Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Straight 6 hours or....

 

i throw them on at 225 and let them ride while spraying every 30 or so with apple juice until they hit 205 then slather sauce of choice and let the sauce firm up and cut and serve. Best ribs i've made.

Last large spare ribs i did was around 7 hours

 

Ditto on wrapping ribs. I've done em both ways quite a few times. Read in a very well thought of bbqer's book that he preferred not to wrap. When you wrap your actually steaming the meat which he says takes some of the flavor from the meat. So I completely stopped wrapping ribs and I believe they do have more flavor then wrapped.

 

This! All day this.

 

I’ve already decide to try this next... in several weeks. Our Costco packages 3 racks together, so it’s enough experimenting for now.

Today’s rack was much better than the last two, but still not perfecto. Bark was delicious, but the meat was too soft and gave way when cutting. The bark also separated on the smaller side when slicing. The larger side held together better.

The meat was 205 at the end of wrap (5 hours), so I sauced and let it be for 10 minutes. My first few batches had similar meat texture (aggressively soft) and a chewy bark — likely too caramelized on the sauce. Any pointers?

 

Ribs are thin, I don't overthink them. Chuck them on 225 to 250 whatever somewhere in there, when it's near done I do sauce if I'm doing any. I don't reduce temp or do any 3-2-1 stuff. I just leave them on unwrapped the whole time, sauce at the end if they aren't dry rubbed. I use apple cider for my spray, or any sort of non-from-concentrate apple juice. Probably doesn't make a lick of difference, to be fair, over whatever generic cheap apple juice you can get at the store.

edit: Sauce at the end if I plan to use sauce, I dry rub generally whether I use sauce or not, I might use something with a bit more flavor or kick if I don't plan to sauce it afterward.

 

Going to do a brisket over the weekend. Need to read up on what I wanna do with it. Anyone got some good pointers? Would be the first one for me.

 

My opinion - Texas style, salt and pepper, don't try to get too fancy with it for the first time you're doing one. Wrap it and put it in a cooler when it's done, that after-cook wrap is important for butts and briskets.

 

Low and slow 225-250°, salt &pepper, till its 200° internal temp, rest for 1hr slice and serve

 

perfect i figured just do S&P and keep it basic for the first one as itll be a learning experience and hopefully turns out good. i have my cooler ready. Wrap in butcher paper and i see people saying wrap in towels after then throw in cooler?

Its just the wife and I, maybe her grandparents next door. How big should i realistically look for? I dont want to waste a bunch.

 

Some wrap in foil when it stalls but if you have the time let it push through the stall temp. Helps to have a meat probe and notkeep poking it to check temps.

 

i have the Meater block with 4 probes for wifi monitoring. Love those things

 

There's a bottom limit, you can ask for a 5lb brisket but there's only so small they can get when a cow is the size of a cow.... the smallest I could get was 9 lbs when I did one a while back. Get whatever size you can get, realistically.

+1 on dont constantly probe it. A few hours is not enough time to cook, don't spend the time stabbing it making it look like sputnick. Leave one in there or just be patient more than anything.

 

Can vacuum seal and freeze

 

What did we do before all this tech. stuff. I still throw dirt up in the air to see which way the winds blowin.’ Don’t need to know the temp. every minute. What’s next, ultrasound?

So just put it outside then.

 

I'll be the lonely voice in the forest. If it's your first one, might want to consider using nothing. That way it's just the meat and the smoke. You then have a flavor baseline that you can use when/if you want to add other spices/rubs into the mix.

I tend to be an outlier here since I prefer the nutin-but-smoke method, but since most people tend to over spice and over salt almost everything "just because" with no baseline to decide what they like, I can live with that.

Anyway, just another opinion in a world that's full of them.

 

I wasn't going to say it I usually don't even bother checking rib and sausage temps, and butts/briskets aren't until I think it's done, same with pork loin. But, it's also because I cook a lot of pork loins and sausages, and "enough" ribs. For the first of something though, I get it.

Nothing wrong with that. There's 2 barbecue places in town that do texas style ribs. One place does it subtly, with just enough salt and pepper. The other place is a kick in the face of pepper, with some salt. For all I can tell it's a lot of salt or none, but you can't tell because it's like a 1/4" crust of black pepper on it. Nasty.

 

Buffalo Chicken Hashbrown Casserole Stuffed Chicken Wings​

Ok... I have to go a bit backwards on this post... I mean.. I had to invent Buffalo Chicken Hashbrown Casserole in order to make these stuffed chicken wings happen... But that's another post!

Started with whole chicken wings. Cut off the drumett part and deboned the flat section leaving the tips on for a handle.

Soaked the chicken in Sake because that crisps up the skin and it's my latest craze while I put some of the casserole in the freezer to prepare for the trip to the air fryer.

Stuffed the chicken with the casserole mixture and used toothpicks to secure the ends and air fried them at 400F for 20 min turning once.

I'll admit it... This is absolutely the most work I've put into an appetizer!

 

Damn dude..........those I would devour with relish.........a meal on the wing!

 

I'm in the same boat. Why I still haven't done one, a lot would go to waste with 3 of us current meat eaters in the house. But I need to try one, see if I can figure it out.