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Weber Exile: "What Should I cook first"

Bumm39
Bumm39 Posts: 60
edited September 2011 in EggHead Forum
I Have vast experience with my Weber charcoal Grills, and I'm wondering what meal I should break out with. Would LOVE any suggestions.
                                                                       Thanx Meat Man 

Comments

  • I am a newbie and have done about 2 dozen cooks on the Large BGE.  First cook was pulled pork which I have done another 1/2 dozen times.  It is very easy with reliably awesome results.  Helps show off some of the benefits of the Egg and lets you learn to fiddle with temp control and low and slow cooks.  Get any cut of pork shoulder bone in preferable, rub with yellow mustard and then your favorite rub.  Cook at 250 dome temp for about 1.5-2 hours per lb., pull when meat is 190-200, let rest and pull meat.  Serve on white buns with coleslaw and your favorite sauce.  Last time I did this was for a labor day party at a friend's house (sorry I upstaged his cooking effort) and had about a dozen people ask me how I did the pork.  12 lb shoulder completely devoured.

    Make sure you fill the Egg with lump near the top of the fire ring and you shouldn't need to add any add'l lump.  I usually use a combination of hickory and apple or cherry for smoke.  So easy, so good and hard to mess up.
  • I usually tell people to roast a whole chicken for their first cook. Heres why;
    1. Chicken is inexpensive if everything goes horribly wrong you haven't just destroyed $75 in prime beef.
    2. Roasting temperature can be anything from 325 to 425 deg. with good results. This lets you practice temperature control.
    3. Cooking a chicken is a med. length cook 1 to 1.5 hrs. Not hot and fast not low and slow.
    4. Whole chickens can be cooked direct or indirect on the egg with great result either way. I tend to cook mine indirect at a higher heat. There is also something to be said for spatchcock direct.
    5. I feel that the egg excels at roasting poultry. This may sound silly but a juicy bird with nice crispy skin is not as easy to achieve as one might think.
    Good luck with whatever you cook let us know how it goes.
  • 4Runner
    4Runner Posts: 2,948
    In addition, there may be case for breaking in your gasket for a few cooks before going to high temp.
    Joe - I'm a reformed gasser-holic aka 4Runner Columbia, SC Wonderful BGE Resource Site: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/ceramicfaq.htm and http://www.nibblemethis.com/  and http://playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com/2006/02/recipes.html
    What am I drinking now?   Woodford....neat
  • gdenby
    gdenby Posts: 6,239
    Google "Naked Whiz," and look at his page for "Spatchcock'd Chicken." It is preferable to have some way to raise the grill to the felt line, so there is a bit more distance from the lump. Many people find it to be the prefered way to do chicken.

    I'd suggest before you do a first cook, just play with temperature control. While the Egg can be adjusted to get very precise temperatures, the rising and falling of the temperature has "momentum." Its a little more like bringing a boat to a stop rather than a car. There's a tendency to overshoot.

    If you go too hot for about 20 minutes, the ceramic will gather enough heat to keep the temperature up for quite awhile, sometimes as much as an hour.

    Once you get the hang of it, your cooking methods will have a huge improvement. Good luck!
  • Thanx for all Feed back I think i'll be doing a couple of Beer Butt Chickens And ABT'S.
  • 55drum
    55drum Posts: 162
    edited September 2011
    I usually tell people to roast a whole chicken for their first cook

    Agree........my first cook was 5 whole chickens on indirect...came out great...GL

    Couldn't find the quote button??
  • LDD
    LDD Posts: 1,225
    chicken seems to be a popular one... spatchcock in particular I went straight to 2" thick rib steaks for my 1st cook... a-la  go big or go home... (you can probably guess I have an XL)

    chicken was my 2nd cook. then I moved onto wings for a while, trying to get the skin crispy... ahh.. the memories... hehe
    context is important :)
  • SMITTYtheSMOKER
    SMITTYtheSMOKER Posts: 2,668
    edited September 2011

    TWEEV QUOTE-Rather than beer butt, just do a spatchcock. Beer butting does nothing to improve the flavour or moisture... Well, when cooking chickens at least. 

    -I am amazed at your opinions, you need to cook more my friend.

     

    I would suggest cooking something you are familar with, judge the your new cooker for what it can do with a known cook.

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

  • LDD
    LDD Posts: 1,225
    @Smitty

    I haven't found sticking anything up the chickens butt has added much flavour.... maybe I need to stick it up there further?  :)>-
    context is important :)
  • My first cook wasn't great. It's all a learning experience. Make something you're familiar with from your weber. Just learn how to control the egg.
  • @Tweev -One of the keys to cooking beer can chicken is plugging the neck of the bird.  Like I menetioned, you simply need to cook more.

