Sunday, September 17, 2017

New Cobb Supreme Grill / First Cook Ribs

Cobb Grill America (US Distributor) had a huge one day Labor Day sale on all their products at 30% off and I needed some items for my standard Cobb Premier so I ordered them and after kicking it around for most of the day and evening, I ordered the Cobb Supreme Oval which is their largest cooker. The 30% off is the largest discount I have ever seen on these cookers. 

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Ok, I decided to cook a slab of loin back ribs and a slab of St. Louis cut spare ribs for my first try with the new cooker. 

I prepped the ribs by trimming some of the fat off and then removing the membrane. I then sprinkled on a good rib rub about 20 minutes before the cook. I added about 20 all hardwood briquets to the charcoal basket for the cook. Used a couple chunks of hickory for smoke.

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Got the cook started about daylight this morning.

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Cooker just sitting there and doing it's thing...

The standard round Cobb Premier is about 11-1/2” in diameter on the cooking surface and my new oval Cobb Supreme measures about 12” X 17-1/4” on the cooking surface. 

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I cooked the ribs at about 300F degrees and the cook took 2-1/2 hours. Did not use any foil.

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Ribs sliced and ready for serving.

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Nice looking ribs with lots of meat.

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A couple of nice thick loin back rib pieces along with a couple of sides makes a fine meal.

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Nice smoke ring on the rib pieces.

The first cook came out pretty good but I did have too much charcoal in the cooker and had to fight to keep the temperatures in check. Probably be a small learning curve on this oval cooker as compared to the smaller round Cobb.



Almost Smash Burgers on the Cobb Grill

I call these “almost” because I don’t do every step required to make them a true Smash Burger. 

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This is a great method for cooking burgers and we have several chain burger restaurants in the US that use this method.

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Ok, I started with 22 all hardwood briquets in the small Weber charcoal chimney. As soon as they were fairly well ashed over, I poured them into the larger charcoal basket. Added my Grill Grates and let the grill come up to about 600F degrees measured on the cooking surface for my burgers.

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Smash Burgers must be made with fresh, never frozen, ground beef with a 80/20 ratio of lean to fat. I made my 4 burgers with a pound and a half of meat so each burger weighed about 6 ounces. I divided up my burger and kinda rolled it into four balls being careful to not work it very much. Added butter to the Grill Grates and placed two balls of meat on the grid. I then smashed them with the tool and held them for 10 seconds and removed the tool. At this point, I sprinkled on some SPG added the lid and was on my way.

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I cooked them for about 4 minutes and then turned them over and cooked them for about 2 more minutes and then added the cheese. Cooked them an additional minute and a half and they were ready to come off of the grill.

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First 2 Smash Burgers ready to come off of the Cobb. The sear you get with this method is kinda krispy and just adds so much taste and flavor to the meat.

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The official Smash Burgers have a Smash Sauce on them but I don't care for it so I just use something that suits me.

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There are many items you can put on a Smash Burger but I like lettuce, onion, tomato, pickle, and a little catsup and mustard.

Turkey Breast on my Hasty-Bake Ranger Rotisserie

This was just my second cook on my new Hasty-Bake Ranger which is one of their two tailgate size cookers. The Ranger is the nicer of the two models and is all Stainless Steel and is one of the reasons that makes it a great little cooker / grill. 

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Ok, I didn’t figure that there was any good way to install a rotisserie in this little cooker as there were handles on both sides, the charcoal door on the right side, and the exhaust vent on the left side which all were in the way of any type of good method of installing the rotisserie unit. I had about given up on this project and was cutting up a stainless steel rack to go in my charcoal pan to help prevent the small pieces of lump from falling thru and it “hit me up the side of the head”, why couldn’t a fellow install a rotisserie from front to back in the cooker? I measured it all up and by golly, I think I could do it! 

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Had to order a couple of items but I got it all setup and then cut down a new rack or cooking grid to fit on the remaining space on the cooker and was ready to try it out. I needed the grid to be able to both use the rotisserie and the grid at the same time. Really made a nice modification to this grill. 

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Beautiful cool morning for the cook and I got it started early in the morning. 

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The turkey just before it came off of the rotisserie and it came out a little darker than I expected so I will need to lower the temperature a little on the next cook but overall, I was well pleased with this part of the cook. The skin was perfect! 

