Cold Weather BBQ

0:00Welcome to The Barbecue Show. Do guys in a grill. And now, with the tastiest tips, recipes and stories, it's stunt and Jake. That's us, The Barbecue Show, back atcha. That sounds very radio-like. It was very radio-like. I like this. Come back at your life, everybody. Stunt and Jake stunt is always to my left. Jake, come right. And we're so glad to chose to join us. Hopefully stunt. I don't want to say this because it's going to sound too cliché. But man, I hope you're staying warm. We are. We are. Yeah. I like this weather. I know I'm alone in that world for most part, for some folks. But I think it speaks all hard to we are. Because we live here when we know this is a chance of this happening. And we don't shut down when it's as cold. We just make plans to do something a little bit more wiser. You know, we're going to go to this thing or come right home. We just don't leave. We don't just buckle down.

1:00You know what I mean? We do stuff still. I'm with you on that 100%. I think, well, I have a, I don't want to say theory. I have a policy, if you will, a rule. And you know me. I'm a stickler for the rules, baby. But I have a rule that says, well, I have a couple of them. I'll share them. Okay. Don't tell me more about it, Gibbs. Don't. Yeah. Rule number one. My first rule is don't argue politics with me if you didn't vote. Okay. Because you're not part of the process. Number two, you can complain about the cold or you can complain about the heat. But you got to pick one. You can't complain in August how hot it is and then turn around in January. But I can't believe how cold it is. You got to pick one. You have to love the heat or love the cold. One of the other. I don't care which. I guess that's funny. I pick the heat because I do complain about how hot it gets in the summer. Yeah. Well, you and I are big hefty fellows. That's mine. There you go. I bring this blanket around everywhere. No. I'm the skinny tall one. But people think I'm short and round and bald. Really? Yeah. I get it all the time.

2:00People always thought I was tall and skinny and all the time. They're like, oh, I think you're a big nerd who's kind of tall and skinny. I'm like, really? That's why. And what you got from me beyond the air? That's why we work so well together, my boy. And it works. But there we go. So I don't mind the cold because you can always put extra layers on. You can always stay home. And number one rule. To the cold weather, especially below zero, the snaps like we've got right now. Right. This is why we don't have giant spiders. You're welcome. Yeah. So there you go. You can live in the tropics if you want and fight for your life every day. My dream. So I don't want to get a soft track. No. I haven't forbidden to do that. One of my bucket lists is Australia. I want to go to Australia. Yeah. Since I was a little kid, I've been infatuated, obsessed with koala bears for some reason. And I just think Australia would be great. And my wife refuses. She's like, everything in Australia is trying to kill you. Why would we go there? Like they have beaches. She's like, yeah, full of deadly jellyfish. They got sharks.

3:00I'm like, what do they got? A jungles? Yeah. Full of deadly spiders and snakes and bugs. Just become friends with crocodile dendi. He'll keep you safe. That's probably a valid point. Yeah. That guy was something else. Oh, he's absolutely amazing. He's an Australian treasure. Yes. Yes, an Australian treasure. Anyway, so I hope you're staying warm. It turns out the barbecue show has learned. Charcoal briquettes give off lovely heat. Oh, that's fantastic. You don't do them in your house. No, don't do that. Don't do that. You know what said is I have to say that out loud. Yeah. For sure. I heard the barbecue show say charcoal's heat. Yeah, don't do it in the house. But we'll talk about this a little bit. I should, let's preview the show a little first. Okay. That's actually radio show. So today we are going to talk about how fitting cold weather grilling. That's right. We've done this a little bit in the past kind of here and there. But today it just seems like the perfect day to revisit some of those tips and techniques. And we're going to take it a step further in the second half of the show. That's right. One hour, baby. And Beth, we're hoping you get the whole hour this week.

4:01We're going to talk about some alternatives. If you are just convinced that you don't want to go out there. We've got some ideas for you. Like cockpot type stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. George Foreman Grill. I don't know. Whatever. Does it? With that, would we lose our barbecue show card? If we were like, we're going to do a show today about the George Foreman Grill. I don't know. I don't want to say we'll lose our whole card. It depends on how often we use it. When I first moved to Mankato 23 years ago, my parents got me one in my first apartment. And they're like, here's a George Foreman Grill. You're going to love this. You know, you use it from time to time, and it's all right. But you really step back and think about it a little bit. There's no on-off switch. There's no heat control. What was the purpose of that thing? Here's what I always have been. What's the word I'm looking for enamored about the George Foreman Grill. Okay. Here is a guy who had, it was a boxing legend, right?

