Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

[Fred W]

Brian,

I’m with knifemaker on the pork ribs.  I cook my baby backs about 5 hours. These were cooked 6 hours at about 235F, no wrapping just flipped them around a couple times. I also added some extra rub on top and spritzed the ribs with plain water during the last hour.  Beef ribs and beef brisket I do usually wrap.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Ribs: 5 hours @ 250. 

 

[Bounce]

Fred, how long were your ribs on the offset?

Ive been doing the 3-2-1 method, but the 2hr period in the foil takes away any chance of a good bark like what you have. Does make for some very tender ribs however…..

Brian

I did 3-2-1 as I read elsewhere too. The 2 in foil then 1 to firm up the bark. I found they came out drier than I like so went to 3-1-0.5 for beef and 3-ish (no crutch) on pork.

 

[biknflyfisher]

We are having a pre-birthday get together with our kids/grandkids this afternoon, and naturally I offered to smoke a bunch of meat for the shindig.

I have 2 tri-tips, a rack of pork spare ribs, and 4 chicken breasts. All rubbed up with varying rubs that make sense for each meat.

I will be starting with the ribs at about 11:00 and will use no foil to see how that turns out. I’ll probably do the chicken breasts soon thereafter as those are not necessarily to eat today, but are intended for making chicken salad for sammiches and wraps, so I’ll just pull those and wrap them up once they hit +-150.

The tri tips will hit the smoker maybe at 2:00, and I’m thinking that will be 3 hours or less to get them to where we like them (nobody here likes blood running out of the trip tip, so maybe +-150 degrees).

Mix in some very cold beer and maybe a couple of Gin and Tonics, and it’s gonna be a pretty good day!

Enjoy your day fellow smokers!

Brian the biknflyfisher 

 

[Fred W]

I don’t know if it was a typo, but I always cook poultry to 165 F internal.  Sometimes I’ll pull it off the heat at 160 as the carry over cooking usually brings it the last 5 degrees, but 150 is a bit too low for bacterial safety.

 

[Knifemaker]

Yes, you shouldn’t “partially cook” chicken. If you plan to eat it later you should still cook it to 165 and then just heat it up later. 

 

[Fred W]

We love Beef Jerky.  

Have made several batches this summer and getting ready to smoke another later today.  I’ve been buying smallish Eye Round roasts (~ 2 lbs) at the supermarket.  Put the roast into the freezer for about an hour and a half to firm up, which makes even slicing easier.  I shoot for between 1/8 to 1/4” thickness.  If the slices are too thick you can beat them down with a meat mallot, which tenderizes the beef at the same time.

I’m using the marinade recipe from FoodWishes.com.  I like a lot of Chef John’s other recipes, and this is a good one.  My only mods are that I double up the cayenne, use extra dark maple syrup instead of honey, and add a tsp of ground ginger.  I also marinade overnight because I like a lot of spice flavor in my Jerky.

Food Wishes Beef Jerky

I use the offset smoker for cooking/drying the jerky.  Set up with a charcoal basket in the firebox with a load of lump charcoal and add hickory wood chips a few at a time throughout the cook.  Reason for using charcoal is so I can run the smoker way down at 150 F.  It’s near impossible to keep the temp that low with a live fire in the firebox.  With charcoal I can choke the intake air way down and not get lots of putrid white smoke.  
 

It generally only takes only about 3 - 4 hours depending on the thickness of the pieces.  Pictures of the process and finished goods later today.

 

[Bounce]

Tons faster than the old dehydrators we used in the 80s.

 

[Knifemaker]

I have a Nesco Professional 600 watt dehydrator and it will run at 160 F, jerky only takes it 4 hours.

  Of course there’s no smoky flavor. I’ve been using ground meat lately instead of slicing up whole hunks. Have a “jerky gun” that extrudes the meat into 2 inch wide by 1/4” thick slabs. 

 

[Fred W]

Here’s the rundown on jerky on the offset.  Lump charcoal in the firebox basket.  I just light a corner of it with a propane torch and it comes up to temp in about 15 minutes.

While the pit is warming up, I pat dry the marinade off the beef slabs.  You can see I marinated them overnight in a gallon size ziplock bag.
 

 

Arranging the jerky in the pit.  Last time I had a lot more slices.  Covered the main rack here and most of the second rack (not in this time).

 

Close up the pit and dial in the temperature to about 150 degrees.

That’s  about all the intake air I need for 150.

3 hours later…

Mmm, good!  Just enough cayenne heat to make them interesting.  

