Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

We were pleased with it, that’s all that matters!

 

We prefer it to be a little more done. I like steaks cooked medium, but pork and chicken I want them cooked throughout.

 

My early 4th of July bbq. 10lb choice brisket over oak.
If you magnify the brisket, you can the tiny holes and gaps in the meat that looks like rustic wood with wormholes. That is the sign of a perfect brisket, those were all tiny pieces of fat that melted away.

 

I wasn' trying to be rude. Just wanted to know if you had a reason to go that high?

 

Just wrapped the shoulder. Looks like it hit a stall at 156*

 

I read all the posts in the link he provided (I was very skeptical) and there are at least a dozen guys who tried it, with great skepticism, but ended up really liking it. Apparently it comes out very close to brisket in terms of taste and texture (don't expect it to taste like tri tip).

Why would you do it?

Brisket = around $55, 14 hours until ready, 12,13,14 pounds of meat
Tri Tip = around around $12, 8 hours until ready, 3,4,5 punds of meat

At least that is what I took from reading through the posts on the link. If it's true, then I think it's brilliant. If you want tri tip, cook it traditional. If you brisket (or close to it), but don't want the cost, time or large quantity, then this seems to be a good alternative.

 

Still new to smoking meat, my wife doesn’t like anything that looks raw, so I make sure it’s done! The loin was still moist and tender!

 

I believe his comments were about the pork loin, not the tri-tip.

 

As long as it tastes good and you and your wife are happy with it, fuck the rest of em. All these professional cooking shows telling me the correct way to prepare my food... No one else but me is eating it! When I have friends over I ask em how they like their meat cooked and I'll try to hit their desired temp but no guarantees. It's not my mouth/body eat it how you like it.

 

I thought it was great, but like I said, I like my beef a little less cooked. But deer, chicken, and pork I want it D O N E.

 

Delivering the goods to the table in a manner that everyone likes is what it's all about.

There is not a soul on this forum or any other grilling forum that hasn't overcooked something at some point.

Heck, I keep a bottle of this griller's magic known as Don's Seasoning Delight for times when I do that. All you have to do is pour some on the plate that you bring the meat in from the grill....it'll soak some up while it's resting and I have saved countless meals with it.

http://seasoningdelight.com


I used to routinely bring in dried out & overcooked pork loin, chicken, burgers and etc. I did so because I was trying to err on the side safety.

Well....once I adopted the use of an instant read thermometer I quickly realized there simply was no excuse to err at all.....in either direction. It is very easy to nail the perfect temp every time.

The therm paid for itself in just a few meals.....especially the first time I had folks over for steaks. Everyone received the steak they wanted in terms of doneness. I looked like a wizard. It's been that way ever since. Crazy easy.

 

Understood.

I don't want to fool around with any bacteria and such.

Funny story from 10-12 years ago......I was working the weekend leading up to the Master's golf tournament. I'd scheduled a 1/2 vacation day the last day of the tournament so I could come home.....crack open some brews and fire up the grill and cook some quick burgers for the family and kick back in the recliner and watch the fun. I had a tee time at a nice local course with some buddies the next day.

Things at work sucked outright that day and instead of getting out there after 6 hours.....I wound up staying for well over twice that. I was so busy, in fact, that the world around me was a blur and I didn't have time for idle conversation....thusly, I never had the time to find out who was leading and ultimately won the Masters.

Wrapped up work at last.....hauled ass home. Told the family to not tell me a thing about the tournament.....I was gonna watch the recording and it'd be like it was "live". Ignorance is bliss, right ?

Pounded down a couple cold ones and relaxed and got into the golf.

At some point I fired up the grill out back....figuring I'd still reclaim my time off and enjoy the plan I'd already made....after all there was cold beer and ground beef a'plenty.

The lights on the back of the deck weren't working....so I was cooking in the moonlight...in and out of the house to watch the golf and reload my beers.

My wife is always griping about not making her burger too thick. Well, on this cook....it was just gonna be me so my drunk arse pattied out a few normal patties and one ginourmous one.

Tourney coverage wrapped up and I did a rush job on the cooking.....in the near dark.......after several cold ones.

Too late for any normal person to eat a heavy meal.....but I was superman, right?....just knocked off a marathon day....had a killer buzz....was gonna eat a burger....and then head to bed....sleep a few hours and get up with coffee and Advil and make my tee time.

Seemed like a plan....so I rolled with it.


About three hours in my slumber.....I woke up and knew right away that something was wrong. Bad wrong. The next few hours were pure misery.


Fast forward to the next morning.....tee time missed at a sweet course that I'd been dying to play......I made it outa the bedroom and to the kitchen. Couldn't handle coffee....couldn't handle anything. I could see the remains of my Jurassic Park sized burger on the plate I'd left on the counter. Drunk arse didn't even clean up after my late dinner. The burger was damn near raw in the center.

Damn near raw.

I can't remember a time before of after I've felt that sick.

Never again did I buy ground beef that is sold in the plastic sleeves. No sir. I buy only ground beef that I can see. I always temp check the center.

My idiot arse never grills in the dark.....and eats in the dark, lol.


Seemed like the thing to do at the time.......

 

When I was a kid in the 70s my dad used to open a pack of ground beef on the way home from grocery store and we would each take little samples and eat them raw in the car. Steak tartare I guess. Never got sick, amazes me now.

 

Must have been all of that walking to and from school, uphill both ways, in the snow, that hardened you to such foodborne illness .

 

Well here’s the results:

7.5lb pork shoulder cooked at ~250* +\- for 6.5 hours then wrapped at 156* and returned to the smoker for 3 hours. Pulled from smoker at 202* and left to rest in an RTIC cooler for 2 hrs. Came out delicious and fall off the bone moist.

Oh and I used chunked cherry wood for smoke

 

I once worked with a fella who would buy pre-made ground beef patties and a loaf of bread from WalMart, then proceed to make sandwiches in the break room to eat for lunch. There were no cooking appliances; he ate them raw.

 

My pork loins and chops I pull at 130 now. Venison 135. Beef might hit 125. Might. Chicken is the only thing I take to 160. Chukar a little lower.