Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I didn’t grind it to a pulp this time. I left it chunky and OMG it came out way better! Wife’s homemade slaw and some augratin potato casserole. I’m stuffed. Happy Independence Day TW.

 

Wing fest today. Round 1 is lemon pepper and buffalo. Lemon pepper was in a marinade over night and finished with dry seasoning. Buffalo was coated in corn starch, salt, pepper & garlic overnight, tossed in Frank’s & butter at the end. Ridiculously crispy

 

Round 2. Teriyaki and Spicy Pitfaced

 

Did a brisket and some sweet heat pork belly today. Both turned out great.

On Point for the brisket with a little extra garlic. It was a $1.88/lb sale brisket from Kroger. Cooked over oak with a little mesquite. Had to use the Texas crutch due to timing, but the bark hardly suffered at all.





Pork belly was smoked whole with Meat Massage. Got it to about 165*, then sliced. I had smoked some jalapeno slices that went in to a bath of butter, brown sugar, Meat Massage, and honey. Covered the pork belly with that and braised for an hour or so. Absolute flavor bombs with a really nice candied jalapeno taste.

 

Smoked rack of lamb and ribs

 

Pull your pants down chicken spatchcocked in the smoker. With rice pilaf

 

Looks like i'll be getting my first offset smoker soon. Any tips or advice? Up until now, i've only used my weber kettle with the SNS basket

 

Set a budget.
Source your wood today.

 

And don’t buy junk wood. That’s your heat source and added flavor, so it’s working double time.

 

Pit passed down to me so luckily budget isn’t a factor. Do most people get their wood locally from marketplace or something?

 

I got lucky & got to know an arborist. He gives me a call once ‘n a while so I’ve always got some on hand. Just make sure it’s accurately labeled.

 

I found a firewood processor willing to do a custom cut of cherry and Hickory. Meaning 12" lengths and small to medium splits.
The box on my Workhorse is only 25".

I had to buy 1/2 cord of each. It was spendy, and way more than I need. So I've been selling some on CL just to recoup some of the cost and make sure it doesn't dry all up.

 

I didn’t even think about that one. Pretty sure I’ve got an arborist pretty close to me I could reach out to

 

Back when I lived in TX my local butcher shop sold different kinds of wood for smoking...I miss that place. IIRC pecan, hickory, mesquite, apple, cherry....maybe more.

 

I have that same smoker minus the side kick (at this time). That smoke box feature definitely takes it up a couple notches in smoke flavor compared to just pellets. Camp chef nailed it.

 

Just did a quick google search in my area and there’s a place that specifically sells wood for smoking. 3 kinds of oak, mesquite, hickory, and pecan.

will definitely be a learning curve as I’ve never used an offset. Going to start with ribs and work up to a brisket

 

I've never been a propane guy, but the sidekick is definitely an added convenience. I wanted the flat top one, but this guy was an unbeatable deal at about $600 off retail. I plan to buy their 14" griddle attachment to swap out for searing or griddle.

The smoke box is definitely a game changer! I'm looking forward to trying my hand at some cold smoking with it.

 

I wanna know more about this pork belly and that brisket looks amazing as always from you !

 

This is a good call. My neighborhood has a few apple trees and that so happens to be my go to for pork. My neighbors know to call me when it's time to prune I do a couple a year and I'm good to go.

 

Fo sho.

It was a pork belly smoked whole. Run was a bit of pepper and a light dusting of Meat Massage. More flavor was coming later, so focused on getting a little savory and lots of smoke.

A little ways in I smoked some slices of jalapeno for an hour and change.

After a few hours, when the IT was about 165* on the pork and the color looked good, I sliced it in to thick slices. Not like thick cut bacon - even thicker. Around an inch+ or so.

I had a pan in the smoker that had water, brown sugar, meat massage, honey, and butter in it. Not too dissimilar from the goodness in my pork belly burnt ends recipe.

Mixed in the jalapenos, put the belly strips in a separate pan, then poured the juice over it and smoked for another 1-2 hours until the meat was probe tender. Guessing about 200*+ internal.

Served by just kind of leaving them out and letting people pull off what they wanted. Nice sweet companion to the brisket or a snack later. I still think my belly bite recipe is better, BUT these would hold in the sauce for a LONG time, so if I'm ever going to be serving for an extended period, I might opt for this over the bites.

The brisket was just *chef's kiss*.