Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

A good read for you brining guys.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.seri...-truth-about-brining-turkey-thanksgiving.html

 

Turkey isn't my favorite, but if I do smoke turkey, I do a wet rub and skip the brine. Just mix your favorite rub with olive oil and make it into a paste and smear it all over the meat and under the skin.

I'm doing pork ribs on Thanksgiving this year. I had 2 Thanksgiving meals at my kids' schools last week.

 

I brine and rub the turkey before smoking it. Can't really say I fully agree with him, I have also now done the coder brine and the meat neither wrinkled nor did it start cooking the meat with acid. Actually came out pretty good, though I won't be doing it for the full turkey for t-day as it would take more cider than I care to buy and not drink right now.

 

Oh man, I love serious eats. The brining topic is one that will never be solved. Same as fat cap up or down? Charcoal vs Lump? I stopped brining "super market" birds years ago after reading a very similar article. I will brine a "wild game" bird thou. IMO best result I've ever had was to inject the bird with chicken broth and slap butter between the skin and meat. Slam it on old reliable(weber 22 inch kettle) and drink beer. Best eatting birds ever.

 

I'm with you on the store bought poultry. I tried it a time or two years ago. In my opinion, (and you know what they say) it's a total waste of time and a pain in the ass. Some tend to follow "the more I dick with it, the better it's got to be" mentality. Often times that's just not the case.

 

Bird is Almost ready
Yes I brined..like some said, fat side up or fat side down? The debate will never end.

Did it last year, came out good so doing it the same way. Also injected with some store bought butter marinade

I think I started to early.. Internal temp is already 160 and it's only been 4.5hrs. I was estimating it would take 6. Oh wells, I'll turn the smoker temp down a bit

 

I have a turkey that is going on the smoker in a couple hours. Did a dry brine on it and spatchcocked it.

Was a free turkey, so if it come out like shit, then guess I have dog food for a big or something....

 

Mom requested to save the turkey neck to make some gravy

 

Looks good.

 

Looks pretty good to me. Mine will be coming out of the freezer tomorrow, go into a brine (I use these big bags made for brining) then Thursday it will get rubbed down with spices and tossed on the smoker. Hopefully comes out as good as last year. Will make me happy if it does.

 

Decided to stop being a little bitch about prices and order a new smoker. The WSM 22 should be here Wednesday.

Have a brisket ready to go for Friday. Problem is I'm going down to the my parent's house to cook Wednesday after work and won't be back until Friday morning. Not sure if it'll have time to get that first smoke in before the brisket.

 

Not sure if you have experience with the WSM, but they do run cool for the first couple cooks till they a decent season on them. Run water in the pan and don't be afraid to whale on it with some heat.

 

Thanks for the tip!

I was planning to start smoking while I was hanging lights. That way I can see how it behaves for a few hours before leave it alone.

For an overnight smoke, how much charcoal do you suggest? I was looking at doing the minion. I'm thinking just dump the bag (18lbs) on there. Figured it's a good time as any to see how long the bag would last.

 

Did a trial run of a smoked turkey breast today. My wife picked the seasoning which I'm not too crazy about but the turkey sure turned out really moist and tasty.

 

We need more smoking smilies

 

Bird was about 11-12lbs.
Brined for about 12 hrs =water, half a cup of kosher salt, half a cup of sugar, some minced a garlic, black pepper, cubed apples, oranges and onions.

Took it out of the brine, washed it and wiped dry. Injected a store bought butter marinade. Rubbed with olive oil then added dry rub (salt, pepper, celery salt, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, basil, chili powder). Took some of the cubed onions, apple and oranges and left them in the bird's cavity.

275 Degrees for 2hrs..internal temp was going good so i dropped the smoker to 230 degrees for another 2.5 hours. When I took it out of the smoker, internal temp was about 170ish. Very moist and juicy and tasty. Made it for my sister's bday. Cooking another one this Thursday and another brisket lol. Enjoy!

 

Let me know how it goes. I'm sure it will be yummy

 

Might do the mac n cheese for T-day. You guys inspire me


Really, I just want to eat your food!

 

Cook a few fatties in it to help "season" it. For overnight smokes in mine, I do soo's donut. I stick my chimney in the middle and fill all the way around it to the top of the basket with charcoal, then remove the chimney. I light about half a chimney and then dump it in the hole in the middle of the charcoal. To keep it going, I barely open a bottom vent and leave the other 2 shut.

 

I followed Harry Soo's Wsm Method. Its the firsf RevieW For The wsm On Amazon