Smoked beef tenderloin the Lopez Island way -- hot and fast

Editor's note: Posse members not only love to eat barbecue but they also love to cook. Bryan Gooding, who recently retired and moved from Dallas to Lopez Island in Washington state, shares his secrets for smoking great tenderloin.


By Bryan Gooding

Though I love to barbecue meats you can’t treat a beef tenderloin like a brisket or pork butt. The smoking needs to be hot and fast since there isn’t enough fat on a tenderloin to survive a long time in low heat.

So I use my smoker with a lot of heat from a wood fire. In this case I used apple wood but you could get a nice spicy taste from mesquite or a soft buttery smoke from pecan.

Since this is fast you don’t need to worry about over-smoking the meat so you can avoid wrapping in paper.

Making the rub, from start to
finish. (Photos ©Bryan Gooding)

To make the rub, pulse chopped shallots and garlic in a small food processor to a smooth mince. Crush the coriander seeds and peppercorns in a mortar and pestle. Add the brown sugar, crushed coriander/black pepper mixture and salt to the food processor and blend together.

Slather a thick coat of the rub all over your tenderloin and let it marinate in the refrigerator uncovered for at least three hours but not more than five. Before cooking, set the tenderloin out and allow it to come to room temperature about an hour before cooking.

Have your smoker up to 400 degrees.  Start the fire with charcoal (always use a chimney with newspaper because that charcoal lighter fluid crap is not good for you), add your wood and let the charcoal burn away so you have a nice hot wood fire.

Set the tenderloin on the grill as close to the firebox as possible without letting the flames lick the meat. Place the thick end of the meat towards the fire.

I set my meat thermometer, centered, in the thickest part of the tenderloin. I started out at about 45 degrees internal temperature on the meat. Close up the smoker and try to keep the temp at 400 degrees (adding wood as necessary).

I found that a fire that hot needs more air than the fire box vents allow so I cracked the door to give sufficient air.

I pulled the meat once the internal temp hit 130 degrees (this took about 40 minutes during this cook) and double wrapped it in foil and let it rest for about 20-30 minutes before slicing into thick pieces.

The beef tenderloin is a perfect meat for a group meal as you get the whole range from rare to done. Cut your more done meat from the small end and rarer cuts from the thick end. I find the combination of the smoke, shallots, and coriander spice gives you an unusual flavor pallet to what can be otherwise a fairly plain-jane cut of meat.

We serve ours with a sauce made with creamed horseradish combined with sour cream and a little salt.

The recipes

Rub
2 Tbsp. coriander seeds
2 Tbsp. black peppercorns
3 large shallots, roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
¾ cup Kosher salt
¼ cup brown sugar
1 beef tenderloin, trimmed (about 4 lbs)

Fire
Some charcoal for starting your wood fire (unless you have a better way)
Plenty of good smoking wood – pecan, cherry, oak, mesquite, apple or whatever is handy in your area

Sauce
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup horseradish
salt to taste

How to put some smoke on your prime rib roast before using the 500-degree reverse sear

The Gagne's prime rib roast ready for carving. (Photo ©Texas BBQ Posse)

Warning: This isn't a normal Posse blog post. Just how atypical? I had to look up how to spell sous vide.

But don't worry, that vacuum-sealed cooking method was used only for warming up some wonderful leftovers from the meal that long-time Posse member Mike Gagne cooked on Christmas Day.

Mike is a University of Texas law school grad and serious Longhorns fan, so when we (Mike is married to my daughter, Libby) decided to cook prime rib for the holiday, he went right to the source of all knowledge -- Orangebloods.com.

He quickly found a long thread on the subject that mentioned a Serious Eats article by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. For the juiciest prime rib, Lopez-Alt argues, start low on temperature and go slow on cooking, then finish very hot with what he calls a reverse sear. Everything is done in an oven.

That's when Mike's Posse background took over.

"It's not us if we don't put some smoke on it," he said.

Mike's cooking variation started the roast, which had just a salt and pepper rub, on a Weber kettle. The Weber was set up offset, with charcoal and pecan wood chips. Mike wanted a light smoke flavor so he let the meat cook for 30 minutes at about 250 degrees.

Then the roast, which weighed about 12 pounds or so, was transferred to an oven, pre-heated to about 230 degrees. The roast stayed there until its internal temp was about 130 degrees, which took about 2 1/2 hours.

Now the hard part. Be patient. Mike took the roast out of the oven and let it rest, covered by foil, for about an hour. He then kicked the oven up to 500 degrees and put the meat back in for another 20 minutes or so.

