Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

[El Toro Joe]

Smoking a 7.5lb pork shoulder overnight... I'll let ya know how it turns out.

 

[Fred W]

Tenderloins are too easy to be as delicious as they are. Here they are after about 2 1/2 hours of 225F hickory smoke:

Mmmm, good:

That pork is not underdone. I cooked until 145F in the centers because, with so little mass (only 2 1/2 lbs total), there isn't much carry through. The pinkness is the deep penetration of the nitrites from smoking. It's like a smoke ring only it runs pretty much all the way through it. The soft flesh of the fresh tenderloins really took the smoke well.

Did I mention it was delicious?

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Well although I didn't have time today to do a test run, I got all the parts cut and fitted.
So, I first need to slide out the coal basket and the ash drawer:

Slide in the burner:

Slide in the grate for the wood pan:

I cut the handle of the pan so it acts as a stop, so when I slide it in, it positions the pan directly over the burner:

Pan slides in, all ready to cook!

I'll likely just drive in a rod next to the FB and afix the hose with a cable tie to it to insure the burner doesn't move. I stil have the option later of putting a 1/8" hole in the bottom to bolt it down...which I doubt would interfere when I switch back to burning coals, as the ash drawer will cover it and it's a pretty small hole.

Can't wait to try this rig out...!!!

Interest to see how much smoke this setup puts out. Wondering if you can keep the chamber temp low and still get smoke. The gap between the flame and the pan looks big to me. Let us know how the test run goes.

 

[Knifemaker]

Interest to see how much smoke this setup puts out. Wondering if you can keep the chamber temp low and still get smoke. The gap between the flame and the pan looks big to me. Let us know how the test run goes.

Hard to gauge size from the photo....wood pan sits 5" above the top of the burner. Got another day of chores around the house, so might not be able to test her out till midweek.
Fred, I do plan on putting some perferated sheet metal in the open spots on each side of where the end of the burner sticks out. If you look at the second photo, you can see I have an adjustable vent right under the door opening, and one on the left wall of the fire box.

I'll start out with them closed and go from there.

 

[Fred W]

From my prior experience, I don't think you'll have any trouble generating plenty of smoke with that setup, while maintaining a nice steady 225F (or lower if you want). On your first dry run get the pit up to temp (will take 30 minutes or longer) and find the setting on the regulator that holds 225, then use a sharpie to mark one of the ridges on the knob and put a match mark on the regulator body so you'll know right where to put it next time. Of course the ambient temp will have a small effect on that setting. Don't know how cold it is in MO at the mo.

 

[jmdaniel]

Yesterday's work. Didn't get a picture of the chicken, but did of the ribs and brisket. The neighbors love me...

 

[Knifemaker]

Man...that reminds me we still have a rack of smoked baby backs in the freezer...

 

[Fred W]

Ours never seem to make it to the freezer. I must not be cooking enough of them.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

 

[Knifemaker]

Ours never seem to make it to the freezer. I must not be cooking enough of them.

Nope. Make or buy yourself a rib rack. I do six slabs at a time (theoretically I could do 10 at a time) and still have room for a couple tenderloins.
I'm going to try doing my test run Thursday. I likely will toss in a tenderloin once I see alls well (if I got the thing running, might as well toss in some meat...). As I've done tenderloins before, I'll be able to judge how well the smoke comes out with the gas...

 

[Fred W]

Good luck with the test run. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I already have a couple of rib racks, but have never cooked any more than three full sized racks of baby backs at once. That was enough to feed my entire clan with just enough left over for a snack later in the week. None for the freezer.

Next time I'll buy more with the freezer in mind. Especially since it's getting nigh time to put the pit away for a few months. Some defrosted baby backs in February or March will taste mighty good.

 

[Bounce]

Nope. Make or buy yourself a rib rack. I do six slabs at a time (theoretically I could do 10 at a time) and still have room for a couple tenderloins.

Yup

 

[Fred W]

You're getting me hungry!

 

[eflyguy]

Stacking vertically is the only way to do ribs right, in my opinion.

 

[Knifemaker]

Well, a day late, but starting my run with the gas set up. Was going to do it yesterday but the wife went in to order us a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving, and brought home some nice thick fillets. Had to cook those up instead...the pork loin would keep for a couple days. She also brought back some fresh brats...those ill cook up with the loin.

