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

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

crazyfish: Sep 19, 2002

What do you guys use to protect your smokers from the wind? I've got a WSM that is terrible at maintaining temperature if the wind gets higher than about 12 mph. I was thinking about picking up a cheap welding blanket and wrapping it around the cooker, but other ideas are welcome.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2012 22:44

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:34

crazyfish: Sep 19, 2002

I got super lucky with my smoke this weekend. The wind was blowing at something stupid like 25 mph, and my WSM doesn't do very well in the wind. I stopped in at Harbor Freight and picked up a welding blanket, wrapped it around my WSM, and wound up with this:

Given the ludicrously high winds, this rig did quite well. The two pork shoulders were about 150 after 11 hours at 200-225ish (the temp wasn't as steady as I wanted) and the brisket was around 160. The best part was the fuel. There was enough left in the smoker to go at least another 5 hours, which is a lot more than I could say the last time the wind was super nasty. At that point I Texas-crutched them in the oven and brought them over to a friend's house around 2. Unbelieveably delicious, and now I've got about 5 pounds of leftover pork to make chili with

# ¿ Apr 22, 2012 20:59

crazyfish: Sep 19, 2002

McSpankWich posted:

Each smoke is so different, I did ribs again yesterday and they came out great, but not nearly as tender as last weeks. It's frustrating because the mistakes I made last time I corrected so they should have been better. They made it to 190 in ~4.5 hours.

The only thing I can think of is that it took the WSM about an hour to get up to temp for some reason. But that shouldn't effect the final tenderness negatively, right? If anything, it's more time under 140 to absorb smoke right?

Ribs are weird in that they aren't called done by time or temperature but by the tear test.

http://virtualweberbullet.com/ribselect.html

quote:

How To Tell When Ribs Are Done

The best way to tell whether your ribs are cooked to perfection is to use the "tear test". Take hold of two adjacent bones toward the middle of the slab and give them a pull. If the meat offers a bit of resistance but then tears easily, you know the ribs are done just right.

Other indicators of doneness, such as how far the meat has pulled down the bone or whether a toothpick passes easily through the meat, are not as reliable as the tear test.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2012 15:27

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