Slow Smoking Meat: I'm a Microbiologist, Dumbass.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Slow Smoking Meat: I'm a Microbiologist, Dumbass.

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

So I've heard people discuss injecting meat, but I'm unclear how it is effective, and I'm hoping someone can help me understand.

The muscle tissue doesn't really absorb that much liquid, and there isn't really a whole lot of empty space inside a muscle for the injection liquid to have a place to go, so isn't the liquid mostly just sitting in the physical space left by the injection needle?

lonelylikezoidberg fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Apr 21, 2021

# ¿ Apr 21, 2021 06:17

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 16:32

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

ZombieCrew posted:

It will eventually permiate the meat. The tissue is pourous enough. You usually need to inject in many locations. Injecting is also very useful (or even required) for curing thicker cuts like corning a whole brisket.
The brining solution wont make it all the way into the center in a week and you really dont want something sitting in a brine much longer than that.

I apologize for being thickheaded but how does this physically work? Unless you've somehow already pulled liquid out of the muscle tissue aren't the cells of the tissue already at capacity? Brining involves the exchange of salt electrons or ions or whatever but you're not really putting liquid itself into the meat. Unless the idea is that as the cooking process pulls liquid out of the meat, the cells which have lost moisture absorb the liquid you've injected inside the tissue?

# ¿ Apr 23, 2021 03:03

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

ZombieCrew posted:

If you are injecting for flavor, then the liquid is usually salty and has other flavors. The liquid will be saltier than the meat and the exchange you mentioned will happen until equilibrium if left long enough. The salt helps the meat retain some moisture, but only to a certain point and the liquid will cook out anyways, so your just injecting to add flavor. You need to use injections about every inch. It spreads, but not very far.

There is water loss from the meat through out the butchering process though. Slaughtered, skinned, drained, gutted, and then the sides of beef are hung up and graded. The grades are the blue stamps you sometimes see which are made out of grape juice. If you buy a side of a cow, they usually hang in a cooler for a week or more dry aging. If its getting broken down into primals, they get started on that a bit sooner and pack it in liquid so it doesnt spoil, but it is wet aging at that point and can stay like that for several weeks.

Thanks man

# ¿ Apr 23, 2021 05:02

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Evil SpongeBob posted:

My Google Fu is failing me. I just got one of those racks you can shove up the chicken rear end for my smoker for upright cooking. But all of the recipes I'm finding are for smoking with the cavity twined off.

Can anyone help this internet babby to find a beer can chicken kinda smoking recipe?

An upright chicken will smoke in roughly the same timeframe as a chicken in any other position, the biggest factor will be your cooking temperature. Choose whatever recipe looks delicious and just make sure to regularly check the temperature of the meat.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2021 06:40

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Question for you knowledgeable folks:

I'm smoking some pork belly this weekend, and I've found a number of different recipes - at what temp do people wrap it and when do you pull it off the grill?

Most recipes seem to treat it basically the same as pork butt or shoulder but I'd be delighted to hear from someone with more first hand experience

# ¿ Apr 30, 2021 23:15

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Has anyone tried smoking lamb, and if so did you have any success? I have a boneless leg I was going to smoke for gyros but I'm feeling a little gun shy.

# ¿ May 13, 2021 00:48

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

life is killing me posted:

Would you guys dry brine a brisket point overnight? Or would you dry brine it just a couple hours before tossing it in the smoker?

As far as rub, I�ve got lots of Meat Church rubs but not really sure if I should just make my own rub this time. I don�t know which one goes well on what versus what else because I�ve only had the one that clearly works well with pork.

This has a pretty good run down of dry brining: https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/salting-brining-curing-and-injecting/dry-brining-easier-and-less-wasteful-wet-brining/

1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound, put it on and leave it in the fridge un covered for a few hours after cooking. It will do the same as a wet rub.

# ¿ May 22, 2021 22:08

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

life is killing me posted:

I mean I know how to dry brine and why, I just meant is it better to dry brine brisket overnight or just a few hours

You mean before cooking?

Thats correct. The guy who wrote that article makes a pretty convincing case that putting on some salt (and the rest of your rub, but you can also put that on right before the meat goes on the grill too) just a few hours before does the same as wet brining for hours or overnight.

Also, the 1/2 teaspoon per pound should be all the salt you need.

# ¿ May 22, 2021 22:24

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Chad Sexington posted:

This loving ruled.

