Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

What temp do they usually end up at with your method?

 

Probably the standard 195-205. Meats done when it's tender.

 

Honestly I dont check but you can tell if you poke the meat with a carving fork and it slides in easily you know its done. Ive done a few of these and never had any under done/or under cooked.

 

Saw this interesting way to do a steak on imgur. I really want to try this now.


I cut steaks off of a whole tenderloin


Generously salted with Kosher salt and then wrapped and put back in the fridge. Yes, that's right. We aren't bringing these up to room temp. They're going on the grill COLD


Heat up the Q. I use regular lump charcoal for grilling. Kingsford blue briquettes for smoking


Procure some beef fat from your friendly local butcher....


...and put that over direct heat


A few mins later toss those cold salted steaks on the indirect side


Shoot for about 225-250 degrees


As the beef fat melts it drips on to the red hot coals and vaporizes into beautiful rich flavorful smoke. This is the reason that the steaks go on straight out of the fridge, to give them time in the delicious smoky goodness


I like my steak on the rarer side of medium rare so they come off arouuuund 100 degrees internal. The beef fat only bursts into flames when the lid is off


Sometimes I get a second chimney of coals jet engine hot and sear on the grill but it was crappy out and I like cast searing just as much. Get that pan as hot as possible!!!!


Paint them with a little oil. Don't oil the pan because it will smoke too much when heating.


Slap those bad boys down and don't try to move them right away. They will initially fuse to the pan, but will let go on there own in a few seconds


Beauty crust with all the glorious flavour that comes with the Maillard reaction


A perfectly tender steak with a smokey beefy flavour.

 

Very nice cook!

What you did is a reverse sear. I do the same but finish on the hot coals. I'll salt ONLY if the steak is over 1" thick and for 4-5 hours. Rinse then dry, add spices, let dry again. Basically start in the 7 AM and on the fire about 5 PM. I let them reverse sear on the Weber (which you also have) to 100f then sear with this magical device.

I do like the cast iron finish you did, it's great Mallard reaction for awesome flavor.

The Vortex! OMG, blazing heat for a sear. Perfect for wings around the perimeter, or legs, or searing anything or your forearm as you reach across. Friggin hot hot!

You get nice 350f on the edges with the vents open and then a perfect middle burn to finish. Many turn it over, put charcoal around the edges and put a butt in the middle.

Buttload Atomic Buffalo Turds, Vortex makin heat.


3" prime ribeye finishing


http://madhunkymeats.com/

Been using his rubs/brines/pizza shake too. Great stuff.

 

Not my cook. Just came across it online.

Can't take credit for something that good looking.



But good information to know for when I'm ready to try it.

 

To add, I got's a Mav 732. Been good for me, been through a few probes over the years. You wanna good BBQ? One of these is needed..... Till you are a god of BBQ, Franklin don't need them....

 

First time smoking some chickens.

Put the whole chickens in a brine (salt, brown sugar, apple juice) for 24 hours.

Used a generic rub with olive oil

220* for 3 hours with Apple wood chips.

Came out awesome. This hobby is amazing and I will frequent this thread more often for tips and suggestions.

 

I'm curious... Do most of you look at this like a hobby? Never thought of it that way, but makes sense. I'm still contemplating getting into it. It does almost seem like a hobby, reading all the intricacies and time involved.

 

Well, I did the reverse seer on a steak last night. I use a pellet cooker so the fat dripping in coals wouldn't work. I smoked it until I got an IT if 130 then it went on my new Lodge cast iron pan. Came out a little more done than I wanted but it was very delicious.

 

Yeah it's a hobby. For what I've spent on equipment and time, I could just buy BBQ from a restaurant. A pork butt takes around 2 hours per pound. I can buy a pound of cooked pork for $10. If an 8# butt costs $16, of which you lose around 30% of the weight, it's 5# at around $3.30/lb plus $5 in charcoal and the cost of my $200 smoker. Then there's the 10 hours to sink into it, which isn't bad if you are cooking for dinner.... Cooking for lunch means getting up really early to start the meat or starting it late at night.

TL;Dr... Hobby.

 

Trying pulling it off at 115 degrees, than quick sear

 

Hobby for me and I love to cook. Plus the challenge vs the reward. This coming from one very impatient person. So yea you gotta love grilling/smoking, it's not for everyone

 

Hibachi hellfire lol

 

Thats the Lodge cast iron one?

 

Ya

 

Ended up not getting to smoke anything this weekend, way too much stuff to get done. Though I did end up picking up a brisket from Sam's so this coming weekend is looking like brisket weekend. Thinking I may give the smoke a good cleaning up one even this week so it's all ready to go.

 

If its something you like/love to do then yeah you could look at it that way. Plus I like to eat good food similar to places Ive been or would like to go.

 

I look at it as a little bit of a hobby, but mostly a way to feed myself.

 

I do look at it as a hobby, and I like to cook and eat good food. I can make better steaks at home. I could go downtown and eat 75 day aged steaks at $100 a person meals. Rather not. Vegas is pricey for really really good food. One thing is there is few places in the world where there is such a collection of top chefs and top $$$$$$ meals. I can't do that, I'm a regular working man. When I do mass butts or briskets I do it to share the taste and love an share the cost, I have the smoke down how to make the good food (YODER). I still can't beat nor have I tried to beat the place that gets fresh crabs and does the Boston boil and it's on the butcher paper and eat eat eat. The $100+ for two is worth every penny. It's nice to live in a food place of the world. LOL, the friggin desert.

Gonna do a major share this next next weekend. 10 folks invited gratis for a major Louisiana shrimp boil. Gonna cost me $120 easy but to share the full table of the goodies, fresh oysters, garlic bread, crab etc with my friends and neighbors, that's not a hobby.

That's sharing my love of food. And friends.