Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

[Knifemaker]

Dice some onions and garlic, saute and add to Baby Rays.

Sweet Baby Rays is likely one of the best sauces on the market..and I've tried all the ones available here. There is a local guy that makes a Habanero BBQ sauce that is fabulous. Sweet Baby Ray do make quite a few different flavors, Videlia Onion, Chipotle Raspberry, Honey, etc,etc. However to me the addition of these extra "flavors" is very light, some to where I really can't tell a difference between it and the Original sauce. The wife just likes the Original so that's all we buy now.

I do of course on many occasions "dress up" the sauce too. For my bacon wrapped chicken I'll add some garlic, a sprinkle of cayenne, and a good glug of a Honey flavored bourbon.

For ribs, onion and garlic powder, some brown sugar, and some apple juice (although now I found an apple flavored bourbon I can use)

For pulled pork, I'll tone it down with some added ketchup, and some apple vinegar. A little pineapple juice is a good replacement for the vinegar.

Occasionally I like to add some heat. I have a few hot sauces in the pantry that might get added too. So far my favorite is the El Yucateco XXXtra Hot Sauce made with Habanero...(a little goes along way)

I've also used my own chopped peppers, different onions/shallots, applesauce, liquid smoke, unflavored whiskey, beer, red wine, Coke-a-cola, Lea and Pearens, and even Hershey's chocolate.

But I'm fine having Baby Rays straight out of the bottle.

 

[08FJR4ME]

Made a BBQ pulled pork Pizza this weekend. It was the best.

Dave

 

[Knifemaker]

OK...not a smoke..but I had a backstrap in the freezer that's been in there awhile that I wanted to get rid of. About 1-1/2 pounds. No time to smoke it, so just tossed it over some coals. About 15-20 min to hit 140 then pulled and rested.

Came out ok, albeit a bit tougher than I expected, but it was old and reportedly from an older deer. Had marinated it, but guess it didn't do much. I think 140 is abit high, perhaps a bit overcooked? I have a much fresher one still in the freezer and I plan on tossing it in the smoker when I do my next batch of ribs (likely in the next week or so) will shoot for a lower target temperature.

What internal temperature do others go with here for this (deer) cut?

 

[08FJR4ME]

You just gave me an Idea. How about making Jerky in the smoker? Thin strips laid out and smoked for a few hours.

I gotta try that. I am not sure how well venison will work out on the smoker. I guess we will find out.

Please report back,

Dave

 

[Knifemaker]

I'm pretty sure you can smoke any meat I would think a smoker would be great for venison. especially some specific cuts.

And .... Yes you can make jerky in a smoker. Many people do this and have been for centuries

Here's a quick write up:

https://www.jerkyholic.com/make-beef-jerky-smoker/

The only issue is keeping your temperature low. Electric smokers or any thermostatically controled smoker would be the first pick.

You need to maintain a temperature of 160F, this prevents bacterial growth, but is not hot enough to "cook" the meat. I have had deer jerky made this way and it was really good.

Doing this with an offset would be trickier, as it might be hard to keep everything inside smoking evenly. I have a very nice countertop dehydrator that can do several pounds of jerky at once, not sure if there's as much surface area in my reverse unless I rigged up some way to hang the meat or install more racks. I would think those stackable bakery racks they use for cooling off batches of cookies would be a possibile idea.

My own thoughts here are that when wood burns, it does give off water vapor, so it might take longer to dehydrate meat in a smoker than a stand alone dehydrator. But you would get that authentic smokey flavor, which you can't from a dehydrator other than adding liquid smoke to your marinade.

I'll likely not try this soon, but maybe sometime this summer I'll give it a shot. Will probably use my UDS instead of my offset however..

 

[Fred W]

I think the venison would have come out better with indirect heat on the Webber clone. Fewer briquettes in a snake on the opposite side from the meat and use the lid from your UDS. It would still probably only take an hour or hour and a half to hit 140Finternal, but the slower heating helps even lean meats stay tender.

