Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Y'all have a fancy defatter?? Or just cool it and scrape off the top??

 

almost bought one prior to thanksgiving but never did. I just usually let the drippings cool and skim. If thats what you are talking about.

 

What do you do when you wanna use the juice for say au jus, or gravy?? Don't have all night to let it settle!

 

My wife would be a vegetarian if this was the case

 

I have the 18.5”. It’s less of a fuel hog.

 

I’ve got the 18.5 and 14.5. The 18.5 seems perfect for the amount of fuel it requires. The 14.5 sips fuel but I have to add some more often than not for the longer cooks whereas the 18.5 just chugs along.

 

When I make burnt ends, I reserve any juice and put it in the freezer for a few. Fat will solidify at the top, then you can just pull it off.

For gravy, I leave the fat in.

 

I settled on the 18.5 after wanting either of the others. Glad I got it, it’s perfect for me. Took advantage of a let go/ Craigslist deal. Was $80 iirc.

 

For $600 you can get a 18 WSM and Automatic Temperature Controller and use any fuel that you want without being locked into pellets and keep temps dead nuts on. And there are other accessories such as a stacker so you can turn it into a barrel cooker and hang meat. And a rotisserie and cook directly over hot coals. And control your temperatures to within a degree or two. A lot more options that way, but to each their own

Yes you must have! Left overs. Buying in bulk to save money. And game birds. Food vacuum sealer to that list if you don't already have one!

I picked up a glass bodied baster and stick it down through the fat layer to pull up the juice. I also freeze it when done in mason jars. In fact thawed one today for my cook tonight.

Didn't even get above zero today was -10 when I got up high of -3. Don't even want to talk about wind chill but exposed skin will freeze and frostbite occur in less than half an hour.

Can't fight mother nature fickle bitch that she is. So learn to work with her. Needed to slice some thin slices from my ribeye roast so sat it outside for an hour. Worked well.





They are actually a lot thinner than they appear here. Now marinading in a gallon ziplock bag with a marinade that is 2 parts Dr. Pepper to 1 part beef drippings from the freezer. Yep Dr. Pepper, the secret ingredient in many gun club crockpot pot roasts.

Left myself 3 ribeye steaks 1 3/4 inch thick each.

2 pounds of raw shrimp marinading in 1/3 soy sauce, 1/3 brown sugar, 1/3 water. Surf and turf tonight. Maybe LOL.

 

If I hadn't gotten my 22.5 for $200, I was eyeing an 18.5. I also have my smokey Joe that I've converted, but need to do additional mods to because the ash clogs up the vent holes.

 

This Dr Pepper pot roast you speak of....

 

fridge or freezer for an hour and it should settle pretty quick.

 

For beef normally use Coke or Dr. Pepper the Dr. Pepper adds a caramel flavor to it which I like. Tenderizes the meat as it cooks. With birds such as turkey and chicken many use 7 Up instead to do the same thing.

Works awesome!

 

“They put you in this little room with just about anything you’d want to eat or drink. And since number one, I wasn’t hungry, but thirsty and number two, they was free, I musta drank me about fifteen Dr Peppers.”

 

My point was that a Traeger is not $2k, but whatever...

 

Sell by date on beef just means it's time to start aging it in the frig.

 

I understand that. My point is avoiding vendor lock in. But more importantly the ability to use a foundation which can be expanded to many other forms of cooking which you can not do with a pellet pooper. Anyone starting out should be aware of that IMO.

But not everyone likes to cook with other methods and often settle down to one way of doing things and that is fine too.

 

My traeger cost me $18

 

Pellet poopers unite!!