Finally decided to give whole fish ago at being grilled on the Smokefire. I have had so many failures on a charcoal BBQ that it has always put me off grilling fish. But decided the time was right to give it ago on the Smokefire.
I chose 6 Sardines and a whole Sea Bass to try out, After gutting and cleaning them I covered them in a Piri Piri Marinade for an hour before grilling. Preheated the grill to 425F and left it at that temp for 15 minutes to make sure the grills themselves were up to temp.
Put the Sea Bass on first for 10 minutes each side only turning once, it lifted without sticking to the grill or braking up. I added the sardines so everything finished together and did them for 3 minutes each side. The skin on some of the fish stuck to grates, but the main difference from my previous attempts on a BBQ was they stayed whole when I turned them over and lifted them off the grill once cooked. For me that's a big success.
I like to eat my Sardines the Portugese way, so put a whole grilled sardine on a piece of bread squirted some lemon over it and sliced it from the head towards the tail along the backbone and eat the flesh on another piece of bread, the fish tasted grilled and a hint of smoke and was really enjoyable and properly cooked through, even if it was a bit messy.
The sea bass flesh came away from the backbone perfectly also and pulled off with no effort and didn't break.
The pictures and the presentation weren't the best but very happy with the outcome of the meal and it has given me renewed faith in grilling fish outdoors again.
In this glorious weather decided to do a Seafood Platter for the first time ever on a smoker/grill. It turned out better than I hoped and seafood with a slightly smoky flavour is really divine and a relatively simple to do and a satisfying meal.
I did three different shellfish all cooked at 385F.
The Mussels I cooked them in a white wine, minced garlic , fresh lemon juice and ghee butter and cooked them in the preheated hot liquid for 15 minutes in a skillet.
The Crab Legs I injected mine with a mixture of melted ghee butter and minced garlic first using a meat marinader through the knuckle first and cooked them over the grill for 15 minutes also
The Crevettes were cooked in Ghee Butter and minced garlic and lemon juice for just under 15 minutes in a skillet.
I also did a bowl of melted butter with minced garlic to dip the crab and crevettes meat in once broken open.
Really wanted to eat outside but it was just to hot for us.
Meals like this is where a smoker that can grill as well comes into its own for me. There is no way I could have have cooked a meal like this in my charcoal bullet smoker within 35 minutes including start up. Now the algorithm and pellet flow have been sorted out in the latest firmware on this machine. It really is becoming a lovely machine to use, not just for long lo&slo cooks, but quick evening meals of all descriptions at a wide range of temperatures.
Decided to cook a Sirloin joint on a Smoker for the first time and try to do some of the sides alongside it. I initially bought a 2kg piece, but as only feeding 2 of us, thought it was a bit of overkill tbh, so sliced it in half and froze the other.
I decided to try a piece of meat with no rub added, just cooked as is 🤯 I set the Smokefire to cook at 210F and aimed for an internal temp of 145F. Decided to try and do a jus/gravy to go with it and chose this recipe, I have had for a long time (don't know where from, so can't credit) Decided on the gravy version and followed the recipe below.
The cook was pretty standard and took just under 3 hours to reach the internal temp I desired before I removed the meat and drippings and turned it up to 425F (took less than 6 minutes, to climb to the desired temp) to cook the Asparagus in a skillet with melted butter until wilting and charred and Yorkshire Puddings (good old Aunt Bessies). First time doing Yorkshires on a smoker and were a revelation, as a slightly smoky Yorkshire is a joy to behold on the tastebuds I have discovered. They both took approx 20 minutes to cook, which was ample time to rest the beef and make the gravy from the juices with the cornflour added.
The beef was super easy to slice and had a good bend over the finger on it.
The jersey mids (first of the year) were done on the hob along with the peas, but the rest was done on the smoker and turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable meal, that I will happily do again.
First of apologies, intended taking photos of the various assembly stages, but I was battling the wet weather when I did it yesterday, so cracked on with it to get it done.
The box is very big and heavy, personally I couldn't have managed to get it round the back of my house on my own from the kerbside delivery, but broke it down and managed to get it on my sack truck to do it. There are handles built into the box if 2 people need to lift and carry it.
The assembly wasn't too difficult and the instructions were clear and concise and easy to follow, I used the BILT app. Which you can get for your Apple or Android phone from the relevant stores. You key in your model number Weber EX4 or EX6 into the search box, once downloaded and It basically displays the instruction diagrams, Weber supply, stage by stage with the same visuals, but in colour along with animated close ups of the diagrams, along with the written information in a verbal format. I found I used both at different stages of the build and they were just as easy and helpful to follow.
