Food Blog

It’s really mostly charcoal grilled, with a few chunks of hickory thrown in, but it sounds better that way. Rubbed with rosemary, garlic and salt and pepper and put in the Weber Bullet (without the water pan) for 2 and a half hours (it was a 2.5 pound piece of leg). The Weber keeps the fire a foot and a half or so away from the meat, so it slow roasts with some good smoking. I don’t follow the rules exactly, but it still turns out juicy medium rare, with a good crisp skin and a little smoke ring.

In the background is a lump of this Cheesy Bread Pudding. I cut the recipe in half, and it still turned out really good.

A note on Prof Wiviott’s Master the WSM Smoker in 5 Easy Courses: As I alluded above I didn’t follow the rules, but this wasn’t smoking, it was semi-hot grilling. I use natural chunk charcoal and chunks of hickory to build a fire that gets the Weber heated up to a little over 300 - 325F. I wouldn’t cheat on his rules if I was smoking something. His main rules are using a pure, clean fire, no briquettes, no leftover coals, no fluid. However I did cheat when starting this and most fires - I’ll use a few briquettes and what’s left in the grill to start it. I’ll admit to having some lighter fluid, but usually can find a few twigs in the yard (oak and grape vine twigs, not anything funky) and I was a boy scout so I can start a fire without it. One piece of advice I have learned the hard way - wood chunks can be mildewy, and the bark should be trimmed off, or you’ll get horrible smoke. I used to think you could burn off the mildew, but that doesn’t work unless you let it burn all the way down. My last bag was pretty bad so I sniff each piece carefully before throwing it on the fire.