Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I made slow cooker Dr. Pepper pulled pork a few years ago. That turned out pretty good.

https://www.seriouseats.com/slow-cooked-pulled-pork-dr-pepper-recipe

 

Beef!

 

On my way!

 

The soda is not as overwhelming as you might think. I use Dr. Pepper in a lot of stuff and recently used root beer (cut with stock) as a braising liquid. I've even used pomegranate juice to braise lamb shanks. And I make Dr. Pepper based bbq sauce regularly.

Also 7Up is very common in Filipino cooking. I use it with banana ketchup as a marinade for chicken.

 

I bought one of those pellet tubes in December and finally got around to buying some pellets and giving it a go. I'm impressed! I live in a condo and don't have room for both a grill and a dedicated smoker so I cheat and just tin-foil my grill up to keep in the heat and use a burner offset from the meat for heat. I had a box for woodchips that my wife got me two christmases ago that did OK, but this little pellet tube lasts so much longer and once lit and going hasn't gone out in the last 3 hours. For $14, I'm so sold.

Obligatory pic of meat, doing a quick pork butt to pull for dinner tonight:

 

Took leftover spicy pulled pork, and made tacos with some home made slaw and dukes bbq sauce. Killer on a Friday night with some beers

 

Did my first brisket a few days ago! Always been too intimidated to try, but Kroger had them on sale for $2.99/lb… Figured if I screwed it up, I was only out $40 or so.

Basically followed Meat Church’s overnight pellet brisket video and it turned out AMAZING! 17 hrs in the pellet pooper and then 5 hrs resting in a Yeti. Awesome bark, great smoke ring, and super moist and tender!

 

First go with the slow n sear. Pork loan roast. Also burned 3 fingers going to move the meat probe since I’m so used to normal meat thermometers

 

Picked up 2 racks of baby back ribs on sale for $1.99/lb and then a brisket for $2.46/lb. Throwing one rack on the Weber tomorrow and using the ribs to dial in the setup for my first brisket so I don’t ruin it

 

Dont sweat it, even when its bad its still good! I remember my first brisket, I thought it was so good I was going to fly down to texas and show those boys how its done. Years later, I laugh about how far I have progressed. Stick to the basics and dont over complicate it and you'll nail it!

 

What are the basics I should know?

 

Just use salt and pepper rub. Wrap and rest it for plenty of time.

 

What he said! Dont be afraid to use what looks like too much pepper, either. Dont sweat the temps too much, and its ONLY done when it is probe tender. I also like to remove it and get the IT (internal tempurature) back down to 170 once its done as fast as possible, and then wrap it back up in foil and rest it in the oven at 170 for absolutely as long as possible. I really think that makes a big difference

 

All great advice. What about trimming it before putting it on? Is that something that’s necessary?

 

Aaron Franklin "The Brisket"

Aaron Franklin Brisket "The Cook"

Aaron Franklin "The Pay Off"

 

I am a fan of Chudds BBQ. I think he keeps it pretty simple with this one

https://youtu.be/AcaKQhvaGqo

 

I’ve definitely been watching his videos as well. I watched his baby back ribs to smoke my first rack today

 

All I've done is jerky since I got my smoker. Today I took a crack at Tri tip

 

I'm not a fan of tri tip on the smoker but yours looks good!