Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Yum

 

Finished just in time for the game.....

 

Deer do in fact chew the bark of willows for that exact reason; willows have aspirin in the bark, so yeah, for sure, don't eat too many willows in one sitting. I've never heard of that same thing being in Aspen wood but could be wrong. If you want to worry about what wood could be harmful to use smoking meat, worry more about using red oak. Red oak is what they use in Central Cali for Santa Maria BBQ pork, tri tip, etc. in ALL BBQ restaurants and of course also folks at home. Because it's full of creosote! Aspirin fumes I don't have any idea if that can hurt you but I'd choose that over creosote on the meat!!

 

I mean. Why not both? And make some shave soap out of it you have plenty there id say put a bit aside for the next brisket and then use the rest for fries or whatever else you’re going to make. Reheating Spanish rice in bacon fat is one of my favorites.

 

And here we are

 

Reverse searing this 3lb bone in rib eye.

 

Anyone have the Slow n Sear for their Weber Kettle?

 

The deluxe is on my list

 

I thought I was OCD.

 

Yum, looks great!

 

14 hours and 1 hour rest in the cooler

 

I have looked at your posts but still don't know what you have. I will re-post on my luck with a vertical pellet smoker.

I have a Louisiana Grills Series 7 vertical pellet smoker. It is the size of a refrigerator.



After a few smokes and some testing I came to the conclusion that the stock water pan was inadequate and the baffles stifled airflow too much.


I raised the position of my new water pan that added more airflow and with the higher capacity and did more to stabilize the temperatures. (Cheap aluminum trays)



I have since seen many others doing close to the same thing but sometimes in different ways.

I have smoked many meets in the last couple of years and it has never let me down.

That is until the controller crapped out. I have a PID controller on the way though.

 

Well to be honest it's the same concept as using bricks or stone in some of them. It helps build a thermal mass which supposedly helps with temp swings. I accomplish the same thing by not constantly opening mine up.

 

I think it's fair for me to remember that when I post something online that there are some people on the other side of the screen that think the earth is flat.

Clearly I've opened Pandora's Box by mentioning curing and water pans... And both topics in the same post no less.

I understand thermal mass just fine. When most people add a brick it's usually wrapped in tinfoil. Adding sand, in my opinion, is not a good idea. What kind of mess does that leave in the smoker? What if some newbie reads that post and puts silica sand in his smoker? I could go on but I won't waste your time.

In my own opinion, running a water pan is more efficient, less mess to clean up and keeps the smoker cleaner. I run vertical smokers and to me the water pan gives the melted fat a place to go while still allowing air flow. It keeps the heat from rising straight up and out the smokestack.

To answer other questions:



I started out 20 some years ago with this little Brinkman charcoal smoker that I eventually bought an electric element for. I run the water pan in this unit to keep the fire from directly getting to the food.



I upgraded to this Smoke Hollow propane unit tho the photo shows me using it for cold smoking. The tube is laying in the water pan, the tinfoil trays are full of ice and the top rack is covered in tinfoil with holes cut to slow down the smoke. Basically that's to force the smoke around the cheese instead of straight out the top.



I got this little Masterbuilt unit on clearance and lined it with some polished stainless steel sheet and added a hotel pan as a water pan and use pellets in the original water pan.



This is the Pit Boss 5 that I use the most. The water pan in this is vented on the edges and by raising the rain cap all the way up I get great air flow. The 60# hopper on the back will burn for days !



My latest adventure is this whole hog roaster that's going through a rebuild. This is the only thing I have that doesn't have a water pan because the rotisserie part of it takes up most of the space above the burn box.


Needless to say, you do you and whatever you want to do. I'm going to keep on keeping on doing things my way and I'll never be caught putting sand in my water pan.

 

Here's my resume...

 

nice! Now im really hungry

 

I was thinking about just getting one of the Bic lighters and cooking my food with that.

 

That's just silly!

...just remember to buy a pack of cigarettes too so that you'll be able to smoke the food

 

I have a pile of leaves coming down from the trees. I think cigarette smoke would be overpowering and might only go well with like pachyderm meat.