Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I posted a recipe around Thanksgiving.

Smoke + turkey


Fruit wood is good on poultry

 

I did this for Thanksgiving. I bought a brine kit from Publix, instead of ordering the one from Traeger.

https://www.traegergrills.com/recipes/poultry/ultimate-smoked-turkey

 

Just put the prime rib on the smoker.

 

I’m cooking Prime Rib tomorrow.

 

My family does Christmas the day before (my brother in-law is a state cop he works on Christmas) So we can all be together.

 

Please thank him for his service.

 

When I was using charcoal, I never even owned lighter fluid. After having tasted lighter fluid on food at barbecues enough times, I decided never to do that to anything that I made myself.

I did a basic brown sugar / salt brine for about 3 days, then spatchcocked and rubbed all over with butter, rosemary, sage, and thyme. Don’t forget under the breast skin! I put it on the Traeger with the Traeger brand gourmet pellets and it worked out pretty well.

 

Will do Thanks.

 

I use 70% or better rubbing alcohol.


Po’man comes with a little cup to hold it. Works awesome.

 

Great minds think alike.



Fingers crossed I nail mine half as good as you did.

 

Shouldn’t be a problem for you good sir!

 

Smoking two brisket packers. One select and one Prime. I guess the aroma attracted this fellow.

 

With eye of rounds still on sale I picked up a couple more to cure and make more dried beef. I started curing 6lb last week and will follow up on this thread with the trussing, smoking and aging pics sometime after 12/25:

Cure is Mortons Tender Quick at a rate of 1 TBLS per pound of whole muscle meat and brown sugar and black pepper at a rate of 1 TSP per pound of whole muscle meat. Before going on the smoker additional like black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder etc can be added.

Pic 1 is the beef trimmed of all fat and silver skin, weighted and then the cure and spices weighted out accordingly.

Pic 2 is the bags all labeled with weight and date, tops folded down to keep meat juice and cure off the sealing surface

Pic 3 is the cure and spices coating the meat. Any cure/spice that is left on the place gets put in the bag. It is very important that the meat get the exact amount of cure so that is why everything is done individually.

Pic 4 is eye of rounds place in it bag, rubbed with cure/spice, tops up and ready for 80% sealing. You don't want a full vacuum just a little bit of an air pocket so you can swish the accumulated liquid around in the coming days

Pic 5 beefs are all vacuumed up and ready for 8 to 14 days in the fridge to cure. Minimum cure time is crucial but the good thing is you can't over cure so it can stay in the cure longer if needed until you have time to smoke them. They could stay vac packed in the fridge for a month if needed.

After the cure the beefs will get soaked in a ice water bath for an hour or so to leach out some of the saltiness. This set is optional.

After they are cured and soaked they get dried with paper towels, trussed and placed on a wire rack or hanged and back in the fridge for at least 24 hour or up to 4 days to dry out. Then onto the smoker.

The smoker is set at 120* and the beefs are hanged inside for 1 hour no smoke. After an hour smoker is bumped to 130* and smoke is started. Ever hour or so the smoker gets a 10* bump until its at 165 or 170* then wait until the internal temp of the dried beef reached 155*. Remove from smoker and put back in fridge either on wire rack or hanged for 1 to 7 days to age. After aging place in freezer for a couple hours to firm up then slice to the desired thickness and package and freeze or eat.

 

Just finished this brisket for a customer. Kind of wish it was staying here.

 

Throwing the little guy on the smoker?

How are they coming along?

Just pulled a packer off myself. I don't get to eat it, though.

Hoping the tomahawk and prime rib make up for that.

 

Prime NY steaks @ Costco $9.99/lb

 

Yes....so much yes/

 

Give them a them a Chili's gift card for some baby back ribs in exchange .

 

I was thinking 300 degree for the little fellow, 1hr medium rare lol


Briskets are done and resting in the cooler. One more hr before I start slicing