It cooked crazy fast -- like 30 minutes, But turned out great. Next time I might hit them with maple syrup or brown sugar.

As I understand it the white stuff you're seeing is an oil called albumin and when you cook the fish too quickly the flesh contracts and squeezes it out of the flesh. The oil makes the salmon moist and unctuous, you may want to consider lowering your temp a bit.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2021 06:59

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Bloodfart McCoy posted:

Wife is away at my sister�s bachelorette party this weekend, and was looking forward to just chilling, getting drunk, and maybe doing some shrooms with the house to myself. But my future brother-in-law is having some guys over and asked me if I wanted to join and smoke some meat. ...I should probably go and not be a weird hermit all weekend.

I�ll try and fit three racks of ribs on my 14 inch smoker. Everyone gets a half rack. That�s pretty reasonable I think. That�ll be the most ribs I�ve ever fit on that little smoker at once, so I�m prepared to burn through a lot of fuel during the cook. Going to give myself plenty of extra time to make sure they are done and good to go. Will see what bumps in the road I hit along the way

You should stay home and do shrooms homie.

Edit: smoke some ribs on the comedown.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2021 08:02

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Rocko Bonaparte posted:

I've gotten consistent results smoking meat in my wood fired oven now after a lot of experimentation. I've done some tri-tip, brisket, dino ribs, and I think I also did pork butt once. I don't know how much the thread cares about it since I've gotten hassled a lot about even trying to do this in the past for some strange reason, but I figured I'd share what I figured out.

The wood-fired oven is built out of type-II firebrick with insulation and stucco for the finish. The door is also insulated. What is peculiar about this one I made is that it's more like a "keyhole" design with a larger, cylindrical entrance that leads into a dome further bake. So it's much deeper than the first one I built that was a traditional dome with the mouth cut into the circular profile. I did this so I would have two cooking zones and it's been pretty good for that. In the future, I don't know if I would instead just make a bigger oven. I had been talked out because the dome's already 42" around but if I could make myself a front cooking zone in a 48" oven, I could then reach everything much better.

The problem I had with smoking in it was primarily trying to get any kind of smoke flavor at all. I could have some coals left over that I fed some fresh wood for flavor and then put some meat down on the other side of the dome. What I'd get would be almost like I was running it in a crock pot. No smoke flavor. Also, whatever was looking at the fire was liable to get burnt. So I was trying to figure out if I could get something almost like an ammo can full of water between the fire and the meat, but I couldn't find anything robust that I could manipulate at the far reach of the tools I have. Remember, this oven is kind of deep.

I had also tried more and more intense methods of producing smoke to the point that I would up raw, unprocessed mesquite chunks that were making GBS threads puffy white smoke out the flue. Even that wouldn't hit the meat.

I eventually found a big convection current going along the roof of the first chamber out the flue on top. So I just prop the meat up into the current and get exactly what I wanted. The only other thing I have found is I seem to need to run hotter than I would expect. I'm in the 300-400F range where the meat is versus 250-325F. Everything I did in that range just comes out dry. Come to think of it, I've had similar problems in a Weber kettle using a Slow and Sear. I wonder if it had to do with drying out or something. The one thing I didn't yet try with that is having a water pan in the back and that's because I can't readily reach it once I have all the meat and stuff in front. The Slow and Sear had that and I would still get kind of dry, so it might be moot.

I do want something I can put on my hose to mist or fill the inner chamber (mist for steaming for bread) that won't just melt from the heat, but it's not really killing me to have that right now.

Share some pics of your setup pls

# ¿ Jul 4, 2021 07:55

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Development posted:

How bout dem ribs?

Since we regularly buy Snake River Farms' beef and pork belly (this is fantastic if you guys are into cooking Chinese food like red braised pork or dong po pork), out of curiosity I added some of their Kurobuta St. Louis style ribs to my cart.

Cooked on our lil traeger tailgater (4h @225F) and seasoned with Meathead's Memphis dust:

top: grocery store ribs; bottom: SRF Kurobuta ribs. Lookin pretty similar.

noticeably different sliced.

Above: grocery store ribs.

Above: SRF ribs

comparison:

top: SRF ribs; bottom: grocery store ribs.

Could you please elaborate on what you're seeing or tasting?