5:02Yes. George Foreman, former heavyweight champion of the world, right? 68 Olympics, you won a gold medal in Mexico City. Just, you know, the guy went on and on and on and on. And what is he known for? A grill you can use in your kitchen. True. That name and all his kids, George. He did, didn't he? That wasn't a rumor, was that real? No, that's the real deal. His daughter is still upset with it. Wah, wah, wah. Anyway, we've got some other ideas and some tips and some different tricks for you. I gave in this week at one point because I was going to do steaks outside. And I've tried and tempered weather the last couple of weeks on the flat top because that's become my new favorite thing. And I had to go to old school charcoal. Because even when it's cold like this, you can still, and by the way, I don't, I don't want to brag or anything, but they were perfect. Just nailed them. And it was snowing. I think you'd put a picture up on this. I would say, we shared a photo of your charcoal grill set on the patio through out of my snow. Actually looked very lovely. I think it's a great photo.

6:02You used a decent angle. We learned about that. Yes. That's something I was going to bring up in our final segment today. But we did get a couple pictures from folks who said, learned a lot from the show last week. Here's some pictures I took in the food idea. Yeah, I'll close that. That was really great to see. First of all, you know, we love our egos and we love the, we love the feedback anytime. Good or bad. We just like true. Oh, they lay some to us. That's great. Thank you. So it was nice to see that people are taking those tips, because I sent one picture of the grill just sitting there in the snow as I, after I lit the charcoal and was waiting for the chimney to get going. And then I sent, did I send you the other pictures? You did. And I did not post that one. Okay. Because I already posted the grill one. I'm like, I'll do that later than I forgot. And then as I sat down to eat, I was like, I didn't take any pictures of the food that was done. Yeah, but again, no final products. Oh, and I sliced them in a beautiful head. Just crushed on them. Oh, yeah. The perfect sear. And the inside was medium rare. Just the dynamite. What did you use for seasoning? Okay. So here's the thing. This is a two-edge story that trails into segment three of the show today. Yeah.

7:02At the bottom of the hour. Well, then we can back to if you want later. We could, we could, it's all right. Because it's kind of ties in. So the plan was this. And listeners, let me know if you've ever run into this similar plan. And we've talked about this on the show. Okay. Hey, we're going to grill tonight. We're going to grill tomorrow night. And, uh, oh, that's right. We were going to grill. But it's too late. So yeah. So here was the thing. We were going to, uh, beat the cold weather. Because what was supposed to snow. And we were going to do steaks in the sous vide. And then I was going to sear them. And it was going to be great. And I was going to rub it in your face. But looking at me is my sous vide. And then Tuesday night we had the steaks ready to go. They were vacuum sealed with the seasoning. Uh, with some sprigs of time. And, uh, a little bit of garlic and some, uh, a little bit of olive oil. And some salt and pepper. Just very basic, very simple. But just a little hint. And so they were sitting overnight in the fridge. So they were kind of pre-seasoning and ready to go into the sous vide. And then Tuesday when, uh, everybody was home. And my wife looked at me and said, it's six oh five.

8:03It takes an hour to an hour and 20 minutes to sous vide the steaks. Then you got a serum. It's going to be eight o'clock before we eat. And I'm like, oh, I'll light some charcoal. Yes. So that had to bump the sous vide back to the next night to, uh, to get it done for the show. It was research. You understand the charcoal to get ready. And I mean, when it happened to just still in the beatings, it even getting charcoal ready was still took a little while. We ate before seven. Oh, okay. Wow. And we did cheat a little. Just to be on the safe side, do the asparagus and the shrimp in the house. Yeah. And then of course, I got brought the steaks in and I said, I got plenty of great charcoal. If you want me to do something else. But, uh, so I felt like we cheated a little bit on that. Now, at that end of it, but, uh, still turn out great. Uh, they were delicious. The steaks, like I said, they were perfect. I will say when I went home the next day for lunch, looking for leftover steak. There was none. None to be found. Yeah. I did find some little potatoes. That's become, uh, I have a potato obsession right now. I don't know. I love potatoes.

9:03I have, um, I have this desire and I've been starting to experiment with new ways to do potatoes. I kind of want to get into the lap got thing at some point as well. Mm hmm. Where you shred them and you drain, you, you, you soak them and you drain all the water in the starch out. Uh, that, and I want to do the thinly sliced layers. And then you, you, uh, smoke them a little bit and you baste them in butter and you get them nice and crispy on the outside. Yes. I'm really, uh, uh, I really want to experiment more with that. Especially I need to do a potato episode for you to really experiment with that. I think maybe we should, uh, the thing is I want to do a lot of that with the smoker and the flat top. Okay. To add to, you know, the idea of it. And the other obsession I have is the little baby, the little tiny rounded, they look almost like cherry tomatoes. Yes. You take a bag of those babies and you just, uh, you can do them in the smoker. We've done that a lot where you, you boil them for a little bit till they're almost ready. And then you put them in a pan on the smoker with some butter and some salt and pepper or maybe a little garlic or something. And then they just pick up just the slightest hint of the smoke and they're soft and they're buttery and they're creamy and they're just delicious.

