Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

So what do you mean by "crutched?"

 

Wrapped in foil with some liquid to help tenderize and cook faster...Also known as the Texas crutch.

Edit: may not cook faster, but helps keep moisture for sure!

 

I have the 2 probe maverick. One goes in the meat and one in the smoker. I suppose you could put them both in the meat, but I prefer to see the smoker temp.

I don't crutch many meats, not even ribs and definitely not pork shoulder. That tri tip was really moist crutched. I've only cooked beef on the smoker a few times. I'm from Alabama, so I primarily smoke pork and poultry. I only cook the beef for my wife, who is from Missouri.

This cook wasn't actually on my smoker. It was on my Weber kettle.

 

The crutch is to push the meat through the "stall". This is the point that the meat is essentially sweating and cooling itself down as fast as it is heating up. The foil prevents the evaporation and cooling of the meat, but borks up the bark unless you return the meat to higher heat for some time after you unwrap it.

You can commonly see people use the crutch for 3-2-1 ribs (spares) or 2-2-1 (baby backs).

3 hours on the smoker(or 2 for babyback)
2 hours in the foil with Apple juice and/or butter
1 hour back on the smoker out of the foil

Anyone can make good ribs this way.


What goes in the foil varies. Some use vinegar sauce, some use sauce, some apple juice, butter, margarine etc...I normally thin my BBQ sauce with Apple cider vinegar and Apple juice and put that in there.

 

Yeah I just call it foiled. I've only foiled once and my ribs came out mushy. So I don't foil. I just turn up the temp a little and push through.

 

My 15 year old twins wanted ribs for their bday dinner, smoked about three hours then put on bbq sauce and wrapped in foil for the last hour, I did 5 racks total 3 on the smoker and two on the gas grille ( one twin doesn't like them smoked) everyone seemed to like the smoked ones better

 

Yeah, foiling makes the meat steam itself.

 

Just throw a packet of wood chips in some heavy duty foil and I bet that most people couldn't tell the difference between the smoker and the gas grill. I usually keep some chunks of hickory on my LP grill at all times, directly on the grates.

 

That's why I got a pellet grill. It offers some smoke but not a ton. If I want more I have the amazntube or stick it on 160 for an extra hour. I just set it and watch it on my phone.

 

I have a smoker box on the lp grille at all times, I personally prefer the smoker though

 

It really depends on how much I'm cooking. I prefer my kettle for everything if the weather is nice and I have a medium amount of food. I prefer the LP for fast meals and bad weather. I prefer my wsm when I have more meat than will fit on the kettle.

 

I don't have a kettle, yet... I keep the smoker more for the weekends when I have more time and the gas grille for week nights so my wife can take a break. Any way meat is cooked is still delicious to me and you can't really go wrong

 

I use a RECTEC RT680 Pellet Smoker and an amazintube for awesome smoke. It is like a Ronco device for smoking.... much better than Treager in my opinion.

 

First time using the WSM and it was almost too easy. Pork shoulder came out very good!
Temperature was easy to hit and maintain . Excited to do brisket next.

 

I got mine on clearance at Target 6 or 7 years ago. I regularly see them drop to $25-50, but have no need for another one.

 

That's pretty cheap, I haven't used one since college but I always liked the charcoal flavor

 

Fall is the best time of year to buy that stuff anywhere. Target starts marking their stuff down around the middle of August to make room for Halloween. Some of it gets small markdowns to make room for back-to-school.

 

nice! Its funny you have tomato's going and we still havent got our last freeze yet....

Looks good!

 

Happy national frog legs day!

 

Not sure if I asked before....anyone smoke pork belly?? Any recipes?? Not bacon, just pork belly!