So, burners been going for about 15 minutes...Temps at 174. Going to shoot for 220-225. Ambient temp here is 64, and windy...

The set up:

Update. About an hour has passed. I ended up taking a piece of foil and blocking off the bottom vent next to where the burner goes in. It's been teetering between 224 and 225 for about ten minutes now.

4:10. Put the meat in. Ambient temp 61...still windy... two large chunks of applewood in the pan. Can smell them already. Temp back up to 221. All looking good so far 4:20...LBS!

5:05. Opened the other vents up just a crack. Temps rose a bit but holding pretty steady at 228. My cut off would be 235...but I can live with 227-230. Wind here likely not being kind to holding a steady temp. It's getting cooler outside, but so far pretty happy with the way the smoke is going. Loin temp at 115.

 

[Fred W]

Was wondering what happened yesterday. Sounds like so far so good. It was really windy here today too. It would have been a tough day to cook outdoors using any fuel.

Looking forward to the final analysis and review of the flavor.

 

[Knifemaker]

OK. The cook went well. With wind, wood and trying to hit a constant temp... I settled for a 228-230 range, as that seemed the easiest to maintain.

Loin hit 145 and all was pulled off... Lost track of actual time... but was about 2 hours. All looked good:

Loin didn't have a defined smoke ring... but was however tender, and juicey.

Brats however came out with a well defined and deep smoke ring. Again, first time cooking these particular links, but I'd say they almost beat out our usual favorite brat.

The point however here was not to cook short term meats, as I think both were much better using charcoal and wood... as far as "smokiieness" goes. But what it did show me was I could get everything dialed in and do a longer cook..10-14 hours as opposed

to 2-1/2 hours....with not needing to spend time fiddling with the smoker.

Once I got a pretty constant temp going, 228-230F... it was basicly sit there and watch, enjoying my drink and no fiddling needed.

So...as far as doing a pork shoulder or a some larger hunk of meat, looks like it will work out well with this system.

 

[Fred W]

Yep, you can definitely get more intense smoke flavor by burning charcoal and wood chunks, or better yet just wood splits, but I find the quality of the smoke flavor is finer and more controlled when you burn a smaller amount of wood chunks in a pan. You can create as much or as little smoke as you want that way. More wood in the pan for a shorter smoke, or smaller quantities for a longer time. Plus as you noticed control of the temperature for long periods is trivial with gas or electric heat source.

Glad it worked well for you.

 

[Knifemaker]

Yeah, the wind didn't help. At first it seemed I was getting too much air through the slot the burner slides into, so I blocked half of it off. After all was up to temp, and I added the wood, it looked like the wood needed some more air, so I cracked open the sliding vent on the door, which is on level with the bottom of the wood pan. The wood seemed to smoke well, but didn't seem to ever burst into flames...so next time I'm going to use the top part of the side vent which is above the edge of the pan. I also didn't mix woods up this time, I only used apple, which has a more subtle flavor to start with.

However...everything tasted great. The smoke smell was evident, but not as in your face as when using charcoal taste wise, which was not a bad thing with either of the meats. The pork was tastey, tender, and juicy...

The brats were made hours before they were cooked, and were almost twice as long as the ones we normally get. I put a rub on everything...but I think I'll go with something lighter and less spicy on the loin next time.

So very pleased with how it all turned out. My only question here is how long can a full tank of propane go before running out?

 

[Fred W]

That pork loin looks fabulous. Juicy, I guess!

I've never run out of propane on a cook, but I think it depends a lot on your pit and how efficient or inefficient it is. You should be able to calculate it as the tank has a very precise number of BTUs in it. But I've not yet been so obsessed as to do the math yet.

So here's the run down on makin' bacon, at least Canadian or Back bacon. Bought two small center cut pork loin roasts (not tenderloin) and made a curing brine following the recipe on Meathead's web site, Amazing Ribs.

Wet cured the loins for 7 days (per the calculator) in the fridge in a large tupperware container, then dried them on a wire rack for 24 hours, also in the fridge. Here they are, all cured and ready to go on the smoker

Smoked them using my propane burner with apple wood in the smoke pan at 225-235F for about 3 hours until I reached 145F internal on the larger of the two pieces. Here they are looking all smokey delicious:

Wrapped in foil and stuck them right into the fridge again to firm up before slicing on a rotary food slicer later today, then I'll portion them up and put some away in the freezer for later. I didn't even sneak a taste yet! More later when I do.