Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I think a four hour rest is ideal. I usually only make it two hours before I get in there and pull it!

 

The temp spike made 'em darker than they should be, but taste is

 

So this is free in my area and it has a door in the bottom. It looks like it would work to cook with wood. Like logs of oak or almond or what ever.

Now I really want a BBQ/smoker that I could do that with.

Anyone have something like this?

 

This rack not bending yet, I blame bvbull200! It will be done soon. I hope I don't get full on the other rack.

 

Looks like a grill instead of a smoker. You could smoke on it, but it would take effort to make it 2 zone.

 

Good call.

Maybe that's what I should be looking for. I really like cooking over a campfire so this would be kind of like that.

In fact cooking on a grate over a campfire is what got me into smoking. That and a friend of mine smoking ribs on his WSM.

 

Its been a while since ive been able to smoke anything or the weathers been shitty but today was the day.Before and afters with some Rub a Dub! Smoked some wings allso and threw em on the grill with the asparagus to give em a little char and crispen em up.

 

Too funny. I saw this one earlier today. Looks like the exact same smoker!

https://bellingham.craigslist.org/zip/d/free-grill-smoker-in-decent/6292745083.html

 

Took a couple pounds of the bacon I made today and cubed it then coated it with 1/2 cup maple sugar, and a tbl. spoon of roasted garlic and pepper for a nice bark. Couple more hours yet before supper is ready.


Think I underestimated just how much bacon fat would render into the no boil mac n cheese....


Not that it is a bad thing.... Stirred it all in of course.

 

I have the exact same one. Fairly good quality, although mine looks to be in better condition; I keep it covered. The grate for the wood/coals tend to burn through - check that out, but other than that it might be a good deal at "free".

I had some ribs and corn on mine today.

 

Tried out the Meat Claws...worked pretty good.

 

There is one in almost perfect condition in my area for $60.

I think I'm going to look into this style of grill some more. It might be what I want.

 

Just check the quality. There are a lot of different brands and models that look almost the same. This specific one has a cast iron door and everything is a little more durable. There are others that are just cheaply made and will rust through in no time. Although, for $60, it probably doesn't matter how long it lasts.

 

To put it simply, Pitfaced lost. Nothing wrong with it, but Squeal won both with me and the wife. I will try it on beef and if it doesn't suit me I will send the remainder to one of you fine folks.

My apologies to @bvbull200, but I'm giving my honest opinion.

 

Well, disappointing results in the main competition. We flat out failed to turn in Pitfaced BBQ level meats in both pork and brisket. Pork, we broke a very simple rule which is not to try something new at competition. We did a cook we had no real experience with and completely missed the ball (43rd). The problem with brisket (25th) was that I fell in love with one that I trimmed and wanted so bad for it to be the brisket our turn-in came from. Well, it took longer to finish than I planned, didn't get the rest it needed, and I ran out of time before I could check the others (turned brisket in with 18 seconds left). I put in 6 slices that I wasn't happy with at all. 15 minutes later, I cut in to the brisket that did get a proper rest and it was absolutely top notch in tenderness. Gut-wrenching to spend that much time and energy prepping for this event, then letting the team down because I didn't didn't trust my instincts. We LOVED our chicken. Absolutely LOVED it. The judges didn't like it as much (30th). Frustrating. Ribs was our bright spot. 16th place in ribs. We got a perfect score from one judge on them. Another gave us shit scores and one more said they were "too spicy". The *only* spice in them came from our Pitfaced Rub (no sauce, other rubs, etc). Lots of people here have had our regular rub, so they can vouch for the very tame spice level.

The judges weren't a/the problem, though. We showed up and failed to execute the way we do every other weekend that we cook. We can't go in to a huge competition like this having only done that type of brisket cook 2 times prior and we can't try a pork shoulder cook that we don't really know at all. Chicken? Well, that was what we felt the best version of those lollipops are and the judges disagreed. Back to the drawing board. Probably not changing much on ribs.

Bottom line: We MUST work to get better at competition cooking if we want to rank higher. It's a different cook and we haven't reached the level we have for backyard, catering, etc.. I think we need to judge a few events to get an idea of what they are looking for. It's hard to compete only once a year and have it figured out by the fourth attempt.

32nd overall. Fegolicious BBQ won the thing...again. They are currently the 13th ranked BBQ team in the country according to KCBS. They'll move up after this weekend. To give an idea, this was their 24th event this year and they'll do at least 12 more before 2017 ends.

That doesn't take away from the really incredible weekend that Pitfaced BBQ had. We took 2nd place in the open People's Choice event. HUNDREDS of patrons came through (we served about 285 and ran out), voted for who they thought had the best BBQ, and our pork belly burnt ends took 2nd. That's pretty freaking cool.

Pizza, tacos, and fried chicken for the rest of the week or until I feel like BBQ again.

Here are some pictures.














https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPcMVYf6E6s&feature=youtu.be

 

No problem! Appreciate the honest review and CERTAINLY appreciate getting a chance to win you over .

Ribs looked might fine!

 

Just keep doin' what you're doin'! Different strokes for different folks. There is nothing wrong with your product.

Edit: Yep they looked good and were good. It also needs to be said that 2 slabs didn't come from the same pig. You know that.

 

peoples choice>some dipshit judges lol
u comp guys really put yourselves out there it's gotta be tough

 

Oh, for sure. We're just grateful for anyone that gives it a shot. That's the only chance we have at earning a new fan, but we know it isn't for everyone.

Now...to get a hold of that Squeal and start deconstructing.... .

 

Hey if you can make Squeal more better, I'm all in!