I also think you could use the offset smoker for drying with your gas burner down low. Leave the firebox door open to encourage lots of air flow through the pit. It would also allow you to regulate the amount of smoke flavor you get since you can add chunks for the first part and then quit later on. The cookie cooling racks sound like a good solution for increasing grille real estate.

 

[Knifemaker]

Came across this today:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjVnMadzfrgAhVK_4MKHb2vBp8QzPwBCAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.epicurious.com%2Fexpert-advice%2Ftips-for-cooking-frozen-steak-on-the-grill-article&psig=AOvVaw3wJKvG4nO6voPpl-kK91Ys&ust=1552411391647929

I've actually wondered about this before (cooking a steak fresh from the freezer). I posted this here because my idea was to cook one as they outlined, but instead of using an oven as mentioned in a similar article , or an indirect zone on a grill as this one suggests , to put the meat into a smoker to bring it up to temperature.

As the top of my firebox is flat, I had thought about laying a skillet there and cooking up a steak (a thawed one)

So, I think the next time I have my offset fired up, which will be soon as we finished off the last of the ribs, I think I'll give it a shot.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

I do not like frozen beef. The ice crystals puncture the cells of the meat which allows the blood to drain out of the meat, making the meat drier.

 

[Knifemaker]

I do not like frozen beef. The ice crystals puncture the cells of the meat which allows the blood to drain out of the meat, making the meat drier.

Well there's also the view that those "damaging ice crystals" also break down the tissue and thus make the meat more tender. My thoughts here say it not only depends on the meat you're freezing to begin with, but how thick it is and how quickly it's being frozen.

We used to buy strip steaks from a restaurant supply outfit that came frozen, about 10 to a case. They were vacuum sealed individually and supposedly "quick-frozen". Partially thawed and cooked, they were as good as any other strip steak I've had that was bought fresh.

And going by the method outlined above - searing the steak while still frozen, I question how much blood drains out when finishing.

Good steaks are usually "dried" in some fashion, so again not sure of the impact of freezing causing them to be drier would be here.

 

[Bounce]

I'm going to try something different this time. A pincer movement against a beef brisket. I've only smoked 2 in the past and, while good, it was definitely not "call home" about it like some famous places make. Usually dryer than I prefer.

This time I'm going to sous vide it for the main cook (moist and tender is the results here) and get the exterior crust and smoke by finishing it on the smoker.

 

[Fred W]

Given a choice, sure Id much rather have a nice juicy fresh hunk of steak than a frozen one. But I dont really know whether freezing degrades the meat or not.

I prefer using a reverse sear on steaks, cooking over low heat to a certain point, removing the meat and heating something up to wicked hot for the fast final sear. That is what has produced the absolute highest quality steaks in my experience, better than any Ive had at a restaurant. Of course I started with fresh Prime Angus Tenderloin Fillets. Im sure that didnt hurt.

Edit- Bounce and I posted at the exact same time. The problems I would foresee with Brisket sous vide is you wont be able to get near the same level of smoke flavor in a short smoking time that you get in 6 or 7 hours, and you wont render down the fat at the low cooking temperature of the recirculator.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

This article supports that frozen is a better bang for the buck: https://blog.doingsciencetostuff.com/2013/03/22/frozen-vs-fresh-rib-eye-steak/ and appears to have better flavor to boot. I may have to give frozen another chance.

 

[BikerGeek99]

So the last few times I've smoked anything, the surface of the meat has basically been black. After some Google-fu, I discovered that I had a problem. The flame that I had was basically all tall yellow flames, little to no blue, resulting in poor combustion and the production of soot.

So, over the weekend, I farted around with the thing. I wound up taking the burner off and rinsing it in the kitchen sink. Some crap that musta been lodged in the burner tube came up and clogged some of the burner holes. It took a few tries but I'm confident that it's working like it's supposed to now - very little orange at the tip of the flame.