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Pulled the turkey breast and the rotisserie setup and put the cooker back together and then added my raised second grate and put my sides on the cooker. I had a pan of new potatoes with green beans, onions, and bacon, a pan of cornbread stuffing, a bowl of gravy, and on my raised grate, a pan of yeast rolls. 

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Didn’t take very long to get the sides done as they just needed heated up to a safe temperature. 

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The results of my cook. 

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It all came out great and the rotisserie mod worked out well. 


I think I know where my Thanksgiving meal will be cooked this year.

12 Pound Ham & Ez-Mac on the Cobb Grill

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This is my most recent cook on my Cobb grill and it consisted of a large 12 pound ham and then this was followed up with a mac and cheese cook. You just gotta have mac and cheese with ham!

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This is the largest piece of meat I have ever tried to cook in the Cobb grill. It came in at  just under 12 pounds and was on sale at my local store. 

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Now, that's a chunk of meat!! I used my plus 24 grill plate under the meat which will allow more convection air & heat to flow up and around the ham. I also had to use two dome extensions to have enough height to do the cook.

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Now, to top this cook off...I did it in the rain and this is a picture shot thru my kitchen window.

I started with 21 all hardwood briquets in my small Weber charcoal chimney and then added a couple of hickory chunks to the top of my fire. I also had to add charcoal two more times during this part of the cook. 

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The ham is done on the cooker. It took about 4-1/2 hours to complete this part of the cook. 

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The Ez-Mac is an all in one dish and doesn't require cooking the pasta in advance. Just throw it all in the pan and cook away...

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These are the results of my cooks. 

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I melted some cheese on my bun half, added the ham, a slice of lettuce, a nice big slice of garden tomato, and then topped it with some horsey sauce. Served with my Cajun Beans and some of my Ez-Mac (Mac & Cheese).

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Sure made a great lunch.

Ooey Gooey Dump Cake, Pineapple Upside Down Muffins

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I did this dessert bake on my little Cobb Grill yesterday and it came out quite well. 

The Dump Cake is another "artery slammer" and a very rich dessert. The ice cream and pecans kinda mellow this dish out some or at least that is what I tell myself after my second helping. 

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Just not very many ingredients in a dump cake.

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Dump cake going on the Cobb Grill.

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The Dump Cake done on the Cobb. Took about 75 minutes.

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I still had about half a box of cake mix left so I made some muffins and these are my pineapple upside down muffins ready to come off of the Cobb.

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The results of the bake.

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How about some calories?

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Melt in your mouth goodness!

More Pizza on the Cobb Grill

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Baking on the Cobb Grill has been somewhat of a challenge to be able to get the top of anything cooked or baked before the bottom burns or overcooks to where it is not fit to eat. Just about got the problems solved and this is some pizza I have done a couple of days ago that came out quite well. 

This is one of the four I cooked in a row on the Cobb Grill and some of the comments I made after the cook. 

Added a few slices of jalapeño peppers and sprinkled on some parmesan cheese and my meal was ready.

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I started by making up about two pounds of pizza dough for my four pizza's. The ingredients for the pizza's are as follows and I really loaded them up!

My homemade very spicy Italian sausage
Pepperoni
Onions
Bell Peppers
Smoked Red Peppers
Mushrooms
Mozzarella cheese
Pizza Sauce

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Ready to go on the Cobb.

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A couple more ready to be baked.

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I used the larger charcoal basket that comes with the Cobb BBQ Kit. I loaded 22 all hardwood briquets into my Weber charcoal chimney and as soon as they were ready, I poured them into the Cobb grill.

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I used the dome extension and the cooking grate that comes with the Cobb BBQ Kit and then also the roast rack and a 8-1/2" in diameter hearth stone for this bake. This IS the hot ticket for baking bread and pizza on the Cobb Grill.

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I measured the hearth stone at the beginning of the cook with an IR thermometer and found it at about 410F degrees. I also measured the temperature at the top of the dome lid and it was running about 335-365F during the bake. While these numbers are not perfect, they are close enough to allow a fellow to make and bake a few nice pizza’s or a few loaves of hearth bread. 

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One of the four pizza's about ready to come off of the cooker.

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All four of the pizza’s done on this bake.

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Ready to be cut and served.

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About as good of a pizza you can make on any outside grill.