That final sear produced a beautiful looking, juicy, smoke-flavored rib roast. He served it with a mild horseradish sauce.

The next day, we ate the leftovers re-heated in a warm water bath sous-vide style. The meat was just as tender as Day One. This could become a family Christmas tradition.

Mike Gagne carves up the finished rib roast. (Photo ©Texas BBQ Posse)

Warming leftovers sous-vide style, the meat was just as tender as Day One. (Photo ©Texas BBQ Posse)

UPDATE: Step-by-step, cooking butcher paper wrapped brisket - See the video

Pitmaster Marshall Cooper and son Mark wrap a brisket with butcher paper. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) 

By Marshall Cooper

Six years ago, we wrote about cooking brisket wrapped in butcher paper. It continues to be one of the most read posts on this blog.

As anyone who cooks knows, the more you cook the more you learn. So since that initial post, I've made some refinements to my butcher paper technique that I'd like to share with you in this Posse cooking update and accompanying video.

For me, the major benefit of using butcher paper instead of foil, or leaving meat unwrapped during an entire cook, is that you end up with a better texture of barbecue, very moist and tender and less potential for over steaming. The butcher paper, which is used near the end of the cook, seems to breath, keeping the brisket from drying out while shielding the meat from too much smoke.


Butcher Paper Wrapped Brisket from Gary Barber on Vimeo.

Cooking butcher paper wrapped brisket is really simple if you stick to basics and don’t try to complicate things by using countless techniques you hear about or see at the barbecue joints. Here's how you just keep it simple:

1. Start by buying a choice or prime grade 12-14 pound brisket. Trim the thick fat off the bottom side down to 1/4” or so. Trim the sides as well to 1/4”. Trim the heal off the top side. If you don’t want to bother with trimming, don’t worry about it.  Then, use whatever rub you like. A simple rub for brisket is 1/2 cup coarse ground (16 mesh or butcher grind) fresh black pepper, 1/4 cup of kosher salt and a 1/4 cup of Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. Or 1/2 cup of black pepper and 1/2 cup of kosher salt & throw in 1-2 tablespoons of granulated garlic. That’s it. Now season the brisket, sprinkling the rub from a red plastic cup, applying a light even coat, not too heavy. You want to be able to still see the meat.

2. Now fire up your smoker so it will burn fairly clean, and bring it to it’s ideal cooking temperature so that it won’t burn up your brisket while it cooks for 10-12 hours, unwrapped. This will probably be 225-250 degrees (F) for most backyard stick burners or charcoal pits. Use whatever wood you like -- hickory, post oak, pecan or a mix of whatever you like. Just get it burning clean and even. Someone once told me if the smoke doesn’t smell good while it’s burning, the meats gonna taste terrible.

3. Place the brisket on the pit cold. On most backyard stick burners, it should probably go fat side up. Fat side down on charcoal pits if the fire is directly below the meat. You decide what works best on your pit.

4. Cook the brisket at a steady temperature. After 4-6 hours you will see water starting to puddle on the top. This is when it’s in the “stall." If you don’t know what the stall is, you can read more about it on Amazing Ribs web site. Basically it’s when the internal water in the brisket begins to evaporate and the meat stops cooking until the water has evaporated. The stall will take around 4-6 hours to complete if you do not wrap. And we are not going to until later. So be prepared to let the brisket cook unwrapped for 9-12 hours. If it looks like the meat is burning, slow the pit down.

5. Once the puddles of water on top of the brisket start to dry up, the brisket is coming out of the stall. The internal meat temperature should be around 175-185 (F).

6. Let the brisket continue to cook until your index finger will sink into the fatty end about an inch. Then wrap the brisket in the pink butcher paper like I show you in the accompanying video. Use this butcher paper available from Amazon, it’s what Aaron Franklin uses in Austin.

Follow the directions in the video by letting the brisket cook 1 to 3 more hours until the butcher paper is saturated. Check for doneness by feeling if it’s floppy. If it is, then check the internal temp if you must.

7. Let the brisket rest for at least 1 to 4 hours! Repeat, because it's so important: Let the brisket rest!

Then enjoy!

Posse member Marshall Cooper is a leading backyard pitmaster with more than 40 years of experience smoking meats. He is a commercial real estate broker at Capstone Commercial Real Estate Group in Dallas.

Video: Pecan Lodge's Justin Fourton shows you how to cook a great brisket

When it comes to smoking a brisket, Pecan Lodge pitmaster and co-owner Justin Fourton is among the best in Texas. Their recent appearance on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives is further evidence of that fact.