10:04Yeah. I know this is a surprise. I'm getting hungry now. We'll do a potato episode, folks, where you know, just because there are a lot of ways you can do different things with the potato. Whether it's, you know, on the flat top on the smoker and the cast iron on your charcoal. It's one of the, one of the things I love to do too with potatoes is, see, we've started a potato episode here, haven't we? We have. There's a tip right this down, pull over first. Take your potato, boil it a little bit, not till they're done, but just to get some of the starch out. Yeah. And then you blanch them and then slice them. If you're really fancy, you'll use your crinkle cutter slicer. Uh, because then you can get more seasoning and flavor. You get more, more surface area. Yeah. Uh, and then throw them on your grill. Perfect. And then grill them up that way. And then you get like homemade, I don't know what you call them, American fries or no, uh, home fries. You get like potato slices. You do if you want. Yeah. And they're a little thicker so they're, yeah, it's just delicious. Anyway, I got the name of the episode already listed here. Spud's in me. You get, maybe we'll get, maybe we can, the Spud's McKenzie still alive. I doubt it.

11:04I don't think so. I don't think dogs lived that long unfortunately. No. Uh, anyway, enough about me. What have you been up to? Oh, I get a turn. Oh. All right. That's, that's fair. No, no, that's good. I actually had steaks as well this week. Uh, wasn't even to try it outside. I just went straight cast iron. Um, got them seasoned up. Put them on the cast iron with a little beef towel first. Yes. And then let them go sear, sear. And then I put the butter in there, let the butter melt. And then I did the old spoon over method. Yeah. Did that until they were done. I think I pulled them off at 135, which is actually more than I wanted. Just kind of got away from me a little bit. I guess so. But, uh, I'm set for about five minutes, put them on the table, served it up and it turned out fantastic. Also, no leftovers at our house on steak nights. So it was a really good, again, note the, honestly, the biggest surprise for me was really the firecracker green beans. I was surprised. So I'm curious, um, was this a, a local thing? Is this a, like, you know, the firecracker, Del Monte? What is it? They were, they're already tinfoil. She went to high V and picked it up. Okay. So it was already one of those pre-med, pre-med made sides.

12:06And so I'm sure we paid an arm and a leg to have some green beans, but, uh, but it was really good season. I'll give it that for sure. The bacon, the twice baked potato was good, but they always put bacon in there. And I'd like, I love bacon, but they don't, it's not like bacon bits, which is not that that be any better, I guess, but it's just a different texture than the rest of the potatoes. So as you're eating your potato, you're like, mm-hmm. And then also you find a piece of bacon like, it's a weird chew, you know, it's kind of chewy. Yeah. I almost wouldn't want that mixed in. Maybe I sprinkle that on top later on my own or something, but other than that, it was fantastic. If you've got the time, I think when it comes to twice baked, you're better off to do the bacon fresh, make it crispy, and then crumble it up and put it on there. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Once you freeze that or chill it, then it gets, it's just going to pick up some moisture and then get a little chewy. Yeah. Exactly what it is. Yeah. And you don't want that, you don't want that chewy. No, you know. No, that's, that's for sure. So it's, uh, it's a little bit of both. I am, uh, I am, I'm a fan also of the, the pre-made stuff, you know, and, uh, one of the, you know, we're in May and Canada where we do this show and we've got hivies and hivies

13:06are all over the upper Midwest, but and they do a pretty good job of ready to go sides that you can just grab and throw them on your smoker or any oven or on the grill or whatever. I've embarrassly bought the hivie shortcuts for fruit and stuff before I'm like, what am I doing? This is so much more money. But I'm just going to go home and eat it right away. I don't have to worry about doing anything else, you know. Right. That's, uh, it's a valid point. And that target marker right there is definitely men. And I know we've talked about this and I don't want to, you know, blow it for the, the potato episode, smudzing me, uh, but my wife, one of her favorite things is to make up a batch of about 24 or 30 twice-baked potatoes in one shot. Yeah. And she puts them on a tray and then she, uh, she wrapped them and then freeze them. And then once they're frozen, once they're frozen, you take them out and you put it and seal them up and zip locks and label them. And then we're like, oh, let's have twice-baked tonight. You grab a package of four if I'm out of the freezer and just rewarm them on the smoker. Bang. I love it. And it's always better when it's homemade. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I mean, again, they're good at the store, but that's always very homemade. Second episode idea for potatoes.

14:06The eyes have it. I don't know. The eyes have it. All right. Well, we're going to send that to rewrite and punch it up a little bit. Come up with, uh, we'll find a way to get ourselves a, uh, a potato episode here before you know it's perfect. All right. We, uh, we're late. We got to take a break. Man, they gave us an hour. We still can't follow a clock as terrible, but, uh, we're going to talk cold weathered grilling, smoking out on the patio if you can abrave the, uh, the elements. And we'll still talk about some other ideas that you can do without losing the barbecue, the edge to things and not go outside all that and more when the barbecue show continues right after this. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, fire it up now. Barbecue show. Stutton Jake is back. Thanks for joining us.

