Steak, Pork Burgers, Italian Sausage, and more

This mixed cook was done on my Char-Broil CB500-X which is about my favorite little charcoal cooker. The fuel was Ozark Oak lump charcoal along with some hickory chunks for smoke. The cooker was setup with half the grids direct and the other half indirect.



I cut 3 steaks out of a whole loin about 5/8” thick which will be used for my State Fair ribeye sandwiches. I also cut 2 of the steaks about 1-1/4” thick for our regular use. 



I prepped them by cutting some excess fat off and sprinkling on some garlic salt and fresh black pepper. 



I installed my Grill Grates and got the cooker up to about 550 degrees measured on top of the grates and loaded a couple of steaks.



I cooked the thicker steaks about 3 minutes on each side to an internal of about 125 degrees and removed them from the cooker. I cooked the thinner steaks for about 1-1/2 minute per side to get them done. With this little time on the grill, I didn’t have them on long enough to turn them to get the nice cross hatch grid marks.

Jan formed up eight 1/3 pound pork burgers from our bulk meat and I cooked them next on the grill. This is another State Fair treat we love.

After the above was done I took the grill grates off of the cooker and finished the cook on the standard cast iron grids. 



Next up was my Italian sausage, a block of Spam, and some hot peppers which will be used for blackened peppers.

Jan prepped some slab potatoes by brushing on some peanut oil along with some salt and pepper.



After the peppers were done, I loaded the slab potatoes on the direct side of the cooker.



Cooker still pretty hot so the potatoes didn’t take very long.

Next up and the last cook was some ABT”s made out of the Hungarian Hot Banana Peppers. 



The peppers came out great.









All of the cook came out looking good.



Plated ribeye steak dinner.



State Fair ribeye steak sandwich along with some red beans and rice and other sides.



State Fair type of pork burger sandwich meal.



Italian sausage sandwich with some caramelized onions with some horse radish mustard.

Cooks a pair

This first cook was done on my Char-Broil CB-500X and is my favorite small charcoal tailgate type of grill. It was setup on the left side indirect with a double layer of cooking grids and the right side with straight direct cooking on a single grid. The fuel was a chimney full of that great Ozark Oak lump charcoal and a couple of chunks of hickory for my smoke.  





The cook consisted of 4 nice big pork steaks, 4 of my homemade 60/40 white burgers, 8 regular 72/28 burgers, 4 of my homemade Texas hot links, and a plate of hot peppers. 



I started the pork steaks first on the indirect side of my 2 layer grill since they will take the longest and then added my peppers to the direct side so I can eat some of them during the cook.
I then grilled the balance of the cook on the direct side of the cooker.



Later in the cook, I glazed my pork steaks with a blend of sauce and some real maple syrup.

The results of my cook.













The cook came out great.
                                               -----------------------------------------
This second cook was done on my GMG Daniel Boone pellet cooker burning hickory pellets. I added my second raised grid for this cook.



This cook consisted of 3 slabs of loin back ribs over a pan of Rick Salmon’s Pit Beans.
I like to put meat over the beans so the drippings will go into the mix for additional flavor.

The bean recipe is killer!!

Mixed Cook on Mixed Grills

I did this cook last September on a weekend and ended up using three of my favorite grills and cooking some of my favorite treats.





I started this September cook with 2-1/2 dozen breaded and smoked hot chicken wings on my GMG pellet grill. These hot and breaded wings are about my favorite appetizer.

Next up was a 2-3/4 pound chuck roast which was used for both some pulled beef and a couple of beef Manhattans. I also did a 2-1/2 pound beef tenderloin roast to be used for our Saturday evening supper. (Was later changed to be used in my Cheese Steak sandwiches).





These two roasts were smoked in my little Cobb Grill. For small amounts of food, this little grill is a lot of fun to work with and does make some fine food.

I then set my CB 500X up with the right side direct and the left side indirect and loaded it up with some Ozark Oak lump. This cooker was used to do all the ingredients except baking the hoagie buns of my 4 large cheesesteak sandwiches.



I buttered up my rolls and grilled them in my black iron skillet.



Looking good just off the grill.

Next up was my onions and these were done in peanut oil.





Then came my peppers.



I also started my cheese mixture at this time. I used cheese, garlic, salt and pepper in this blend along with a little milk.



The next ingredient I cooked was some mushrooms. 



I then warmed up my thin slices of the beef tenderloin.



About ready for my sandwiches. 





Added the meat and veggies and then slopped on the cheese for my 4 sandwiches. 





Three of the cheesesteak sandwiches were packaged and frozen for a later event.



We ended up splitting the last sandwich and used it for our Saturday evening meal.
Really was a great sandwich...Pretty hard to beat a Philly Cheesesteak made with beef tenderloin.

Homemade Burgers on the CB-500X

This is my first cook with some of the 12 pounds of 60/40 hamburger I made a couple of days ago.



The Ziplock bag in the front of this picture wasn’t frozen and contained a little over 1-1/2 pound of this great burger so I used it for this cook.



I made up  five 1/3 pound patties and added some salt and pepper so they were ready for the cooker. Notice the white color showing all the fat or flavor that is in each burger.

I filled a Weber charcoal chimney about 2/3 full of that wonderful Ozark Oak lump charcoal and when it was ready, I poured it into one side of the little grill. I have the grill set so 1/2 is direct and the other half is indirect. 



I started with my buns as I like them kinda toasted for my burgers. I also added some cheese to a couple of them as it is too difficult to get the burgers done correctly with the cheese as they are not on the grill long enough to melt the cheese. 



I placed a couple of burgers on the hot grill and then cooked them 2 minutes and turned them about 45 degrees for the nice grill marks. They then cooked another 1-1/2 minutes  and I turned them over and let this side go for 2 more minutes. The total time was 5-1/2 minutes to get the burgers to an internal of 130-135 degrees which was my goal for medium rare meat. 



Had some smoke as all that juice dripped down on my charcoal fire. 



The 5 patties looked good coming off of the cooker.



I took 2 of the patties off of the plate for our lunch and I think you can see all the juice that is left on the plate from these wonderful homemade burgers. 



Wife likes her burgers all dressed out so I added some lettuce, tomato, and a thin slice of onion to her burger with cheese.



That does look good!

This old purest doesn’t want any of that junk on his sandwich so I just loaded my patty into a bun and ate it without any additions to the sandwich. I wanted to taste all that juicy goodness of this homemade burger and this sandwich sure had that! Best burger I have had in months. Gonna eat another one for breakfast.