Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

For those of you that have made pork butt burnt ends... do you smoke the butt first then cube it, or cube it then smoke it? I've done the latter and it turned out pretty good. Was just curious about the former. Thanks in advance. Cheers

 

I did them for the fight last weekend. Smoked for 5 hours then cubed them with sauce and back on a heat source for an hour or so. 8lbs was gone in 15 minutes across 7 peeps. Nom'ers!

 

Can't go wrong either way! For me, comes down to what mood I'm in. Sometimes I'll inject the hell out of it, light rub,cook, cube, rub again, light sauce. Other times, I likw them really dirty! Cube, bury them in rub,cook with heavy smoke. Keep drowning in sauce untill you form a 1/2 inch of bark. Win win

 

Sounds like you need to mail me both methods for an official test

 

Never done pork butt burnt ends. I'm assuming your using the money muscle to cube?

 

Just a pork butt. AKA Boston butt.

 

This vvv

 

I'm not sure the brand, I bought it used from a buddy of mine. He's got some unexpected bills this month so I really bought it to help him out, but I've always wanted one. Figured it's now or never, I'm not getting any younger. It's a charcoal style, big rectangle looking thing. From reading this thread, it sounds like pork is the easiest to start out with. Going to find me some nice hickory or apple wood and go to town. I do need to get a decent thermometer in there, and clean it up a bit. I'm excited to learn!

 

Never thought about cubing first but it makes total sense. Maybe I'll do some chuckie burnt ends this weekend with a cube-first approach. Seems like you'd get more bark and a faster smoke that way.

 

While I have never done cube first with a pork butt I have with chuckies for the very reason you mention. When I was done to me it wasn't quite as good as doing the chuckie first then cubing it. But plenty out there are doing it that way and happy with it curious as to what you think. And as someone on here mentioned awhile back smoking is a lot like sex, even when it isn't perfect it is still pretty damn good...

 

Anyone in here on BBQ Brethren? I lurk there a lot. Great resource.

 

I didn't get very far into this thread before I read this and had to reply. I'm sure I'm not the first one that disputed this but I didn't get any farther in the thread yet.

I've had a Weber Smokey Mountain now for about 6 months and I guarantee you it will smoke for 10 hours or more with virtually no attention. It does a great job and uses less fuel than side box smokers.

It's all about the physics. Heat rises.
Side boxes shoot a lot of heat where there's nothing to cook, and you chopped or bought the wood that is making that wasted Heat.

The WSM is a straight column. Plus the design of the ends makes the heat Focus where you need it.

The big water pan acts as a heat deflector; & whether you foil it, fill it with water, fill it with sand or leave it empty, it means that your meat only sees indirect heat even though it is directly above the fire.

I don't like dominant Smoky flavors so I tend to use mixtures of Applewood, Hickory and Mesquite and Oak, in various proportions depending on how I feel. I haven't seen any alder wood around these parts.

Damn I shouldn't have read this thread! Now I'm going to go fire up the smoker and put on a pork loin and some sausages.

here are some pictures of food that I've cooked on the WSM...

 

TL;DR.

 

LSMFT
CSUF
UPS


Actually I have no idea what you were trying to tell me . . . laodog

 

Too long; didn't read. I took the same approach to your post as you did this thread. Kidding of course. I like your pics.

 

Glad you found this thread. It's pretty awesome. Love the pics and looking forward to more!

 

I'm on there, but not very active. The competition sub-forum made me kind of sour to that place. Lots of very pretentious and unhelpful folks in there. The gen-pop really is great, though, and, to your point, there is a TON of great information on that site. That is where I got all of the tips for restoring my New Braunfels Bandera back when I originally started cooking. It was also my main resource for my first UDS build. At a point, I had read every single post of that UDS mega-thread.

 

I stick to Q-Talk and remain unregistered

But I see the comp forum being closed lipped - I'm hoping TSC has those Trail Ember WSM types for $99 next year - I missed my one back in June.

 

Last Chance! Get Smoke for $76!




Shop ThermoWorks | 1-800-393-6434

Thermapen Handhelds Pocket Digital Infrared Alarm Dial Calibration Gear Probes Timers

​

Smoke Open Box Private Sale!

Smoke is our newest alarm thermometer, and we have accumulated a small number of Smoke units here that, for various reasons, we will not sell as new units. Open Box Includes:

• sales demos
• customer returns
• cosmetic seconds
• slightly damaged packaging
• refurbished units

While not the same as new, all units are like-new and include the full warranty. They include Smoke, Smoke Receiver, Pro-Series High Temp Cooking Probe, Pro-Series High Temp Air Probe with Grate Clip, and operating instructions. In most cases, you won't be able to differentiate these from new stock.

This is a private sale for our email subscribers, but you are welcome to forward the link to friends and family.

Only $76 each!

Limit 5 per customer. Hurry! Quantities very limited!














Offer is only available direct from ThermoWorks and only for shipment to destinations within North America, the Caribbean, and Central America. Not available to resellers. Limit of 5 per customer. Offer is limited to stock on hand. All sales are final. After-purchase exchanges for other colors cannot be allowed. Includes 2 year warranty for manufacturing defects. Recently purchased new units cannot be exchanged for credit against these "Open Box" or "Refurbished" units. This Open Box Sale may be repeated in the future however it will be restricted to once or twice per year depending on availability and announced only to our subscriber list. Refurbished or Open Box units are not available except during such Open Box Sales. We cannot predict when this offer will be made again. Stay subscribed to our email list and you will be notified of future sales.

© 2017 ThermoWorks, Inc. | 741 E. Utah Valley Dr. | American Fork, UT 84003 | 1-800-393-6434 | www.thermoworks.com

 

Have a digital thermometer that I paid $14 for and it works great.

I've only had it maybe 5 months but I've used it 10 times and it's holding up.

For that price if the dog chews it up I won't cry.