From your pictures it looks like the snake river farms meat is darker than the grocery store ribs, like chicken thighs vs. breasts, but that could just be the lighting.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2021 05:28

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Tias posted:

Now now, I'm a busy longbeard and must get the necessary farming and murderizing the wends out of my braids before I can upload my work to your discerning eyes.

Without further hemming, I give you: Au�umbla! - a fitting name, considering she started her life full of cow poo poo!

A regular clay-and-dung wattled smoker, really. We built a skeleton of flexible willow rods, then tucked small 'bricks' of clay out of our pit and stuck them on the skeleton. When it had dried out after a week or so, we put a load of boughs and dung inside, and then burned it with lots of wood - not too many lots, of course, as you'll want the temperatue to rise and fall in a controlled manner, or the core may crack entirely. Here's a picture of the burning, and a look into the stove tower, where you can clearly see long grooves from where the willow skeleton has burned away:

A stump of video here, that shows it with boughs still in: https://imgur.com/ah1ltAn

And here she is in action, five lake trout smoked with plenty of nettles, bishop's weed and some thyme on the coals:

As we can't use any non-period methods, we determined the proper hotsmoking temperature by hand, literally - stick your hand a ways into the stove, and if your hand is prickling, it's between 50-90 degrees C! Also, the fish will tell you: Once they're cooked, they'll turn the whites of their eyes, and if they get too hot, they'll 'open their coat' or lift their tails.

Hey man this is super neat!

# ¿ Aug 10, 2021 06:58

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Gonna try to smoke a tri-tip this weekend, does anyone have any tri-tips?

(Oh my god i'm so sorry)

# ¿ Sep 3, 2021 20:38

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

I was thinking of doing some duck meatballs for pasta. I thought I would put them in the smoker for a while, then saut� to get a millard reaction.

That said, my concern is that the meatballs will dry out and fall apart if I leave them in a dry, low temp environment like a smoker. Has anyone tried meatballs or anything like that on a smoker - any suggestions? Am I worrying for no reason?

# ¿ Oct 11, 2021 00:54

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

life is killing me posted:

A Maillard reaction on�duck

Are you calling me a quack?!?

# ¿ Oct 11, 2021 00:59

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Neon Belly posted:

I have a WSM and want to hot smoke fish (specifically salmon but also interested in trying various white fish, maybe shellfish as well). I've only ever smoked turkeys, chickens, and ducks before, which all have been pretty dumb simple to accomplish.

Is there a recommended guide available for fish options?

Smoke your salmon at a low temperature, too hot and fast and the flesh will contract and squeeze the fat out, which you don't want.

Also, I've never found the texture of farmed salmon that has been smoked as good as wild stuff.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2021 17:08

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

sinburger posted:

Briskets appeared in the grocery store last month so I picked up a couple and cooked one up. Since my last one was a bit dry on the bottom, I decided to cook this one fat side down, and it turned out much much better. Took around 16 hours to cook at ~230F (started at 8 am, pulled at midnight), then I rested in the oven until noon the next day when I served it up for some friends. It was a bit of a weird cook though since my internal temps skyrocketed and I didn't hit the stall until I was close to 160F. Also I had a flame out in my grill that borked things up a bit until I resolved it (amateur-tip, if you're using a smoke tube, don't place it close to the pellet grills' thermometer for tracking the cooking temp. It'll trick the grill into thinking it's hotter than it is and it'll stop feeding pellets).

This one was incredibly tender, passed the pull test with flying colors, and tasted delicious. My next brisket I think I'll wrap it without tallow to see what difference it make in the bark.

I also made a plum based BBQ sauce that was absolutely killer. ~5 hours on smoke at 250, then combined the solids and added soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, molasses, and some spices and cranked the heat up to simmer it down a bit. It has a good fruit forward tang to it, with a smoky savory back end.

Also on a side note, our friends were coming over that day because we were buying their chickens and coop off of them. Here's my kid feeding them meal worms in the iron man costume he decided to wear that morning. They started laying that night so my next project is going to be various ways to salt and smoke eggs.

(I know the coop is small but we built a larger enclosure that afternoon so they can roam).

Link to the image album here: https://imgur.com/a/d12KyiQ

Would you please share the recipe for the plum bbq sauce

# ¿ Oct 18, 2021 06:27

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

So I'm smoking some turkey breasts tomorrow. I was looking on amazingribs and it suggested that for a turkey you don't need any more than 1 chunk of wood - has anyone had any experience with that?

