Cook, Grill, and Bake/Char-Broil CB 500X

This is a mixed cook, grill, and bake in this fine little cooker and the meat used in this cook are two nice pork steaks cut about 1/2" thick, two rib-eyes cut about 1-1/2" thick, three burgers at 1/3 pound each, and I also added some no knead bread which I decided to bake in my small Dutch oven. Here is a teaser from this cook.



As you can see, these rib-eyes look great!

I started this cook by setting up the cooker for a low and slow type of cook for the pork steaks. I loaded the right side of the cooker with some Stubb's charcoal. I then added a couple of Weber fire cubes. I placed a half size drip pan on the left side to catch the drippings and to also add a little moisture to the cook. Added about a cup of water to the drip pan to keep the drippings from burning. Placed my cooking grid over the drip pan and I was ready to load the pork steaks. I fired off the cooker and brought it up to about 230 degrees and loaded the pork steaks which had been rubbed with my low carb rub.



I added a couple of chunks of hickory wood to the fire and let the cooker do it's thing.



Was a pretty nice day with the temperature around 40 degrees which was melting all our ice and snow.

I smoked the pork steaks about two hours and glazed them and removed them from the cooker. I then added the second cooking grid right over the fire as I planned to cook the burgers and steak both direct and indirect. I also opened up the front service door on the cooker to bring up the temperature for the grilling.



I seared my 1/3 pound burgers over the fire on the right side of the cooker and then placed them on the indirect (left) side for a few more minutes to get them done.



I sprinkled some garlic salt and fresh cracked black pepper on my steaks. I then placed them on the direct side and over the hot coals in the cooker for a sear. Seared both sides and then placed them on the indirect side to cook them to about medium rare.



I added a few more pieces of charcoal and loaded up my no-knead bread in my small Dutch oven. Opened up the service door on the front of the cooker all the way as I wanted the cooker to run hot as possible with what I had left of the charcoal. Would have been nice to have started with a fresh load of charcoal as the bread is better baked above 450 degrees but we came out pretty good with the temp around 350- 375 degrees as my charcoal was about used up. Took a little longer but the bread was just as good.

Now, for the money shots!









I added a small cuke and onion salad in vinegar, and some tomato slices and a piece of lettuce, and then cut me a slice of the bread and spread on some real butter, and plated up my steak.



WOW!!



The old fatman got that steak cooked just right....eat your heart out!

I think I am gonna like this cooker.....

Beef Ribs on the Char-Broil 500X

I did another learning cook on my CB500X cooker. I found some beef ribs with a little bit of meat on them and snapped them up. Meaty beef ribs in my area just doesn't happen very often and these looked fairly good.



These ribs were the bone in beef back ribs and this slab weighed 4.19 pounds. At a $1.98 a pound the slab cost $8.30. You know, a fellow will only get about 65% of this weight after cooking so this would be about 2.7 pounds. Now, take out the bones and gristle and you have about 6 to 7 oz of actual meat left out of this whole slab of beef ribs. Very costly but sure worth it in my opinion.



I sprinkled on a generous coat of my no carb rub and got them ready for the cooker. I had to trim off one bone to get them to fit the cooking grid.



I set the little cooker up for an indirect cook and loaded the charcoal tray about half full of lump. Filled a small charcoal chimney up with lump and when it was ready, I poured it on top of the lump in the cooker. I added about 1-1/2 cup of water to my drip pan to keep the drippings from burning.



I added the slab of ribs and it sure filled up the grid. I had the cooker at about 275 degrees for the start of this cook.



I cooked the ribs for about two hours at around 275-300 degrees and then took them off the grill to wrap in foil.



I brought the ribs in to wrap and added about 2-3 oz of beef broth to my foil boat and about 3 TBL of Splenda to the mix. We are low-carbing.

The ribs went back on the cooker for about two more hours in the foil until they were done.



They came out of the foil looking good. I added a generous coat of my low carb bbq sauce and they were ready to eat.



Plated one of these big ribs up with a small tossed salad and some fried apples.



There might be a better dish out there than these ribs but I sure don't know what it would be.

Char-Broil / Classic Cooker

I stumbled onto this slick little cooker a few months back while doing some research on the much larger Char-Broil 940X which is one of the Classics. It is called the Char-Broil 500X and is a smaller version of the CB 940X. Like it's bigger brother, the CB 500X just looks like quality with both cast iron and heavy steel going into it's production. You know, it's just not "tinney" like many of the cookers out there today. I really liked the looks of it, the design and features, and figured if I could get it to do half of what I can do on my Weber kettle, it might be a great purchase. And then I find it on sale for 1/2 price....Bingo!!



I just got this grill on Wednesday so I put it together and then got it ready for the first seasoning and the first cook.



Very neat little grill with the pre-seasoned cast iron grates, pull out ash pan, adjustable fire grate, and a service door in the front of the grill.

I slopped on a heavy coat of vegetable oil on all the inside parts and areas like the manual suggested and then took it outside in the cold (13 degrees) for the first fire.



Placed about 3 pounds of charcoal in a chimney and fired it up and then dumped it into the cooker for a two hour seasoning session.

When that was done, I set the cooker up for my big chuck roast that I planned to use for my pulled beef.



I trimmed all the fat off of the outside of the roast and sprinkled on a heavy dose of my low carb rub.



I moved all the charcoal to the right side of the grill and then added a drip pan with about 1-1/2 cups of water to help keep it moist and prevent the drippings from burning.



