Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

In our q "if it ain't got a bone, leave it alone." We trim our thighs and scrape off excess fat. Use kitchen shears. Trim the skin and get rid of the muscle/tendon. Overnight brine of brown sugar and kosher salt. 1cup each into 1gallon of water. Use a square aluminum pan, simple rub, and s$&@ load of parkay to brown the skin. Usually 1.5 hours @ 285deg

 

Here's a pic of version 1.0 before we added a warming box. This was the first burn

 

Found a local dealer for the Lumberjack Pellets. Going to try and make it up there today or tomorrow and grab a bag to try out. Pretty reasonably priced also.

 

Here's the chicken trimming tutorial from my homies over on smoker builder!
http://www.smokerbuilder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1224

 

Was up at 3 to get the fire started. Now I'm just waiting for the smoker to warm up and I'll be good to go!
Doing a 10lb brisket on pecan, and a 5lb pork butt on pecan/cherry (3:1).

 

Sometimes it's hard to choose between drinking strait through or stopping and having to wait until noon to start again! Lol. Brisket separates the men from the boys, you use foil or let it ride?

 

This is actually only my second brisket
Last time I had to use foil because of the stall. It sat at the same temp for nearly 2 hours, and I had moochers coming over to get some grub.

 

Ok greenegg.... On at 5 with a 12 hour burn... Where's our food porn?

 

It came out pretty good. I wish I would have got more of a bark on there. But I was at a stall at 165° for 2 hours, even though the smoker temp was at 220. But it wasn't dry or too fatty. So I'll call it another successful learning experience.

 

We cheat... I have a massive cast iron skillet. We heat it on a turkey burner with olive oil til it is smoking hot. Then we sear all the edges. Roll it into the smoke at 275 -250 until the stall at 160 ish. Mopping sauce every 1/2 hour then into the foil with a splash of the mop sauce. We then run it up to 208 and wait for the "magic jiggle"
By this time everyone is absolutely hammered and we have no idea what we actually cooked. The sober folk who actually come to eat claim that it is awesome.

 

I have never seen a great Texas Brisket done in a big green egg. I know a lot of people love them and they are versatile. But for awesome Texas Brisket, you need a traditional sidebox smoker and use a whole packer brisket.

This is my very first brisket I tried using a smoke box to the side of my grill (which is a very similar setup to an egg). Yeah, it came out tender & juicey, but was everyone amazed...no.



This is my very first Brisket using my buddies traditional smoker. The photo speaks for itself.


This is what I make today on my smoker

 

Curious...why do you feel an egg won't work for a brisket? It holds heat and smoke just like a pit. That first one looks boiled through, like it had been wrapped.

It would be tough to put a whole packer on an egg but a smaller one would fit I'd think. I'm not very experienced with brisket so I'm definitely interested in your theory.

 

Was wondering the same thing. I, like you, have no experience with brisket either, I don't even like it. But I don't understand how heat and smoke from one type of cooker is any different from another.

 

I am no thermal scientist, so I have no conclusive answer...but what I can say from my personal observations/experiences. (and I have used a friends Egg several times for ribs and they came out great).

- I have never seen or heard of a great BBQ joint in Texas that uses an egg...they all use offsets.
- I believe the difference is the constant air/heat/smoke flow you get from an offset. And this is what makes for a great bark & ring.
- I am guessing this is why everything comes out better in a convection oven - the air flow


I am not saying you cant make a Central Texas Class Brisket on a egg...I have just never seen it done.

 

There is a plate you put in the bottom that makes an egg indirect. Guys are making awesome brisket on ugly drum smokers up here, so I think the egg is more than capable of making badass brisket

 

I always foil (pan and cover with foil) at about 165-175, and put a cup of beef broth in the pan. I don't care about M/B thing, I want a juicy brisket. Too pricey these days to figure out if it's a great cut or okay cut of beef.

 

Every smoker is different as is the type of wood. As is the cut of meat, what your wind speed is and your rub and your target audience.

 

Any BBQ joint ain't using a teeny egg to make any smoked meat. They need 1000's of square inches to feed the masses. An egg is a backyard machine, and good at that.

 

Of course all smokers/meats/woods are different, my point was heat and smoke is heat and smoke.

 

One difference, I can imagine, is the kamado (green egg) type cookers have to be closed up fairly tight when trying to maintain a low/long cooking temp. Therefore a lot of steamy moisture stays in there as well. That could affect how the outer "bark" turns out.