Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

11 more hours of on call left and then I am on furlough for 3 weeks. Going to have to make up for not being able to smoke or grill much of anything for the last week of on call. At least will have some time to.

So it sounds like it holds temps pretty good but main issue is lack of smoke? I've tried different brands of pellets with my pellet pooper and they all generate a lot of smoke on my little Pit Boss but for whatever reason doesn't seem to impart the flavor to the meat unless cooking it for 5 or 6 hours or longer. Or I could be spoiled by using real wood for so many years.

Went in search of a solution and found the Smoke Daddy cold smoke line of smoke generators. Haven't bought one yet though may eventually. I would think they would work on the Lockhart they use charcoal and real wood or wood chips. The Lockhart may require a second air pump on the Smoke Daddy to over come the pressure, not sure. The

$200 Smoke Daddy Magnum P.I.G. Hot or Cold Smoke Generator | Works w/Any Outside BBQ Grill | Electric Smoker Pellet Accessory | Add Your Favorite Blend of Wood Chunks or Chips to Customize Flavor Profile

Magnum P.I.G. is good for 2-2.5 hours which is the one I was looking at. Still sold at the Smoke Daddy website along with the others.

Not sure if I will keep going down the pellet path or not though.

Looks good! Seems like the "Gold" standard for most in the past has been the Auber Instruments PID Controllers. They only offer control over electric and charcoal smokers however. Long time ago I had a combination smoker where propane was an option. I didn't care for it so much as water (moisture) is a byproduct of propane combustion. But many others seem to like them. With a PID and blower it should solve your draft issues with charcoal I would think. Unless there is a circulation problem.

2 hours at 250-275° until bark sets up then wrap and go hot and fast at 300° for a couple more hours. Then unwrap and let bark firm up at 300° it will not take very long. IME will not be as tender as low and slow although with baby backs sometimes can't tell the difference between hot and fast and low and slow.

 

Silicone baking gloves

 

Great idea, I started looking for something that would burn wood pellets, I found this....

Smokehouse Smoke Chief Cold Smoke Generator, Easily Connects to Any Grill or Outdoor Cooking Device to Quickly Produce delicious Smoked Foods

https://www.amazon.com/Smokehouse-Products-9500-000-0000-Smoke-Generator/dp/B00FPQPWMK

 

I'm a controls engineer and do this kind of thing in a regular basis. While I'm not certified for gas/LP I do understand the idea. My goal is a piloted burner system or some kind of regulated burner controlled by a PID controller. I actually have one from Auber controlling my mash tun and fermenter now. I want to make something safe and basically as set & forget as possible. The biggest choice I have at the moment is what shape burner and how to fit it into my apparatus. It's a medium to long term project, but a fun experiment.

I think (from my uneducated opinion) the big issue with propane cookers comes from lack of draft/venting. I intend to size mine to be able to run the vents and chimney wide open and still be able to maintain temperature.

 

Interesting

 

It looks like it works well but it needs a 12 hour extension tube.

 

@bvbull200 I can't remember where we talked about this... But I finally added an index to the air fryer thread... one of these days we're gonna have to do that for the smoking thread! Hahaha!

Seriously tho.. it may be better to have a Food Smoking companion thread? Let me know your thoughts on this and maybe I can start working on that?

 

Are you talking about a running list of recipes and such?

A companion thread would probably do the trick so that the list was always in post #1.

 

I went to the Texas Prison Museum on Friday...



btw... there was also a picture of an inmate inprocessing, back in the day. They all came in connected with chains around their necks. Can you imagine the horror? Not of the process, but today's media, if that was still happening.

 

Converted a Pit Boss owner to Rec Tec yesterday...



He liked this screen grab, sent from the app, when I was cooking some pork belly bites...

 

WHOA. Looks great! What temp? How much did brisket weigh?

Looks like you nailed it.

 

Haha yes... recipes, builds etc... I might have underestimated how long that's gonna take haha..

 

I usually try to keep it 225-250. That was a choice 10lb packer.

 

Just weld with Maner for a weekend. After he laughs at you for wearing gloves for everything, your hands will toughen up.

Or so I've heard. I still wear gloves to run the air compressor.

 

Thinking about this again (I'm still torn about going the propane route), It would be awesome to have some kind of firebox design that I could slide into the cabinet. Ideally, it would be something I can hook up a small blower and control the fire/temperature that way. The air supply to the fire would be independent of the other venting in the box. I just don't know what the firebox would/should look like to prevent the charcoal from taking off and having the heat go out of control. The design would need to prevent ambient air/draft well enough that once the fan throttles down it dies back a bit.

I'm open to suggestions, since even adding a propane burner brings some problems. One of them being the need for the venturi of the burner to be outside the cabinet.

 

Only thing i can think of is some kind of diverter door like in the A/C System. Otherwise you'd choke out the flame if im understanding this right

 

One idea I had was using steam table pans that fit my smoker nicely. One solid with one perforated inside and maybe a lid with holes punched in it. Charcoal would go in the perforated one and a hole in the bottom would take a piece of pipe from outside the smoker with a fan blowing into it. The lid would prevent extra air from coming in with the fan off but the draft should allow it to stay lit with the fan off.