First Low and Slow on the Keg. The Results!

[maxman]

I posted a few days ago that I was going to try a low and slow on the Broil King Keg.
I ended up choosing a beef blade roast. I put on some rub I made up from a recipe I found online.
I set up the Keg with a plate to diffuse the heat and lit the lump. I did not add any wood chunks for smoke because my target audience (my family) does not like smoke flavour.
Let the keg come up to about 50* below target temp and I adjusted the draft and exhaust vents.

I let the keg stabilise a bit and put on the meat.
Set up the thermometers (Maverick is awesome) and closed the lid.

Now you have to remember this is my first attempt at low and slow on this thing.
The temperature seemed to be good at about 255* then it started to climb.
It topped out at 289* so I started to fiddle with the draft and exhaust.
I remember reading that the adjustments should be very small. Just a tap on the vents and let it go for 30 minutes before making any other adjustments to see how it reacts.

I had temperature fluctuations all day long from 240* to 290* but not rapid spikes. It was slow and steady climbs and falls. I found it very difficult to hold back from fiddling with the vents.

Let's look at a picture of the rig and then more of me yakin'



Ok so I am aware of the "stall" and while it did start to slow at about 160* it did not completely stall out. It did slow a lot but not what I would call a true stall. So in about 6 hours the internal temperature was at 185*. Here's what it looked like at that point. Yummy!!



I was 2 hours early. I had no idea it would cook in only 6 hours! I really didn't have a clue how long it would take. Especially since I couldn't keep the temperature from fluctuating.

I have heard of people wrapping meat in foil and putting it in a warm cooler to keep. The cooler was being used by my brother on his fishing trip. So I wrapped the meat in foil anyway and moved the meat off to keep warm sitting in the gas grill (no heat other than from the hot sun). Hey, I had to put it somewhere!

I closed the vents on the Keg and let the fire die. As soon as the keg got down to around 110* or so I put the meat in the foil back in there to keep. The dang thing is insulated so well! It took a long time for the temp to come down.
I was a bit worried that it wasn't going to be good. But, in the end, it turned out fantastic!
Everyone was pleased with the meat and it all disappeared.

I'm totally hooked on this now. It was fun and tasty.
Enjoy some pics of the final result.

 

[huskers]

Looks like you got a good ring on that chunk of meat brother.

The foil thing, not sure if you understand the purpose of it or not............?


You let the meat rest after cooking so the meat fibers relax allowing the juices to re-enter the meat so it's nice and moist and not dry.



It's really hard to tell looking at the pictures but the meat looks to be a bit on the dry side?

Here's a bit of constructive criticism that may help you in the future. When doing cuts of meat with little to no fat, You will want to foil it with a bit of liquid towards the end of the cook OR spritz the meat every so often to keep it nice and moist.


I see you have an aluminum pan in your cooker.......is that to catch the drippings or did you put some liquid in that pan?

That's another trick to help keep lean cuts moist, put a little liquid in that pan to make a nice moist environment for that meat.



All in all, it looks great, tasted great and you had fun.........that's all that matters!

 

[maxman]

Looks like you got a good ring on that chunk of meat brother.

The foil thing, not sure if you understand the purpose of it or not............?


You let the meat rest after cooking so the meat fibers relax allowing the juices to re-enter the meat so it's nice and moist and not dry.



It's really hard to tell looking at the pictures but the meat looks to be a bit on the dry side?

Here's a bit of constructive criticism that may help you in the future. When doing cuts of meat with little to no fat, You will want to foil it with a bit of liquid towards the end of the cook OR spritz the meat every so often to keep it nice and moist.


I see you have an aluminum pan in your cooker.......is that to catch the drippings or did you put some liquid in that pan?

That's another trick to help keep lean cuts moist, put a little liquid in that pan to make a nice moist environment for that meat.



All in all, it looks great, tasted great and you had fun.........that's all that matters!

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that part with the stall. Since it didn't really happen I should have reasoned it out that the meat had enough moisture in it. But I didn't come to that conclusion until later when I was reading an article on it.

But I did have to keep it for 2 hours and figured that the foil at least would keep whatever moisture was in there actually in there instead of all over a cutting board.

 

[DoctorShavegood]

Looks tasty Marc.

 

[maxman]

It was. It had a lot of moisture left and wasn't dry.

 

[SciTX]

well done and welcome to Kamado cooking!! it's all new to me as well....but I'm enjoying the ride!

 

[oc_in_fw]

I hope my first low and slow goes as well. Of course, I will probably go pork butt- hard to mess that up.

 

[Ollie4ISU]

Nice looking cook. I have a Big Steel Keg. It's natural "low" temp is about 240. I have a Pitmaster IQ that will help it run in the 215-220 range. Here is one cook I did a few years back...