Jo3sh posted:

As a followup to my previous posts in this thread:

I've been looking into a few electric smokers, and while I don't doubt that goons have had good results with them, reviews in various places have been... mixed. And, I have to admit, the idea of an electric smoker seems somehow disconnected to me.

So I am back to wood-or charcoal-fired smokers. Big Green Egg just seems a little expensive for what it is. I've already been through two Brinkmann charcoal smokers. I could weld up something out of some steel drums and various pieces of plate, but that seems like a lot of bother for uncertain results.

Maybe what I need is something that is a smaller step up than I had originally suggested. One thing that catches my eye is the 18" WSM, possibly with the addition of a pit controller of some kind for better temperature control. Or maybe I just need to man up and find someone with a plasma cutter to make the fabrication of the drum smoker less laborious.

gently caress, I dunno. What other suggestions do you guys have?

Jo3sh posted:

Honestly, if I knew the Traeger was going to be a solid piece of work, I would spend a grand on it. I mentioned a little earlier that I had seen some reports of shoddy workmanship on the newer ones, though.

How has yours been? Happy with it? I had in mind the ~$800 Lil Tex Elite for the digital thermostat.

BraveUlysses posted:

sellouts posted:

I've had similar experiences. 3-2-1 definitely resulted in overcooked ribs for me more often than not, but when ribs are overcooked they fall off the bone which most people like so it's not like it's ruined.

EDIT: I've never seen an imitation BGE do everything the BGE does well, but I haven't exactly messed with a ton of them.

What is everyone's favorite recipe for North Carolina vinegar based sauce?

cornface posted:

I guess my biggest problem with 3-2-1 is that you're trading bark for no real decrease in cooking time, and greatly increasing the chances that you overcook your ribs.

That being said, I have a pork loin roast on right now. I did the tenderloins for Easter, and they came out really well, despite the warnings. They just cooked super fast.

It spent the night in a brown sugar/maple syrup brine, and then got stuffed with butter and wrapped in bacon. If it isn't moist when it comes off I will give it a secondary brining in a gallon sack of my tears.

cornface posted:

This is the first one I made, but based on that link I know what the second one is going to be.

I think my fears about drying it out were for nothing, because it was incredibly juicy. I stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes after pulling it to crisp the bacon up, and mixed up some maple syrup infused sauce to stick with the theme. I think I'm going to do two or three next time for a little more variety and leftovers.



I probably should buy a new avatar, but my red text was changing so frequently for a while that it seemed like a waste of money.

Stringent posted:

Hickory is the only acceptable wood for pork.

Parlett316 posted:

Went to Wegmans, what a loving nightmare, full of loving humanoids, got a pork shoulder. 7 and a half pounds. Put a thin layer of mustard on it and some rub. I think it was grill masters. I'll experiment later with home made rubs and sauce eventually, I just have to pop the cherry of this smoker now! It's saranwrapped up and chillin in the fridge. Going on the smoker first thing tomorrow morning.

Keep the charcoals burning, add apple wood every so often, try to keep smoker temp at 225 and get thickest part of the pork at 185-190.

Is spraying the meat every so often necessary? I have apple cider VINEGAR in case. But should I have apple cider? Agh, once again with the paralysis by analysis. SMOKE. SMOKE.

SMOKE.

Bob Mundon posted:

Currently have a couple of butts on the ol WSM and something occured to me.....

Has anyone tried making (essentially) burnt ends with pork butt? Seems like with the added fattiness of butt it might work. Then again it might not, didn't know if anyone had ever messed around with it.

Trane posted:

You guys are awesome, thanks for this tip. I'm loving this thread since I got my Weber smokey mountain last month. I've used it every week for the past six in a row!

Question, over the holiday weekend my wife and I are planning to brew a couple batches of beer on Sunday and have folks over for a BBQ the following day. I'm thinking about smoking a pork shoulder for pulled pork while brewing, since I'll already be outside, then reheating it the next day for the BBQ while grilling some chicken. My plan was to basically do all the pulling and mixing in the sauce that evening, then just reheating at 200 in the oven or so. I haven't done pulled pork yet in the smoker (due to the time needed) so just looking to see if this idea is sound. Thanks for any advice.

Taxes posted:

Awesome, I haven't seen this topic before. Now that its BBQ season I want to join y'all.

I have a Gator Pit for larger cooks, but for single briskets/butts/ribs/etc I use my ugly drum smoker (who needs a new lid - the current one is unfortunately warped and needs a cinder block to hold it down).



My next project is to build an all stainless UDS. They work beautifully.

Made some pulled beef today using two 2lb chuck roasts.





Tastes a lot like an Italian Beef but with more Southwestern spice. Pulled pork is tastier, but pulled beef is a nice change of pace on occasion. Likely going to do a Brisket, complete with burnt ends for Memorial Day, so I will have some more pictures then.

