Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

[Fred W]

Finally had a chance to try out the new UDS. Here was yesterday's guest of honor:

~ 7 lbs bone-in fresh (not frozen) turkey breast. Soaked it for ~ 18 hours w/ sea salt and brown sugar ice-water brine. No spices applied during the cooking except for the smoke. Used a few apple-wood chunks in the charcoal basket for a lighter flavor. Smoked at 225-235 for ~ 5 hours while I cleaned up the leaves in the yard. Pulled it at IT of 165 F and rested it for an hour in a faux cambrio (wrapped in tin foil and bath towel in a small empty cooler)

It was mmmmm, mmmm, good! Best turkey I have ever had before. Can't wait to do another for Thanksgiving.

 

[gixxerjasen]

How was your temperature control?

 

[Fred W]

Pretty good. I started off a little hot, then choked it back too far for a while, but eventually found that leaving the ball valve almost fully open I was percolating along at a nice steady 235F, which is a good temp for poultry.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Nice. One or two cooks in and you'll have it down. I'm still amazed at how long it can just sit at a certain temperature given enough fuel.

 

[ionbeam]

The glaciers from the mini-ice age are retreating, the trees have some sort of green fuzz and the lawn has turned from white to brown. I have some 'mother' ribs to put on Sunday. So, what are you smoking?

 

[hppants]

This is the best thread in the history of threads and forums. Ever.

Friggin ever!

 

[gixxerjasen]

The glaciers from the mini-ice age are retreating, the trees have some sort of green fuzz and the lawn has turned from white to brown. I have some 'mother' ribs to put on Sunday. So, what are you smoking?

Funny, I was thinking today that I want to do some ribs on mine.

 

[Fred W]

The glaciers from the mini-ice age are retreating, the trees have some sort of green fuzz and the lawn has turned from white to brown. I have some 'mother' ribs to put on Sunday.

What time should we be over?

So, what are you smoking?

I got the UDS out of the shed a couple of weeks back and did another Turkey Breast on it. We are still becoming one with each other, but we are getting there. Brined it overnight (just sea salt and brown sugar in the brine) and smoked on applewood. It was quite tasty and the leftovers went into a pot pie that was to die for.

Don't have anything lined up for smoking this Sunday. Normally Mothers Day a good grillin' day. But, it's kind of up to "The Mom" what she wants to do this time. All 3 of her kids will be busy and we've already taken care of visiting both of our Moms. Weather's supposed to be good, so might be able to convince her to get out on 2 wheels for a while instead of grillin'. Big problem is most places to RTE will be jammed.

 

[Fred W]

Fast forward 1 year...

What the hell happened to 2014? I know, I know... we all have lives and got busy... But too busy for Bar B Que? Really?

With the grand improvement in weather conditions in the north country, I've had a bug in my butt recently to get some meat smoking this year, and have managed to get both of my smokers some mileage. Last weekend I bought some baby back pork ribs (and also a pork tenderloin for the side) and fired them up on my gas modified offset smoker. Being in a rush, I just laid some nice dry rub on them for an hour or two before submitting them to the low and slow heat and apple wood smoke of the smoker.

The results were quite wonderful.

Sorry, I should have taken a shot before laying on the Stubbs Spicy BBQ sauce, but I was itching to get those ribs inside me. Josie and I polished off half the rack and packed up the rest to bring up to our son in Vermont the next day. He later texted me that those were the best Baby Back ribs he has ever eaten. (I think he just wants more)

Today was a work day, but the heat from earlier in the week subsided a little, and my work schedule was light. I decided to multitask today (a decided advantage to working from home) and fire up The Big Daddy (the Ugly Drum Smoker) and cook me up some Beef Back Ribs that I had bought earlier this week, along with a handful of Johnsonville Brats. Preparation of the ribs consisted of a good, salt heavy, rub 2 days in advance, and then refrigeration with a loose foil wrap, until today.

Here's the before:

And here they are at 10AM with a fresh coating of dry rub (minus any salt) laying them up on the UDS smoker along with the sausages

Finished Ribs 5 hours later:

And yes, dinner is served...

