Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Hour seven. Probe is set to go off at 199 degrees. It hit this temp pretty quick - we'll see how long the stall lasts.

And for anyone wondering why I'm spending a Sat night smoking meat, I hit the lake for 18 hours of fishing on Thurs, so I figured I'd take my Saturday slow.

 

Brisket was 197 at 4am (11 hours in) so I put it in my Yeti and went to sleep. Up at 8am and sliced it up. The first inch of the flat was a bit pot-roasty, but that's why they get cut off for burnt ends I guess. The rest of the flat seemed great. The point was fully cooked - all the tough stuff was melted into juicy liquid gold. Had a couple slices for breakfast - delicious.

Terrible photo, but it's been a long night.

 

Careful with brown paper bags. They aren't food safe. No idea what chemicals will outgass. Get a roll of butcher paper for the long term just in case.

zh-er-0424-dv45

http://www.amazon.com/Peach-Butcher...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01

 

'Preciate it, but I'm not too worried. Was out of butcher paper and figured a paper bag was better than the wax lined freezer paper I had. Would be different if I was cooking at near-combustion temps maybe. I mean if you want to get technical, I did expose the meat to carcinogens for 5 hours straight, on purpose, before it went into the oven.

 

you guys are making me want to fire up the smoker...

 

Nice day for it here in north central WV

 

Great day in the East Bay!

 

Outgassing

Many outgassing chemicals is way before combustion temps. Not a big worry but folks need to know. LOL, yea waxed line freezer paper, naa. I'm sure it came out fine.

Looked fine!

 

Looks like chicken! Twice a year we try to smoke/cook lotta chickens for vacupack meals and the most amazing chicken stock. 7 chickens this time, good sale.

Birds ready for the smoker, will top off the rub on them once they hit the smoker. I didn't brine, just removed the inside goodies, kept the gizzards, popes nose, necks and end of the wings (cut them off). Put 1/4 lemon, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 onion, 2 stalks of rosemary/thyme from my garden inside each chicken. The inside got some Plowmans rub, kinda salty but good flavor. Outside got my fav, Mad Hunky General Purpose rub, low salt. I forgot fresh sage leaves. Ack ohh well.




Cooking...



I took all the fat bits/wing tips/fat skin/gizzards and necks and put them on the smoker to render some fat as they cooked. Ended up with over a cup of pure chicken fat, kept the fat, put it in a bag for later goodness, rest of the bits into the stock..... . That got tossed into the stock pot with the bones of 7 chickens. Pot wasn't big enuff, had to call out the big guns, the pot I like to make Louisiana shrimp boil in...

All the bones, 4 fat celery stalks, 5 fat carrots, a quartered onion WITH SKIN, all the garlic and onions from the chickens. Tossed the lemons. You can see my small pot wasn't big enuff.


For reference, that big pot has 9" of goodness. I expect 10 1 cup bags of stock and 24 I think amazing ice cubes of concentrated chicken stock. 1-2 in any meal needing flavor, BAM, it's there.

 

Ended up smoking a pork shoulder it was two dollars a pound at the local grocery store

 

Ya I'm an the point where I can't get a whole lot of smoking in for the next 2-3 weeks. I have a full bag of Lumberjack Hickory I just prefer the blend so if I NEED it I'm covered. I just need to restock soon.

 

This little 5.5 pounder is the first of two pork butts I'll be smoking this week on the BGE.


Usually I forget to do this, but this time I did take some after shots (iPhone):


I still had enough room left for 2 or 3 slices of my homemade lemon icebox pie, even after two plates of BBQ.


I won't need to feed again for several days

 

That butt and the pie looks fab. I like butt and pie.

I know also, I usually am too busy/tired to take pics.

 

Come on buddy! I know you have that Yoder! Slap the butt on there overnight, easy peasy!

I usually put mine in at bedtime, and it's ready for resting in the cooler in the morning.

 

Ron Popeil... "set it, and forget it"

 

Ok boys, I've not done much brisket. Tips?

 

Did 7 at once two weeks ago. Yep on at ten pm pan at 6 am. Off about 1 and into the cooler.

 

I've never smoked a brisket either. I'd like to, but I've heard they're a little bit trickier than pork butts. I'm interested to see what advice these other guys have to offer. Good luck!

 

I've only got a few briskets under my belt so I'm far from expert but they were good lol

I rubbed em w garlic, salt, and pepper and smoked at 225 until I hit the stall (usually 165* or so). Then wrapped in foil and into a 250* oven until it reaches 200 internal. Then out of the oven and into a cooler for at least an hour to rest. At least 1o-12 hours total, allow extra time

There are tons of different ways to achieve properly cooked brisket but one if the most important details is the slicing, the grain runs different in different sections

I would research on http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/