Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Sorry
Dog treats?

 

I smoked up a turkey yesterday and double smoked a ham. I opted for injection instead of brine for the turkey and added a weave of bacon. Results were overwhelmingly positive. Even the breast meat damn near dissolved in the mouth. The ham was excellent as well.

 

Great idea on the borescope....
Letterkenny is hilarious. A Friend introduced me to it.
"Oh yeah, Me and Gordon Ramsey are both morons"...

 

Bearing in mind I am very new at this, and will be cooking my first prime rib (in, sigh, the oven) next week...

Believe it's possible for ANYTHING to stall while cooking. It has to do with temperature gradients- the cold food rapidly heats up when inserted in the hot oven, then stalls before slowly increasing.

I could be wrong, but it makes sense form a physics standpoint.

 

Same here, for NYD.

BTW, *LOVE* your sig.

 

What was your preparation process? Did you brine?

 

What rub are you using??

Ask around! Plenty of brisket masters in here! I'm not gonna lie.....I haven't made a brisket I was completely satisfied with!

 

So the wife told me she liked this bird better than the last. She wasn't keen on the brining idea, having tried it herself- but apparently she only let it brine for 12 hours or so, where I let mine brine for two days. The birds were approximately the same size- we very seldom don't get a 15 pounder, as it seems the sweet spot (since to be honest she's cooked 99% of the birds and 100% of the holiday meals prior to yesterday- I'm trying to up my Husband game ). I think I may just have to experiment with poultry brining throughout the year, with chickens and hens.

She doesn't use instant read thermometers, usually relies on the popup timer and intuition. I bought a thermometer recently, just have to get her to use it. She's not a bad cook, but could be better if she wasn't afraid of making us sick. Thus, the thermo pen purchase a few months ago, and the upgraded unit recently so I can watch it whilst it cooks.

One thing I did notice- where my last bird was juicy throughout, the flavor from the seasoning (Salt and pepper, on the skin) was not really anywhere but the skin. The flavor of the brine solution was throughout. This brings to mind something I've long wondered about- Popeye's chicken.

Yeah, I know- I'm bringing fast food into a real food discussion... hear me out...

They have a tasty, spicy product, but it's spicy throughout. The skin and the flesh of the bird is all spicy, and I do love the product.

How would I get that same sort of results in my own poultry? I don't know that the wife is ready for a spicy turkey (mmmmmmmm!! I sure am!), but would love to be able to do a nice fat chicken or something like that. However- capsaicin ("spicy pepper" chemical) is an oil, and thus wouldn't work in a brine.... would it? This leads me to think that Popeye's must be injecting their birds.

I've tried injecting, but wasn't able to have much success owing to the injector constantly clogging (I used Tony Satchere's (sure I butchered it)).

Does anyone know how to get what I'm after here, or have I even been clear?

 

Maybe an injection?

 

That's what I'm thinking, but my sole experience with injecting was a huge PITA due to clogging.

 

Injecting will help you out, get a good injector and you shouldn’t have a clogging issue. Are you trying to inject solids?

 

Doing my homework for the next challenge- my first ever rib roast.

I caught one of the sales at Publix, brought home a 10 pounder for cheap. Cheaper still, as the wife had just received a $40 gift card from one of her more problematic students' parents for the holiday- which she offered to use to pay for the roast. So I got a 10 pound rib roast for about $20 out of pocket. Can't beat that with a stick!

She wants au jus, but wants the packaged stuff from the spice aisle- Laurey's, I think it is.

I am going to leave it as bought (no bones, already tied- what I think might be an excessive fat cap, but as I don't even know how to tie one of these things properly, I am leaving well enough alone for this go). I will use Ms. O'Leary's Cow Crust (found here: https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/spice-rubs-and-pastes/mrs-olearys-cow-crust-recipe) as the rub, and am presently re-re-reading the great article recommended on the subject by one of the guys here (link: https://amazingribs.com/tested-reci...ng-prime-rib-tenderloin-and-other-beef-roasts).

The roast is presently frozen solid. I did some research, looks like for a rolled and tied roast, you want 10 hours/pound to thaw it. So I will put it in the fridge on waking Friday morning, and that should be perfect timing to have it ready to go in the oven at noon on Tuesday (hmmm, need to adjust this, after finding out how long this is going to take to cook- I don't want to be still babysitting this thing at 11pm Tuesday evening, waiting for dinner)....

 

Popeyes says it's a 12 hour marinade.

 

Only experience was when I went to fry a turkey, about 6 years back. The recipe called for an italian dressing injection, I think the peppers and the like caused the issue. I was using a Tony Satchere's (sorry, no comprende Cajun spelling) injector, so have to assume it was decent.

I mixed the injection up in a blender, left it going for 10 minutes. and still had a problem.

 

Grind the seasonings down to fine in a spice grinder. Or they sell them injectors with a fat needle.

 

Got a recommend on a good injector?

 

I need to get the kid to take a job there and steal it.

Off to google, there must be a good cajun chicken marinade somewhere...

 

Ya that can cause some issues. I usually make up my own injections so nothing in them to clog. My wife/daughter bought me a nice stainless injector kit a couple Christmas’s back. WAY better than the disposable ones.

 

She got me the Grill Beast injector, pretty sure she got it off Amazon.