Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I plan to do some smoking next weekend (taking little one to a water park this weekend). Going to overcook on amount so we can freeze. Was thinking about trying it with the Sous Vide method once it's frozen when we reheat. Should keep all those juices in there from when it's cooked on the smoker and not overcook the meat. Wonder how long I would need to run it to bring the meat back up to temp after it's thawed.

 

Oh ya that nice sear on them is awesome.

When it's freezing cold here and I don't want to brave the temps (need to get back to FL lol) I will take the cast iron grilling pan and get it NICE and HOT and then cook em up on there. One of the last times I did that I had made up some garlic butter (roasted garlic smashed and mixed into the butter then set back up for a day or so) and cut some pats off that then let it melt over the steak while searing then a little pat on top when it was plated.

 

I'm sure crock pot pulled pork isn't the end of the world, I just think messing with the smoker and drinking some beer is half the fun. It's crazy that if you type pulled pork recipe into google, you get a whole page of crock pot ones.

There's a few touristy BBQ places here in Memphis that don't have a pit anywhere in sight. They could be doing the same thing for all I know, or at least in a covered pan in the oven. I prefer the places with a brick pit out front and pars on the windows. How do you know the foods any good if they don't have to keep people out.

 

Yeah. I *wish* I hadn't had that experience... Kingsford is cheaper and way easier to find. But, like I said, I'm ruined now

 

I've seen some places on Diners Drives In's and Dives where they will put wood chips in a chafing pan then put another pan with the meat inside that pan, cover the whole thing in plastic wrap and then alum foil then into the oven to cook. I guess that's the we ain't got a pit way to do it

 

Easy peasy. I do this all the time now that I started figuring out how amazing it is to save all my excess BBQ.

I wouldn't wait until it's frozen, but definitely cooled down quite a bit. That'll let most of the juices/fat go back in to the meat. Then shake off the excess liquids, put in the bag, and then seal it up.

For bringing it up to temp, I either toss it in the fridge and let it defrost and heat up in the microwave/oven from there. Or, you can toss it in the water ~140 for about an hour and a half.

 

A mighty tasty added bonus I might add. Over the weekend I was watching some show on like travel channel that had the lady from DivaQ BBQ team on it. Once of the guys she was talking said he made about $105k over the past 3-4 months winning like 4 BBQ contests. One was a biggie had a payout of like $50k just for the overall winner.

I was like man I need to get way gooder at this stuff and go have some fun and drink some beers with these people.

 

I use liquid smoke and kosher salt and croc pot a shoulder turns out good IMO... obviously not as good as a smoker but its not the worst thing in the world to eat...

 

Awesome man I will have to try this out. I was thinking about doing some pulled pork and some brisket next weekend and packaging it up for meals during the week. We end up eating out too much due to running out of time to cook during the week. I figure I could precook and then it would be easy finish off during the week.

 

Sounds like how my gramps did some when I was younger. Got to be real careful with liquid smoke and how much you put in can overpower and make something decent into something blah real quick.

 

bbq and fishing...but alas Im not that great at either

 

to that brother. Life would be GOOD. By best friend and always used to joke we should become professional bass fishers so that we could lead a less stressful life. lol

 

No one was great at either until they invested the time in doing them well. Now if only I could convince my wife she needs to be the bread winner while I hone my craft.

 

Just know, if you thaw it vs warning it up, when you put your hand in that bag to pull out the food, there's still be a ton of fat all along the sides of the bag.

 

Oh there we go. New business idea, a club where you get to go fishing, shooting (maybe even some of the range setup to be shot at from the boat) and then at the end of the day all the cabins have smokers and awesome butcher onsite. Beer is readily available.

 

I was thinking about tossing it in there sealed in the vacuum bag to get it all warmed back up to eating temp.

 

I have bags of vacuum sealed brisket and pulled pork in the freezer

 

Yeah. 140 is a good temp for that.

 

I seriously want to go eat some food catch some fish, blow some stuff up and drink beer right now. Whats that old saying if you do what you love you never really work a day in your life.

 

I think I'll pull it down next week. Easy meals and it'll save some $$$ at the store.