Category Archives: BBQ

My First DIY Smoked Beef Brisket: Day 1 – Preparation

Posted on by
10

Ahhhh, I truly love the Texas BBQ (see “BBQ Smoker Monitoring Robot“)! And what I love the most is Beef Brisket. Unfortunately, I cannot travel each time to the US to get some brisket. So good or bad, I have to make the brisket myself :-). The challenge is that outside of Texas, ‘Brisket’ probably is an unknown thing, especially in my area. In the usual grocery stores and supermarket, if I ask for a brisket, they they just shake their heads and ask “brisket what?”. Of course, my local butcher (Messerli, Metzger meines Vertrauens!) in Steinen knew exactly what I need for a Brisket :-): a special cut of beef from the lower chest of beef.

On Tuesday, I sent my wife to pre-order my cut of beef, and this morning we picked it up in the butcher’s store. An excellent piece, already trimmed, 1.662 kg:

Raw Beef Brisket

Raw Beef Brisket

Continue reading →

BBQ Smoker Monitoring Robot

Posted on by
6

I have to admit: I’m not a vegetarian. I love BBQ, and no offense to vegetarians! Today is perfect day for another BBQ session, and this time I plan to enhance it with electronics. No, not eating electronics, but doing BBQ with a little DIY electronic helper. There are different ways to cook meat on an open fire pit, and each region of the world has its own way to do it. Traditionally, in my area we are ‘grilling’ the meat: high temperature, for a few minutes, done! I like that ‘fast food way’ too, but there is an even better version: Slow food smoking!

I’m gifted that I had the opportunity to experience the Texas BBQ culture: slowly cooking the meat, at low temperature, and ‘smoking’ it: Cooking the meat around 80°C prevents that it gets dry (because the water does not vaporize, see this article on Wikipedia). There are different ways how to do this, but I love the way how it is done at the Salt Lick in Austin/TX with an open fire pit:

BBQ Pit in Austin Texas

BBQ Pit in Austin Texas

Continue reading →