Added a few more brickettes and some chunks of hickory for smoke and then placed the roast on the cooking grid.



I smoked the roast about 3 hours at about 275 degrees and when it looked right, I took if off to wrap in foil for my braising period which will tenderize it enough for pulling.



I added about 1/2 cup of beef broth to the foil and wrapped up the meat and placed it back on the cooker.



When the internal got to about 205 degrees, I pulled the roast off of the cooker being very careful to not tear the foil as I need the juice for my meat. The total time was about 5 hours for ths smoke. Sure looked good!



I pulled the meat and then added the juice back into it and it was ready for serving.



I toasted up a piece of low carb bread, added some of that pulled beef, drizzled on some of my low carb bbq sauce, added some salad and cheese, and I had myself a great meal.

You know, this cooker at half price right now has got to be one great bargain for the folks that do like charcoal. I would think it would be perfect for tailgating.

Pizza Next.....

Non Traditional Thanksgiving / Hasty Bake

Another cook on my oldy but goody 40+ year old Hasty Bake Model 130 cooker.

This is my 3rd cook on it as I am trying to get this cooker figured out and I did get a pretty nice meal out of it yesterday.

There are just the two of us and we sometimes don't go to all the hassle of cooking up a big meal for the holidays. We decided to just cook something up plain and simple for Thanksgiving on my new old cooker.



I started out with stuffed pepper halves. For the stuffing, I used pulled and chopped pork, sharp Cheddar cheese, Worchester sauce, chopped onions, cream cheese, and bacon. I also par-boiled the pepper halves before I stuffed them.



Added a little rub and the bacon and this dish was ready for the cooker.



I took a head of Romaine lettuce and cut it lengthwise right down the middle to have two pieces. I then drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled on some fresh cracked black pepper, some sea salt, and some garlic powder to both sides and this treat as well was ready for the cooker.



Next step was to get a couple of nice thick ribeyes ready for the cooker. I sprinkled on some fresh ground black pepper and some garlic salt on the meat.

For my bread, I then prepped some Cresent Rolls for the cooker.

This is the way I set up the cooker and maybe some of you Hasty Bake owners can tell me if I got it right for this cook. My older cooker doesn't have the slide out firebox so I just loaded thru the top of the cooker and filled the right side or right half of the firebox full of lump charcoal. I placed the heat deflector over the left side of the cooker so I could cook both direct and indirect at the same time. I lit it up and brought it up to temp and raised the firebox up to just under the cooking grates.



I placed my stuffed peppers on the left or indirect side of the cooker.



I then placed my raised baking grid over the peppers for my Cresent rolls.



I placed the Cresent rolls on the indirect side of the cooker and then loaded the Romaine lettuce on the direct side of the cooker. The lettuce only cooks about 3-4 minutes a side to just get some char or black on some of the leaves and to get it warmed up in the middle.



Looked and smelled great coming off of the cooker. I shreadded up about a half cup of fresh Romano cheese and sprinkled it on top of the lettuce.



Placed the steaks on the direct side of the cooker and right over the fire and cooked them to about medium rare. Took about 6-7 minutes a side.



The steaks came off looking good.



I took the stuffed peppers off next but the bread was not ready.



I finally took the bread off after about 12 more minutes and it didn't come out as brown as I would like but it was done. I guess I just had the lid opened up tooo many times with the rest of the cook to build up enough heat to brown the bread.



You know, it sure wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving meal but it sure was a good replacement in my book.

That was the first time I did that lettuce like that and it was KILLER!

Flat Iron Steak Meal / Weber Performer

Around the first of the year, Lowe's Hardware chain put a few Weber Peformers on sale for about half price at $199.00 dollars and I did find one at this great price and bought it. I really wanted a red one but I had to settle for the black.



For my first cook, I wanted to do a total meal on the kettle so here it is.

My menu was to be the following:

Flat Iron Steak
Thick slabbed potatoes
Marinated and grilled veggies
Fruit
An Italian Flatbread

Prep



For my bread, I kinda crossed one my focaccia recipes with my bruschetta flat bread recipe and just made up the dough with some Italian herbs and then added some olive oil, a bruschetta tomato topping, some tomato slices, and shreadded mozzarela cheese. I also sprinkled on some dried Italian herbs.



The bread ready to go on the cooker.



I made up a sweet marinade for my veggies and also added some pineapple to the mix and got it soaking. I had slab onions, bell peppers, and pineapple in the bowl.



I then prepped my slab potatoes. I used peanut oil as a sticker, and then added some dried Italian spices, fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt, and some parmesan cheese.



I sprinkled on some garlic salt and then cracked up some fresh tellicherry pepper on top of my 3 pound flat iron steak.

The Cook



My slab potatoes will take the longest so they went on the cooker first. I then put the bread on the cooker on a raised grid to get it closer to the top of the cooker for the best baking results. I was running the temp at about 400 degrees.



This was the first cook on a brand new Weber Performer Grill.



The bread just off of the cooker. Man, did it smell good!!



Just as soon as I got the bread off, I opened up the vents to get the cooker up to as high temp as possible for the steak.



It only took a few minutes a side to get the steak to about medium rare- medium and then off the cooker and wrapped in foil and rested for about 30 minutes.



The potatoes were done at this time as well.



The veggies went on next in my veggie pan.



At this high temp, they only took a few minutes to cook.



After the steak rested, I cut if for the serving plate. Looked great!



Mommy wanted some more fruit with the meal so she added some tangerine slices to the plate.

Ya just gotta love those Weber kettles...