Cooking it up

Thursday was a gorgeous day – blue skies throughout, so I started up the BBQ for the first time, and – at various times, cooked the following:

Burgers (standard supermarket Aberdeen Angus burgers)
Venison Burgers (also supermarket)
Salmon Fillets
Brisket (a cheap rolled brisket)

The burgers were all great tasting, but slightly dry – the venison especially so, as they are low in fat. This is because I cooked them slow and low, beside the Brisket. So, in future, I need to either cook normal burgers on the grill setting, or – if I want them slow and smokey – make my own burgers with a higher fat content than normal.

The Salmon Fillets were the one slight disaster, as I didn’t cook them for long enough – they looked cooked, but it wasn’t quite there. I’ll know better next time.

The Brisket was curious. First of all, I should never have put this piece of meat on a BBQ – it was a rolled brisket, with most the fat removed, and it shouldn’t have worked. But it was a cheap cut of meat, and I thought it would do to learn on, and if I incinerated it, it wouldn’t matter.

I smothered it in good mustard, then used a packet rub. It looked good on the grill, and my remote thermometer probe did the trick, telling me the internal temperature of the meat. I know I opened the grill too many times to look at it – these grills are designed to work closed up, and the common phrase is “If you’re looking, it ain’t cooking”. Towards the end, it was clear that the joint still needed time in the grill, but was getting dry, so I wrapped it into a foil parcel, into which I poured a third of a bottle of beer.

When I removed and unwrapped the brisket, it had a good smoke ring to it – you could see the smoke going into the flesh. However, it wasn’t at all tender, and although it had a smokey taste, the meat itself was pretty bland. Not a disaster, but not a success either. Disappointed, I wrapped it in clean foil and put it in the fridge.

Overnight, the BBQ elves arrived, and swapped my dried out meat for something else. Cold, and sliced thinly, the meat tasted wonderful, of beef with a smokey taste. I nibbled away at it throughout Friday, and when a neighbour came over I showed it to him and sliced a couple of bits off. He politely tried one, nibbled on it, then immediately took the other.

Success!

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