Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I'm going to check my HEB as well, since they usually run competing prices. Plus, I do the bulk of my shopping at HEB.

 

THEY MIGHT PRICE MATCH....MAYBE KROGER HAS AN ADD ONLINE YOUY COULD PRINT OUT?????

 

I did a brisket last weekend. Put it on about 4:30am after it had been in the fridge all night with some rub on it, put in smoke for about 4 hours or so (Traeger Texas Pro) turned it up to about 240 then I had to take to do some work on a house we are flipping so the wife watched it for me. She was doing good when I got home and checked the temps. Went in the house to shower and get some lunch and my stupidity struck. We went to leave to run and grab some stuff from the store and I happened to look at the smoker and noticed an error code. I figured maybe she backed up and I would have to clean the fire pot. Ya NOT the case. I forgot to check the pellet level and I guess when I was prepping that morning while still partially asleep I didn't fully fill the hopper. DOH, refilled it pulled the meat and into oven for 10 mins while I ran through the startup and up to temp process, put the brisket back on to finish off. Pulled her at about 203 I think it was and let her rest for about 30-40 minutes, sliced and she was damn good. Made a Rum Sweet BBQ sauce to go with it that came out really well. I don't have any pics or I would post them. Sadly we are going camping this weekend and the smoker is far too big to take or I would be doing a butt this weekend.

 

Beautiful Smoke ring

 

I love using the 3-2-1 as well and have for years. I also like to let mine rest wrapped for at least an hour after I'm done cooking them.

 

Cut my mine into 4, smoke about 3 hours at 300 to internal temp about 160, wrap and leave till 200, Than in cooler for another 4 hours. Also use propane smoker lol....

 

Man, this thread is making me hungry!

@hemitruk - a couple questions... when you wrap, do you leave the cooking temp up at 300? About how many more hours until internal hits 200? Looks great, btw. I can almost smell the tastiness from here.

I've got two racks of ribs cut into St Louis and tips, plus 2 pounds of wild caught fresh Sockeye salmon going in the smoker on Sunday.

 

Yea I leave it at 300.Takes about another hour to hour half to get to 200. I use to leave in cooler for an hour or two but smoked for friend once and he left it in for 4 hours and came out more tender and moist so now I leave it 4 hours in cooler. Seems to help a lot .

 

Thanks, Hemi! I'm always looking for ways to improve my brisket smoking. I've done a lot of pork, turkey and salmon but not a lot of brisket. Thanks again.

 

13 lb brisket in the fridge. Local place had them for $2.69/lb, which is a great price for around here. Going to smoke it on Sunday I think.

I really should go back, get another and make pastrami. Hmm...

 

thing is you cant rush a brisket...Ive learned the hard way...Im pretty good at getting a good one done now.

 

So true. Especially add the time in to let it rest. I sometime forget about that when I'm trying to plan what I can do that day.

 

Ok, so I trimmed and rubbed the brisket. Took 2 lbs 1 oz of fat/tallow off the 13.8 lb brisket. That's right at a 15% loss by weight. Interesting.

And I've built my fire up way too hot, so instead of brisket I'm doing chicken legs at the moment. After those are done, I'll reassess. Hoping to get 6 or 8 hours of good smoke then into the oven for an overnight cook at 225.

 

Not sure if I've asked before....any of y'all have a recipe for smoked beans? Preferably one that I could adapt to a foil pan seeing as I don't have a cast iron dutch oven!

 

Shit just got real. Trimmed up comp style for easy sunday cookings. Have alot of racing to watch tomorrow

 

Got 7 hours of smoke before I pushed it to the oven and went to bed. I set the oven for 210 instead of 225 because I'm trying a lower heat (the smoker was 205 for most of the smoke). Now 15.5 hours in and the flat is at 179 degrees. I cranked it up to 220 to finish. Anxious to have a brisket sammy for lunch!

 

I'm on a cooking binge today. Had half a smoked pork butt left over from last weekend. We had some extra roasted hatch green chilies that we froze from our last trip to NM. Chopped it all up, added some rotel, corn, cream of chicken, and some spices.

Should turn out pretty good after 8 hours on the slow cooker.

Also did up some spicy pickled eggs.

 

Flat hit 203 at the 19 hour mark. The thick of the point is still only about 190 but I pulled it out of the oven & into the cooler. The point was pretty soft, not like quite butter but giving to a fork. Hopefully it softens some more in the cooler. No sammies for lunch but should be in good shape for dinner.

 

Ok, so I'm going to ask the dreaded newbie question of what smoker to get. I know there are a lot of opinions and believe it or not I've been following this thread for a while and have read through it. I want a smoker that still requires some involvement, originally I thought a pellet smoker or similar would be best for me since I'm new to smoking. So now I'm thinking that for my first smoker I want to go with the weber smokey mountain. Thoughts? I also like the Oklahoma Joe highlander but know of the mods I would need to do to get the best performance.

 

Can't go wrong with a smokey mountain. I've had mine for a year and love it. It's way better than the cheapo offset smokers and will last you years. It really all depends on your budget.