The box once opened up,makes a very good work surface to work on once opened to avoid any scratches or dents during the construction of it. All in all it took me about 75 minutes, from start to finish and the pieces that needed to be fitted to the body is just a one man job. The only time I asked for help was tilting it up onto its legs once they had been fitted. Although I had locked the wheels, I found they still moved when trying to tip it upright and basically I was chasing it round the patio at a 45 degree angle trying to get it fully upright on my own, so got some help.
The only thing I had to go back to, to correct was I had installed the fire pot grate back to front, but realised my mistake when I tried to fit the glow plug back in. There is a hole in the edge of the grate for it to fit through (doh) so long as that is fitted towards the back of the barrel, the glow plug will fit properly.
The weather beat me in the end yesterday, so couldn't do the burn off till today. Switching the machine on and connecting Bluetooth was easy and so long as you have the app on the phone installed correctly it is a doddle along with the firmware update needed before using (took about 20 minutes to update) the connection to the wifi wasn't difficult, once that was done, but it would be nice if the app could find Wifi network in your locallty itself, rather than have to type the network name in manually, you have to type it in along with your router password.
I filled up the hopper with a bag of Weber Grill Academy Pellets and the full bag fitted in perfectly into it with the new hopper insert. I fired it up to do the burnoff and it reached 600F within 18 minutes and during the 45 minute burnoff it did drop to 555F for 20 minutes towards the end (It is an extremely windy day today) so hoping that may have contributed to it. Although the phone was reading 555F but the display on the machine was saying 600F so not sure what was going on there. But I will monitor it over the coming weeks to see if it is a regular thing or just a one-off. The machine needs to be left to cool down for 15 minutes after a cook/burn in before switching off.
One thing I did notice when the temperature was at 600F there were a lot of embers within the machine and a few were escaping that I could see in daylight floating around (mainly from the drawer) which was fully closed. Along with a little smoke from various other joints and seals of the machine. I am not particular bothered about that as any new smoker tends to show a few leaks until properly seasoned and settled in with a few cooks. Once again something I will monitor, but hope it stops. If not I will look to add some gasket seals in any problem areas perhaps, if it is causing it to lose heat. With regards the embers as mine is on a concrete patio, not particularly concerned, but if using on a wooden deck or dry grass area, I would look to buy some grill mats to place it over, just in case.
I have a couple of accessories from my previous bullet smoker (Cast Iron Griddle and Pizza Stone) that seem to fit over the grates perfectly and for my first 2 cooks Smash burgers tonight and pizza tomorrow. I am going to try them out.
In these different times, finding it difficult to get meat locally that used to be so readily available. So I was pleased to be able to get some Beef Short Ribs from my local supermarket delivery service. I was pleasantly surprised at the price and how little trimming and tidying up of the ribs were required and although singular ribs rather than a rack at £7 a kg were good value.
After removing a little silverskin and the membrane, I added about a ½ tsp of kosher salt to each of them and left them in the fridge for 4 hours to draw some of the moisture out of them first . I then applied a simple rub mix of kosher salt and ground tellicherry pepper to them and heated the grill to 240F. I used one meat probe in the biggest rib and set it to 203F via the app. The cook took around 7½ hours to reach the 203F I set and except for opening the lid three times to spritz them with some kellio beef stock. That is all I had to do for the whole cook. When the probe in the rib reached 203F I checked all of them with a handheld temp probe and they all registered between 202-205F so they all cooked evenly and the probe just sank into them with no pressure. I then removed them and foiled them for 25 minutes before eating them.
The smoke flavour and ring was there (Weber Grillmaster Blend Pellets ) and the ribs cooked beautifully. Very pleased with the final results and this cook is how I envisaged the Weber to work, set it and forget it.
I haven't used the Smokefire for over a week, so was keen to give it ago today, I completed the Firmware update to 4008 and decided to try a Pizza for the first time, as it was quick and easy and a way to check the firmware update hadn't broken anything.The Smokefire took about 20 minutes to get up to temperature and another 10 minutes to make sure the pizza stone had reached 500F as well
I really wanted to make my own base, but haven't been able to find any Pizza 00 Flour anywhere, due to the ongoing virus situation and shortage of stocks in the shops. I did manage to find a ready made Pizza base made by a company called Crosta & Mollica, a partially cooked Wood Fired Sourdough Base with a pizza tomato base already added. It comes fresh and not frozen with a 4 or 5 day shelf life. I was very pleasantly surprised with how it turned out with the cheese and ham toppings, I added myself. As I had heard some horror stories about ready made bases from other people in the past. But after an 11 minute cook (5 at 500F and 6 at 550F) it was lovely and crisp on the bottom still and had a crisp , but not overdone bite to it. I Will definitely use it again, if struggling to find flour next time and it is still available.
