Kabobs

I was really wanting to test the temperature variation across the cooking surface of the Yoder prototype, so what better than to cram it full of Kabobs.  I marinated some flat iron steak, cut into cubes, in an Apple Chipotle Brine made by Sweetwater Spice Company.  If you ever have a chance to try their products, I would highly recommend it.  I also marinated some chicken pieces in Sweetwater's Tres Chiles Fajita Brine.  The kabobs were skewered up with some mushrooms, red onion, and red and green bell peppers, then grilled at around 450.  All the kabobs were done at the same time, meaning even heat across the cooking surface.  That's a feature I really like about this pit.  Here's the results...

Ribs

I smoked a rack of spareribs on the Yoder this past weekend.  I trimmed the fat, rubbed it down with some Coon Creek Rub and extra brown sugar the night before.  The ribs were smoked at 225 using the traditional 3-2-1 method, meaning 3 hours in the smoke, 2 hours wrapped in foil, and the final hour back in the smoke (actually only took half an hour).  I brushed them with BBQ sauce during the final half hour.  Here's the results.

 

And my two toughest critics loved them!

Steak Dinner

In getting more comfortable with how this grill behaves, I gave steaks another go tonight.  The grill was cranked up to almost the maximum, resulting in a temperature of almost 600 degrees.  The result was a great steak with excellent grill marks! 

Grillin' on the Yoder

I'm putting the Yoder pellet grill through it's paces.  I gave grilling some burgers a try tonight.  I cranked the grill up to 550, threw the burgers on and when they were done I finished them with some Swiss cheese and sauteed mushrooms.  Some of the best burgers I've made.  Needless to say, this pellet cooker can grill.

Pulled Pork

For my first smoke, I decided to go simple with some basic pulled pork.  I prepped a 7lb. picnic shoulder with a thin coat of molasses and some Coon Creek rub. 

Here it is trimmed and ready to smoke.

And here it is at 160 degrees.  After this I foiled it and finished in the oven to save pellets.

After it reached 195 degrees internal, I let it rest in cooler for an hour.  Here it is pulled and ready to eat.  It was even better the next day!

Surprise Surprise!

My wife had a big surprise for me on our 5th Wedding Anniversary last night.  We walk out the door to send our kids off with the grandparents for a quiet dinner alone, and Don Cary and Joe Phillips of Yoder Smokers are dropping off a pellet grill at my house.  I'm not sure how my wife pulled this off, but since my grill isn't ready yet, Don is having me cook on the Yoder prototype until mine is complete.  That is some great service if you ask me.  The grill is made out of 10 Gauge steel so it was definitely a lot to handle, but the quality is definitely evident.

Sizing it up

  

Getting it up the stairs

Setting it up

Ready to cook!

I've cooked a couple rounds of steaks on this and it definitely gets plenty hot to grill them.  I'm planning on trying out the slow smoking capabilities with some pulled pork tomorrow.