***Official 2016 BBQ, Smoking, Grilling, Cooking, Baking thread***

Belly Bombers...aka, The Secret of the White-Castle hamburger

So I learn A LOT of great foodie secrets from the gastronomic researchers at Serious Eats. This is the definitive article on the all-beef slider and it's origin story. My sliders always follow the protocol laid out there.

As for my ground meat mix selection -

1.5lbs of 85/15 ground Angus beef
0.75 lbs of pork sausage
1 tbsp of Lee & Perrins' Worcestershire sauce
Fresh ground pepper

Onions are diced thin and salted. I also use the flat-iron cast iron grille out on the gas BBQ. So here are the pics -

The Setup

Each meat "ball" is about 1.5oz of meat mix.

DC86E7B3-D268-4563-BCEA-F3630D826933_zps0hkxgpz4.jpg


I only use two burners on the gas grille and get the flat-iron up to ~400F and I rub it with avocado oil prior to throwing on the first batch of onions.

7FBE942C-1306-4913-A9FF-AD9156BA01B7_zpsi4lfiahv.jpg


The Throw-Down

Throw down a batch of onions, top it with the meat ball and then give it a little smash with your spatula -

BA01FE38-10EB-47EC-B245-9CD2E85A4833_zps8pc5h4a3.jpg


I do about 4 mins per side, give or take a bit -

F23B9960-A0B7-4A14-B344-8285E510E25C_zps9jad4iyu.jpg


I also assemble the sliders into their buns and keep them in a shallow pan on the cold side of the grille. Once all of the belly-bombers are complete, bring them to your adoring family and ENJOY with your favorite sides and adult beverage -

7057AFFD-C659-438C-AD56-888B0A6099FA_zps0cks41kn.jpg


The mac & cheese in that shot is homemade following the standard recipe on a Velvetta box. I top it off with a shredded cheese blend and some Panko bread crumbs then finish it off in The Big Green Egg smoker to get the top crispy and the flavor smokey.

Buon Apetito!!
 
Ribs tonight...I've yet to get a kamado grill and our oven died so that leaves the crock pot. I whipped up the rub and let the racks sit for 24 hours tightly wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge. Crock pot get filled with half Diet Coke, half water and cook for 8 hours.



Pull them out and lather with SBR's BBQ sauce. No chance of eating them off the bone. They completely fall apart. Served with asparagus (garlic, sea salt, olive oil) and pilaf.

 
Been slacking off on posting up stuff, these are from the past week on various days:

Meatloaf

I made this last Tuesday night, started out peeling and boiling the potatoes:



Then started on the meatloaf by adding an egg, ketchup, mustard, worcestershire sauce, milk, bread crumbs, fresh garlic, powdered garlic, salt, black pepper, parsley and Italian seasoning. I then placed the mixture into a baking dish that I sprayed with non-stick spray and formed it into a "loaf" shape with an indentation on the top, then added a mixture of ketchup, mustard and light brown sugar to the top of it:






[FONT=arial, sans-serif]After the potatoes were boiled until soft, I drained them and placed them back in the pan with milk, butter, sour cream, salt, black pepper and parsley. I then smashed them and then whipped them with a wisk:

[/FONT]






Prior to that I had placed the meatloaf covered with foil into the oven I think at 375°, after about 45 minutes this is how it looked:



I then drained some of the fat and placed it back into the oven with the broiler on for about 8 minutes:




In between all of that, I made a brown gravy and warmed up some mixed veggies:




And here we are!!! A perfect "Fall" meal!!!






 
I LOOOOVE meatloaf....oh heck, who am I kidding, I love food.....

I use a meatloaf pan to make my meatloaf. Like this - Amazon.com: Wilton Perfect Results 2 Piece Meatloaf Pan: Loaf Pans: Kitchen Dining

I also make sure that the meatloaf is pressed down into the pan with about 1/2" or so of space between the top of the meatloaf and the pan edge. Then I make sure a thick layer of sauce (your recipe sounds delicious but I've used straight ketchup or BBQ sauce at times), about the entire 1/2" space, is on top of the meatloaf and fully encasing it. This keeps the meatloaf cooking in it's own juices and avoids drying it out on top. I then remove the meat loaf and almost let it completely cool off for slicing. I will then take the slices and sear them in a cast iron pan to brown them, then serve the hot meatloaf sauce on top. If I don't use the meatloaf sauce/juices, I'll use the brown gravy for the mashed potatoes as sauce for the meatloaf.

It's a bit more work than the standard lump-in-pan meatloaf (my mom always did the lump method), but it presents very nicely on a plate when you have very well-defined rectangular slices and drizzle of sauce on top. Left over slices of meatloaf (yeah, like that ever happens...) can be used the next day to make meatloaf sandwiches.
 

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That hurt.

I saw your recommendation for it the other day. I nearly fell out of my chair from the shock.