I used a four cheese grated mix along with some grated Monterey Jack and a couple of Mozarella Cheese slices for topping along with some shredded Honey Roast ham and a couple of fresh Basil Leaves. The cheese bubbled and melted nicely but didn't colour up as well as I had hoped. So would probably try 550F from the start for the full cook next time. Not sure if the Smokefire added a very slight smoky taste to the base, but suspect as the ready made base was partially woodfired, I think it was already there, but still nice whichever way it got there.
Overall very pleased with how it all turned out, not sure how often I would do a pizza on the Smokefire for just myself with startup and cooking time it took close to 40 minutes, which is quite a long time for just a single pizza.
After 5 minutes
Chicken is one of my favourite things to cook outdoors and one of the main reasons I got the Smokefire as for my own personal taste, I have never thought my old bullet smoker cooked chicken very well, due to its limitations of cooking at much higher than 275F even with all vents open and an empty waterpan. I think chicken cooks best at 350F and higher to get the crispy skin and I have been hoping this is where the Smokefire will shine and for the most part it has, from my early attempts.
The first thing I cooked was a 3kg turkey crown, that had been sitting in my freezer since Xmas and taking up a lot of space. So thought it would be a good idea to try that first. Anyway I brined it first in 1/2 cup of Kosher Salt + 1/2 cup of Granulated Sugar, which I dissolved in a jug of boiling water thoroughly and then topped up with cold water to room temperature and put the bird in the solution fully covered in it, with a lid on top for 24 hours in the fridge.
After the 24 hours I washed it thoroughly in the sink, put it on a rack and patted it dry. I put some room temperature butter inside the skin all the way round and added a simple rub of salt ,ground tellicherry pepper, garlic powder and smoked paprika to the skin.
I put the Turkey Crown over a drip pan placed over the flavouriser bars as I was a bit worried about the grease flaring up, but needn't have worried and have cooked other chicken dishes with no problems so far since without a drip pan. I set an initial temperature of 275F for the first 2¾ hours and the final hour at 350F, hoping it would crisp the skin up. The skin certainly wasn't as crispy as I would like, but certainly wasn't rubbery as my usual attempts on my old bullet smoker, used to be. I would probably have done the final 15 minutes at 400-450F next time to see if that had any better results, with the skin.
Overall the finished result was excellent for a full Sunday meal and cold with chips and a stew for the following couple of days, the smoke flavour although not strong was noticeable and added something to the final taste of the meat, which was extremely juicy when sliced. I used the Weber Championship Blend Pellets on this cook
Chicken Wings
This was my first ever attempt at cooking chicken wings, but certainly won't be my last, cheap , cheerful and so tasty. Due to the situation in the world at the moment, I am finding it very difficult to find fresh ingredients in the shop for marinades so had to cheat and use a shop bought Pataks Lemon and Coriander packet. But was really pleasantly surprised with the finished flavour it produced with the finished wings and have added a couple of packets to the cupboard for future cooks.
I bought 2 kg of chicken wings, which weren't the biggest, I've ever seen so I just used the fatter bottom part and cut off and discarded most of the tips. I added them to a ziploc bag and added the marinade and gave it a good mix around so they were thoroughly coated and left them in the fridge for 4 hours
I then cooked them on the Smokefire for 1 hour @ 225F and just over 35 minutes @ 375F turning once, I used Weber apple pellets in the hopper. As others have said the Smokefire ran a little hotter on the right hand side, but I will know how to compensate for it next time, using the warming rack above and doing a bit of shuffling about, during the cook.
This up till then was by far the best thing I had cooked on the Smokefire and so very tasty. Between us we wolfed them all down with a smile on our face, they had a crispy slightly charred skin in places , juicy white meat and lovely flavour from the marinade. Definite winner.
A Full Sunday Chicken Dinner
I am starting to feel a bit braver now and thought I would try a full Sunday dinner on it, with all the trimmings using the free gift Weber Poultry Roaster for the first time that I got for purchasing my EX4. It is an interesting addition to have and I can see how it should work, but it is going to take a few more goes for me to understand how to cook the potatoes and vegetables perfectly alongside the chicken, but overall I feel it has real potential as a handy device to use with the Smokefire.
