every minute,

One other thing, when looking in the App Store the app is called CyberCook with no space in the middle.