Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Late start, but rolling with it.

For y’all in humid areas, still using a water pan? Just wondering, it’s plenty moist outside today.

 

Wicked Baked Beans??
Why the hell not!

 

the water’s there for thermal mass too right?
Not sure if rh in ambient air would affect what’s going on in the smoke chamber, might slow the burn down some tho

 

I still use water pan. I add a little Apple juice also

 

Simple grill nite. dogs,garden squash/onions homemade chowchow and wifes oven homefrys.

 

Not my recipe, tweaked to my liking (more peppers), but the BEST baked beans I’ve ever had! @Misplaced Nebraskan

 

For the fish lovers like me (2lbs of salmon filets):

 

Just found Tri Tip for the first time around here, so I bought two. About to throw one on, seasoned with garlic, season salt and pepper. Was planning on a reverse sear, but have never done Tri Tip. Indirect until 120 and then rest, sear?

 

Don't overcook! Well done tri-tip is horrible.

Med rare is the way to go.

I usually do 135 and rest for a bit....it usually comes up to 139-142.

 

Will shoot for 135, it’s smokin now.

 

No water pan anymore. Ever. Basically it is for thermal mass. Some fill with rocks, use clay pots, etc. if not using one. I do not.

Harry Soo does not use a water pan on his WSM's and wins all over the country. His idea of using the ash catcher wrapped in Aluminum foil works great. And gives a lot more room in the WSM for adding coals if needed.



Although Weber will not sell them directly and ereplacement.com only list the ones for the 14" now. But the

$38 Water Pan Cover Compatible with Weber Smokey Mountain 18/18.5" Smoker

water pan lid works just as well.

With that said guess should never say never. 2 weeks ago did ribs on the kettle and gave the Sear N Slide another shot. As usual the temps were higher than I liked with it and it was a battle keeping them down where I like. I used water in the divider between the coals and the meat for the first time. And had the deepest and best smoke ring on ribs in a long time

Smoke ring doesn't add anything except visual to the food, but they still turned out awesome.



Don't believe water is needed. But don't believe it hurts a thing to use it either.

 

@nobescare

Link to original for credits sake...

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/dutchs-wicked-baked-beans.50945/

But like @308savage says, I've added more jalapenos (4) and extra bacon.

If you have meat on the pit, place it under the meat if possible to catch drippings for more Flava.

 

^^^
Thanks for the recipe

 

Best beans EVER!!

 

Agree. Other than very minor tweaks, I don't mess with it much. Really like em!

 

Going to try them when I get home

 

Buy a AMAZN smoke maze, the chip delivery is hokey at best, turns the chips to charcoal not ash. I’ve used one for years.

 

Never. I'm near Nashville and have 85+ % humidity in the summers. It's a good bit lower in the winter and I don't use one then either.

 

Final product. Borracho beans, cornbread, ribs.

 

Some saw in the Pitfaced BBQ Meat Massage thread, but for the rest, here is what my team cooked this weekend:

SCA steak entry:


IBCA chicken:



IBCA ribs:



KCBS chicken:



KCBS ribs:


KCBS pork:


KCBS brisket:


Leftover brisket with one of the trophies we won :


Our campsite (we had 4 drum smokers, a 22" Weber kettle, and a 26" Weber kettle):


My team (I'm in the middle):



The BIGGEST wins were finishing 1st place in the Steak Showdown (a steak competition voted on by the people) out of 20 teams and finishing 4th place in the BBQ People's Choice (with our Pork Belly Burnt Ends!) out of about 50 teams. We only missed the money on that one by 5 votes!

I don't know how we did in IBCA other than not being in the top 10. They announce those entries, then give zero feedback otherwise. KCBS, we didn't do that well overall - some head-scratcher scores from one judge to the next in a couple categories - but we did have a nice bright spot. That brisket above was 14th out of around 90 teams! Beat some really big names, too. Funny story - I've been injecting with Butcher BBQ injections lately. The guy who runs that company was out there with his company again. He's won brisket a few times at this event and 1st overall before, too. At the last minute, I opted not to inject this brisket at all - ended up beating him by about 10 spots .

@Cold Iron , sorry to report that we did not do that well in steak. I cooked the exact steak I was trying to cook and ended up 68th out of 95 teams . I obviously don't know what they're looking for . We even got dinged for that appearance! It' my first time doing SCA and I'm not used to cooking steak to a technical standard, so I'm not too upset, but I do want to slay that dragon eventually.

If you find a KCBS sanctioned event near you, I encourage you to try it. Just don't get worked up if the judging comes back unfavorably. It's a different kind of result you're shooting for. I don't know this from winning much (at all) in KCBS - I know it from getting dinged a bunch . We've hit our stride in events voted on by the people, though, which means more to us anyways. That said, a weekend of cooking with good friends is always a good thing. Add the pomp and circumstance of a festival/competition and it's an experience worth having at least once.