However, our photo crew at the Dallas Morning News beat Guy Fieri to the airwaves by a couple of weeks with this video of Justin explaining how to prep, cook and cut a brisket. Staff photographer Vernon Bryant spent a day behind the scenes at Pecan Lodge to bring you some of Justin's secrets. Enjoy.......


Video: Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News, Photo: ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

Here's the best comment we've ever seen about wood and Texas BBQ

Over the past four years, we've gotten a lot of comments from readers about our observations on Texas barbecue. Good or bad, we post them all, with the exception of those with extreme profanity. Texas BBQ is an emotional issue.

However, a comment on Gary Jacobson's Monday post "Memo to Gov. Perry: Texas needs a truth in BBQ law" set a new bar for comments on our blog. A reader tagged as "Anonymous" left a pronouncement that summed it all up better than we could ever do.

For sale: A piece of Texas BBQ history

For sale: Snow's BBQ original catering smoker and trailer. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Want to buy a serious piece of Texas barbecue history? Snow's BBQ owner Kerry Bexley has a deal for you.

One of the fringe benefits of having breakfast at Snow's on a Saturday morning is talking barbecue with Kerry. From our first visit in Nov. 2009, he's treated us like family as we've caught up on all the Central Texas BBQ gossip.

During our trip a week ago he casually mentioned that his original catering rig was for sale, priced at $2750 or best offer. Several of us immediately headed to the driveway to check it out.

My crash course in smoking with the Knights of Columbus

Tom Rossman loads the pit with pork butts.

This weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with my dad Tom Rossman and the Knights of Columbus Council 6950 in Katy for a full day of smoking meat.

Several times each year the Knights sell barbecue as a fund-raiser. They presell briskets, ribs and pork butts, cook on Friday and customers pickup on Saturday. This time they prepared 42 briskets, 75 racks of ribs and 12 pork butts.

Cooking backyard BBQ with John Mueller & John Lewis

Last Sunday I hauled my Jambo pit to Austin. The first stop was John Lewis' house. Both Lewis and I had been invited to a backyard BBQ with John Mueller the next day.

John Lewis is a pitmaster (I call him The BBQ Genius, food critics call him the BBQ savant) who works at Franklin BBQ in Austin for Aaron Franklin. Franklin's has been named the best BBQ joint in America. That also means best in the world, says John Mueller, because no place else cooks real BBQ except Texas.

I help John Lewis on national KCBS BBQ competitions. John's cook team is named Porky's Revenge, and includes his fiancé Maureen Williams, Daniel Rugg Webb & Raymond Carreon. In its short time competing, Porky's Revenge has attracted the attention of top competitors like Tuffy Stone and Jamie Geer, the Jambo pit builder. Stone and Geer were featured in the first season of TV's BBQ Pitmasters along with Myron Mixon, Johhny Trigg and others. Later this month, John and I are competing at the upcoming 2012 Academy of Country Music and Mandalay Bay BBQ Throw-down competition in Las Vegas, NV.

John Mueller, who learned how to cook from his father, Bobby, of the legendary Taylor barbecue family, runs JMueller BBQ in Austin. He was intrigued by Lewis' competition BBQ skills and hinted at joining us at an event.

Early Monday morning with our pits in tow we headed over to Mueller's joint, which was closed for the day. Mueller had already fired his pit and loaded a couple of briskets and a bunch of beef ribs. When I saw that, I trimmed and rubbed a brisket and had it on my pit in no time. I ran my Jambo pit hotter than hell to try and keep up with Mueller's briskets since he obviously gotten a jump. He had told us the day before "no need to show early!" Lewis fired his pit a few hours later to cook a suckling pig after he completed final preparations.

So, while the meats cooked, everyone sat around the pits smelling the sweet burning post oak, throwing back a few beers and talking some serious BBQ. Mueller's wife Debi, daughter Erika, sister LeAnn, good friend Ali Form (cuts the meats at JMueller) and Wes were all there. Several other Mueller friends stopped by later as well.

The first round of meats came off Mueller's pit. We all devoured his handmade beef sausage - best sausage I've ever had. We all ate lots of it with cheddar cheese and Mueller's spicy hot sauce on fresh saltine crackers. It was damned good! Then Mueller pulled a few racks of his beef ribs off his pit. These were to die for. There is nothing better than eating properly prepped and cooked smoked meats straight off the pit. A while later, Mueller pulled a couple of briskets, which also rocked.

