Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I have a Char-Griller Gravity 980 and I did rest it in a cooler wrapped in a towel.

 

I don’t see anything wrong with it, but there wasn’t a cross section of the brisket. Was it dry, tough, or other?

 

No I thought it came out perfect.

 

Anyone have any recommendations on pellet grills that include a retractable sear plate? I'm looking to replace my PitBoss 820 Pro Series after 5 or so years of service. I wanted to keep it, but the heat shield, firebox and other things started to rust through. Cost to replace them all was about half of what it would cost to upgrade to one of the newer units with the wifi and app controls.

I close to replacing it with the newer version of the same unit, but wanted to see if there were other options. I do steaks, burgers, chicken breast and other things that require high direct hear relatively often, so the sear function with the retractable sear plate was a nice feature for me. However, I'm having a hard time finding other options that have something like that integrated.

 

Sorry for the delay. Here are some pics from Sunday's cook.

Ribs Starting Out:


Ribs and Beans:


Chicken and Beans:

 

Honey Bourbon Salmon

 

I really wish I liked Salmon, I know it's good for you and what you did looks really good. I just can't get past the oily feeling it leaves in my mouth. I've only had salmon once that I really liked and it was smoked and part of a spread that I am 100% positive was not good for me.

 

Looks good. Tell me about the honey bourbon glaze? Is it just half honey and half bourbon?

 

Like all fatty fish, salmon goes best with something acidic. There is also a huge range of flavour and texture with different varieties of salmon. I really don't like Atlantic (all farmed salmon, even on the west coast, is Atlantic salmon). Go for fresh sockeye or spring salmon. Avoid pink and chum salmon as they are very mushy, coho is marginal.

 

This is not oily at all.

 

I marinade the fish and put it on the smoker

 

This is also very good.

 

Nothing fancy going here. Mustard base with a nice rub.

 

2 butts are better than 1. Smoking a couple of 8 lb pork butts. Some nice marbling on these babies.

 

For what it is worth, Lapsing Soushong tea imparts a pleasant smoky flavor to any food.

Add to marinate, or make tea and soak.

I even put some in my whiskey! ;-)

eta

The "smoky flavor" we all appreciate is due to creosote! Don't tell your health nut friends.

 

I grow horseradish, and am always looking for good ways to use it!

 

Just started a brisket for a bbq tomorrow. First time trying an “egg genius” on my big green egg and i’m impressed. We’ll see how well it can keep it real low, i’m shooting for 225 at the grate. I like the app and it has a website interface, too. Pretty slick. Even knows when you have the lid open and will shut off the fan.

 

On the smoker nice and early.

 

Overnight graph, still impressed. Green is blower speed, yellow is meat temp, red it grate temp. The highest it got at the grate was 227 and it was set to 225. This brisket stalled real hard, bumped it up to 230, the top of the dome temp is a little colder than I wanted, and am about to go wrap it up to finish out the cook.