Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

But but scratches mess up how it works I wonder if mine is supposed to have plastic trays like that...Looks similar to mine.

 

Advice or suggestions welcome; however, I’m pretty damn pleased with the results. Took 6 baby back racks, removed the membrane and coated with Butt Rub

I got the smoker up to 200 degrees and used half apple, half cherry chunks - put them on for 1.5 hours to get a good Smokey flavor. I know some love a slight tug when they eat ribs, I prefer they fall off the bone. So, after 1.5 hours I took them off and wrapped them in foil, braised them with a chicken stock, garlic, honey, apple cider vinegar mix. In the oven for 1.5 hours at 250 degrees.


Once done I made a Weber Recipe for the sauce, some like em dry, I like em coated. This is a great go to sauce, reminds a bit of a North Carolina flavor.

I finished them under the broiler, coated them 3 times at 550 degrees to carmelize each layer, cut into sections of 2 and served. It was so tender the bones just came out 100% clean.



I was originally going to give 4 racks away to friends but my wife told some of her friends what I was doing and we ended up having a few people over... no ribs left, was a very quiet kitchen while everyone stuffed their faces.

 

On the side wall of the cooler the

Green controller is cool/heat. The 120v "cool" outlet get the appliance plugged into it. The 120v "heat" plug get a small heater (not pictured).
Blue controller is humidify/dehumidify. The humidifier sits in the back left of the cooler the dehumidifier sits in the back right.

Each controller set a hi/low limit and alarm also a dead band. So I have a 2 degree dead band set on both temp and humidity. The humidity is set at 75% and the temp is at 58 degrees. So when the cooler temps drops to 55.9 degrees the heater comes on. If the temp goes above 60.1 degrees the fridge comes on. At 72.9% RH the humidify comes on or at 77.1% RH the dehumidifier comes on.

Dead band, RH and temperatures and compressor are all programmable to match any condition you want to keep. Also there is a programmable time delay for the compressor so that you can't short cycle the compressor. What happens is a situation like the fridge is running and right as it satisfies temperature you then open the door heat rushes in temp drops and the fridge is calling for cooling. But if turned on right after it turned off you can "slug" the compressor and cause damage to it. So you add in a time delay to allow refrigerant and compressor oil to stabilize before it'll turn back on.

 

So good things come to those who wait. Chuck roasts were on sale last week so we bought about 14lbs of them. 11lbs went into summer sausage and the other one when through an unintended extended process.

Thursday put chuck roast in a vac bag with some seasoning and Worcestershire sauce then sealed up and into the fridge
Friday at 11:30pm put chuck roast in 135 degree sous vide batch for 21 hours
Saturday evening at 8:45 removed from Sous Vide bath and put in ice water to cool down then into the fridge still sealed
Sunday 2:30pm put back in Sous Vide batch at 145 degrees for 3 hours then charred over lump charcoal and served w/ fried potato's

It turned pretty darn good.

 

I think it’s abuse. All that charcoal just locked up in the garage.

#freethecharcoal

 

Poor pics, taste test forthcoming. Rest and wrap until tomorrow? Not all of it. Some will be meeting cast iron in a bit.

 

If I didn't shake like a dog shittin' peach seeds, I might take a decent pic.

 

Whiskey calms the nerves and bacon...

 

Dog shittin peach seeds.... haha

 

Never seen a dog shit peach seeds...

 

They shake and take blurry pics...

 

All that's left for a pic. Waaaay spicy on the BP and the Cajun, but end pieces. Hopefully the rest will be tamer. Wife didn't like coz crispy. Well yeah, I cooked it. Chewy bacon sux!!

 

Tequila heals ya...

 

Two walls are shared with interior walls and are insulated. The third is a brick wall and I'm honestly not sure if it is insulated. The wall is heavily shaded, at least. The garage door faces south, which is a bonus. The attic space above it is insulated. I do need to look in to those little insulation panels that fit behind garage doors, though.

Not perfect, but not too shabby. Come July/August here in Texas, we'll know for sure!

I love that setup, but this will be all storage. I expect to be doing way too much cooking soon to not have this type of storage space. With the small-ish events I do now, I'm already pressed without one.

 

Meal prepping for the week and what I cooked up for Sunday dinner.

 

Jaheesus, looks great.