For any of you that have had this happen, I have a question for ya: what, if anything, did you do to the inside of the smoker? Mine is basically coated with a layer of nasty-ass soot. Did you clean it? Did you crank up the heat and let it burn off? Slam tequila shots and just forget aboot it?

TIA

 

[Fred W]

Id vote for the shooters. I dont worry about the cleanliness inside my BBQ pits. I know, some people are fastidious about cleaning, making claims of impending sickness, yada, yada. My theory says, get the pit up to at least 200F, preferably 225 or higher. Keep it there for a good long time. Kills almost everything thats bad for you. But the Tequila helps kill the germs too, so dont skip that part.

Almost forgot: when you use a rub with a lot of sugar in it, the meat surface will turn as black as a meteorite. Thats normal, and coveted by some. I prefer it very dark, but not quite black myself. But wouldnt turn my nose up at a good black bark on some pulled pork.

 

[Knifemaker]

Well if the black is indeed soot...you can just rub your finger on it, and if it's dry black powder, it's soot. If it's a greasy/oily goo, it's just normal build up.

I'm with Fred here, I only check my lid to make sure there's nothing that might fall onto my meat, so I'll clean off that occasionally but don't clean the rest (still brush off the food grate however)

If it's soot caused by a malfunctioning burner, I'd probably power wash it off, dry it (leaf blower works great), and lightly recoat the inside of the smoker using a spray can of canola oil.

A dry soot can rain down on your meat, and may be carcinogenic? I don't worry about that, but if it negatively effects the taste, that's something to get rid of.

I've read that competitive smokers power wash their smokers insides periodically, but I've not met one that says they do.

 

[TomInPA]

I had a pretty good size hunk of smoked brisket that had been frozen since Fall. I wasn't sure about using it for sandwiches, so yesterday I made Chili with it. Best damn chili I have ever had. Onion, garlic, fresh tomato, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, red bell peppers, ancho chili pepper, chipotle pepper, jalepeno, smoked paprika ,cumin, Porter beer, coffee, kidney and black beans, Smoked brisket, sweet corn.

Left-over brisket almost never happens, but from now on, I'm saving some for this. BTW, cryovac whole brisket at Sam's Club for $3.59/lb.

 

[08FJR4ME]

I gave mine a good scraping and cleaning out last fall. Once a year sounds like a good plan to me. There was some grease left in the bottom from the previous cook that was getting fuzzy. You bet I want to get that

out of there.

Dave

 

[Knifemaker]

We made some chili awhile ago using some leftover brisket from the freezer. Yeah, it was pretty good.

As mentioned before, both me and the wife do believe the frozen (already smoked) ribs we have had do seem to be better than the ones off the smoker the day I cook them.

Speaking of which.....

I just scored 6 racks of baby backs at Walmart for $2.47 a pound. Average weight 4.33 pounds each. Shooting for Sunday for the cook. Not sure if I'll try cooking a steak along with it, but seriously considering putting the other venison back-strap in there.

Another score there was a bag of Royal Oak "XL" lump charcoal. Supposed to be larger chunks than their regular lump.

Report on that along with photos to come.....

 

[Fred W]

Getting anxious to get some BBQ going, but we still have several weeks to go, realistically, before I can drag the pits out of storage. And the bikes too, for that matter. Today was almost 60 degrees, which put a healthy dent in the snow pack in the yard. But its still got a ways to go. I wouldnt mind if we were clear before April Fools Day.

 

[Knifemaker]

My heart goes out to those up north. I know you folks got slammed this year with snow... my brother in law up

in Minnesota is still digging out.

We have had some wicked wind the past few days, (60 mph !) but high temps this weekend will be in the mid 50's. Snow pretty much got washed out with warmer temps and a few days of rain last week.

Also hoping to get the UDS going with the Guru to do up some more pulled pork.