Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Looks like you nailed it bud, great job

 

Very nice work.

 

You done good! Very good

That smoker looks awfully familiar Have been impressed with mine especially for the price.

 

Just booked tickets to Austin for a weekend in August with some buddies. I will need to get some recommendations on must hit BBQ spots and other things to do from the guys that know the area. And @Misplaced Nebraskan if you are going to be around I owe you a drink or 2

 

Lemme know when!

 

Tyvm. We were pleased with how they came out!

Yeah, this pellet smoker is pretty legit! I had been looking for a deal on a good smoker and @Bigdaddy4760 sent me a link to this one around Christmas. It was on a really good sale at Lowe’s. So glad I jumped on it. So far I’ve done ribs, pork butts, whole chickens and tonight I’m attempting a reverse seer on some ribeyes. I haven’t tried opening the sliding deal to the left side. I’m assuming that will work for the sear??

 

Should beep when you put it in reverse. Safety feature I think.

 

Everyone raves about Franklins but I don’t know that it’s worth the wait... One of my favorites in this area is Louie Mueller’s out in Taylor just East of town.
https://www.louiemuellerbarbecue.com/

Also if don’t mind a little drive out West to Llano there is always Coopers.
http://www.coopersbbqllano.com/

Last but not least there are a few choices South in Lockhart.

 

Yeah you have to watch out for that @Bigdaddy4760 guy. He is as unassuming as they come but more legit than anyone I have never met. Or met for that matter. Trying to stay out of his thread because that is a rabbit hole I will never come out of LOL.

Yes the sliding plate will work and work well. May have a problem with heat getting too high in fact. I use grillgrates from my Jumbo Joe to help diffuse the heat from the probe. I hit the prime button and hold it down for a couple of minutes after I open the plate up. Sears the hell out of a ribeye with a reverse sear.



I normally only cook prime grade beef and capsteaks or ribeyes at that. So a reverse sear isn't always as important to me. With charcoal I often stick with sear and slide. Because that is when you can get a real hard sear.



But this little pellet pooper is quickly changing my mind.. Was -17 this morning here and up to 7 above now. So running the smoke setting even messing with the P button is tricky they say it is only a 3 season smoker. Think I have proved them wrong though

So THAT is where Pit Boss got the name for the Lockhart! I am already tempted to upgrade to the Lockhart. With the smoker we both have now you have to stick tongs or something down in to slide the plate. Or remove the grate and still stick something in there to slide it. With the Lockhart it has a knob on the end you can open it up with just a twist of the wrist. And has a PID controller with more settings. Ours has no adjustment between 250 and 300. Also the heat diffuser helps but it is a lot cooler on the right side than the left side. And meat gets hot on the bottom above 250. The Lockhart also has an upper chamber with plenty of racks that can do cold smoking for cheese and regular smoking perfect for jerky. And trout and salmon.

I think that I could like Lockhart...

 

You should stop by

 

Valentinas is a must stop too. One of my favorites


https://www.valentinastexmexbbq.com/

 

Valentines dinner my ass! At home tri tip, lobster tail and green beans.

 

No one to cook for this year. And not complaining, in fact kind of like it. Left overs is all I gots.





And some bacon left over yet.



So cut up some bacon into the pulled pork and heated it then added sugar free BBQ sauce. Made some deviled eggs from hard boiled eggs in the instant pot. And coleslaw with cabbage, heavy cream and Mayo with mustard and pepper.



Leftovers aren't too bad, less than 8 grams net carbs. Tough diet but I can choke it down. If I got too

 

Pretty sure you don't need the water pan in a pellet smoker but that could just be Rec Tec smokers. The pellets are supposed to have the right amount of moisture in them or something like that.

 

Yeah I ditched the water pan in the WSM years ago and replaced it with a foil wrapped heat shield, been smoking dry for a decade or more.



But when watching Franklin do the Pepper Pork Butt rub he briefly mentioned the water pan and bark, of course on a stick burner. With temps below zero here and humidity at 20% or less it hit me, maybe worth a try again. Don't think it really made a difference though. Just one more thing to clean up so will not bother with it again. I do spritz with plain water every hour or so once the bark has set to keep it from drying out and think that is more than good enough

 

You wanna come here in August?! you definitely dont want to wait outside for Franklin's then.

 

Yeah, I kept messing around with it on mine but never worked any better for me. I just wanted to make sure you knew since you are new to the ez-bake oven world.

 

My vertical pellet smoker came with a water pan and I use it every time. It helps diffuse the heat evenly, prevents all the drippings from covering the fire box and I've never had an issue with it. Apples and oranges I know.. but pellets don't have anything to do with having a water pan or not.

 

Yeah, we may regret the timing a little but it's the only time we were all able to plan something. I have been there at the end of October when it's still 90+ so I can only imagine what August is going to be like.

Our wives are trying to plan a trip together the same weekend and they are looking at going to Phoenix

 

That's interesting. Maybe it was just how the Rec Tec probe regulates the heat in the smoking chamber. I just remember reading it after noticing it had no affect for me when I got mine.