Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Grilled tomatoes are where it's at. I'm not a huge fan of raw tomatoes on sandwiches, but grill a slice of tomato and throw it on a burger. That shit is amazing.

 

Looked at the pork belly today... supposed to be for the 26th when we have friends over. I don't wanna wait that long May break down and do a test run this weekend... you know... for science and practice

 

@Misplaced Nebraskan

 

Hold it you shoot a Perazzi MX14. And have 2 BGE. And IIRC have one of those fancy pointing dogs. I shoot a JEG Beretta custom trap combo. And am pissing around over $100 for a second WSM to smoke fish. And hunt over a brace of flushing dogs. And refuse to go into a Walmart for quite a few years now.

$3 a pound? Well I have been known to go head first into a dumpster after 16 ga. hulls. For that price I could see going into Walmart. You might have just talked me into it. 2 Beretta's, 2 B. Rizzini's, 2 F.A.I.R. and even a pair of Benelli's I like my Italian shotguns. And have always lusted over a Perazzi every one of them fits me like a glove and I shoot light outs with them. I need to add one to the stable someday. But I am collecting Ithaca 37's now. Wait in the 70's Ithaca introduced America to the Perazzi with the TM1. A TM4 with coil springs would be smarter money though. Damn it look at what you went and did now!

 

In layman's terms please.

 

Trap Guns, Smokers, dogs. more money to be spent.

@Cold Iron , I LOVE my Beretta a400 xtreme unico

 

Me thinks anyway...

 

Some random accumulations of topics here:
lump vs briquettes = no question, lump. I don't want chemically treated/formed/etc anything cooking my food if I can help it. That's 17 reasons I don't go to Applebees...
Tend your fires or use an oven.
And I get it - the KBB is predictable etc. - the hardwood bags have dust "I don't like paying for dust." Royal Oak vs Cowboy, and blahblahblah. There's a board for this, go there and find it for yourself and make your own choices. I'm happy tending my little bullet smoke ECB (mine S1-R1 not the R2 unit someone mentioned earlier - you can hear Cookie say, "Set timer" when I open the lid...)

Thermometers: Generally I don't trust thermo's but when they all read about the same temp at the same time I call it a good gauge of temp. I have a Thermo-Pen and a Char-Broil wireless thing - both gifts and proud of it.

Smokers: I was given a ECB - El Cheapo Brinkmann and have done most of the usual mods to it with good results - I can get 2.5 hours out of a bowl or 3 hrs on a good day. I'm home and can tend to it as a relaxation. I'm not doing 14 hr burns for brisket in a competition - I'm doing ribs and chicken and random meats for fun and friends.

That said I'd love a good stick burner but that implies good wood and plenty of it. Right now I'm working on small batch recipes - making my own rubs, trying new sauces and so on - to please my crowd. It's a fun thing so using a charcoal smoker with water pan is fine - hell, I smoked a veggie burger just to see how it behaved - it turned out "Awesome, more please!" according to the intended audience.

Rubs: I enjoy making my own and someone asked about low salt options - I'll suggest the following:
make your own so you can control what is in them - salt, additives, preservatives, mono-calcium-gluto-whatthefawk-ates. Yeah, I want onion, garlic, pepper, some sea salt, some chili powder for kick - maybe some ginger or cinnamon or Jamaican jerk hint flavors - take control and explore, don't blow up the ship though...
I strongly advise of keeping a notebook of recipe and ratios that you make yourself - this is so you can adjust and improve as you go along. Every Mom & Pop joint has a "secret blend" and blahblahblah - it's all there, the ratios are the key and your pallet is unique - finding the most accepted set is the trick.

The real kicker to all this is that BBQ is using low, slow heat to turn tough cuts of meat into yummy edible stuff. Poor people's gourmet flavors and style - over thinking it ruins the spirit of the food and sometimes the food itself.

Bottom line - have fun and enjoy what you eat/serve but don't get wound up over popular opinion and internet discussion.

 

Hey - MN Mike - is that a Toller in you avitar?

 

Costco. Costco. Costco.

 

Costco costs more than Kroger or HEB down here. Unusually a dollar, or more.

Costco? More like Costmo' amirite?

 

I think Costco's are Prime though, Kroger, HEB and Walmart are just Choice I believe. Although I've done Choice and Prime and have not noticed any difference.

 

"Prime"

I haven't been able to taste, or see a difference in the two. Other than the cost difference.

 

Good golly, Miss Molly. That's a lot of beer money right there.

 

I haven't noticed any difference in the packers myself, but Costco steaks are so much better, consistently, than the grocery stores around me. Only thing that comes close in the grocery stores is if they have the Angus steaks, those seem to be just as good as Costco, but just more expensive.

 

When mother nature drops a bomb on you but grilling is life! The brats turned out great

 

Nicely done! In a previous life, I remember grilling in snow storms.

 

Ya you need to make sure you have the technique right, don't want to chance serving friends something thats not up to your standards. You should practice at least a couple times

 

Was this when you crossed the Bearing land bridge to move into Texas?

 

Man that's a man dedicated to his meat, he names it. Although Angus is kind of an odd name for a Brisket. </end sarcasm>