Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

[Blind Squirrel]

Fred,

Read up on "crutching" brisket. It makes a world of difference in moisture and tenderness. https://www.amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/texas_crutch.html

 

[Fred W]

I wish you well in your gas endevor Fred. I found the regulator knob on a gas rig to be too coarse for the fine adjusting I needed. I would tweek, wait, tweek, wait, tweek, wait...nothing. Then I would tweek and BOOM! The temp shoots up 10 degrees. I attribute it to the insides being sticky. I tried over rotating and backing it off. Still no luck for me.

Thanks, Scott. was that using a low pressure burner?

I tried using a high pressure burner the other day and it was just like that. Then when I tried to cut the heat back the burner too far the flame would snuff out. That's why I ordered the low pressure burner and regulator. It arrived on the brown truck this morning. I just stuck it into the firebox for a test run and it seems like it may work very well.

Here's the burner I got. This is a King Kooker low pressure burner. It's good for a max of 15k BTUs but can be cut way back pretty easily.

It is designed to be mounted on a flat surface, one of which I don't have, so I fit it onto one of the firebox charcoal grates and what do you know, the legs fit through the wires perfectly. Made up a little spacer to clamp the burner onto the grate and it's ready to go!

Fits right into the firebox through the door with it mounted on the grate. Just poke the feed pipe end through the vent opening.

Supplied porcelain cooking grate goes over the burner

So a pan with smoking wood can be heated above it

Here's a look at the feed pipe from the outside.

I've already determined that the vent opening will need to be blocked off somewhat to keep the wood smoking and not have enough O2 to burst into flames. That is what the foil ball is doing there now. Eventually I'll make a little block off plate of some kind for a more permanent solution

I have no idea if that is "special" felt or not. Worse case scenario is you light some felt on fire.

True, and I have some felt weatherstrip already. Might as well give it a go. I'll use High Temp RTV for the glue.

Stock up on wide aluminum foil. It can be your friend in getting brisket and ribs tender once the smoke has done its thing. I am really impressed with the mods you did. I had an offset unit like that and didn't get as nice of a baffle in there. I gave up on it and went to a Kamodo style.

Good idea on the foil. I'll grab some more before the weekend. Just my luck that the roll we have in the pantry would run out on me.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Thanks, Scott. was that using a low pressure burner?

It was what ever came in an actual stand-up gas smoker. I hope you have good success with yours.

I don't know if that pan is of the non-stick variety (it kind of looks like it). If it is, you may want to consider swapping it out. A cast iron frying pan holds and distributes heat really well.

 

[Fred W]

Thanks, Scott. was that using a low pressure burner?

It was what ever came in an actual stand-up gas smoker. I hope you have good success with yours.

I don't know if that pan is of the non-stick variety (it kind of looks like it). If it is, you may want to consider swapping it out. A cast iron frying pan holds and distributes heat really well.

Thanks, and no that isn't a non-stick pan. Don't want any of those fumes in the smoke. I was just at Walmart looking at their Lodge 8" cast iron fry pan. for that very reason (even heating). But it was $10 and I'd have to chop the handle off (I think) to fit it into the fire box. May spring for it but wanted to explore my options before committing the sawbuck.

Also thanks for the "crutch" info. I was already planning on employing that technique. I just didn't know it was known as a Texas Crutch!

Man, with all the info out there on the web on smoking, it's amazing that anyone makes bad BBQ.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

No cutting required and you can use it for other things as well: https://www.basspro.com/Lodge-Logic-CastIron-Two-Quart-Serving-Pot-with-Iron-Lid/product/65341/

 

[Bounce]

Got a smoker this year too. I've never been "seasoned" on grilling, so figured it was time to start.

Was really interested in a BGE but their weight, cost, and European sports/luxury car method of a la carting every single thing as an option turned me off. I was looking for something I could roll into the shed when not being used and the weight and brittle nature of the ceramic eggs didn't bode well IMO.

Ended up getting a Kamado cooker from King Griller.

I've really enjoyed it and have spent the year working on pork butts and pulled pork (including a really good Caroline vinegar sauce I've been honing).

I have dipped my toe into pork ribs but am now ready to focus on them and getting them more to my liking.

Those were my first attempt at ribs. My next few had deeper smoke rings and were pulled back better from the bone.

Remove the ceramic heat diffuser (think pizza stone) and it does a bang up job as a regular grill, too. Steaks, sausages, potatoes, etc. all turn out great.

There have been a few times that I would have liked to have a larger smoker (more ribs or a shoulder and ribs, etc). One of those oval-ish kamodos shown earlier in this thread caught my eye. Overall I'm really pleased with the results.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

It took me about 18 months to get my rib rub and time/temp down for ribs. It is on the sweet/mild side because that is the way my Mrs. likes her ribs.

I will gladly share (via PM) my recipe with anyone that wants it. I only ask two things in return:

1. Give me credit if you share it with someone else; don't pass it off as yours.

2. If you modify it and believe it is something you like better, pass your mods back to me to try.

 

[Fred W]

So that would be known as the "BS Rib Rub" then?

I did end up buying hat 8" Lodge cast iron frying pan, and it does fit in the firebox with the handle intact. Sealed the cracks around the chimney and the patched hole where the chimney used to be with silicone. Then stuck some strips of felt weatherstripping to the edges of the smoke chamber. Also made a tube of sheet metal and extended the chimney down to just above the meat grille. and made another test dry run last night.

All the sealing and the felt gasket seemed to work as intended, no more smoke leakage. I'm guessing less heat is leaking out too which should save fuel during a along smoke.

I found that, after reaching temperature equilibrium, the temp reported by the OE thermometer in the lid is pretty much the same as my digital meat thermometer probe laid on the center of cooking rack.

