Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Dinner. Did the pulled pork plate with blue cheese grits and collard greens. My smoked pulled pork is definitely way better, but I can’t complain. The blue cheese grits are so fucking good. And great beer to go along.

 

awesome! Make sure you post pics!

you need to make brisket nachos...FTW!!

Thats awesome! now just stay away from the bad stuff...ie sugars and whatever else feeds cancer. I think you mentioned that before.

 

Will do

 

That’s frickin amazing. If you don’t mind me asking, what did you have? I’m 13 years cancer free. I was diagnosed with non Hodgkin’s lymphoma when I was 22.

 

Prostrate

 

Good Morning

 

Morning

 

Morning. Newb question, maybe a dumb one. When charcoal burns down do I add new charcoal directly to the smoker or do I start it in the chimney like the initial charcoal?

 

Look up the minion method.

You could do either really. What kind of smoker are you using?

 

Thanks for the reply Yeah I saw that method when I was looking around online earlier, too late to start it I think. I’m using the Cuisinart 18” vertical charcoal smoker, it’s listed in the “Products Discussed” at the bottom of this page.

 

morning!

 

Fill the charcoal ring with unlit and make a small divot in the middle, spread some wood chunks out in the unlit, light about 12-15 briquettes and put them on top of the unlit in the divot. Put smoker together, and adjust vents to maintain desired temps.

 

Awesome, thanks for the help! This is my first attempt so I’m probably overthinking it a little. I’ve got my father-in-law’s Thermo Pro 2 probe thermometer so I’ve been trying to keep it close to 225F. Next time I’ll go with the minion method. Adding charcoal every 90 minutes or so isn’t bad but I’d rather not have to so often.

Snapped a pic last time I added charcoal:

 

If that is the bar you set with your first brisket, you are in VERY good shape. A little dry, perhaps, but trust me when I tell you that plenty of folks' first brisket is a complete disaster. That looks quite good and I'm sure that there was plenty of good meat on there. The stuff that's a little dry? Just chop it up and mix with a little sauce. Or you can put it in a vacuum sealed bag with some beef broth and refrigerate. When you reheat, drop the bag in some boiling/simmering water. It'll come out plenty moist .

Oh, and I know that it is just for looks, but that smoke ring is KILLER!

Another killer smoke ring! Brisket looks good! I'd eat that all day. A tad longer in the heat, maybe, to get a touch more rendering, but you're down to the part where you're fine tuning your process, not overhauling it, which is tedious, never ending, and a hell of a lot of fun! .

Those are stunning! Great work!

Man, that is such incredible news! I'm really happy for you. Way to go. I'll have a celebratory pour tonight!

 

Bacon almost ready to smoke. 7 pounds of pork belly cured. Used Maple Sugar instead of brown sugar. Been curing for 18 days and will rest in the fridge for a day or two more....... Probably smoke it Wednesday. Gotta find my A MAZE N tube. Just got some new pellets. Maybe apple and maple this time???

 

The minion method will be your savior on long smokes. If this is your first smoke on it, take notes.

Pork looks good so far!!

 

This is from this weekend. I did two capsteaks and some tablitas. The tablitas were new to me. It is beef short rib, but cut across the bone in thin slices. I did a super quick marinade, then cooked them over pretty high heat. Short rib is usually tender up towards 200*. These got to about 180-185* before I called it good. They were very tender, but I think they could have been even better with a slightly longer cook and a more controlled rest. Not my favorite way to do short rib, but very good and will get in the rotation, given I can get my hands on them again (I heard Mexican markets tend to carry them, but they're often pre-marinated).

The capsteak was reverse seared with a little On Point (Unicorn) .

 

When I lived in Hawaii they called beef ribs cut like that Kalbi. They’re great cuts of meat if you marinate them and cook them correctly. They have a very melt in your mouth texture but you have to avoid some of the connective tissue around the edible meat. You’re very right about the high heat and finish temperature; clearly you did your homework!