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

  • LDD
    LDD Posts: 1,225
    I hope this isn't about to get ugly... I'm short on popcorn
    context is important :)
  • Mark0525
    Mark0525 Posts: 1,235
    I'll take spatchcock chicken over beer can chicken any day.  The only thing you do with beer can chicken is waste beer.  I'd rather drink it  :)  just my opinion
  • Mark0525
    Mark0525 Posts: 1,235
    be nice Tweev  :)
  • Squeezy
    Squeezy Posts: 1,102

    I must agree beer butt does not add any flavor, but I have never found any other method that produces a more moist breast ... having said that .... I prefer dark meat  :D

     

    Never eat anything passed through a window unless you're a seagull ... BGE Lg.
  • How about we leave the petty back & forth to the other forum - they're good @ that.  This "my kung fu better than your kung fu" isn't cool. 

    That's the good thing over here, is that people can have the freedom to do beer can, or not.  If you don't wanna do Car Wash Mike's ribs recipe, and you want to use beer, you are free to do so - you don't have to do everything lock-step w/ what someone tells you. 

    Other places, if you dared to do anything other than spatchcock, or CWM ribs, or if you were a rebel & didn't have a Thermopen, you were an outcast. 

    Let people be FREE to choose!!  FREEEEDOMMMMMMM!!! 

    Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup... Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. - Bruce Lee
  • heh... that's exactly the picture I had in mind when I wrote that...

    KUDOS!!  Thanks!
    Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup... Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. - Bruce Lee
  • So Rob, you are the  Mod on this board?

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

  • So Rob, you are the  Mod on this board?

    Smitty - me, moderator?  =;

    You've seen my work ethic - if I had anything to do w/ this board, it wouldn't be in the sad shape it is in as far as fixing the bugs & moderating the spam & allowing the free advertising for the other board.  hehehe...  :-\"

    I'm all for FREEDOM so if'n you & Tweev wanna go tit-for-tat, you certainly have the freedom to do so.  Was just hoping the "if you don't do it this way, then you're WRONG" mentality didn't carry over to here, and that folks could read about many different ways (beer can, spatchcock, etc) & EGG-speriment with the different techniques & come to their own conclusions as to what works for them. 

    That being said, I tried BOTH the beer can method & the spatchcock method & came to the conclusion that I can get better results if I just buy the PIECES separately & grill them (breasts, legs, thighs) versus trying to do them all at once on a whole chicken - whether it was beer canned, or spatchcocked. 

    I did however pick up a good tip from you regarding "plugging the neck," so the next time the GF & I feel like chicken I might have to try another beer can method & plug up the neck... Learn somethin new every day - so thank ya!!!!   :D
    Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup... Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. - Bruce Lee
  • P.S.  So what do you suggest you plug the neck up with?  Please don't say to just leave the gizzard & organs in there that they sometimes stuff inside the neck???  :-&
    Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup... Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. - Bruce Lee
  • SMITTYtheSMOKER
    SMITTYtheSMOKER Posts: 2,668
    edited September 2011

    I have used lemon or orange wedges in the past. 

    I hate to see anyone steer new Eggers in the wrong direction.

    His opinion is proven wrong by the Whiz himself (thanks for taking the stand Doug).

     

    Healthy discussion is needed to find the truth. You'll have an empty forum if everyone agrees with each other... I do try to be civil in my dialogue.

     

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

  • Squeezy
    Squeezy Posts: 1,102
    Some use a piece of apple or potato to plug the neck ... I use a skewer or toothpicks threaded back and forth through the skin ....kinda like sewing ... works well
    Never eat anything passed through a window unless you're a seagull ... BGE Lg.
  • Bumm39
    Bumm39 Posts: 60
    edited September 2011
    Did a pair of Chickens, one with wine, and one with beer they came out FANTASTIC
  • Spoon
    Spoon Posts: 328
    Congrats on your first cook you Bumm! The birds look like they came out great. What was the verdict on the beer vs. No beer chicken?
    "Pork so tender you can pull it with a spoon." ~Spoon
  • Spoon
    Spoon Posts: 328
    Oops I mis-read that one. I missed the wine part. But I would be interested in a beer vs. No beer head to head (and I don't mean the cook, just the chickens).
    "Pork so tender you can pull it with a spoon." ~Spoon
  • Bumm39
    Bumm39 Posts: 60
    edited September 2011
    Both were Moist, Flavorful, and distinctly Different. Next time, however I will close off neck with apple or potato as as fellow EggHead suggested.