Page 7 - Barbecue News DEC 2020 Digital Issue

pressing on the sides and squishing it into a round tube. Tie it with butcher’s twine every inch or two to help it keep its shape. Sprinkle with salt (about 1/2 teaspoon per pound of trimmed meat) and dry brine in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours.
4) Make the Cow Crust. Mix all those ingredients together in a bowl.
5) Rub the beef. An hour or two before cooking, wet the meat by patting water on it and apply the rub all over, using about 1 teaspoon of rub per 8 square inches of meat.
6) Fire up. I prefer to use a grill because I want smoke, but not a lot. If you are using a smoker, set it for 225°F. If you are using a grill, set it up for two-zone cooking and get the indirect zone to 225°F. On a charcoal grill, push all the coals to one side for the direct zone, leaving the other side empty for the indirect zone. On a gas grill, just light the burners on one side and leave the other side off.
7) Cook. If you have a leave-in digital meat thermometer with a probe on a cable, insert it now so the tip is dead cen- ter in the thickest part of the meat (see photo). If you don’t have a probe you can leave in the meat, you absolutely must have a good digital instant-read meat thermometer and you should check the roast every 30 minutes at first, and more often as the roasting progresses.
8) For a light smokiness add 2 to 4 ounces of wood to the hot direct zone of the fire. Don’t overdo the smoke. Put the roast in the indirect zone of the grill and close the lid.
9) Look at the meat occasionally as it cooks—the side near the heat will cook first. If that side gets noticeably darker than the other, rotate it. When the temperature in the deepest part of the interior reaches 115 to 120°F, remove
the probe (it just gets in the way) and put the roast over the hottest part of the grill. If you are using charcoal, you can add more hot coals; if you are using gas, turn all burners on high; and if you have a sear burner, give ’er all she’s got, Scotty. Raise the lid and stand by your grill. If you’re using a pellet grill, bring the roast indoors and sear it under your broiler. 10) Get the surface of the roast
a deep dark brown by leaving it on the hot part for 5 to 10 minutes. Roll it a quarter turn and repeat on all four sides. During this searing process, the interior temperature will rise another 10 to 15°F. Check the meat temperature again and take it off when it reaches 130 to 135°F for medium rare, even if all sides are not browned.
11) Serve. Set the meat on a cutting board with a channel that can hold the liquid that will flow as soon as you cut into the roast, and have a platter with a lip ready to hold the carved slices. Serve your meat hot! Don’t let it rest, or it will overcook from carryover heat retained in the meat it- self. First remove the twine and use a sharp knife to cut slices 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Pour any drippings from the cutting board onto the platter holding the sliced meat, and spoon it on top of the slices as they are served. Remember, it is water tinted red by a protein, not blood! Every time you call it blood a bell rings and a teenager becomes a vegan.
Meathead is the barbecue whisperer who founded Amazin- gRibs.com, by far the world's most popular outdoor cooking website. He is the author of "Meathead, The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling," a New York Times Best Seller that was also named one of the "100 Best Cookbooks of All Time" by Southern Living magazine. This article was excerpted and modified from his book. For 3,000+ free pages of great barbe- cue and grilling info, visit AmazingRibs.com and take a free trial in the Pitmaster Club.
DECEMBER 2020
BarbecueNews.com - 7