As in self isolation at the moment I had to rely on a home delivery chicken from the supermarket and although I ordered a large 2 kg+ one, I got a 1.6kg rather small bird. I would normally brine my chicken first but because it turned up on the day I was cooking it and it was so small I didn't bother this time, but it certainly didn't affect how the finished bird turned out.
I just added sea salt to the skin for this and nothing else. I was hoping by adding a lot of flavours to the cup part of the poultry roaster , that the bird sat on and putting a lemon inside the cavity to stop the steam escaping, whilst it was cooking. It would add all the flavour that was needed and it certainly did. We both have never tasted such a juicy finished chicken EVER, it was stunning.
As I said the prep of the bird was simple but I added to the cup the bird sat on about 150ml of fresh apple juice, with some fresh basil, dried sage and thyme and 3 smashed garlic cloves. I then sat the bird on top of the cup and placed a whole lemon cut into 4 quarters in the cavity at the top to stop the steam escaping. I added raw potatoes cut lengthways in half , along with carrots and parsnips cut the same and an onion cut into quarters. I added some sliced Cabbage after about 30 minutes into the roaster. The theory behind the Weber roaster, is as it cooks the chicken the juices from it go over the vegetables and cook them with the juices adding extra flavour to them.
I thought the chicken may take 90-100 minutes to cook at 375F but it did it in around 75 minutes, due to the size of it, which meant the vegetables were still a little raw and due to the size of the chicken not a lot of juice went over the vegetables and I never got to turn it up to 450F to crisp the skin up. The vegetables were a little Al dente, but edible. I think next time I will parboil the vegetable and potatoes for 10-15 minutes before adding them to the roaster, I think and hope that may help with the finished result of them, going forward, we'll see.
I also did a small bowl of stuffing for 45 minutes on the grill and some yorkshire puddings to go with it for a little over 10 minutes, the only part of the meal I didn't do was the gravy, but if I get a suitable cast iron pot going forward, I will do that also.
The chicken meat though was absolutely amazing, cooked to an internal temp of 168F and rested for 15 minutes, as I said earlier it was the juiciest chicken I have ever cooked in my life. I have a large chopping board and it flooded it, luckily there is grooves round the side of it, otherwise the worktop would have been covered in it. The flavours, moistness and a bit of smoke flavour from the Championship Pellets were just great. I sliced the back bone off and turned the chicken over and both breasts had fallen off from the breast bone cleanly and completely themselves.
As a side note to do as much as I could on the Smokefire, I cooked a shop bought jam sponge in it for 30 minutes at 380F, whilst we were eating the chicken and a slightly crispy smoky sponge works quite well tbh
If you have got this far down the page, thanks for reading and giving me your time.
Thought I would start a blog about my experience with the new Weber Smokefire EX4 from ordering, setup and hopefully some successful cooks, over time.
This is the first pellet grill I have ever owned and I pre-ordered from Riverside Garden Centre in early January 2020 after seeing all the pre-release promotions that started appearing in November 2019 onwards.
The product appealed to me initially as I have always wanted a grill, pizza cooker and also the ability to cook lo&slo (this has a temp range of 200-600F) and this seemed to fit the bill. I have used a ProQ Frontier (Charcoal Bullet Smoker) for the past 4 years and had some reasonable success with it over that time. But the need to constantly monitor it and refill the charcoal basket (usually at silly o'clock in the early morning) for long cooks, I always found it to be a bit of a bind personally and I am hoping the Smokefire will negate some of that, with its electronics and ability to leave for up to 12-15 hours unattended if necessary. I know the idea of that doesn't appeal to everyone who enjoy's controlling the live fire aspects of outdoor cooking and that is all part of the fun for them doing that. I'm just at that age now, where I want to watch a bit of Sky, enjoy a drink and monitor the cook from my phone and just let the machine do its thing.
I must admit I was getting very worried by some of the early videos and reviews of the Smokefire in the US when it was released in January as the machine seemed prone to grease fires, hopper issues, along with Augur feed problems, and a very limited function Connect App upon release and spending over £1000 on this is a big investment for me and to spend that, on what could be a dud, just began to seem like a big waste of money, when you could buy a tried and tested one already on the market from another manufacturer
In the last 4-5 weeks since release it has become clear that some but not all greasefire problems were down to user error and what some people were calling grease fires were actually flare ups, when you cranked up the temperature to sear at 500+ degrees. The thought of a greasefire was my biggest concern with the varying temps you cook at and no drip shield and although not ideal a drip pan would certainly help stop that as well as cleaning after cooks. I am fine with using one as I am used to a drip pan with cooking on my ProQ anyway and I don't see it as any hardship or reason to cancel my order.
