Cobb Grill / Competition Steak Cooker??

Well...maybe. I think if set up right, a fellow could come pretty close to producing a competition quality steak. This is my attempt at this task with the little Cobb Cooker.

Those great folks at Grill Grates make their product for about any grill or cooker and sure enough, they had a pair of grates to fit the Cobb Grill so I did order a set for my grill.



For my first try at a good competition steak, I started with a 16oz ribeye and got it out of the fridge about 45 minutes before the fire. Applied a great steak rub and set it aside to a cooling rack. I also had one of those nice big Indiana pork chops (1” thick) that weighed about a pound so I applied some salt and pepper to this chop as well for the wife. To complete the cook, I made up three of my homemade 1/3rd pound 60/40 fat burgers as these are always great on any cooker.



Rather than using the standard lighting procedure for the Cobb Grill fire, I decided to use a small charcoal chimney to be sure I had all of the fuel hot at the start of the cook.



Poured the lump into the grill and spread it out evenly and my fire was ready to cook.



Placed the Grill Grates on the Cobb and waited for about 15 minutes to allow the grill to get up to about 600 degrees which is ideal steak cooking temperature and then placed the steak on the grid at the 10am to 4pm position for the first phase of the cook. Let it cook for 2-1/2 minutes and turned it 105 degrees to the 2pm to 8am position on the grill. After another 2-1/2 minutes I turned the steak over and cooked that side the same as the first and took the steak off of the grill after about 9-1/2 minutes at 135 internal which should come out to about a medium steak as the contest requires.



This is the steak just before it came of of the Cobb Grill and I think it looks great. That answered my question and I do believe a competition quality steak can be cooked on the Cobb Grill.



Here is the steak as I would present it at a SCA event.

Next up was my big Indiana pork chop.



I used the same procedure as with the above steak as it was about the same thickness of the steak and I wanted it cooked to about 140 internal so I figured it would need about the same amount of time.



Didn’t come out as pretty as the steak but did look good.

After the chop, I turned the Grill Grates over to the smooth side for my three fat burgers.



About 600 degrees at the cooking surface on the backside of the Grill Grates is searing excellence at it’s finest for my fat burgers. Cooked the burgers to medium rare at about 3-4 minutes a side.



The smoke pouring out of the cooker with the burgers on it kinda reminded me of an old steam locomotive climbing a hill many years ago.

Let’s eat...





Wife wanted the chop so I fixed her up with some peas and fruit and she had a nice meal although she couldn’t eat the whole chop.





While steak and chops are good, I live for my 60/40 fat burgers cooked to about medium rare as they are about my favorite meal coming off of a grill. I dressed the burger with a slice of tomato, a slice of cheese, a slice of onion, and some lettuce and then added some chips and a couple of deviled eggs and I was one satisfied old man.

Stuffed Peppers / Cobb Grill

The ingredients for this dish are as follows:

One pound of 70 / 30 burger
One pound of my homemade spicy Italian sausage
Two cups cooked rice
Chopped onions
Chopped bell pepper tops
Chopped celery
Can of chopped tomatoes
Garlic
Bell peppers
Cheddar cheese
Jalapeno Catsup
Worcestershire Sauce
Tabasco sauce
Italian spices, salt, and pepper
About a half cup of water

I started this cook by par-boiling my bell peppers for about 5 minutes to make them a little more tender.

Next step was to cook the rice.

I oiled up a cast iron skillet and put the onions, bell pepper tops, celery, and cooked this for about 6-7 minutes and then added the spices and garlic and cooked another minute or two and placed the results into a large mixing bowl.

Added all but my sauce components into the mixing bowl and just mixed it up. Next step was to make the sauce be combining the Jalapeno catsup, some Worcestershire sauce, and a few squirts of Tabasco.





I stuffed my bell peppers and then used the leftover mixture for a small meatloaf.



Added my hot and spicy sauce.





As soon as the Cobb was up to temperature, I placed the stuffed peppers along with a couple of baked potatoes on the grill.



Just before the peppers were ready, I added some shredded cheddar to the top of the peppers and gave them enough time for the cheese to melt and pulled the treat off of the grill.



Followed the peppers with the meatloaf and added the cheese to this as well.





Added some fruit and a buttered up bun half and along with a good ale, had a great meal.

Roadside Rotisserie Chicken / Cobb Grill

I started with a 5.49 lb whole frozen chicken the day before my cook and after I got it thawed, I trimmed it up a little and then placed it into a one gallon Zip-Lock bag and poured about 12 oz of Wishbone Robusto salad dressing over it and put it back into the fridge for the overnight stay.



On the morning of my cook, the chicken was removed from the marinade and installed in my rotisserie setup for the cook. Nice feature about this setup is that all the prep and setup work can be done in the kitchen and then the whole unit is just carried out and placed on the cooker base when the temperature is where I want it. Anyway, once I got it installed on the spit, I just turned the rotisserie motor on and sprinkled some Smokin’ Guns Hot rub all over my chicken and we were ready for the fire.

I also started my fire in the Cobb using 14 Stubb’s briquets and then added a little hickory for a light smoke.



Was a cold morning at about 25 degrees and we had an overnight dusting of snow as you can see in this picture. Loaded the chicken into the Cobb Grill and turned it loose for the first hour.



My baste or mop for this cook was “The Roadside Chicken Sauce” which is a great baste, marinade, sauce, and overall chicken enhancer that can be found on the web. After the first hour of cooking, I mopped the chicken building up layers of flavor at about every 15-20 minutes until the chicken was done. I had to add a few more briquets during the cook.



Chicken looked good coming off of the cooker.



Cut up the chicken and got it plated.





Plated up my chicken and added some mashed potatoes and gravy, sliced tomatoes, and a roll and had one fine meal.