I'll be cancelling the delivery to your house to beta test Screenlogic 3. Too bad... Whole home automation, pool automation, new salt cell with a true hypochlorous acid probe that self adjusts based on a set value, a prototype waterfall pump (200 gpm @ 150 watts), 3 position valve actuators, wifi BGE monitoring, and a completely wireless solar powered robot with gunite garage installation and hidden pebble matched Caribbean blue door.

I shouldn't have too much trouble finding another tester though...
 
That hurt.

I saw your recommendation for it the other day. I nearly fell out of my chair from the shock.

I'll be cancelling the delivery to your house to beta test Screenlogic 3. Too bad... Whole home automation, pool automation, new salt cell with a true hypochlorous acid probe that self adjusts based on a set value, a prototype waterfall pump (200 gpm @ 150 watts), 3 position valve actuators, wifi BGE monitoring, and a completely wireless solar powered robot with gunite garage installation and hidden pebble matched Caribbean blue door.

I shouldn't have too much trouble finding another tester though...

I'll wait for version 4 to come out...I hear they're removing the audio jack in that version to make it more water proof ;)
 
Belly Bombers...aka, The Secret of the White-Castle hamburger

So I learn A LOT of great foodie secrets from the gastronomic researchers at Serious Eats. This is the definitive article on the all-beef slider and it's origin story. My sliders always follow the protocol laid out there.

As for my ground meat mix selection -

1.5lbs of 85/15 ground Angus beef
0.75 lbs of pork sausage
1 tbsp of Lee & Perrins' Worcestershire sauce
Fresh ground pepper

Onions are diced thin and salted. I also use the flat-iron cast iron grille out on the gas BBQ. So here are the pics -

The Setup

Each meat "ball" is about 1.5oz of meat mix.

DC86E7B3-D268-4563-BCEA-F3630D826933_zps0hkxgpz4.jpg


I only use two burners on the gas grille and get the flat-iron up to ~400F and I rub it with avocado oil prior to throwing on the first batch of onions.

7FBE942C-1306-4913-A9FF-AD9156BA01B7_zpsi4lfiahv.jpg


The Throw-Down

Throw down a batch of onions, top it with the meat ball and then give it a little smash with your spatula -

BA01FE38-10EB-47EC-B245-9CD2E85A4833_zps8pc5h4a3.jpg


I do about 4 mins per side, give or take a bit -

F23B9960-A0B7-4A14-B344-8285E510E25C_zps9jad4iyu.jpg


I also assemble the sliders into their buns and keep them in a shallow pan on the cold side of the grille. Once all of the belly-bombers are complete, bring them to your adoring family and ENJOY with your favorite sides and adult beverage -

7057AFFD-C659-438C-AD56-888B0A6099FA_zps0cks41kn.jpg


The mac & cheese in that shot is homemade following the standard recipe on a Velvetta box. I top it off with a shredded cheese blend and some Panko bread crumbs then finish it off in The Big Green Egg smoker to get the top crispy and the flavor smokey.

Buon Apetito!!

East coast roots??


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East coast roots??


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Grew up on Long Island near Stony Brook. Took many a ferry ride between Port Jefferson and Bridgeport as well as the Orient Point-New London ferry. Did 3 years in Boston (hence the ferry rides) and rode Amtrak from Boston to DC many times. My wife and I lived in NYC for 10 years before migrating west to Cali and then on to AZ where we have happily settled into the desert life. My brother still lives in NYC but he and his wife may be relocating to St. Louis soon.

Lots of East Coast blood in these veins....
 
Well in that case I'll send our lovely winters your way, you can have them!


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One of the (many) reasons why I no longer live on the East Coast. We get snow here in Tucson...up on Mt Lemmon. It stays there and looks beautiful. If I decide I want to go play in the snow, I can go visit it any time I like...

And, it goes without saying, it's way easier to not have to close a pool. Just throw in a little bleach once every few weeks and let the freeze-protect handle the rest.


Just caught my eye you are a BGE, ever check out kamadoguru?


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I'll admit, I went straight for the Egg so I really have no comparison to make. Given the high up-front cost of these ceramic smokers, you pretty much just choose one and go with it. I'm sure the Kamado's and the Primo's are all great smokers...I just love the color of the BGE, no mistaking one when you see it.

Now, of you truly want to get into smoking, then there's simply no comparison with one of these beauties -


Ultimate Upright Smoker Pit - Pitts Spitts
 
Kamadoguru is an awesome ceramic cooker forum.. I've owned ever smoker out there & ceramic is the only way for me, from overnight cooks to screaming hot pizza fires.. I'm considering getting my hands on a mini egg also

(That's a sexy offset cooker in that link, a real big boy toy!!)


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I did meatloaf in the Big Green Egg -

b09103ea59db13fb0651effbf88f1fd4.jpg


I won't bore you with a recipe as everyone seems to have their own meatloaf concoction. I cooked mine in my meatloaf pan which suspends the loaf and keeps it from getting greasy. I also did a fresh mushroom and red wine reduction for the beef gravy (yeah, i use the jarred beef gravy....) and added sides of fresh potato salad and steamed broccoli.

My kids ate it all up so that tells me it's pretty good since they reject anything not in the shape of a chicken nugget.
 

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