Received an Excel 20 about 5 weeks ago, and have had a couple of smokes now, so thought i'd post up my results.
First burn was with some cheap charcoal to pre-season it and burn of any nasties. Managed to find a source for restaurant grade charcoal thanks to a member on here. So all cooking so far has been with restaurant grade charcoal using the minion method.
First cook was with beer can chicken with a peri peri rub and a very cheap pork shoulder joint (both from Tesco). The pork was not good. A value joint reduced just seemed to have too much fat so there was very little meat. Basically binned after sampling a bit of it.
Beer can chicken was nice! Nice and moist, a bit of a smokey flavour (handful of mesquite chips at the start of the cook). Will definitely be doing it again!
Next cook was a much better shoulder of pork (again from Tesco) with a peri peri rub on it the night before. I pulled it and it was good! Subtle smokey flavour, pulled quite well although could have been a touch more tender.
Problem is that everytime I cook anything, we have something else for dinner so I can only try what i've cooked in small portions the same night.
This pulled pork was heated up the next night with some bbq sauce.........good!
Before pulling
After pulling
Also cooked some ribs. Marinaded the night before in soy sauce, peri peri rub, London bbq sauce, apple juice, garlic salt.
1 hour cooking, 1 hour foiled cooking, 1 hour out of foil. As with all my cooks, a good handful of mesquite chips at the start of cooking, and also once out of foil.
They were the best ribs i've ever personally cooked! Possibly a touch dry, but came off the bone pretty well. Think next time I need to do some sort of sticky bbq sauce, as that's the way I really like them!
Today i've done a few things all at the same time. Came across a rolled brisket joint in Tesco last night so picked it up and dry rubbed it with a bbq packet rub last night and sat it in the fridge. While I was at it I also bought a cheap unsmoked gammon joint that I thought i'd have a go at, so covered it in Lyles maple sauce (not true maple syrup, but didn't want to waste the good stuff on a cheap joint).
Brisket finish temp was 192F after about 6-7hrs. It's good is all I can say! Not had brisket before to the best of my knowledge, but i'm now a fan!
]Gammon isn't so good, but will hopefully be ok for sandwiches this week. Finishing temp was 185F because the charcoal was getting low and it was getting late. Hopefully be a step up from sliced ham from the supermarket.
While I was at it this morning, I browned off some casserole beef, onion and leeks, threw in a packet of chopped carrots, potato and swede, a couple of Oxo cubes and a bottle of Guinness and slapped that on the top rack with the brisket and gammon. Got a nice slow cooked casserole for dinner tomorrow night
This slow cooking/smoking thing is getting addictive! I need to start making my own rubs and sauces now. Got a decent pacific rim sauce recipe that may well beat my current best ribs!
