Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

[eflyguy]

Yes, a small amount of pink salt with regular salt, and yes - smoking at <250 until it hits 150 internally.

First batch was finished in oven at 300, and I cut a piece off this one before smoking and finished in oven too. It's great, but smoked is better!

 

[Knifemaker]

Yeah, my wife has one of those Kitchen Aide do-it-all gizmos too. Seems like a lot of work when you can just go to the store and get great sausage for cheap.

But where's the fun in that? I think it be cool that next year for our Okoberfest I could smoke up my own home made brats.

Being able to control the ingredients is kinda nice too....Habinaro+Apple Brats, beer brats with real bits of hops in them, Italian sausage with Romano cheese, etc etc....

 

[eflyguy]

A friend has been making Italian sausage and it's fantastic. Although I have a stand mixer (bought for pasta making), I already had a high-end grinder for meat, which includes the sausage stuffer. (Making your own ground meat for hamburgers, meatballs, etc. makes them amazing!)

 

[WTP07]

So cheese, wrapped in bacon, wrapped in ground meat product?
Or cheese, wrapped in ground meat product, wrapped in bacon?

Cheese, wrapped in ground beef/sausage mix, wrapped in bacon.

I had to remove the bacon to brown it a bit after smoking it the whole way.

Just finishing the last piece of leftovers as I type. It's unreal how good this is.

 

[Fred W]

Yeah, my wife has one of those Kitchen Aide do-it-all gizmos too. Seems like a lot of work when you can just go to the store and get great sausage for cheap.

But where's the fun in that?

Wher's the fun? It's in the eating, or course!!

Yesterday afternoon I took some 10" long Italian pork sausages, basted them with a little veggy oil and sprinkled my regular pork rub (Memphis Dust) on before tossing them on the OK Joe. Cooked 'em up with Stubbs briquettes and several good sized chunks of Hickory, low and slow. Put 'em on at ~ 2 and they were well and truly cooked by 4:30 (170F internal).

Mmmm, mmm, good.

Now that's a smoke ring! I did not poke any holes in them this time until I probed them with the thermo-pen and by then they were all done. I agree they were juicier that way and SWMBO didn't even take notice of the increased fat content.

 

[08FJR4ME]

Yes, I do think its time for another round of smoking. I have run out.

Dave

 

[Fred W]

Same here, Dave. I've picked up a nice picnic shoulder that'll be going on the Ugly Drum Sunday AM at O-dark:30.

Got it on sale for a buck a lb. at SuperWalmart (of all places).. Trim and brine it tomorrow in preparation. Hope for it to be done right after the Pariots finish beating up on the QB deficient Stillers

 

[Fred W]

Up at 4AM... 9 lbs of dry brined, skinned and trimmed picnic shoulder on the pit before 5.

It was 10.6 lbs before trimming it out, 1 1/2 lbs of pigskin and the thickest fat removed.

See ya in around 12 hours...

.

 

[Fred W]

Almost exactly 12 hours on the pit.

It was quite an adventure this time. I did crutch it for a few hours, but quite honestly I don't think it did much in terms of accelerating the cooking. After running it up to over 200 F wrapped it dropped below 192F after unwrapping. Why bother?

But it pulled like a dream and tasted scrumptious.

Perfect halftime fare.

Go Pats!

 

[RacinRay]

Mmmmmmm. That looks good.

I've never cooked a pork butt on my Weber Bullet.

 

[Knifemaker]

Looks great Fred. I too haven't done a butt on a smoker yet. (Have done them in a slow cooker) I'm not sure how well it would go on my reverse, as I'd see it would take more tending than I'd want. Perhaps a UDS is in my future here...or investing in some kind of thermostatically controlled stoker.

As far as getting a UDS.....Luckily I got a guy.....

 

[08FJR4ME]

I also did some smoking today. Two pork tenderloins, 3 chicken breast and 1 pheasant that someone shot yesterday and gave to me. Total time was just over 3 hours for everything. The temperature gage was running around 280 to 300. I have pictures on my phone but haven't figured out how to upload them yet. We had some for supper and the rest got bagged for individual meals and put in the freezer. Now I will have smoked meat for a month. Yum!

That sure looks good Fred,

Dave

 

[Fred W]

I keep coming back to cooking pork shoulders for two reasons:

First is they are really easy. Just get your pit in the temp zone and leave it alone for 12 hours!

Second reason is it's so friggen delicious. I love the flavor of pulled pork.

