What are you Smoking (BBQ)?

This weekend I made BBQ pork ribs (made a traditional BBQ sauce) and Flannery beef ribs (smoked on day 1, then slow braised on day 2). My friend who is a great chef contributed some BBQ ribs and a bacon wrapped porchetta.

I need to buy a smoker. I setup my weber grills (basic round grill) with dual zones, one with a thing I built to hold wood/chips the second zone with a water bath (I put broth in it with water). It works well, but I have to open/close too often to maintain heat. I use a variety of wood, generally have on hand some hickory, apple, cherry and my favorite for grilling (and BBQ) pecan.

What type of smoker do you use? I think it's time for me to buy a proper smoker.

A 40" Stainless steel Electric Landmann that I bought at Costco. Don't think they carry it anymore.

VM

quote:

Originally posted by sarbuze:


I need to buy a smoker. I setup my weber grills (basic round grill) with dual zones, one with a thing I built to hold wood/chips the second zone with a water bath (I put broth in it with water). It works well, but I have to open/close too often to maintain heat. I use a variety of wood, generally have on hand some hickory, apple, cherry and my favorite for grilling (and BBQ) pecan.

What type of smoker do you use? I think it's time for me to buy a proper smoker.

Sarbuze,
There's nothing wrong with a basic Weber. I own two electric smokers (one I built from a commercial fridge), a heavily modified charcoal horizontal (again, another home project), a 5-burner propane grill that I hardly ever use anymore, and a Weber One-Touch Gold kettle grill. Of them all, the one I use most is the Weber; it's just so versatile.

To maintain an even temperature over a long period, try a modified Minion method. It's basically stacking charcoal briquettes about 4-high almost all the way around the edge of the lower ring. (Also called the Snake method.) You can stud with wood along the way. Then drop in a few lit coals on one end. This will eventually wind its way around, keeping a temp of 200° to 250° or more, depending on how many briquettes you use. I've had this last for as much as 12 hours before. You can put a water bath in the middle, and you never have to turn the meat, because the heat is turning for you. This is a great method for long smokes, like brisket or pork butt.

mneely - does that actually work? I love the idea but I don't see how the fire would work its way around. Each piece of charcoal has to be touching a lit one to start up and seems like that would fail somewhere.

But if it works, it's the solution to keeping a constant temp in the Weber. I have to keep checking every half hour or so.

The snake method most certainly does work. It's great for going low and slow on the standard 22 inch kettle while still cooking indirect. You don't need to use the snake method on the Weber Smokey Mountain because the water pan deflects the heat and creates indirect cooking that way.

For a dedicated smoker, you really can't beat the Weber Smokey Mountain. For occasional smoking, I would just stick with a Weber 22 inch kettle - as mneeley says, it doubles as a great smoker.

just saw THIS for a full fire-and-forget (no pun intended) smoking experience.

I did a 15 pound whole brisket this past weekend for the 4th. I dry rubbed, using Oklahoma Joe's rub recipe, 24 hours in advance. Then, onto the Traeger at 5:30 a.m. and pulled it at about 6:00 p.m. We let it rest for an hour in a cooler wrapped in newspaper and towels, then sliced with a sauce on the side. Forget the sauce - the meat was outstanding.

quote:

Originally posted by BRR:
I did a 15 pound whole brisket this past weekend for the 4th. I dry rubbed, using Oklahoma Joe's rub recipe, 24 hours in advance. Then, onto the Traeger at 5:30 a.m. and pulled it at about 6:00 p.m. We let it rest for an hour in a cooler wrapped in newspaper and towels, then sliced with a sauce on the side. Forget the sauce - the meat was outstanding.

g-man, take notes!

quote:

Originally posted by DoubleD:

quote:

Originally posted by BRR:
I did a 15 pound whole brisket this past weekend for the 4th. I dry rubbed, using Oklahoma Joe's rub recipe, 24 hours in advance. Then, onto the Traeger at 5:30 a.m. and pulled it at about 6:00 p.m. We let it rest for an hour in a cooler wrapped in newspaper and towels, then sliced with a sauce on the side. Forget the sauce - the meat was outstanding.

g-man, take notes!

that's beef fool.

you shoudl take it up with the caja china guys.

http://www.lacajachina.com/who...-worksheet_a/330.htm

9. Once lit spread the charcoal evenly over the Charcoal Grid, the cooking time starts right now, add more charcoal after the hour, you will add 3 more batches of charcoal in the following manner. 1 Hour, 1 Hour, 30 Minutes.

do the math, how many hours is that?

quote:

Originally posted by BRR:
Then, onto the Traeger at 5:30 a.m. and pulled it at about 6:00 p.m.

On the smoke setting the entire time?

quote:

Originally posted by Vino Me:
Over the last month I've done the following in the smoker:

Ribeye Roast- Tied with butchers twine. Coated with olive oil and minced garlic and then a simple rub was applied. Smoked with manzanita wood. Cooked to rare/medium rare. About 135 degrees internal.

What temp did you smoke the meats?

Meatloaf- Wrapped a meatloaf in a bacon weave and smoked it using grapevine wood for about 2.5 hours. Applied a pineapple/habenero bbq glaze and smoked for another hour to about 165 internal.

VM

In Texas I could find packer briskets and at a reasonable price. In Arizona I can only find flats and they are very pricey. I have been mostly smoking baby back ribs.

quote:

Originally posted by Purple Teeth:

quote:

Originally posted by BRR:
Then, onto the Traeger at 5:30 a.m. and pulled it at about 6:00 p.m.

On the smoke setting the entire time?

I did smoke for 7 hours, then cranked the temp to 200 for the remaining 5, as it was slow-going.

The bummer of the above-mentioned brisket was that, when it came time to serve the 28+ guests, I was inside putting my kids to bed and my brother-in-law, the owner of said Traeger, sliced the whole thing with the grain! Hey, we all make mistakes. The flavor, juiciness, and perfect smoke ring were all there, but it was poorly served and the texture suffered. Oh well.

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:
...try a modified Minion method...

I don't know why, but this name cracks me up. Shane T mentioned this one night and I couldn't help but imagine a bunch of small yellow guys hitting each other with BBQ tongs while making farting noises.

quote:

Originally posted by BRR:
The bummer of the above-mentioned brisket was that, when it came time to serve the 28+ guests, I was inside putting my kids to bed and my brother-in-law, the owner of said Traeger, sliced the whole thing with the grain! Hey, we all make mistakes. The flavor, juiciness, and perfect smoke ring were all there, but it was poorly served and the texture suffered. Oh well.

Sometimes the grain is hard to find on a cooked brisket. One trick is, while the meat is still raw and you can see the grain, partially insert a toothpick on the top along the direction of the grain. After it is cooked, find the toothpick, and cut crosswise from there.

Threw on a couple of pork butts at 6am, for pulled pork later tonight or tomorrow.
These were both injected with a mixture of apple juice, apple cider vinegar, and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey, then coated with Tatonka Dust. Smoking with a 50/50 mixture of hickory and apple.

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:
Threw on a couple of pork butts at 6am, for pulled pork later tonight or tomorrow.
These were both injected with a mixture of apple juice, apple cider vinegar, and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey, then coated with Tatonka Dust. Smoking with a 50/50 mixture of hickory and apple.

Do you find that injecting pork butts is worth the extra effort? I read somewhere (? Amazingribs.com) that it wasn't worth it but I'm open to trying new things. Did two butts for the 4th (one South Carolina and the other Lexington style) that turned out great. I liked them both but the South Carolina style was the most popular.