15:07Don't forget you can always check us out online and I like this one. Don't shake, bring the heat, no drizzle, smoky skies, flinch, so high you can taste the ribs as the kiss the sky. Yeah, that's, uh, so barbecue show, uh, remember you could hit us up on social media, the Facebook, uh, the, uh, the kids still call it insta. Uh, yeah. I've heard it to more people lately that say I, uh, I can't figure out Instagram. Well, we had the twins were in town earlier this week and even the twins players and Chris Sattaberry, the voice of twins baseball was like, this is why I don't understand Instagram. Is it hard to understand? I don't know. I think Instagram is a current one that's like changing the most and trying to keep up with TikTok. That's probably why. Now, that could be, I don't know, but, uh, hit us up there. Also, uh, don't forget you can always shoot us a good email, uh, question, a comment to whatever ask the BBQ show at Gmail dot com. That's right. You can tell by the Gmail account, we've spared no expense. We've spared no expense. And now that we've gone through an hour, we're, we're always debating like, what do we

16:08add to the show? What do we do to make it more entertaining, more, uh, interactive? Right. And one of the things we've talked about is we should do and ask the barbecue show segment where we go to the mail bag. That's right. Find out what people have going on. So we thought, uh, because we're short on time, we'll get into cold weather, grilling here in a moment after our next break, but let's, uh, let's go to the mail bag. I feel like we need some production there. I'll find something. All right. Let's make it a thing. We'll work on that and see what we can do. So, uh, mail bag segment, ask the BBQ show dot com, if you, if we got anything, uh, we do. Two of them, uh, one is from our listening, who I feel like I should have got back to a month ago, plus, sorry about that. That's, uh, the second is just this last week, we're going to email from, uh, vendor event shows at Gmail dot com. I'm pretty sure it's just real, uh, the Florida strawberry festival, 2026 happening in February, 26th to March 8th at Plant City, Florida. The theme is still growing, the 11 day event celebrates strawberries featuring a star

17:08started line up. Okay. So we're going to have to work out some more emails, it's family friendly, fun, carnival rides, live music, country rock and Christian. Oh, man, that's a great way to jam out. Uh, yeah, it sounds like it's ideal. I'm very disappointed in you. I will. Strawberry festival is ways for you to jam out. I was, I was trying to let it go. I don't know. I thought that was really good. I'm sorry. Wasn't bad actually. Jelly. If we've got any real, you want the real one, we got any real, the real one from Mike in North Man, Kato. Thank you, Mike. He says, Hey, stun Jake. Love the show. Listen, every weekend when I'm messing around in the grill, I got a question. I was hoping you could help me out with. I've been trying to do ribs at home, and no matter what I do, they either turn out to dry or fall apart before I even get them off the grill. I mean, he's in a grass grill most of the time, but I'm open to switching things up. Is it better to cook ribs low and slow the whole time, or should I be finishing them hot? You know, something that's what, who said who came in and joined us that one day that he said he went hotter at the end of the grill, they're trying to make him more crispy

18:10and put a bark on it, and it's just not the way it works. Yeah. He's trying to tag him up, tag him up that way. Uh, I think Jeremiah talked about that once, where he said, I never use time or temp. I go by look and feel when it comes to ribs, and I think that's because there's so many methods and theories on what you can do with ribs and how you can do them. I think for me personally, um, pick one or the other and do it until you're until you're good to go until you're done. Yeah. Uh, he says appreciate any advice. Try not to embarrass myself in the next family cook out. So, uh, there you go. Thank you to Mike in North Man Cato. I would say, uh, like you said, start him low and slow for sure and just and keep an eye on him. I think that's the biggest thing is that, um, is just keeping that eye on him. And if you're going to tag him up with the higher heat at the end, which I think really helps you, you saw some. Don't go higher heat, though. I think you keep the heat the same. Just plan ahead and just, you put the sauce on it and let the heat go at the same time. And that will, that will get them a little tackier. I typically, when I'm saucing after they've been cooking for a while and they're almost done, I'll go a little bit higher heat, but I'm also saucing and flipping and saucing

19:14and flipping and saucing and flipping. Right. You don't, you don't, you get a little tacky and crust, but don't burn them. And if you're looking to add smoke, even if you're just stuck with the gas grill and if you don't have a smoker, you can use a smoke tube or something along those lines with your gas grill and then take them low and slow for a while with some smoke introduced and tell you they're not quite done. So they've got a little flex, but they're not, they're not break apart. Then what I've been doing lately is pull them off of that low and slow heat, wrap them, set them off to the side and let them, let them rest and let them cool down. Let them get to room temp or outside temp and then 25 minutes before you eat, put them back on the gas grill, unwrapped and saw some that way. So that what happens is you have a chance for them to rest before they're done cooking, then hit them with some higher heat so that you don't, so you lose that internal heat. So you're not overcooking them and then they're far apart on you. That's, that's, that's an also a good way to kind of approach it as well. Yeah. And if they're far apart, that means you've cooked them too long, by the way, Mike. Yeah. And then you got to just make pulled rib sandwiches, not bad idea.