The UDS makes holding a steady temp pretty easy, as long as you don't open the pit. I pulled the lid several times yesterday, once to flip the roast to fat side up, once to crutch it, then again to un-crutch it when it hit 200F, and again to flip it fat side down to finish. Each time I pulled the lid the temp makes a huge temp swing before it settles down to 225-235 again. First it cools off due to letting all the heat right out, then the fire runs hotter (runs up to 150F if you let it) due to all the oxygen I just allowed in there. I think any vertical pit that has the fire in the cooking chamber is going to do about the same thing.

With the offset smoker I can open the cooking chamber and flip, probe or wrap the meat and the temp cools off a little but then settles right back up to temp quickly after with no big temp over shoot. So it's more a matter of maintaining a steady temp from the firebox, which doesn't have the same amount of fine air control as the UDS does. I wouldn't relish tending the OK Joe for 12 hours straight as it requires some fiddling to maintain an even low temp. I think the "hot setup" for longer cooks will be an automatic stoker on the horizontal pit. I'm investigating the options for that now.

 

[Knifemaker]

The guy that built my pit, Andy, says he can make me a drum smoker for about $200.

I understand the reasons you'd have a tempeture drop opening and closing the lid, wondering if you don't crutch your shoulder, or rotate it, will it still cook (taking longer) and will the amount of fuel last that long?

I can kind of envision building a rotisserie to deal with turning....thus all I'd need to do is wrap the meat when it hits the stall, if needed.

Never have done a cook over 6 hours yet and yeah, pretty sure I'd need to be there fiddling more with my reverse.

Really like the idea of a "set it and forget it" type thing for a long cook.

 

[TomInPA]

If you really want to set and forget, an electric smoker is pretty hard to beat. Uniform heat, good smoke and lots of capacity.

Been thinking about getting one anyway,. I realize this thread is mostly about fire and smoldering wood, but I'd like to hear any pros and cons from those that have tried a decent, insulated electric unit.

 

[Knifemaker]

Have thought about an electric one ...and even gas. Or even making a gas burner to fit into my reverse... I really didn't want to spend much money on one, and not sure how often I'd use it.....

(Andy texted me that he has a demo UDS he'd lend me if I want to try one out.....think I will take him up on his offer)

 

[Auburn]

I picked up a Treager to complement the egg (knock off - not the green one) and I am really liking it. Much easier to maintain temps, although the digital temp readout on the controller seldom matches the actual temp of my own remote digital thermometers.

I cooked 30 lbs of pork butts for the PNW Tech meet on Friday. I followed Treager's cooking instructions which was to season, salt or whatever you are going to do to them 24 hours ahead of time, wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least 18 hours. Then pull out and place fat side down in an aluminum foil pan, start the Treager with your favorite wood pellets (hickory) and cook for 3 hours. Then cover the top of the pan with foil and continue to cook at 300 degrees until internal temp reaches 210 degrees.. This took about 6 more hours.

I pulled the butts off. Then I learned a new way to pull it, and it is so easy. I removed the bone from each, put one butt at a time in a stand alone Kitchen-Aid mixer, then use the paddle on the lowest setting for about 20 seconds. I breaks it apart really nicely. Then you take about a cup of the juice from the foil pan and pour into the mixer bowl while continuing to shred the pork for another 10 seconds. The juice is totally absorbed back into the meat. Repeat for the other 3 pork butts. You end up with about 25 lbs of very nice pulled pork that is very moist and flavorful.

The only thing I might do slightly differently, is to smoke it for a longer period before putting the foil in the pan because of the amount of meat I was cooking at the same time.

I really like the Treager, because all you have to do is set the temp and monitor it with a remote system of your choice, and adjust without having to open.

 

[TomInPA]

Ironically most port butt is shoulder.

I gotta try the mixer idea. It's tedious pulling large amounts of pork. The Traeger directions seem to be kind of high on temperature, but pork is very forgiving. Most smoke is absorbed to the cool meat before it reaches 140-150 degrees, so covering after that point should not harm flavor, but will limit the bark.

 

[El Toro Joe]

I like my Cabela's Premium Electric Smoker. I've had this thing for over 10 years, and use it quite often. It has served me well, and is easy and convenient to use.

 

[Auburn]

Ironically most port butt is front shoulder.

I gotta try the mixer idea. It's tedious pulling large amounts of pork. The Traeger directions seem to be kind of high on temperature, but pork is very forgiving. Most smoke is absorbed to the cool meat before it reaches 140-150 degrees, so covering after that point should not harm flavor, but will limit the bark.

I wasn't very clear, the Treager smoke setting works from cold up to about 160 degrees for the smoke setting, then you can adjust up in 25 degree increments from there.