Edit - After tasting these, I didn’t get them quite as thin as I’d like.  Last two times I asked the butcher to slice the Eye Round to 1/8” and that gave me thinner and more uniform slices.  These are uniform, but closer to 1/4”.  Still very good, but we are always looking for ways to improve, right?

Maybe a home rotary meat slicer is in my future?

 

[Knifemaker]

A rotary meat slicer would be one way to go. My son has a cutting board that has adjustable guides for slicing meat for jerky, like this one:

https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/cabelas-jerky-board?ds_e=GOOGLE&ds_c=Shop|CAB|TopPerformers|Hunting&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp6HAqaqE8wIVHW1vBB0BTgGJEAQYAiABEgJlMPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

  You just adjust the thickness and slice the meat with a long bladed knife. You can make one yourself by adding two strips of wood to the sides an existing board.

 They also make something like this one:

https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/cabelas-pro-series-manual-jerky-slicer?ds_e=GOOGLE&ds_c=Shop|Generic|AllProducts|High|SSCCatchAll&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp6HAqaqE8wIVHW1vBB0BTgGJEAQYEiABEgKSYfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

  You’d likely get more use out of a good electric rotary slicer. We had one awhile back but sold it in a yard sale as we didn’t use it that much. 

 

[Bounce]

I have a Nesco Professional 600 watt dehydrator and it will run at 160 F, jerky only takes it 4 hours.

  Of course there’s no smoky flavor. I’ve been using ground meat lately instead of slicing up whole hunks. Have a “jerky gun” that extrudes the meat into 2 inch wide by 1/4” thick slabs. 

So, like they made french fries at A&W out of potato mush extruded through a play dough looking device. I used liquid smoke back in those dark days.

Clearly my dehydrator wasn't worthy of such accolades. I was a yute.

OTOH, I have a cutting guide for when I make fresh bread for the same reasons.

 

[Knifemaker]

Yeah, the “jerky gun” is pretty much a large calking gun, (with various tips) that has a ratcheting arm to drive the plunger.

  Using ground meat has a few advantages, you can infuse the meat better with your marinade/spices, you can control the fat content better, you can add other stuff to the mix (onion, pepper bits, etc), and the pieces when done, being made from a ground meat, are less tough or chewy. 

    Fred’s post here now has me interested in making a batch

 

[Knifemaker]

And so I am. What the extruded meat looks like on my dehydrator trays:

  looks like I put in a bit too much liquid, so may take over 4 hrs @ 160 F. 

Basic marinade recipe for 2 pounds lean (96/4) ground beef:

2tbsp Soy sauce 

3 tsp liquid smoke (hickory)

1 tbsp Worcester sauce

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp ground ginger 

1/4-1 tsp cayenne pepper....depending on how hot you like . (I used 1/2 tsp)

2 tsp smoked paprika 

    ( I added a bit more Worcester than I should have,  not to mention a tablespoon of Habanero sauce, and that’s why it will take longer to dry out) 

 

[Blind Squirrel]

I like using the Alton Brown recipe as a base for jerky:

https://altonbrown.com/recipes/homemade-beef-jerky/

 

[Knifemaker]

I like using the Alton Brown recipe as a base for jerky:

https://altonbrown.com/recipes/homemade-beef-jerky/

I’ve used a similar one for sliced meat. The one I posted is for ground meat.... you can’t use that much liquid for ground meat as it will turn to goo. 

  I like mine spicy, so I usually use several pepper types, cayenne, crushed red pepper, chipotle, Serrano, etc....and if want it HOT, also use just the seeds from some habaneros      



Jerky came out great, easy to chew and not too hot, as much of it will be consumed by my 11 year old granddaughter. 

 

[Fred W]

 

[Fred W]

Baby backs, 100% apple wood smoke on the offset.  Memphis dust rub and spritzed with water only.  Very good.

 

[Bounce]

Still working through my triple batch of pintos with ham.  Got the salt and brown sugar lines swapped in the recipe for the double batch so have to make a 3rd without any salt or brown sugar to "even it out".

After that, they have been great.  Found that all sorts of things are better when using it as a "sauce" on stuff like frozen beef burritos.

Well everything's better except for the indoor air quality.

 

[biknflyfisher]

Smoked some pork spare ribs and also some boneless country style ribs yesterday.  I used Meathead’s “Memphis Dust” dry rub on both and they turned out fantastic. There’s no salt in his rub (by design) so you have to salt prior to the application of the dry rub.

Check out his theories on rubs and give it a try…..

Biknflyfisher