1/2 Pound Smash Burger on the Weber Performer

Why not start with a picture? Doesn’t that look good enough to eat?

I started with a pound of ground chuck, some hot dogs, and a couple of nice sized onion buns. I also got my condiment plate ready with some onions, tomato slices, shredded lettuce, and sliced cheese. 

I used my Weber Performer with a Stainless Steel charcoal basket that matches my Weber griddle in size. I used lump charcoal for this high temperature cook. 

Toasted the buns first.

Next up were the onions and hot peppers.

Did some dogs for the Bride.

And now for the smash burgers. My griddle settled in at about 575 degrees so this was perfect for my burgers. 

First two smash burgers ready to come off of the griddle. 

I then did two smash burgers with cheese. 

The results of my cook.

I used one plain and one cheese smash burger for each sandwich. 

All I can say is “Five Guys” eat your heart out! 

Weber Kettle and some Sandwich Treats

Quite often, I get tired of all the high temp grilling and want something with a little more smoke flavor so I just lower the temps and stretch the cook out a little longer to get some additional flavor for my sandwiches. 

Used the Weber charcoal baskets and Stubb’s briquets with hickory chunks for smoke. Most of the cook was done on the backside of a pair of Grill Grates. 

My cook consisted of the following:

Four 1/3 pound 70/30 burger pattties

Five Johnsonville Hot Italian sausage

Six Vienna Brand Chicage type Jumbo Beef Franks 

Block of Jalapeno Spam

And some caramelized veggies

My Gen 2 performer doing it’s thing. Meat was cooked at about 250-275 degrees measured on the cooking surface and took a few minutes less than an hour not including the veggies. 

Caramelized veggies consisted of onions, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, and sliced jalapeno peppers.

Results of the cook.

Hot Italian sausage sandwich with some of the caramelized veggies, tomatoes, and mustard and a Jalapeno Spam Slider with caramelized veggies, lettuce, tomato, and mustard.

The cook came out great and sure made a nice lunch.

Slow 'N Sear / Competition Steak Cooking

I did this cook today in my Weber Gen 2 Performer Kettle in another one of those middle of the Winter warm and wonderful Spring like days. I think it’s our third day at about 70 degrees. 

Trimmed up a couple of steaks that weighed about one pound each and were about 1-1/8” thick and applied two different competition rubs. The top steak has a rub with dill seed in it and is my wife’s favorite and the bottom steak is my favorite and has a little heat in it. Both are very good rubs for competition steaks. 

I moved the Slow ‘N Sear as far to the middle of the cooker as it would go and then foiled each side of the unit to force all the intake air up thru the center of the accessory for maximum air flow and heat. I filled a Weber chimney full of all Kingsford Professional  all hardwood charcoal briquets for this cook and lit if off for this cook. I would rather use all lump but I think that SCA and Kingsford will team up again this year and offer the additional “double your contest purse” if you win and I sure can’t pass on this great offer. 

My tools for this cook. I decided to try two different methods of cooking the steak in the Weber Kettle to see which one might be the best for the setups I had on hand. 

I did the first steak on my standard size Grill Grates after a 15 minute warm up (to 625 degrees) and this took a total of 10 minutes to get it seared up and looking good. 

After the first steak was done, I setup the kettle with my cast iron steak grid setup and let it warm up for about 20-25 minutes to my cooking temp of about 500 degrees and this steak took about a minute less to get to my pulling temp of about 136-138 degrees for that perfect finish temp of medium that the SCA rules call for. 

You know...I think both of them looked great and would be competitive in a contest. 

Both steaks in the presentation box and ready for turn-in. 

The results of the cook looked about right on the doneness of warm and pink in the center (medium) and my sear marks on both steaks came out well. For ease of cooking, I thought the steak on the cast iron grid was the easiest to cook. I also found out that I could have used much less fuel (maybe 2/3rd chimney of charcoal) for this type of cook. 

I sure feel that a fellow could do quite well with either of these setups and method for cooking a competitive steak in a SCA contest with the Weber Kettle and the Slow ‘N Sear accessory. 

Holiday Rib Cook / Weber Performer / Slow 'N Sear

I did this cook for my youngest Daughter and SIL who were in from North Carolina for the Christmas Holiday. She always wants my ribs and rolls.

Ok, I started with some Rick Salmon’s BBQ Pit Beans which features about a pound and a half of pulled and chopped pork for this smaller pan of beans. This picture shows the beans before I put the sugar on top. 

This was the total cook which included 3 slabs of loin backs, some big baker potatoes, and the Pit Beans. My rolls will be done in the kitchen oven. 

I fired off about 12-14 good Wicked Good hardwood briquets in the corner of the Slow ‘N Sear and when they were ready, I poured in another full Weber chimney of the Wicked Good briquets into the device and then set up my cook. I placed my beans in the “basement” or on the charcoal grate as I wanted my rib drippings to go into them for that additional flavor. 

Next step was to use a Weber Rib Rack for my three slabs of loin back ribs right over the top of my Pit Beans. I then added some hickory chunks for my smoke wood and I was on my way.

Got an early start on this colder 17-18 degree overcast day but at least it should be dry for my cook. 

I did spin the ribs around later into the cook to be sure I had even cooking. 

Later into the cook when my ribs looked right, I wrapped them with some goodies and placed them back on the cooker. Also added some peanut oiled and SGH rubbed baking potatoes. 

I also glazed my ribs with a mix of some Blue’s Hog and other products later into the cook and just before they were ready to come off of the cooker. 

These Pit Beans were the last thing off of my Performer. 

The cook took a little over 4-1/2 hours at a temp range of about 275 - 300 degrees. 

Ribs cooling down some for slicing. 

My cloverleaf yeast rolls ready for the oven.

This several year winning Indiana State Fair recipe is the best I have ever tasted. I couldn’t help myself and ate one right out of the oven with some clover honey. 

Sure made a nice holiday meal for part of my family.

Bloomin' Block of Spam / Weber Kettle

This recipe is from the Wolfe Pit. 

After cutting the block of Spam so it would bloom, I sprinkled on a generous amount of SGH rub and then added a breading of corn starch to make it crispy. Placed it on the grill along with some breaded hot wings and got the temp dialed in at about 325 degrees and cooked it all up.

Hot wings came off first.

Made up a dipping sauce of some Sriracha and mayo and this stuff is great. 

I'll sure do this one again.

Pizza Bites / Weber Performer Gen1

I saw this appetizer or snack recipe on the web a few days ago and it just looked great to me so I gave it a try in my Weber Performer.

There really wasn’t many measurements of the ingredients so I kinda winged it for this first attempt of this treat. 

A bunch of pepperoni cut into small pieces (quartered)

A handful of fresh basil cut into small pieces.

About 1-1/8 cup of mozzarella cheese

About 7-8 oz of pizza sauce

Can of biscuits with each cut into quarters

More mozzarella to sprinkle on the top of the bites. 

The ingredients prepped for the bites. 

Mix the first five ingredients together in a bowl. 

Pammed up a muffin pan and divided the ingredients into the pan. 

Added some more cheese to the top of the treats. 

Filled the two Weber charcoal pans full of lump and brought the kettle up to about 350 degrees for my pizza bites. 

I baked the pizza bites at about 350 degrees for about 15-17 minutes. 

Wow!!! These things are great. Prepped them in about 10 minutes and then baked for about 15 minute and they are ready to eat. Very nice 25 minute appetizer.