VERTiG0 posted:

Are they really worth the kind of money they ask for them?

cornface posted:

What part of town?

bunnielab posted:

My butt turned out ok.



Took about 16.5 hours. In the future I will do two small ones instead to get more bark I'm the mix. Also will try to foil to cut down on cooking times.

Bone_Enterprise posted:

Hrmm, I may take you up on that some time, I live 35~40 minutes south of Houston.

Also does Ritch normally carry a .45 on his hip at the shop, if so that is awesome and I want to meet him.

VERTiG0 posted:

Ever shipped one of those to Canada?

Bone_Enterprise posted:

Sure will do.
I guess you film/edit their videos as I assume that is your name drop at the end there?

jonathan posted:

Oh ok cool. Because I was just about to go buy that cuisinart smoker/MES 30 with the front window. Scared me.

Question, with the wood pellets, will I get a smoke ring from an electric smoker ? Also, how well do these things work at colder temperatures ? After October, -40 degrees is not out of the question. Will the smoker keep up or will I have to run it in my detached garage or something ?

GigaFool posted:

No, you don't. Not unless you put charcoal in the chip tray, which most people don't, because smoke rings are just window dressing and don't contribute to flavor. They require combustion temps to occur, which smoldering chips/pellets do not provide.

Siochain posted:

Once its below -5C or so, it can't keep up. But, easy trick for that - go grab a welding blanket. Get one that's not the fiberglass itchy stuff, but the smoother sides. Set the smoker, put your stuff in, and wrap it up. Or if you have a detached building that's even mildly heated that you don't mind getting smokey, that'll work to. I just parked mine for most of the winter, because its just too loving cold out to want to bother heh.

TenjouUtena posted:

vvv I don't use a stick burner or anything. I keep a fire going for 14 hours.

Doom Rooster posted:

Kirk, what have you done?!

Honestly, seems a little dumb, but probably more entertaining to me than any of the other shows like it (OCC, American Guns, Pawn Stars, etc...) Just make sure to look pretty for the camera.

Crazy Dutchman posted:

Also, this. Just butterfly/spatchcock the bird and be done with it.

ixo posted:

Threw a 4 lb pork shoulder on this morning, and after a nice 8 hours @ 225f, my thermometer tells me the meat is.... 151f

Into the oven it goes, and after about 5 minutes in a 300f oven, a different thermometer tells me the meat is... 211f! it is still not pullable, so this is more and more looking like an evening to throw my thermometers in the garbage, order pizza and shop for a new maverick on amazon.

Tuxedo Jack posted:

What did I do wrong?

So I smoked some Baby Back Ribs yesterday, and they didn't come out the way I wanted. This was my first real attempt at a smoke, here's the story:

I started with two racks. I attempted to pull the membrane from the back, but (due to my novice status) couldn't find it and assumed it had already been pulled. In retrospect, I think I am just an idiot and missed it. This may be the key to all my problems, but I don't know.

So I used a homemade rub that I created from an online recipe, aping off of a classic KC style rub. I rubbed them Tuesday night and put them back in the fridge overnight (wrapped in plastic wrap and a layer of tinfoil).



Wednesday morning I pulled them about 2 hours before the smoke. I got my fire going using a mixture of lump charcoal, 100% hardwood briquettes, and hickory and cherry (both soaked and unsoaked). I spent the first hour practicing keeping the fire consistent, and was able to maintain a 200-250deg grilltop heat for an hour. (I used a digital wireless and two grilltop thermometers to check). The grilltops were always 10-15 degrees higher than the digital, I noticed, but I was only able to check them briefly twice, as I didn't want to open the grill.



That's my cheapo hybrid. It was a gift, and I like it a lot. I made some minor modifications I guess I should talk about real quick. Out of the box, it had a lot of leaks. I used some JB weld on those, and put a silicone gasket (good up to 750) on the smoke side of the grill. For the Firebox and Firebox Door, I used a Green Egg gasket that's supposed to be good up to 1000 degrees. Both seals held pretty well, and most of the smoke was going out of the chimney or the firebox intake vent (windy day). (Also, ignore the bag of matchlight on the bottom of my grill, it came as a part of the gift, but I've never used it and I don't use lighter fluid either).



Ok, back to the grill story:

I threw the ribs on, bone down. I had fire control problems throughout the first 2 hours. I fluctuated between 150 and 250. My inexperience, coupled with some wind, made it an enormous hassle. This is my second area of concern. I think my fluctuating heat may have been a contributor to my problems. I promised myself I wouldn't "peek" except for on the hour marks, and only opened the side of the firebox to stoke and add wood/charcoal. Despite the fluctuations according to my digital, the grilltop thermometers were both at ~225 when I checked them (I had one on either side of the grill surface, as my smoker isn't reverse flow, and I feared the side nearer to the firebox would get hotter than the other, though this didn't seem to be the case, I still rotated the ribs when I went to foil). I spritzed with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and cooking oil in the beginning, at the 1 hour mark and the 2 hour mark.