20:17That's the problem with ribs. You overcook them and they're delicious. Yeah. That's true. Anything else you overcook that much and you're in trouble. Mike, I hope that helps. Remember, send your emails and questions to ask the BBQ show at gmail.com and we would love to use yours on the air. And if we use your email on the air, we will send you the privilege of being mentioned on the air. That's good. We got nothing. I'll work on that. We'll work on that too. So all right, quick break. We're back. We talked cold weather grilling and some alternatives to going outside when it's bitterly cold like this. We'll call that a more when the BBQ show continues or after this. Fire that thing up, lick the dons and let's get grilling. You're tuned into the BBQ show with Stunton jerks. After we're gone that too. Welcome back to the BBQ show, Stunton Jake, cold weather weekend and it's just part of

21:20the deal. I'm not saying it's been consuming my mind since we talked about it in the first half. But if we're doing a potato episode, can we call it the sputacular potato? Yes. Okay, cool. Yes, we can. Just for you stuff. I'll keep thinking anymore. I'll write them down. I like where your head's at. Oh, it works out. It turns out that it couldn't be beautiful. All right. So today we're talking cold weather grilling just because it's part of the thing. There's a couple different aspects and let's talk about the pros and cons and tips and techniques to make you better at it. If you are one of those people who just can't get enough, if you want to go back outside, I've had this theory for years, especially since I've lived in town and the house where I live now because I have a lot of joggers and walkers that come by my place. And the coldest day of the year and the hottest day of the year, I will see the most joggers. Is that weird? It's like they got something to prove. Like I'm going to get out. You can't stop me. I think there's something to do that. I think you're right. Which if that's you, good for you.

22:20God bless. Get out there. Do your thing. You know, get comfortable being uncomfortable is fine. And I know there's a lot of folks too. Like sometimes when it's really, really cold, I mean, I'm going out to grill anyway. I don't care. True. Find me some hot dogs. I'm firing up the grill. We do find it a way to show our man card, right? To be like, we're going to grill still. No matter what the temp is, there's a few things you have to keep in mind when it's really, really cold. Like, especially a day like today, almost borderline impossible, high temps below zero. Yeah. When it's when your high temperature for the day is eight below and the windshield feels like 45 below, that's tough. And it doesn't take a lot of wind to bring that windshield down. But that wind, especially if it's windy and it's cold, like zero, sub zero, you're really fighting an uphill battle. I mean, all the way around, even with your smoker, your flat top is all but pointless. And there's some things you can do to improve your odds. We'll start smoker, obviously smoker blanket is imperative. Yep. If you've got a commercially made smoker blanket, if it's on there, great.

23:24I know some guys who just take a welding blanket and just drape it over the smoker. You know, we had a chance to talk with Al this last week and I mentioned to him about thermal blankets. This in general, you can throw it over, be godly careful to avoid any disrupting any air, air flow because my smoker now is a trigger wood ridge and the event is on the backside of the smoker. So I can't cover that up, obviously, because you don't want to disrupt that wind flow or the air flow. But otherwise, if you have one that's like my green mountain, it was made for that grill. It was perfect to fit on there. Great. It never fell off. So it was a wonderful product in that regard. There's not way it looks not one for this trigger. So I don't have that option. But it's still something I think about a lot because no matter, it's not even so much about keeping the grill warm, although that helps, it's keeping that wind off. The wind's the biggest criminal in weather like this. It's a thief in the night. Yes, it is. The other thing I would suggest, even if you have a commercial made blanket that fits on your grill and it's really cold, don't be afraid to put another blanket over that.

24:26Double up that insulation just to help. And the biggest problem is not only, I mean, if you're losing heat to the cold air and the wind, that's one thing. But usually if it's windy, it's not just a heat loss, it's a heat inconsistency. And when it comes to inconsistent heat, that is the death. And we go back to Mike in that last segment talking about problems with his ribs. If your heat is up and down and up and down and up and down, you're not getting a good consistent cook in a good consistent smoke. You're just you're messing around too much and that that could be a problem. That could be what could dry out your meat, too, right? During the show with Al on Thursday, this last winter, Wednesday, whatever day it was, he mentioned, you know, well, it doesn't the dry weather in the cold air, dry your meat out. And that's not the case. It's actually from the changes in your temperature, that is what's going to do that most likely to your meat. Yeah. So don't be afraid to overwrap, to double wrap or put more things on there. The other obvious choices, if there's a way you can get your smoker out of the wind, that helps a lot. I'm not a big fan of putting in the garage just because then your entire garage stinks