After a few more hours and a few more beers, Lewis pulled off the suckling pig. It stole the show. Lewis had stuffed it with herbs, seasonings, pounds of sausage and pork tenderloin and other secret stuff. Everyone at the cook off loved it. It was by far the best anyone there had ever had. And coming from the Muellers, that's very high praise.

Then I pulled the brisket off my pit and let it rest a while. Mueller pitched it on his block and cut it for us. They all told me it was excellent, which was sweet music to my ears coming from Lewis, the Muellers and their close friends.

Later, LeAnn Mueller, well known photographer and the sister of John, mentioned that John Lewis reminded her of her father, Bobby. John Mueller readily agreed. This is absolutely the highest complement any pitmaster could receive. Lewis just smiled, blushed a little and changed the subject.

John Lewis, left, and John Mueller pose for a portrait.

Photos ©Marshall Cooper/Texas BBQ Posse

The wood versus gas BBQ debate rages on: "extramsg" responds to his critics

We were introduced to blogger and Portland, Oregon, deli owner extramsg last week when he responded to Gary Jacobson's post The wood versus gas BBQ debate continues as we analyze a Southern Pride recipe.

His take on the piece? "Ah, bullshit."

You can read his initial comment under the original blog post to get the gist of his argument. Basically, he says that he can cook BBQ every bit as smokey as the best wood-fired Texas BBQ joints on his gas-burning Southern Pride oven.

To that, I say: "Ah, bullshit."

When extramsg sent a lengthly followup comment last night, we felt it deserved a separate post to further the lively wood vs. gas debate.

It's an emotional issue to say the least, but please read his comments with an open mind and let us know what you think. (Note: The Daniel that extramsg refers to is Daniel Vaughn, aka the BBQ Snob, who writes the Full Custom Gospel BBQ blog. Daniel also weighed in on the wood vs. gas debate.)

extramsg writes:

Pastrami and BBQ brisket are different, for sure, but I have made BBQ brisket many times in both an electric Cookshack and a Southern Pride (and by more traditional methods). eg, we do a BBQ day twice a year (4th of July and Labor Day) at K&Z where we serve about 400 covers of Q along with our usual deli stuff.

I personally own a Cookshack. But before K&Z opened full-time in its current location, we spent two years making it in a barrel smoker with a firebox. Once a week was deli, once a week was BBQ. So I'm very aware of the differences in the products they produce. (And it's probably worth noting that I'm a KCBS certified judge and have judged events, have eaten at many of the major BBQ joints in the country, have written articles surveying BBQ in the NW, etc.)

The question I have for all of you, though, is whether you've done the same? Daniel, have you ever tested it? I know a couple people there in Dallas that would probably be happy to lend you their Cookshacks for the testing. Do the same rub, meat, wood, and temp and blind taste the difference?

Personally, I find the most difficult issue for some of the electrics to be a good bark, since some max at 250 degrees and are so small the humidity is very high inside. However, I've had no problem getting really nice barks on pork butts. And the Southern Pride we have has convection fans and can go hotter than 250, making bark easy enough to produce.

But the issue here was smoke. Truth is it's VERY easy to make BBQ smoky in an electric or gas that uses chunks or split wood. Why don't more places do it Texas where smokiness is such a traditional component? I have no clue. Why do so many places have shitty sides, chewy ribs, and undercooked or dry meats? None of that is a matter of the equipment either.

Daniel, you had the pastrami and the stuff I made was a hell of a lot smokier than what I got at Lockhart a couple days later. And that smoke flavor had to compete with the cure flavor. (Normally I'd make it less smoky but I was using pecan, which I hadn't used before, and so used extra thinking it might be like a fruit wood rather than the oak I usually use.)

I think it would be worthwhile to stop echoing some know-it-all's professed expertise on some BBQ forum or blog, passing it down like oral history that's more myth than science. No more unearned snobbery based on faulty logic about all-wood vs wood-electric vs wood-gas.

Pit Talk: Tips for choosing a backyard smoker

You have visited plenty of stops on the Texas BBQ Trail and know what good BBQ is. You've experimented on the grill in the backyard, but need to buy the proper equipment to take the next step of becoming a serious backyard pit master.


Here are a few simple tips and options to help you make the choice.


Determine how many people you want to cook for at one time, how often you will be cooking and  how much you want to spend. 


Slow smoking meats in the backyard is a considerable time commitment so consider the cost of a smoker as an investment that will help cook higher quality BBQ.


A good BBQ smoker is well-built with plenty of airflow, good draw and maintains steady & even temperatures at the grate. It also needs to be large enough to cook on while minimizing radiant heat from burning the meats. 


