Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

lots of pork shoulder there!

 

Picked up a new toy last night.

PitBoss Vertical Pellet smoker... Model #5 is exclusively sold at Walmart.

Assembled and did a burn in this morning. This thing will hold 60 pounds of pellets!

 

That's some crazy capacity! I saw those at the wally world awhile back. Looked pretty slick. I've come to find that the huge capacities are really only good if you don't change wood type. To me anyway. I've changed wood types a few times already for different meats.

Does that Pit Boss have a quick dump apparatus for changing pellets?

 

Yes.. there's a small dump at the bottom. (The copper colored little door)

I dumped a whole 40# bag in after the burn in and it looks only half full! Haha!

I picked up a few bags of their Competition blend which Walmart has for $14.96/40# bag.

 

Definitely in for some cooking results and feedback

 

Gonna fire her up in the morning and report back!

 

What's it gonna be? But, sounds like a plan.










@itzyoboipaul , any Costco reports?

 

So far I've got a pork butt and a center cut pork belly ... Going to cube up the belly and season them and make some pork bites (don't know what else to call them!)

 

my mom went there around 11am. She said she couldnt find parking LOL

Around 2pm, i heard it was pretty empty. I might drive by after work to see how crazy it is.

neighbors are saying gas is 2.37.

 

Sweet. thanks. sure it'll pick up now again that work is ending for some. Check meat prices if there is any left

 

Gas station was empty, but rest was crazy packed about 20 mins ago

 

Habanero Dried Beef

1 whole eye of round trimmed of fat and silver skin = 1451g
43g of Morton Tender Quick
5g of dried ground Habanero
1g granulated garlic.

Eye of round rubbed down with the dry ingredients and put in a vacuum bag w/ an 80% vacuum pull, sealed and into the fridge for 21 days flipping periodically.

After 21 days out of the vacuum bag, rinsed w/ cold water, patted dry w/ clean paper towels. Next dust with black pepper, granulated garlic and onion powder and back into the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hour rest uncovered.

Next day heat smoker to 120 degrees F and put beef in for 1 hour. At eh start of the second hour bump smoker temp to 130 degrees and start smoke. I used Applewood pellets in a pellet tray. Next every hour or so bump the temp of the smoker 10 or 0 degrees until you hit 200 degrees and then let the meat ride until it hits 160 degrees internal. Took about 10 hours w/ smoke for at least 8 of those hours.

After it reaches internal temp pull from the smoker and let cool under a fan for about an hour. Then wrap in plastic wrap and put back in refrigerator for 1 to 3 days to mellow.

Habanero Dried beef and slicer at the ready:


Beef unwrapped and a cold drink:


Beef loaded and ready to start slicing:


Beef all sliced up and ranked into 6 ounce rows


Beef all vac packed and ready. 2 pack go in the freezer, 3 packs go to coworkers and part of the trimmings pile as pictured on the scale will be my breakfast Saturday morning. Chipped beef and gravy over biscuits and fried green tomato's


Dried beef is good! Habanero dried beef is gooder!

I am really happy with the way this turned out. All the goodness of dried beef with a little hint of spice.

 

Pork fish Lonzino and Bresaola just out of the curing chamber:

3 pork fish jalapeno Lonzino
1 Habanero Bresaola

Didn't sample the Bresaola but OMG is the Lonzino divine. Actually time got away from me and they went an extra week or so. I was targeting 40% loss but ended up more like 50%. I think 50% is my new target as the flavor is just that much more concentrated and shaved thin the meat is melt in you mouth.

 

Hotter Habanero Jerky:

2,274g of eye of round trimmed and sliced
1-1/4 tsp of insta cure #1
1 bottle of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1 bottle of low sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 big long squeeze of honey (guessing 1/4 cup)
20g (equaled 28-1/2 peppers) of dried habanero (pulverized in the ninja blender)
20g of black pepper corns (pulverized in the ninja blender)
1 palm full of crushed red pepper
1 glug of Texas Pete hot sauce.


In an effort to get the heat level up I am doing a bit of an experiment. I have taken all the ingredients in red and put them in a Mason jar and then into a 132 Sous Vide bath for 2 hours to rehydrate the peppers and extract some Capsaicin.


All the red ingredients into the SV batch:



While the marinade is cooking meat trimmed, sliced then refrigerated



Marinade after 2 hours now in a 38 degree ice water SV batch to cool down. After it cools for 1/2 hour or so I'll add in the remain ingredients stir well and then pour over the sliced meat and mix well. Then everything goes in the refrigerator for 10 to 12 hours.



Cure weighted out.



All the ingredients whisked together.



Ready to assemble



Carefully add meat small handful at a time and mix around so cure/marinade thoroughly coat all surfaces.

Note: If using hot peppers disposable rubber gloved are highly suggested.



All the kids in the pool. Cover w/ plastic wrap and into the refrigerator. In about 5 hours I will mix the meat again.



See you in about 5 hours

Here is the meat in drained in a colander.



1st of 5 layers in the dehydrator. Dehydrator is set at 160 degrees for the 1st 90 minutes then backed down to 120 degrees until the morning. Depending how dry they are in the morning I might give them a few hours of cold Applewood smoke.



7:00am this morning the jerky is all dried up. I started with 2,274g of eye of round and total finish weight was 1,028g

I tried a sample and its fairly hot but I'll let it bulk age for a day or two before final comments.

Looks and tastes good:

 

I was told parking was a pain. So I’m gonna try about 730 lol

 

So. Much. Winning!



That all looks and sounds fantastic! Thanks for all the documentation. Well done again sir.

 

In for meat prices. I can be there in a few minutes!

 

Born, raised and lived in ENC for almost 30 years....almost.

Grew up thinking there was only two types of foods inclusive in "BBQ".

That was grilled chicken slathered with dripping sweet sauce.........or pulled & chopped pork with vinegar sauce.

That was it. Extent of my knowledge.

Life was good.




Things got way more interesting after I moved to GA and then spent a couple months of training whilst staying in OKC and eating all sorts of smoked beef, sausages and such. That first serving of brisket.....damnamighty. And the first burnt ends...............sumanabitch ! Just the steaks alone were amazing.....had me visiting the stockyard and drooling like a hound.

Paradigm shift !!!!!!


Killer BBQ joint back in my new GA hometown served it all......pulled pork, spares, brisket, yardbird......blew my family away. We hit the place up weekly until they relocated too far away.

That's when i learned to smoke and get down with it. Learned that dry rubs consisted of more than just salt & pepper.

My ENC roots are still there in my choice of homebrew "pullin' sauce" when I do pulled pork........but now it has a more balanced & sweeter flavor now.

I can't wait to see that bad boy in action.


Looking forward to seeing your posts and opinions on it.

 

Same ol brisket prime deals for $3.99 @Misplaced Nebraskan

I got gas for 2.37