# ¿ Nov 24, 2021 21:16

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:

Going to a holiday get-together next weekend and supposed to bring an appetizer and was wanting to do something with the smoker. Anybody got any go-tos for this sort of thing? Difficulty level: no pork, gluten free

Chicken wings?

# ¿ Nov 29, 2021 01:32

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

um excuse me posted:

People in this thread like to put competition levels of effort into cooks for friends and family. People are more than willing to convince themselves your food is better than everything if it's free. That's why my crowd pleaser are pork ribs. One of the easier and cheaper things to make.

What is your point here exactly because its not hard to read this as making GBS threads on people having fun doing project cooking.

So on another note: I'd like to find a really ethical butcher - I'd like the animals I eat to have nice lives. Does anyone have a good suggestion that sells on the internet?

lonelylikezoidberg fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Dec 26, 2021

# ¿ Dec 26, 2021 08:04

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Murgos posted:

Here�s part of a response to a different question but I think is germane:

�If you are willing to put in a little bit of internet work try http://www.eatwild.com/index.html
You can choose your state and find someone local with a website selling beef, or you can call up a local farmer and ask for what you want.�

This is an excellent resource thank you

# ¿ Dec 26, 2021 22:45

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Nice and hot piss posted:

Didn't brine, reached an internal temp of 202. I wrapped in foil around 170,. About 3 hours into it, maybe at 145-150 deg. I started spritzing a mixture of 50/50 apple cider vinegar/apple cider, kept it wrapped for 1.5 hours.

You should do it however you want but I think you're overcomplicating things.

Wrapping in foil accelerates the cooking process but can get rid of the crunchy bark that accumulates on the outside of a cut of meat. Totally understandable if you're on a timetable but just extra work otherwise.

Spritzing doesn't do anything but delay your cooking time. If you think about it, all you're doing is cooling the surface temperature of the pork with liquid. Also spritzing gets rid of the bark.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2022 07:27

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Doom Rooster posted:

You could make bank in Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kansas City and any other place that BBQs by teaching a class for all those darn dummy pitmasters who have dedicated their lives to the craft but keep spritzing!

That's a really good idea! Did you want to have an actual discussion about technique or be a oval office on the internet about it?

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

lonelylikezoidberg fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Mar 10, 2022

# ¿ Mar 10, 2022 05:18

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Doom Rooster posted:

I did both, but for some reason you cut out the second half of that post.

Edit: Actually, I�m not really sure that I was a oval office about it. Your statement was so dumb that it obviously deserved scorn and derision, but all I did was some light sarcasm.

Oh, you're one of those guys. Ok.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2022 06:51

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Bo-Pepper posted:

Thoughts/experiences on smoking vegetables?

I've been asked to provide a "vegetable plate" for Easter this coming weekend and I'll be damned if I'm just going to slop some crudite on a platter and call it a day.

I like making a modified Greek eggplant dip on my charcoal smoker. Throw an eggplant or two directly on the coals, wait until they are deflated and nicely cooked through. Peel off the skin (some of it will have burned and its nbd), throw it in a food processor with parsley, lemon, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.

I've also had smoked mushrooms and enjoyed them but have never made them.

I've also had smoked jackfruit, which really requires a good sauce because it can be kind of bland.

lonelylikezoidberg fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Apr 11, 2022

# ¿ Apr 11, 2022 17:56

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Kaddish posted:

Going to smoke a pork belly next week for the first time to put in some thanksgiving side dishes. I'm pretty excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Same man i'm doing a porchetta on the smoker I'm tired of turkey

# ¿ Nov 20, 2022 02:33

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

Enos Cabell posted:

Weather was pretty rough here yesterday at times, so I performed the magic trick of sous vide reheating a brisket point from a few months ago. Chopped that up and served on these amazing buns my mom baked from scratch.

Everything turned out so delicious, and it was so convenient, that I might never work an active grill on the 4th again.

Hey whats the recipe for those buns, hun?

# ¿ Jul 5, 2023 21:00

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 16:32

lonelylikezoidberg: Dec 19, 2007

LochNessMonster posted:

Congrats on never being able to leave a steakhouse again without thinking �meh, I can do better in my own backyard�.

This is true, but in that case you might reframe it as: you're not really paying someone else to cook, you're paying someone else to clean up the mess

# ¿ Mar 18, 2024 14:25

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Slow Smoking Meat: I'm a Microbiologist, Dumbass.