Insulated Smokers will tremendously help produce steady temperatures and heat over long periods of time, which is crucial for making good BBQ. Selecting a functional smoker to cook backyard BBQ to meet your criteria can be overwhelming due to the hundreds of choices out there. 


There are many different pits designs to choose from: bullet, off-set aka log burner/stick burner (which is an indirect type design with the firebox off set to one side), gravity fed charcoal, kamado ceramic cookers and pellet cookers. 


Electric and gas oven smokers have been purposely omitted by the author.


Below is a short list of some smokers that vary in design, size, results, and price. Again it gets down to the level of commitment you are prepared to pursue.

Smoker Name:	Smoker Design	Size	Cost	Fuel	Insulated Firebox	Website	Comments
Barbeques Galore Offset Smoker	Off-set/stick burner	N/A	$349	Charcoal, wood chunks	No	http://www.bbqgalore.com/smokers.html	light gauge construction, possible initial entry-level for backyard, maintaining even temps for long periods could be challenging
Big Drum Smoker (BDS) Small	Direct	small	$475	Wood logs, charcoal	No	http://www.bigdrumsmokers.com/smokers.htm	N/A
Big Green Egg (BGE)	Charcoal, wood chunks	small	N/A	Charcoal, wood chunks	Yes	http://www.biggreenegg.com/eggs/sizes/	widely used by backyard cooks and competition pit masters
Brinkman - Professional Charcoal Grill	Off-set/stick burner	small	$379	Charcoal, wood chunks	No	http://www.brinkmann.net/products/outdoor_cooking/charcoal_smokers_and_grills/details.aspx?item=805-2101-W	light gauge construction, possible initial entry-level for backyard, maintaining even temps could be challenging
Charbroil - American Gourmet Deluxe Offset Smoker	Off-set/stick burner	N/A	$158	Charcoal, wood chunks	No	http://www.charbroil.com/ProductInfo/10-17-1928/American-Gourmet-Deluxe-Offset-Smoker.aspx	light gauge construction, possible initial entry-level for backyard, maintaining even temps could be challenging
Gator - Backyard Classic	Off-set/stick burner	20" x 32"	$1450+	Wood Logs	No	http://www.gatorpit.net/backyard_pits/backyard_classic.htm	N/A
Horizon (Smokey Joe) - 20" Classic Backyard Smoker	Off-set/stick burner	20" x 36"	$995	Wood Logs	No	http://www.horizonbbqsmokersstore.com/servlet/the-376/20%22-Classic-Backyard-Smoker/Detail	Well built.
Jambo Pits Backyard Model	Off-set/stick burner	24 inch diameter - 48 inch length with 24 X 24 X 20 insulated firebox	$1800	Wood Logs	Yes	http://www.jambopits.com/directions.html	good build quality, cook very well, holds the heat and temps steady due to the insulated firebox and design.
Klose	Off-set/stick burner	24 inch diameter - 48 inch length	$2395	Wood Logs	No	http://www.bbqpits.com/backyard_smokers/24x48_smoker.htm	N/A
Lang 36" Smoker Cooker Model	Off-set/stick burner	36 inch length	$949	Wood Logs	No	http://www.langbbqsmokers.com/lang36/index.html	Smaller models are widely used by backyard cooks and the larger models used by competition pit masters
MAK Pellet - 1 Star General	Pellet Cooker	N/A	$1299+	Pellets	No	http://www.makgrills.com/shopping/start.php?browse=1&cat=8&=SID	N/A
Stumps – Baby Model	Gravity-fed charcoal	Height with stack and caster 49” inches; Depth with thermometer 24 1/2” inches; Width with ball valve 36” inches;	$1350+	Charcoal, wood chunks	Yes	http://www.stumpssmokers.com/products/gravity-feed-smokers/vertical-smokers/the-baby	widely used by backyard cooks and competition pit masters
Superior – SS2 Model	Gravity-fed charcoal	N/A	$1900	Charcoal, wood chunks	Yes	http://www.superiorsmokers.com/ssTwo.html	widely used by backyard cooks and competition pit masters
Traeger - Junior Model	Pellet Cooker	N/A	$399	Pellets	No	http://www.traegergrills.com/shop/grills/BBQ055	N/A
Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM)	Bullet	18 1/2 "  & 22 1/2 " diameter	$299 $399	Charcoal, wood chunks	No	http://www.weber.com/explore/grills/smokers-series	good build quality, Cook very well, excellent economical smoker, widely used by backyard cooks and professional competition pit masters. Guru BBQ or Stoker BBQ is easily fitted.