Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Any recommendations on a smallish smoker? I'm going to the beach with relatives and don't have a ton of space to pack it down there. Ribs, chicken, and now burgers are on the menu thanks to the genius posts above!

 

With spare ribs, though, you get rib tips. I've never had anyone try rib tips that didn't love them.

 

Is the tip the strip that you cut off along the side? And do you treat it just like the ribs as far as cook?

 

Fck it, I'll bring my PK grill. It's about as small as you can get and well seasoned / tested now. I'll just time accordingly

 

Yes it has the cartilage that is perpendicular to the bones. I cook it just like the ribs, then I cut it into pieces about the width of the bones (1 to 2"), then crisp the outsides of those up on the grill. They are easy to eat after you figure it out. The meat should fall off the top of the cartilage easily when you bite it. The bottom might take a little more effort. There will be a few pieces with no cartilage that are all yummy rib meat.

 

Yeah, I forgot about spares (SL is just the tips trimmed) I've had them, down in all that cartilage it's just a bit too much fat for me.

 

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kingsford-Charcoal-Water-Smoker/45413505

Make sure you use water in the bowl and use the minion method.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m6bit_h--lg&ved=0ahUKEwig4qaNvuPNAhVL7YMKHf0OCfwQtwIIIjAB&usg=AFQjCNH5rmOvEmtYrRjOecyAH_-mVBXNcA

You have to watch temps pretty close because the bottom is open. You can probably use sand around the base as a damper for the fire

 

won't take up any cargo space in the car

 

Well I'll be dogged... 35 bucks? Maybe worth a shot. Have you used one? The reviews on Amazon are more bad than good, but it does look interesting as exactly what I asked for, a small occasional portable smoker. If it's total shite, though, would be a drag.

 

Great little smoker as long as you know going into it that you get what you pay for.
It will not give the same results as an expensive offset smoker with good temperature control functions, but it will do the job at the camp site, beach etc. where you cannot take the big smoker with you. And if the smoke function does not work for you, you still have a small grill that you can use.

 

Yes but we had a brinkmann. I used it quite a bit and got pretty good results. I found ways to control the air flow. We had a piece of sheet metal and I bent it around the bottom. Like I said before we used sand at the beach. I always used the minion method with water and had good results. Ribs chicken and fish.

 

Question for those that Smoke and Pull their pork. What do you use to pull your pork? (I know private question) Bear claws, Tines, Forks?

 

Did some looking into... this thing has a wide open bottom, which jibes with what you guys are saying. I'm still a newb, but getting pretty good with my PK Grill which is very adjustable temp-wise. I can get to and hold 225 or whatever I want pretty well. Seems like with a wide open bottom I'd have zero adjustment ability, but am I thinking of it too strictly? Can this thing actually get to 225 and have a hope in hell of maintaining close temps? Can it get to 325 for chicken and hold for an hour without me putting a whole new bag of briquettes in? Sounds like the minion method solves that, correct?

Just a bit worried about the ability to maintain temps.

All the input has been very very helpful, btw. Thanks to all ya's.

 

The water will really help with those temps.

 

let it cool enough to pull by hand typically, reheat as necessary.

 

Would sand be better than water, like a big heat sink?

 

water helps with moisture as well...

 

This is what I do. After its rest, I pull into big hunks so it'll cool down even more quickly. Then I just dive in useing my fingers. I actually call it "thumbing it out" discarding any bigger pieces of fat as I go. Now when doing the money muscle, I may, or may not cram some into my pie hole!!!

 

I've had those type smokers in the past, they will/can make a great product. But from my experiences any wind or breeze seems to kill your temps even more so than outside temps. I always used some type of a wind break.