Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I just went to the closest grocery store and got what they had. I've gotten them at costco though before too.

 

Bummer about your party.

 

I got one once from Pavillions in Burbank, sucked ass compared to the Costco ones. Had to trim a bunch of silver and fat off, was not how tri tip is supposed to be. But that's how we learn in all of this... expensive hobby

 

Those look more like tri-tip steaks than a full roast unless those are the most massive asparagus I have ever seen. I get tri-tip at Cash and Carry here in Everett in 16-18lb packs of 6 roasts and they are pretty good sized chunks of meat.

 

Ah... I've only ever done the roasts.

 

ThermoWorks 4th of July Sale is active and includes 20% off a Red, White, or Blue Thermapen Mk4.

 

Oh yeah. Reverse seared tri-tip is where it's at.

 

Are they worth it? You're talking $80 instead of $100. I'm a gear hound but even I can't justify a $100 thermometer, especially when it's not even a remote or Bluetooth model. Maybe I'm missing out though.

 

IMO yes, the thing is absolutely flawless. From AmazingRibs.com...

"The "Lamborghini of instant read thermometers" is what Harry Soo of SlapYoDaddyBBQ calls the Thermapen, and he should know because he is one of the winningest competitors on the BBQ circuit. The MK4, introduced in late 2015 has several improvements over earlier models. The Thermapen is the thermocouple-based you see all the cooks on TV using. I highly recommend it for anyone serious about cooking or baking properly. It reads meat temp precisely in about two seconds, it is extremely accurate, has large easy-to-see numbers that rotate as you rotate the device, and a long probe for getting into the center of a large hunk of meat like a ham. The heat sensor is extremely small, so you know you are reading just where you put it. It is water resistant, reads from -58 to 572°F (-50° to 300°C), and switches between F and C."

 

Yes

I'm not much of a gear junkie but being able to quickly n precisely check temp with a small penetration is great

 

Hell yes...that's cheaper than what I just got mine for last week.

The ThermoWorks Smoke is worth it too...but i don't think it's on sale. Being able to do a 15 hour smoke from my recliner was tits. The ability to set high and low alarms meant I didn't have to sit and watch the thermometer either. Just respond to the alarms...

On another note, the 14" WSM came in today (a day early) and I plan to break it in with a tri-tip this weekend.

 

I'll offer an alternative. I currently use the Thermopop:

http://www.thermoworks.com/ThermoPop

They go on sale pretty frequently, so they can be had for $25 new. I've seen open box go for as little as $19.

The Thermapen is, without a doubt, the Mercedes Benz of instant read thermometers. The Thermopop is like a Lexus for less than half of the price. Thermapen gets you a reading in 2-3 seconds, the Thermopop is 3-4 seconds. Accuracy of the Thermapen is within 0.7* F, Thermopop is within 2* F (biggest difference between the two).

Don't spend full-price on either one as Thermoworks frequently has sales or open-box deals. I may pick up a Thermapen next time they do an open box sale, though the July 4th sale is pretty tempting.

 

I second this, love my Thermopop

 

I like my Thermapen but the others do pretty much just as well.

I'm dreaming of more of this soon:

 

Ya I've wanted one of the Thermapen's but $100 for it is a big chunk oh change for something like this. I will watch for open box or as you said might try out the Thermopop.

 

Thanks for this. Sometimes you just need a reminder that the simple things work best and to not make things more complex and/or complicated.

On my WSM, the lid temps and my grill/meat gauge on the first two smokes were within a couple degrees of each other, so I thought maybe my WSM thermo was an accurate outlier from everyone else's. Then, every smoke since the lid temp has been about 20 degrees hotter, and I wasn't sure if the lid or my grill/meat gauge was off, since the lid temp was initially right on. And I kept wondering what I was going to get to compare it to figure out if the grill gauge was right

Anyway, did a boiling water test on my grill/meat thermo, and it's spot on, so the lid (surprise, surprise) is the one that's off. But thanks again for the post to remind me to KISS.

 

Here I am using a $1.99 guage thermometer for my cooking.

 

I have one from Amazon that @greeneggsnspam recommended. Per my post above, accurate and nice to monitor temps from inside, although not wifi, for $30, works fine unless you need the mini-probe and quick read of those above.