Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

The smoker was set to 250... The pellet smoker seems more stable there than at 225.
It was 38 degrees this morning when I started and it's 52 now.

That's the thing.. there was no stall. It just climbed right on up.. I pulled it at 203°.

It's tender, juicy although not much of a smoke ring... I'm assuming that it's from using the pellet smoker.

 

Whatever it took to get that, keep doing it.

Great looking slice!

 

I usually get a nice ring on mine and I use a pellet smoker. Could be at that temp it's not putting out a lot of smoke, might try a lower temp overall or start with a lower temp and let it go 3-4 hours so you get the heavier smoke (at least mine put out more smoke at the lower temps) and then boost the heat up after that to finish it off. Good looking slice though.

 

Favorite cut of meat for beef jerky?

 

Thank you... Was testing out your rub!

The vertical pellet smoker I have seems to put out smoke as it drops temp and adds more pellets. I am not convinced about running it on the low smoke setting to start out.
I do appreciate all the advice! It's still a learning curve for me on both the brisket and the smoker.

 

not that smoke ring means anything but do you put the meat in straight from the fridge or room temp ?
do you have a water pan under it also?

 

Yes I'm running a water pan. If all that fat melted down my vertical smoker I'd have a fire like you wouldn't believe!

I let the meat rest out of the fridge while I set up the smoker and brought it up to temp... It was dark this morning so maybe 30 minutes?

 

I used to have no smoke ring also.
Then i started putting a water pan under the brisket, i take it straight out of the fridge to the smoker and always have smoke ring now.
I also add a sprinkle of celery salt here and there

 

Thanks for the tips. The smoke ring isn't the biggest concern for me tho.. the meat is delicious... I'm still perplexed at the fact there was no stall and it only took 7½ hours to get to temp

 

Whatever is on sale for me. This batch is from some London Broil on sale at $2/#

This is from a bottom roast I had the butcher shop slice for me, was $7/#:

 

Sometimes the brisket just wants to be eaten sooner rather than later.

 

Fair enough!! Haha

 

That was a good looking brisket. Who cares about the smoke ring as long as the flavor is good.

For the record, my briskets go on cold, and I generally get good rings. I’m using a WSM and not a pellet smoker.

 

Ooh, that's a good sign .

For whatever it is worth, salt can help promote a smoke ring and our rub is pretty low in salt content, so that could be a factor.

Celery salt is good. Spritzing during the first few hours helps, too.

I don't really do anything to promote a smoke ring anymore, though. I usually get a little something, which is nice for the visual presentation, but that's about it. All about that taste and tenderness!

 

i agree, smoke ring is all for visual satisfaction.
its about taste taste taste

 

This tasted great to me... I'd say it's my best brisket ever.. and again I don't do many of them but if a guy can improve each time he fires up.. then that's half the fun!

 

Eye of round, one huge muscle, very little fat. Only a cap that’s easy to remove. I posted some pics of my last jerky smoke back a few pages.

 

I'm with t4daddy, eye of round is my preferred cut for jerky because it is so lean. Second choice is top round but it has to be as lean as possible. If you can get a lean brisket flat that also works, but even a flat is spendy around here.

 

Getting ready to detail my Tacoma today.

Had some prep work that I wanted to do yesterday afternoon. Figured I'd fire up a grill in the driveway and be able to cook dinner while taking care of the prep work.



The little kettle worked great on the chicken. Used the bigger one simply as a surface to hold the chimney lighter (which I filled with leftover coals from last cook...was sorta surprised they light due to rain coming in at the end of that cook).
















Rebel Rub was the base.....then Plowboys on top.

 

I ended up smoking wings last night for dinner. I didn't get pic's as I wasn't the one who pulled them (had to take daughter to soccer practice). Came out good though.