Was able to get pretty good temperature stability with the propane burner, but not really happy with the amount of smoke I get out of the fry pan, as compared to the thinner pie pan. Maybe the cast iron pan is just too heavy and not transferring enough heat up to the wood. The wood seems to pyrolyze and it gives off smoke during that stage, but then it never reaches ignition temperature to get it smoldering.

Not sure yet how I'll proceed this weekend with my brisket. I may just go with low tech charcoal in the firebox this time and keep tweaking on the gas setup later.

 

[gixxerjasen]

I don't know if this is what you are experiencing but it might be a good thing. Here's a quote from that smoker thread I posted earlier. It flies in the face of a lot of thinking but having seen his smoker in person working away with just logs, and tasted the results, I can't argue.

No real ins and outs as most of it is noted above. I do little things like when one long is on the pit, I toss another on top of the firebox to preheat it. It'll pop-off within 10 seconds once it's put in the firebox and there's no choo-choo smoke out the stack which can make a bitter/creosote kind of smoke. Invisible smoke is best and preheating accomplishes that. This pit burns nothing but sticks as they're called. Pure wood once the initial bed has been layed down.

Or you might not be getting any smoke at all. Just thought I'd point out that maybe what you are seeing is this.

 

[ionbeam]

...I did end up buying hat 8" Lodge cast iron frying pan...but not really happy with the amount of smoke I get out of the fry pan, as compared to the thinner pie pan. Maybe the cast iron pan is just too heavy and not transferring enough heat up to the wood. The wood seems to pyrolyze and it gives off smoke during that stage, but then it never reaches ignition temperature to get it smoldering.
Not sure yet how I'll proceed this weekend with my brisket...

The cast iron skillet is one of the best heat conductors you can use but it takes a lot of time for it to come up to temperature. I would caution that using aluminum which can erode may not be desirable to add to the smoke. You may want to try to preheat the pan in the oven before adding the wood. Heck, you may want to preheat the wood too.

The best way to proceed with the brisket this weekend is to put out an invite to all the local NERDS

 

[Fred W]

Ha ha!! Good try, Alan but this is my barfday weekend, so I will be serving this dried up turd to my offspring (who bought this COS for me) , and I've already cut my giant Mr Steer brisket in half to limit the pain of having to potentially start the smoking at 2AM the night before! I'm only smoking the flat this weekend. The point is going in the (gasp!) freezer) I'll poison treat you local NERDS some other weekend! Or maybe corn it for some home made hash extraordinaire.

The little pie pan is steel (not al-u-min-ium) thanks goodness, but I would still much prefer to use the cast iron pan. But, even after an entire toro sized (6x50) cigar was smoked strictly as a gauge of time mind you (these are the sacrifices one must make for the craft), the cherry wood that I had in the pan would just not get into a good smolder.

I quickly tossed the same charred wood chunks into said little 8" thin steel pie pan and threw it back into the firebox and it almost immediately generated copious amounts of smoke. So that is option #2 for this weekend.

I'm leaning towards the old school charcoal for maximum wonderful smoke, and then bail out to foil wrapped crutching in the kitchen oven if need be.

Geeze... this is like some kinda Texas soap opera or sumpthin, idn't it?

BTW , I already have AuldThymers disease, so a little loss of memory wouldn't...

um

... what were we talking about?

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Fred,

You do have a temp probe, right? Critical for BBQ novices like me and you.

 

[Octupi]

It's odd that you're not getting enough smoke from your cast iron pan. My smoker is gas fired and uses a cast iron smoke box. One cause for you might be to much air around the wood. My box has a lid w/ slots, which will help the box hold more heat. You might want to try adding some foil over the top and cut some slots in the top to allow the smoke out but to hold more heat in.

 

[Fred W]

Fred,
You do have a temp probe, right? Critical for BBQ novices like me and you.

Hell ya. Critical for cooking indoors too. And you can't make (good) beer without one!

It's odd that you're not getting enough smoke from your cast iron pan. My smoker is gas fired and uses a cast iron smoke box. One cause for you might be to much air around the wood. My box has a lid w/ slots, which will help the box hold more heat. You might want to try adding some foil over the top and cut some slots in the top to allow the smoke out but to hold more heat in.

Thanks. That a great idea. I'll give that a try tomorrow morning. I'll set up in propane mode with fry-pan smoke generator and see if I can get some good smoke going. If not, plan B will be to pull the gas burner out and go with the old school charcoal.

 

[Warpdrv]

thin blue smoke is what your looking for....

I'm very happy with the smoke output from my YODER... It just does a great job with no input or work from me....

Made a nice boneless Leg of Lamb the other day.

Rubbed with Honey & Mustard, pepper, sea salt, minced garlic, and rosemary. No after pic - but was wicked good.

Figured while that was cooking I'd make up some stuffed burgers...... These turned out fantastically....

Stuffed with carmelized onions, havarti and basil cheddar cheese, and ahhh BACON !!!!

 

[Bounce]

Those burgers look great!

 

[Fred W]

Yeah they do!

 

[nankoweap]

Holy guacamole!!!! Those stuffed burgers look awesome! I think I know what we're having for dinner. And I'm huckin fungry!!

 

[Warpdrv]

Thanks guys..... they were great, cooked them for about 2 hours, mixed up some combo sauce to baste towards the end.

I've gotten alot of recipes from this site, they have videos of most of their stuff...

https://www.smokingpit.com/recipes/Recipe-list.aspx

Obviously you and I don't have all the spices or seasonings they use for recipes, so just wing it with what you have and like to use...

 

[nankoweap]

We tried stuffed burgers tonight. Nothing fancy... various cheeses, shrooms and onions...

Side One...

Side Two...

Finished product...

Definitely needed some bacon, but over all these were damn good. Thanks for the inspiration.