So I extended my planned 2 hour initial smoke to 2.75 hours, because of the fluctuating temperatures. The last hour or so was straight at 225-240 according to the digital thermometer, so I felt good about that.

I pulled them and foiled them in a mixture of brown sugar, butter and some more rub. They went back on, meat down, for another 2 hours. This two hours, the heat was consistent between 200 and 250. It still fluxed a little, but I was able to control it pretty well, I felt. Much better than the first two hours. I went pure charcoal for this round, as I knew I didn't need smoke, but just indirect heat.

When I pulled them out of the foil they were looking choice. I noticed the meat hadn't creeped up the bone yet, as I'd read it should, but I pressed on. I removed the foil and rotated them again, and went bone down on the grill. I sauced them twice, once in the beginning and once at the 30 minute mark. I used a lot of soaked wood and a few chips to get a really good smoke going. The temperature was fairly consistent and I felt really good about that last hour. (I've read a lot of people don't sauce, and that's cool, but I did). After an hour in the smoke and sauce, and checks that put the internal temps at 170+ on both, I pulled them, for a grand total of 5:45 on the smoker.

I let them rest for about 15 minutes, and then started cutting. I was so disappointed. I honestly don't know if I undercooked them or overcooked them. They were tight on the bone and tough. Everyone said they were great, so maybe I'm just overly criticizing myself, but I wanted better. The bark seemed good, but the smoke ring looked kind of narrow to me. Again, this was my first attempt at ribs, so I'm not even 100% sure I know what I'm looking for. The taste was great, but the texture was terrible, by my estimation.







I wanted the meat to be falling off the bone, and I fell very short of that.

What did I do wrong? Any tips on fire-control? Be gentle, this is my first time...

His Divine Shadow posted:

Awesome news, I did what I should have done earlier instead of looking in stores in person like some scrub. I loving googled it and there's a finnish website that sells firespice applewood, cherry and mesquite chunks. Looks like I got my wood supply fixed now.

Tuxedo Jack posted:

I'm trying my first Pork Shoulder, just the Picnic half. It's 4 pounds and I'm smoking it Sunday. Planning on 6 hours in the smoke at 225ish, followed by a drop in the oven if necessary. Any tips?

BraveUlysses posted:

Some rear end in a top hat stole my big green egg last night. gently caress thieves forever and ever.

Corkscrew posted:

Smoked baked beans sounds amazing. My only issue with the suggestion of letting it sit under a pork shoulder while it smokes is the amount of fat that would drip into the beans. I mean, I love rich foods as much as the next guy, but wouldn't these end up swimming in fat? Alternatively, skimming it off seems like it would be difficult.

Maybe I'm just missing something.

His Divine Shadow posted:

Finland is weird, I've complained about it before so I'll spare you another rant.

Cimber posted:

I would Highly HIGHLY recommend that people do not drop 200-500 bucks on their first smoker. Do that once you get the hang of things and decide if this is something you want to do. You may be much better served by getting an ECB from home depot for 30-50 bucks. (El Cheapo Brinkman). Its not fantastic, but it gets the job done at first and won't set you back a lot of money.

Then you can modify it to make it work even better for very little money: http://www.smoking-meat.com/modify-brinkmann-ecb-smoker

Trastion posted:

I posted this in the quick questions/recipe thread but thought maybe it would be better and/or get more response here.

I am thinking about making a good sized Beef Brisket in my electric smoker. This will be the first brisket I do and I am wondering if anyone has any recipes for using the leftover meat afterwards. I will use a bunch of it for a main meal and sandwiches but it will be a LOT for my family so there will be plenty of leftovers.

I also have to go to a gathering where I need to bring a dish and thought maybe I could use it in some sort of dish. I am not really looking for things like brisket sandwiches or main dish type things though. Some sort of side dish / hors d'oeuvres type thing.


Another question i would like an answer to if possible is will I see any advantage to vacuum sealing my brisket with the rub on it when I let in sit in the fridge for a day? We have a vacuum sealer that doesn't get used much but I don't want to ruin it or something.

BraveUlysses posted:

No go ahead and use them up, but at least give lump charcoal a try.

I prefer lump for the hotter temps and low ash, but competition guys all use birquettes.

Jamsta posted:

Quick straw poll - how much do you guys pay for a whole packer brisket?

I'm British but keen to here how much you pay, wherever you are from.