Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Brisket is on, a little later than I was shooting for but it should still have enough time to be ready for dinner. For a small brisket (9.5lb) this thing fills up the 18in kettle, no idea how you guys fit those big 15-18lbers on your smokers


Now it's time to season up the ribs and get them ready for later

 

Y'all are killing me! Must.. smoke...meat...

 

Im leaning towards the electric 3 series myself now

 

Looks good!

Beer cans under it. One if it works 2 if not so that it sits like a W

They shrink and after awhile you can take the cans out. But yeah there are times I wish had more horizontal shelf space than an 18". With a stacker I can go vertical but sometimes horizontal is better, although brisket is about the only thing that comes to mind right now.

 

I have a Blaz’n Grid Iron pellet smoker and love it. Solid construction and works fantastic. I’ve had it a little over two years and almost never fire up my stick burner.

 

I run a vertical smoker that's wide enough to do full racks of ribs ... plus, I figure go big or go home LOL

 

Well i ordered the blazing blue 3 series 3.2cu on Amazon for $195

Means ill have to give it a proper break in this next weekend after it arrives. Ill let everyone know it how it is. Amazon reviews are crappy but ill find out myself

PIT BOSS 77320 3.2 Analog Smoker, 3 Series, Blue

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0791761R9?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

 

First brisket I did I tried doing it vertical on my pit barrel and I wasnt too impressed with the results so I figured I would give it a go on the kettle and see how it turns out. I think the manufacturers recommendation to start with a half chimney of charcoal gets the pit barrel way too hot to start. The temps came up to 160 internal in less than 2 hours which in think dried it out, I may try again one of these days starting with 15-20 briquettes for a slower start. Although a longer rest may have helped too because the stuff I took to work the next day was actually decently moist after sitting in the fridge.

That being said the pit barrel has been amazing for ribs, thin sliced pork butt for al pastor tacos (I like to slice it into 3/8-1/2 slabs to get lots of bark) and cubes of pork belly stacked and hung on skewers for burnt ends (which also make for some bomb ass tacos when you dice them up)

Oh yeah, Spam and egg breakfast burritos while the brisket cooks.

 

Damn, those reviews.

 

Burnt ends turned out awesome last evening, sorry no finished pics, I blame alcohol. Come to think about it, that may have been the reason they were so good... Today nothing special, just some chicken thighs on the charcoal grill.

 

Im not expecting super high end tbh. Just wanted something nicer than what i had. I liked the idea of the window (amateur), being able to add wood chips without opening the whole unit (couldnt before) and also having the decent sized wood chip holder. Electric seem to suffer more from ambient temps in general (it seemed to me at least so im sure those reviews are a little biased from somebody not ever using a smoker before)

Looked at a masterbuilt in home depot and some things i just didnt like.

 

You must be my neighbor...

 

Thighs turned out very good.

 

Close ish by Alaska standards. I screwed up the halibut, the brine was way too salty for the light meat and it was pretty hard to eat. Nice and moist and smoky flavored but my dog ended up getting most of it. The reds turned out great though.

 

peach pie thing, store bought shells, fresh peaches, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, on the grill about 15min ago....

lets see what happens.....

325° when cover was pulled, see how she bakes...

 

First ever Hot N Fast underway. 9 lbs ish trimmed Prime packer. Aiming for 350°F. Got some Pecan pellets in the tube as well. Might as well mix it all up today.


@bvbull200 ... giving it a go

 

Nail a hot 'n fast once and you'll wonder why you spent all those years slaving for 14+ hours.

Good luck!

 

I'm a stubborn SOB though. But I am curious to this method...

And not much slaving with an easy bake oven

 

This is true.

I use all the methods. Depends on how much time I have and how much I have going on. Same results can be had regardless. Always good to have options!

 

Spatchcock using the pellet pooper