Weber, certainly in the US have already addressed the hopper issue with an insert they are supplying free of charge, which makes the ramp steeper to feed the pellets better and hopefully if needed with my model will already be shipped out to me, when I get my machine in March. The Augur I won't know about till I assemble the machine and see how it works as it seems limited to certain serial number during manufacture.
The Connect APP is an ongoing project that can allow for firmware and software updates over the coming months and years and it appears that Weber have big plans for this and I understand that this will take time and will evolve into something special in that period.
So all in all I am feeling much more confident about this machine now and just want to get my hands on it and do some cooking, I am hoping to keep this blog going and update with the assembling of it and some future cooks.
Thanks for reading this initial post and any further ones
Steve
4 months into ownership of the Smokefire EX4 and i thought I would update my blog now with my thoughts on how it has performed for me over that time as I think 4 months is a fair time to assess it.
I know there have been some worries and concerns from some owners of Smokefire's for reliability issues etc. I have to say from my own personal experience, I haven't experienced any of them and my machine has worked pretty flawlessly, I have experienced a very occasional electronic failure in the early days, but any software (on most devices) often has glitches and the big Software update that came along in May seems to have ironed that out as well.
There was clearly a problem with pellet feed from early initial reports from America (released a month earlier than the UK) Weber corrected that with an hopper insert that was supplied with my machine when it came and except for the need to push the pellets along if longer than a 6 hour cook, it seems to work pretty well. I find a full bag of 9 kg of pellets will last usually between 14-18 hours depending on temps set and how many start-up/shutdown cycles are used in that time. It is clearly more expensive than charcoal, but ease of use and finished smoke flavour is excellent, in my experience.
The control unit is very responsive and easy to set temps from it or do the shutdown procedure, either at the machine itself or now via the app. The Smokeboost addition seems to quite beneficial to adding a little extra smokiness to your meat on lo&slo cooks at start-up around 150F-190F for an hour or so before turning it up to the actual required temp you wish to cook at, for the rest of the time
The app still has a long way to go before it is the finished article, but the software company JUNE are behind it, so confident over the next 6 months and ongoing past that, it will continue to evolve into something good..
The smoke flavour is nowhere near as pronounced as charcoal and wood chunks, with pellets. But what I like is the consistency of the smoke flavour across all lo&slo cooks. My experience with charcoal is not always that way, when it works well, nothing beats it. But sometimes the smoke can be overpowering and occasionally bitter, there are so many variables with the wood and charcoal used. There is none of that with pellets with my experience so far. A mellow consistent smoke flavour every time (even giving a slight smoky flavour at 550-600F temps for pizza and steaks), is a bonus in my eyes.
Coming from a bullet smoker to pellet, there is a longer cleaning procedure (grills, flavouriser bars) and sweeping/vacuuming out I tend to do this every 20 hours of cooking or 3 long cooks. Between cooks a good grill brush over the the grates once heated up does a good job of removing the remains of the previous cook and gives you a clean working surface, but greasy chicken wings and ribs take their toll on them pretty quickly so a good wash in hot soapy water, keeps them in good condition. Haven't needed to buy a vacuum yet and the ash at the bottom is easy enough to sweep down the holes by the fire pot and collect in the tray beneath them. Never experienced any problems with the grease flow channels and they work as they should, no build up of grease or forming grease lumps giving it a chance of a grease fire. I have had occasional flare ups, but when cooking at 600F and meat fat drippings onto a flame, you need to expect it and that is what flavours the meat in my view. First time it happened was a bit shocking, but after 4 months of use I know what and why it's happening and love the fact it does it.
Would recommend buying a cover for the Smokefire as although it cooks with a consistent temperature whether it's a howling wind or showery rain , there is clearly a weak point underneath the hopper that can let water ingress to the motor over a period of time, by the looks of it.
As said earlier I came from a bullet smoker and although it produced good food, I felt limited in what I could do. This grill, with its cooking area has given me the confidence and ability to cook so much more, than what I did previously and for me that has been the main benefit, whether I want to do a simple 10 minute grilled cheese sandwich or a full brisket this machine does it all and does it well and for that I love it and now a pellet grill convert.
Thanks for reading