All in all I would give my effort today a "B" grade. The smoke flavor was magnificent, but there was a lot of grease that had not yet rendered out and yet the meat was starting to dry, which was why I pulled them.

I think in the next round I shall try to stay at a lower temp for longer, and maybe devise a heat deflector between the charcoal fire in the bottom of the drum and the meat grill above. That will probab;y make the biggest difference, as I noticed the bottom of the sausages wee browning before the tops. Too much radiant heat, I would say. Easy enough to fix with a pan full of water below the meat rack.

So, let's see... what have you other meatheads been grilling?

 

[08FJR4ME]

Not much, my grill is on the fritz. On the list of things to fix tomorrow.

Dave

 

[TomInPA]

You stop for the winter?

 

[El Toro Joe]

I smoked some ribs last weekend, and will be smoking some pork shoulder to bring to FODS. Smoke and grill all year, in the garage.

 

[Fred W]

You stop for the winter?

Damn straight, I do. Well, unless you count just running out and throwing some steaks on the gas grille, but I do not consider that as BBQ.

 

[kurbennett64]

I bought a Rec-Tec pellet grill about a year ago and love it. Cooked just about everything on it. The convenience of using pellets and electronic temperature control make smoking meat so much easier.

 

[Fred W]

I hear that... Lot's of cool ways to skin this cat.

My gas fired offset smoker is nearly fiddle free; it does holds a very nice and steady temperature due to the propane heat source, but I do have to continually feed it wood chunks into the cast iron pan in the "fire box" if I want continuous smoke throughout the cooking. It would be nice to devise some sort of a simple auger and feed it pellets, though I have read a lot of info that says the smoke only really does much during the first couple of hours and you can back off on the smoke after that.

The Ugly Drum has plenty of fuel and wood capacity to do a 10-12 hour cook, but the temp control needs some help. The fix for that is easy but somewhat expensive. I need some sort of a temperature regulated fan for the air supply. There are some units that can be bought off the shelf, but being a tinkerer I'll probably try to cob something up on my own. Tinkering with the smokers is half the fun for me.

 

[Warpdrv]

Back from the dead smoker thread --- hahahah

Bought my Yoder 640 Pellet Grill a few years back, and I barely cook things in the house anymore....

Cook all winter long too - it keeps temps very consistently - set it and forget it....

Tons of room - for Superbike this weekend I made a Dozen Burgers, Dozen Brats and some ABT's....

Atomic Buffalo Turds they call them.... Jalapenos halved and gutted, stuffed with a cream cheese mixture red peppers, shallots, mushrooms, and seasoning - topped with various meat or smoked salmon - then wrapped with bacon.... OMG those things are good...

 

[bluesdog]

Fired up my BGE last week for some smoked chicken. I just cut the bird in half, sprinkle a bit of paprika, chili flakes, and a little powdered garlic.

Indirect cook @ 275-ish, with an inverted plate-setter and a drip pan.

I use a small cast-iron pan placed directly on the centre of the coals, with some home-grown apple wood chunks, covered with stabbed aluminum foil for smoke

4 hours or so later and it's drool time

We gotta start sharing rub and baste recipes here. Most of the ones I find on the web are way too salty and/or complicated with excessive ingredients

 

[Fred W]

We gotta start sharing rub and baste recipes here. Most of the ones I find on the web are way too salty and/or complicated with excessive ingredients

Funny that you should say that. I've noticed that a lot of what you see being called "dry rub" is a combination of a dry brine and a dry spice rub, which really should be two separate steps in the cooking process, IMO. So I've started to separate them entirely.

In as much advance as possible (last ribs was 2 days) I will dry (or in the case of poultry, wet) brine the meat to allow the meat to absorb the salt. This does two important things for your meat: It starts breaking down the meat fiber for more tenderness, and it allows the meat to retain water during the cooking process to keep the meat moist. You do not need (or want) to cake your dry brine on, just a good overall coverage. The meat will absorb all of this salt as it sits overnight on the refrigerator.

Then, on cooking day, I'll baste on a light coat of oil and then a heavy coating of some sort of dry spice rub that has NO salt in it at all. The rub is just for flavoring the outside of the meat as these spices do not penetrate the meat the way the brine does (already has).

