Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Family coming through town tomorrow AM and I had committed to handing off BBQ to them quite a while back. Been raining for most of the past ten days here.
I'm struggling to get motivated on the two butts and a turkey that I need to get smoked.
Dry brined the bird last evening.
My wood is under really good cover, but the sideways rain and constant mist has everything pretty darn wet.

Thinking about putting a pop up shelter over the offset. If I can get it lit.

Just venting.

 

If you’re away, bring it with you



Texas style BBQ in Richmond, Va.


photo dump of some recent cooks.



Good morning from Virginia

 

A pop up tent and a tarp or two for the sides!

 

The wife tells me that the pop-up isn't ours. Or it is ours but get used exclusively for dog adoption events.
Anyway, it's white. And off limits. Lol.

I'm two and a half hours in on the butts. Using hickory and red oak.
100% humidity, 60F and constant drizzle/mist seems to be more of a fight than freezing temps in the winter.
I'm sure there's some serious science-y stuff going on, but all I know is keeping temps up isn't easy.

Planning to switch to cherry/oak for the 14lb spatchcocked turkey, once the butts are close to done.

 

I’d probably be like no tent, no cook.

 

Came across this yesterday. Almost bought it. Seemed like a good price for a Weber pellet smoker.

 

All smokers will go on sale this time of year to make room for the holiday stuff. Best time of year to buy one

 

Fur da sciencey bit; the warm temp combined with the drizzle is killing you. If it was colder, the air wouldn't hold the moisture, so under cover, you have dry air. With the higher temp, more moisture is trapped in the air, so even under the shelter, you have wet air. As the smoke rises out, new wet air is brought in to the smoker. This damp air takes a lot of fuel to evaporate the moisture n heat it up.

 

Got a pork butt going for the Alabama/Georgia game tonight

 

Excellent!
When I switched over to cherry for the turkey, I could barely hold 250F. At one point I had five splits in the firebox at various stages of combustion on top of an excellent coal bed, and she couldn't even reach 300. And that's with some oak mixed in.

The google machine tells me that there are only 20 million BTUs in a cord of black cherry, compared to 24M in Red Oak and 27M in Hickory.

I'm enjoying the challenge and the learning curve of the offset smoker way of doing things. Only about a year and a half since she arrived (after waiting almost a year for delivery) and it feels like I'm picking something up each time I wheel her out.

 

Pork butt turned out great!

 

Made some over the top chili for the first time today. Ruined the wife’s Dutch oven, but she didn’t care after we ate

 

What I see is now a designated dutch oven

 

Gosh dangit. I finally overcooked something. Party ribs and Pork Tenderloin on the pit boss tonight.

The poor tenderloins are supposed to be pulled around 150. They got up to 175. Grr.

The party ribs were supposed to be in a pan wrapped at 170. They got wrapped at 190.

Party ribs smothered in butter, honey and some texas hot jelly bbq sauce.

 

Yeah, it can be fun to need to tend the fire constantly. On a warm day, I would walk away and forget about it for too long. I'm not good at BBQ, I'm either impatient or bored and look for something else to do (or get drunk waiting for the next stage). I grew up on wood heat in NorCal, I don't know if they grow walnuts out in VA, but walnut wood is excellent (a little more heat than oak) and not as expensive (out here).

 

I've smoked them to 205ish and shredded.
Better at the 145-150 mark, and pork butt is better to shred.
But when in Rome....

 

Same. This is why they made pellet smokers--for people like us.

 

Anyone ever use these?

They're at my local big box store. So, I'm curious on the thoughts on them.

https://www.kingsford.com/products/...blend-pellets-chefs-blend-hickory-cherry-oak/

 

Pellet equivalent of all-season tires?

 

I was already going to be going to a competition/mixed blend anyway, most likely.
https://pitboss-grills.com/accessories/fuel/pit-boss-40-lb-competition-blend-hardwood-pellets

But I saw these at BJs and they're cheap, so, I figured I'd ask if there's anything good/bad about the Kingsford ones