Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Smoked a shoulder yesterday for 6 hours on half a chimney of Stubbs natural charcoal, and then company popped in so I put it in the fridge overnight. Wrapped it in foil & into the oven this morning @ 250 until the meat hit 207; about 5 hours more. Let it cool & rest for several hours then pulled it. Pulled perfect and the fat was easily removed from the meat. One of the better shoulders I've ever done.

 

Where do you get a drum like that? A friend of ours is looking for a steal drum so he can make his own smoker. I can't think of any places around here that would have one (that doesn't have chemicals in it).

This thread is making me hungry and contributing to gaining weight!!! LOL

I love it when we smoke 'more than enough' food (for guests) and have leftovers. Smoked leftovers are the best!!

 

smoked chicken makes great chicken salad.

 

And fajitas....

 

I always cook way too much when I smoke because it's the same time and wood used for 1 shoulder or 3. Plus smoked meat is somewhat preserved. I find that smoked pork or chicken lasts a long time when stored properly in a fridge - up to 2 weeks easily. I smoked on Saturday and will eat lunches from it for at least a week.

 

Yep, that's me to the T. I'm gonna fill it up, if I fire it up.

 

I got my food grade drum off of craigslist. $20. I hit the inside with a weed burner to get it red hot to remove the liner as good as possible, then had a buddy sand blast, and finished it off with a 4" grinder. Took a while. Used a step bit for the intake holes on the bottom. Used stainless steel bolts to hold the grates, made a charcoal basket using a Weber SJ grate, stainless steel bolts for feet and expanded metal. I used pieces of black steel pipe for the intakes with caps on three, and an extension/ball valve on the fourth one (all about 1" wide holes). That way, I don't have to bend over to control the low/slow temps. I used some steel band (about 1/8" thick) which I bolted to the inside of the top edge to create a small diameter lip on it, which fit perfectly for an old Weber 22 1/2" lid.

Total cost, including using whatever parts I had and having friends that helped, about $80. I'll put this up against a $300 Weber bullet smoker or any smoker for that matter. I've had it go about 18 hrs once at 235 degrees, for a bunch of pulled pork. Didn't even touch it other than to spray my meat with apple juice. Thing works incredible for such a simple design.

 

^^^Pics!!!!

 

Started at 10 pm. 12 hrs in the drum and this is what we had for lunch.

 

Looks great!

 

made some baked ribs, finished them off on the grill I will post pics later.

 

Thanks!!
A friend of ours was looking for one. I copied your response and had it sent to him!

 

Ribs out of the oven and now on the grill. They came out awesome!!!!

 

Today, I made an attempt at chicken breasts.... this time, I did everything the same as last time except I brined it for 8 hours (instead of injecting it) while I was at work and got it in the smoker by 5pm.

Well.... an unfortunate turn of events occurred... Our power went out.

This isn't a big deal, however... the one project my husband hadn't finished yet - was finishing the install of his transfer switch/connections to the generator.
He was frantically hooking up the wiring (with me helping hold the flashlight) while the chicken got too hot and too dry.

Go figure..... As I sit here typing, the generator is humming in the background. Refrigerator running - check
TV & computers running - check
Will need to walk around the hallways with a flashlight - priceless!!

Atleast we had a nice hot meal!!

 

Sweet! Love sharing bbq. That's what it's all about

 

I'm firing up the UDS about 6:00 Saturday morning and throwing on 2 big butts and 4 racks of ribs. I would normally have some doves to put on already but season doesn't open till Monday. I can already taste that BBQ'





Yellow mustard


Ingredients for my rub




Wrapped up over night




Wasting time while the butts are on


Almost done


190 degrees and ready to wrap for a couple hours


May have to thrown a chub on after the butts are setting

 

Lookin to smoke my first brisket tomorrow. Anyone have any tips? I'm not sure about cooking temp and time

 

I don't smoke a lot brisket but IMHO, low and slow is your best bet to keep it tender. I do an injection which also helps.

1 cup of red wine
1 cup of soy sauce
splash of Christian Brothers brandy
1 teaspoon of garlic powder.

It's a lot like Dales but not as strong.

I like to keep my smoker around 225 till done. I also pull my brisket off the smoker at the lower end of the finish temp and then wrap it in foil or paper and stick in a cooler to finish it out. This seems to keep it from drying out. Can't beat a good brisket.

 

Here's my Friday night cook for Saturday lunch!
Can't forget the beans too