It may seem like more work to do it in two steps but each step only takes a few minutes of preparation time and this really seems to make a difference. Try it!

 

[Bounce]

I have read a lot of info that says the smoke only really does much during the first couple of hours and you can back off on the smoke after that.

I use 3 hours as my rule if I need to smoke more than the kamodo cooker can do at once. I can smoke for 3, move to the oven in the house to do it to near-done (wrapped), then back to the smoker for 30 minutes to firm the bark back up.

We gotta start sharing rub and baste recipes here. Most of the ones I find on the web are way too salty and/or complicated with excessive ingredients

Baste? Why ruin a good smoke. Sauce is a side to be used when the meat isn't perfect.

+1 on the marinate-in-advance suggestion.

 

[Bill Lumberg]

There are reasonably priced grills sold under the Char-Griller and other names, that are very functional, have a thermometer in the lid, and work very well. They're lighter than a true drum or cast iron grill (though they have cast iron grates), and as such, are easier to assemble and move around. These are designed to resemble an oil-drum style grill, and are available with or without a separate smoker compartment. Some suggest parboiling meat. I think it ruins the texture and the flavor. The best, for me, is incorporating wood chips from Jack Daniel's barrels and moisture. A small tin pan of water directly over the coals greatly affects meat tenderness. Wood chips go straight on the coals. I apply sauce several times during cooking. Your stuff looks like it came out great.

I know there are some experienced Barbeque guys (and gals) out there. Heretofore I've always been a big fan of consuming it (in unhealthy quantities at times) but I've never before delved into the production side of the hobby.
The past few weeks I've been messing around with an old cheapo charcoal grille and managed to make a few fairly credible attempts at imparting the smoke spice into some meats. I've read a little (enough to be dangerous) and know that this is one of those hobbies (like most others) that you can go "whole hog" on and spend a literal fortune on equipment and supplies. That, I have not done as yet.

As you can see, I am using some pretty low budget (Ok, it's ghetto!) equipment, but I did drill a hole in the lid for a thermometer for monitoring the smoker interior temps and do have a digital cooking thermometer to poke down through the main upper vent into the meat.

First attempt was just some relatively thin pork chops that I smoked for about 2 hours at 225F and just used some dried oak wood chunks that I had out on the firewood pile for the smoke on a whim. The flavor was good but they were a tad dry as I had not done enough to redirect the heat from the meat that time.

Sunday I made a second attempt, this one was a bit more ambitious as I bought a small (4 1/2 lb) brisket. Made up a dry rub and rested it over the prior night in the fridge. And this time I built the charcoal fire towards the back of the grille bottom, and laid some foil across the main cooking rack (that I wasn't otherwise using) to make the heat travel to the front side before wafting around and upwards to the meat, which was perched up high on the "warming rack." I also used some hickory wood chips in lieu of the oak chunks for a finer smoke flavor.

I ended up being able to cook it low and slow, attempted to hold to ~225F, for a bit over 6 hours total while listening to the kickoff of football season, with the first 2-3 hours being the smokiest ones by design. The brisket came out pretty nicely done, the rub turned into a nice bark, and the meat had a great 1/4" smoke ring with real good flavor. (Sorry about the crappy cell phone pics)

But the meat is still a bit tougher than what I'd like. I think I need to do one of a couple of things the next time:

I've read about brining the meat overnight first. Not sure exactly what that adds, but I assume that the brine breaks down some of the collagen and tenderizes the meat before cooking? Anyone practice this witchcraft?

I've also read about hypodermic-ally injecting the meat with stuff (baste), but I would assume that has more to do with flavorizing than tenderizing.

Maybe I need to introduce some steam in the smoke environment? I see where some folks have a dish full of water in their smokers to add moisture throughout the long smoking.

I also realize I need to learn how to cut the meat cross grain, as I tried, but screwed the pooch on that this time. Looks like I need to cut at the 90 degree opposite angle to get that

So, what say ye BBQ gurus?

PS - Before anyone else suggests it, yes I am already shopping for options to replace the frugal Kmart grille, though I really don't think that is a cause of many problems, it will make smoking much more enjoyable as I will have more even temps with less hassle.