25:29and if your wife's car's in there, then you got a whole other list of problems. Safety as well, safety is another thing you have to consider, for sure. And so you know, but if you if you have a corner, you can pull it around or I've done the in the garage is open, I'm in the front of the garage right on the edge of the driveway with the soft, overhanging to kind of keep me out of the weather. But I'm still I'm out of the wind, but I'm not inside the garage. And almost more so it's helpful. So if something did happen, you can push it out real quick. Right. For sure. That's not the way you think that way. That's what I think. You talk about that. The number of flare ups I've had, maybe I should think that way more often. True. That is that's a valid point. It goes without saying if you've if you've got a corner that you can tuck your smoker into where you think it's going to be out of the wind and you've got vinyl siding, please make sure you've got enough room. Oh, yeah. I mean, how many pictures do we see of people's vinyl siding that's all warped and melted because they got their gas grill up too close to the house? Yeah. Especially if you get a flare, I mean, you're talking gas grill. Speaking of which, if you're talking about gas grills or a flat top and you're trying

26:30to get out in the same weather, similar situation, you can still cover your gas grill. If you're trying to do something lower and slower. Now if you're trying to do stakes at a high temp, that's problematic. The advantage to the gas in the weather is that it's easier to maintain a temperature than it is with the smoke because you're not relying on the airflow. If you can block the airflow, you'll be pretty good. However, propane is a problem in the winter because it gets cold and then it doesn't flow like it normally does in the summer. So it's harder. You're going through a lot more fuel. You're running at much, much higher temps in my experience, especially with stakes on gas grills. It's hard enough to get the right high heat that you're looking for to get a good, you know, seared stake anyway. So it will probably work. There are some things you could do on there. Like I could see you doing gas grill doing like some chicken quarters or something like that in the cold weather and being able to pull it off just because you're not dealing with that high of a temp, you've got more headroom to bump up the flame and maintain that

27:30heat temperature. If you're talking about your flat top in this kind of weather, I would say don't. I mean, you're fighting uphill battle that well, and really especially for what we have, there's a gap on my blackstone and on your members mark between the propane, the heads or whatever you want to call it, to the actual metal that you're cooking surface. And so the air, especially when it's windy, is coming right through there below and all that hot air out. And no matter what you do, that's going to be a problem. There's a few, we saw that one product from Trigger that's kind of sunk down in. That's a pretty cool device that might be out, may be able to help you on this cold weather. By the way, that's not going to help you cook at all. When the air is not going to be able to heat up the, heat up the metal. Well, right, for sure. And I think the important thing to remember when it comes to flat tops, whether you're running a cast iron, a stainless steel or a ceramic, it doesn't matter. The thing that makes those cooking surfaces work and do the job they do as well as they do is how they conduct heat and how they conduct, you know, that, that temperature, what am

28:35I trying to say, they conduct that. Which means as well as they absorb the heat, they absorb the cold also. The other thing to factor in is it's really easy to damage a flat top in this cold weather. If you are trying to do something on the flat top and it's cold and maybe it's only in the 20s, warm it up on low, you make sure you're coming low and slow and you might even go one burner at a time just to kind of give it a chance. If you're like me, and we talked about this a couple years ago where it was cold out, I was at full high heat on everything. And then I do, like I always do, when I got done cooking, I hit it with some water, scrape it off and clean it. And the minute I hit that cooking surface with cold water in the cold air with the high heat, the whole thing bow tied and popped up and sprung out of shape, which really gets your attention in her. I mean, just tell you, you're like, oh, what did I do? And then after a second, the water, you know, absorbed the heat and then bang, it snapped back into place. But that, if that was cast iron, for example, it would have shattered. Yeah. There's no doubt about it. The only reason that I'm sure it held on was because of the stainless steel to have

29:35a little room to warp in there. I would honestly add to that story is, you said you had like 20 degrees or whatever. I wouldn't cook any lower on a flat top than 20 degrees load, the teens is getting dangerous in my mind. So again, I have a cast iron, too, on that, on the blackstone is the 20 below this weekend, I would not be using your cast iron flat top at all. It's just, it's a little too much. It's just it's not going to, it's not going to get it done. Now, you can also do, you know, the charcoal is fine, but here again, you're still fighting the elements. You're still fighting that cold. You're not going to have the, the same high heat. If you're going to be outside with charcoal in cold weather like this, what I like to do is, some guys like to spread their charcoal out, I stack it up and as get it as close to the great as possible, just so I'm getting good heat contact with the meat or whatever it is that I'm, that, you know, the more usually my method as well, the more gap you have in there, the lower and slower, obviously, you're going to be cooking at. So you want to make sure that, you know, you do things a little bit differently, just like if you're doing a brisket on charcoal, you're probably going to snake the charcoal around. So you're getting an even dispersion of heat that's a lower heat further away

