Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I like the firewall idea...It'll help my flare-ups on the weber

 

Have you tried your wood uncooked? I heard you get more vitamins from it. Cooked wood is so yesterday. Silly vegans

 

You are looking at the first 5 minutes of cooking... Once the fire burns down to the coals, I flip the grill over so it's only about 6" from the coals, in a white chert-lined firepit. It's plenty hot... plus I use a meat thermometer to make sure it's 175º in the breast before serving. It's basically rotisserie-style chicken, but on a grill.

 

I have never done them whole like that but use a similar grill when camping. Or rather have many times in the past. My youngest son took this of me cooking 2 split chickens when we were deer hunting almost 15 years ago at the Rainy River on the Canadian Border. Hell guess I was splatchcocking before it was even a word.



Mainly birch and pine there, all of it you could ever imagine LOL. So always carried oak to cook on. With the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle now it has to be DNR approved wood at more than $400 a face cord So use charcoal instead when I have to transport wood.

 

I use this... plastic, but dual so you make more at a time... I put a half cup of 80/20 in each side, press hard with a hand on each side, plop them out, then further squish the patties with cold hands to get them diner style, like 3/8" thick 6.5 inches round. They shrink to perfect when cooked for 2 patties per burger (animal style, how I roll).

Charcoal Companion Plastic Double Hamburger Grilling Press

https://www.amazon.com/Charcoal-Companion-Plastic-Hamburger-Grilling/dp/B000P0O51U

 

Haven't found one that is better than my hands.

Edit: Haven't searched that hard either. I like forming burgers.

 

As long as you have ice water to dip them in now and again so the meat doesn't turn to mush. Overworked and overwarm raw meat is nasty. That's what she...

 

Agreed. I usually only make four at a time and between mixing it and forming I'm not exceeding 3-4 minutes. Then I let those little guys sit out for an hour or so while setting up the grill though.

 

Leaving them out for awhile after forming the patties is fine so the centers aren’t too cold, but I was more talking about the patties becoming a dense mush from over heat and over work... they should be as loose as they can be without being a problem holding together. That’s the only reservation I have about a press because by definition you’re mushing it together pretty tightly, but when you have a whole bunch to make up, it’s worth it if used properly.

 

Pics or it didn't happen

 

I'll allow it

I want a burger now... And bbq

 

Fry dip = ketchup, hot sauce, and mayo. Yum fckng yum. Or Uncle Dans Original Southern. Actually fries are good dipped in anything

 

Uh oh.

I’ve been doing it wrong... seriously I mush the meat together until it’s nice and gooey before making a patty.

Time to rethink my technique.

 

I think so anyway. Burgers shouldn’t be dense like meatloaf.

 

And back on smoking, I smoke my burgers on WSM top rack, no water, 2 hickory chunks, until brown on each side, no flipping required if brown on top (mimnimize breakage). Only takes 10 minutes. Then move rack to lower section of smoker, middle removed, just above the coals. Flames will ensue. Char each side one minute, pull, rest for 5 minutes. Maximum grubbage. Nom nom.

Close vents, keep remaining coals and chunks for another day. Only thing about this technique with a WSM is you have to know how much ash is in bottom pan when starting, because you can’t know when done and next cook comes up. Needs to breath.

 

I use sheets of wax paper between two dinner plates (top to bottom), you can make them uniform and thin/thick as you prefer.

 

Good technique. I use these in between two patties when vac sealing, different brand same thing...

$15 Weston Hamburger Patty Paper, 5.5” x 5.5” Squares, Waxed, Durable & Restaurant Grade, Separates Meats, Cheese and Baked Goods, Made in USA, 1000 Count (10-0102-W),White

https://www.amazon.com/Weston-Hamburger-Patty-pieces-10-0102-W/dp/B001MVZN26

 

I wondered if I was the only one that reused charcoal. I use a very small Kingsford brand grill with nice cast grates. I modified the coal rack (hard to imagine I know) to raise the coal bed to within four inches of the cooking surface. I cook on a pretty hot grill, usually never leaving it while cooking. As soon as I pull whatever, I choke it down damper wise. Next cook I start with only 10-12 new briquettes and add all the leftover charcoal to top off the chimney. I use charcoal three times as a rule.