30:38from the meat. When it's cold out, get that stuff as close to it. I agree. And my, I mean, one of my favorite tips for steaks on a gas grill, especially if you have those flavor bars, I think is what Weber calls them little triangles in there. I take my grate off and it's usually a two or three piece grate, turn one of the grates sideways and drop it down. So it sits on top of those flavor bars or whatever. Those little triangle teapies in there. And now you just get, you get, you're, again, you're closer to your heat source. So you're getting more consistent heat, a higher heat, a better heat to ask far as that goes. I think it's a good. Let me give you a few things here quick. You tell me yes or no on these. It's, I guess, tips, if you will, for cold weather smoke, let's go to the smoker, because that's the most, you have the most obvious venting there on the smoker position events away from the wind. That's, that'd be my tip. Do you agree? Yes, as long as you're getting good draw and you're still maintaining good smoke right and temperature. But you'd rather have the wind going over the top and pulling from your smoker than blowing into your smoker. Yeah.

31:39At least that's the way I envision that for most of your events, like for my new trigger right now, I have that, that gap in the back. I want that facing away from the wind. I don't want wind blowing up inside that. That's correct. Yeah. For sure. Do you have a chimney on your trigger? Not on the trigger now. Okay. So it's all the same. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, because I thought that too, with the chimney on the green mountain, it could still blow it down into the grill, no matter where it's at in that angle. When the reason I bring that up is because with my pit boss and with a lot of chimney pellet smokers, if you look or if you look up the instructions online, that cap on your chimney probably screws up or down. You can raise the lower the height. What that will do is affect your airflow that can affect the amount of smoke you're putting in there. So you can help maintain some of the heat if you clamp that down a little bit lower. So you're not getting a full rush of heat coming right out of there because the heat's going to want to rise and come through that chimney anyway, slow it down a little bit so that it's not pouring out and you get more smoke contact that way as well.

32:42Right. Here's a softball for you. Stop peeking every lid left sets you back. Yeah. Especially in cold weather like this. In cold weather. Do not be open that up. And we've told the story before about the Christmas beef tenderloin where they kept looking at it. Yeah. There's a reason this thing is medium. No wonder why the best thing about is about a lot of people think in the winter. I can't smoke. I can't grill. You can. You just got to plan ahead and that includes preheating longer than normal. Right. Right. I talked about doing steaks on the charcoal earlier this week. Yep. The one thing I noticed is I had the good flame going. I had the great going. The charcoal was perfect. They grabbed the first steak. I threw it down. No sizzle. You know what I did? I pulled it off immediately. Yeah. And I propped it so that it was holding some of that heat down a little bit better because it was snowing and I don't want more snow getting on it. And I wanted to cut down some of the wind and what that did is made and then I waited until the racks were hot. Right. And then because if your rack isn't hot, you're not going to get good grill marks. You're not going to get good temperature contact.

33:42So preheat longer and don't, yeah, don't worry about it. Right. There's no such thing as over preheating. Good. Yeah. I would agree. If you want to try getting outside in the cold weather because you're like, I'm not stopping me. Don't be afraid to do more with charcoal and be ready to burn more charcoal. Also live fire. Don't be afraid to try some wood and build a wood fire that you can do. And instead of, you know, that's the other thing is your offset is not, is still an option in the cold weather as well. Again, you're going to have to burn more fuel. You're going to want to cover it just like you do with your, you know, with your smoker. And when we talk smokers, it's kind of the same thing. The advantage though to the wood heat is you're going to get a drier heat that's going to maintain that, that more penetratable heat. And it's something that you can, you could kind of control without burning through pellets because pellets can only feed so fast into that little hopper that's in there. Whereas if you've got an offset or you've got a fire pit type cooker or even you're putting wood in your, your, your Weber, you can still maintain that heat. And let's be honest, you're having fun. Yeah.

34:43Absolutely. You've built the fire in the snow in the cold and it works for you that way. So try a few of those things out if you want. Let us know how it goes. Ask the BBQ show at gmail.com or don't try them out. Stay inside. And we've got some tips and some ideas for doing that as well. We'll talk about that when the barbecue show continues right after this. All right, we're back to barbecue show stunts and Jake. Still on my left, we haven't switched. No, we have not. That would just be awkward. I have come up with another potato name. Okay. Okay. This is actually a country music artist. Russet Dickerson. We have to do that little Russet Dickerson dance and he does. All right. We'll take that under advisement.

35:45Thanks for sure. So cold weather grilling, which just sort of makes sense today is kind of what we've been talking about it among a billion other things it feels like. But so you don't want to go outside because you're just convinced it's too cold. Why bother? Or let's just stay inside because by golly is one person told me one of the people in our office is in the house market and said she spent more on her house than she wanted to. We can't she stays home and enjoys her mortgage like that makes sense. Okay. We need to we all need to do a bit more of that I feel we just spent thousands on this kitchen remodel. Let's enjoy it. So inside stuff and we we joked about the foreman grill and that's on you if you want to do that and knock yourself out. If you wanted to try that you sure can and I know there are plenty of you know indoor grittles and stuff. You know I joked all the time about the next wave and on grittles is going to be one that plugs in and you can use it in the house. Yes. Like we've all had you know that was the that was the obstacle when we first talked about getting a flat top of my house was my wife was we have a griddle and you know what I said

36:48I go well yeah you're right. It's different but anyway they are out there but you can get those if you want. So a couple things we and we talk about this a little jokingly but there's great crock pot ideas you can do. We have chili in the crock pot right now in my place. There you go. The Instapod is amazing especially just because it feels like cheating to me because you can do a roast that normally in a crock pot would take six to eight hours you can do it an hour and a half. Yeah. You know just boom. It's crazy. Here's the problem. It works. They're delicious. Oh yogurt round two in my house this last week also was a good I think she's a she's addicted. Yes and she didn't scrape the milk salad off the side this time so I shared that detail with my with my wife and she thought the opposite. She's like that sounds horrible just on so gross in the Instapod I'm like he swore by it. He loved it. Little jars of pre-made homemade yogurt in my house really we're we're going to try on it. It's pretty good. And then go get yourself a granola or something or some fruit or whatever you want to do. So healthy thing we we hinted to earlier and I know you love it when we talk about boiling

37:49food on the barbecue show. Oh boy. Here comes the Savide dog. Yeah. Broke down got an actual Savide container because we usually just use a what's the Savide container so most people use a more of a square type what you'd see in like a commercial kitchen. It's a plastic container. A bucket. Basically we've always just used a big stock pot or whatever you know what we're doing in it. What fits. Right. This one's cool because it has a lid. It's got a rubber sealable lid that goes on with a cutaway for the Savide device it sits down in it. Interesting. And the advantage to that is that you just hold your heat it you're not you're not boiling the water off through evaporation so that helps a lot and we do a ton of stuff in this I know you do. My wife does a ton of stuff for this. She uses it way more than I do. Yeah, but you love it though. I do. It's really worked out. So a few tips if you will to the Savide one Ziploc bag works great but if you have a vacuum sealer season whatever it is that you're going to cook the way you want to cook it one it's seasoned and then vacuum seal it.

38:50Okay. For one you want it vacuum sealed for the cooking process for two it helps you know permeate some of the the seasoning of the flavor in there be careful with raw garlic. In the sous vide it doesn't break down like it does if you're frying it or sauteing it or putting it on your flat top so I'll go with a little lighter on the garlic. Rangling the garlic then. Yeah, you can use the jar like if you want. I'm a big fan of jar like I know we're not chefs so we don't care we'll take the hatred but it's handy it's easy and it goes well. And then do that the day before if you can because it just it just helps with the vacuum seal also use no air pockets in there so the meat stays down it doesn't float to the top. It's totally submerged and if it doesn't submerge put something in there to hold it down whether it's a great or a steamer rack or something to hold it down. I am a big fan of letting the meat rest after it comes out of the sous vide and then if you're doing it indoors like we did last weekend it was cold use the grill gun and that's what they're for that's the grill gun was actually designed for sous vide kitchens and

39:52then it became something you could use outside to start fires or play with it. I'm a cool don't know yeah don't be afraid to get the flame right up to the meat. Don't hold the flame back so it's just tickling the meat because here's what happens is that you're not getting the sear you want because you're not getting good direct heat contact and good flame contact there. So what you're doing is you're actually cooking the steak more and you don't want to cook the steak you just want to sear it. Got you. So if you're using a grill gun don't be afraid to get in there and get some color on it flip it over. Same thing you would do normally with a steak if you're worried about overcooking on one side of the other just flip it a lot of times and I like a pair of tongs are a fork through just one of the big edges so you can hang it there and see that baby up works good. The other thing that works well is a fry pan cast iron preferably if you're doing it in your house make sure you got a good vent yes or you can take it outside and put it on your charcoal or something like that if it's not too cold but don't be afraid to give it a try. I'm surprised at what it can do for you and how well you can work out and who knows

40:55you know like find a new method that you like. Yeah nice bubble bath for your for your steak. You can always bubble bath them and then pull them off and then take them outside later if you're doing them in the summer or something and then all you have to do is quick sear them on super high heat and they're ready to go and they're perfect every time. Well it's worth a shot. Yeah there's plenty of. I know you love doing it. There's plenty of apps and tips and tricks you can find online if you want to do that. There you go we're up against it. We have to run thanks for joining us each and every week and don't forget to check it out the replays of wherever you find your podcasts for more of the barbecue show in the meantime experiment and have fun. Now go fire that thing up. Thanks for listening to the barbecue show with stunt and Jake. Missed an episode get up anytime on your favorite podcast platform. Search for the BBQ show. Until next time, fire that thing up.