Who's smoking meat this weekend?

Well, since tomorrow is 4/20, it won't be meat most people are smoking.

Not me, of course, but some people.

Yeah, that's the ticket. Some people. Not me.

QuadConPana said:

Well, since tomorrow is 4/20, it won't be meat most people are smoking.



Not me, of course, but some people.



Yeah, that's the ticket. Some people. Not me.

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In Oregon, you actually get fined for not smoking.

Unfortunately, no smoking of any kind for me today. Smoke 'em if you got em. (Referring to pieces of meat, of course.)

HoppyDaze said:

I got corned beef brisket to do some pastrami. It's soaking in water for a day or two to lose some salt...(store bought)



https://youtu.be/xe7QREZcV8I

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I did one of these last month only I didn't know about the overnight soak to remove some salt. It turned out tender, juicy and delicious, and quite salty.

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Made some bad for my bday this past weekend. 11lb pork butt and couple racks of ribs. 15 hours on the pork butt. And 6 on the ribs. Came out great!

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WSM users: Do you use briquettes, lump coal or wood? I assume a combination of all...Thinking of getting one. Had another issue with my Traeger. #fedup. Can you keep the temp at 200-250 with minimal babysitting?

HoppyDaze said:

WSM users: Do you use briquettes, lump coal or wood? I assume a combination of all...Thinking of getting one. Had another issue with my Traeger. #fedup. Can you keep the temp at 200-250 with minimal babysitting?

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I've used lump and briquettes. I prefer the WSM over my Kamado for ease of temp regulation. I love it. I'll also add wood chunks obviously.
After you get it broken in its simple to maintain temps for long durations. Outside temps can affect performance if it's too cold and you may have to add charcoal after a long overnighter. I bought a iq120 to help with higher cook temps for poultry and long overnighters for big briskets and butts. I have issues maintaining 325 to 350 otherwise if I don't use the pit tender.
Get one HD. I promise you will be using it quite often and be happy with it.

Ever do pizza on it?

Technically off topic a bit as I'm not smoking meat, but I am smoking 14.5lbs of grains for a smoked porter I'm brewing next month

HoppyDaze said:

Ever do pizza on it?

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If pizza is a priority for you I would go ceramic. I've never attempted a pizza on my WSM since even 350 is an issue to maintain. On my Kamado Joe, it's a pizza machine. Hitting 700 is no problem and will cook a fantastic pizza in 10 minutes or less with a quality stone.
If you want a jack of all trades and a slight learning curve, go with a BGE or a KJ. It takes time to get ahold of how to get a lower cook temp without overshooting your target, but at the same time higher temp smokes for poultry are easy to achieve. I do have issues with generating smoke for better smoke penetration that I can't figure out with lump in the KJ.
If you want a solid low and slow smoker the WSM is as good as it gets.

HoppyDaze said:

Ever do pizza on it?

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If you want to do pizza, build a brick oven in your backyard.

wobrien said:

If you want to do pizza, build a brick oven in your backyard.

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Do I look like some kind of nurse to you?

HoppyDaze said:

WSM users: Do you use briquettes, lump coal or wood? I assume a combination of all...Thinking of getting one. Had another issue with my Traeger. #fedup. Can you keep the temp at 200-250 with minimal babysitting?

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I have a WSM and use Kingsford Competition briquettes. I get two bags at a time from Costco. I find it maintains a steady temp better than the standard blue bag. I have had too much trouble with lump, I have only bought the cheap stuff from HD/Lowes and found that the pieces were too small and it burned down too fast.

I did an overnight butt smoke with briquettes and messed with it every hour or so though it was a windy night and I probably overcorrected. I bought a temp controller and love it. Makes life so much easier.

Dont use woodchips for your smoking wood. With a charcoal smoker it just burns up too quickly. Use chunks at least.

EHV said:

I prefer the WSM over my Kamado for ease of temp regulation.

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Really? What kamado?

I've never used a WSM, but I can't imagine anything being much easier to regulate temp than my Big Joe.

bwarbiany said:

Really? What kamado?

I've never used a WSM, but I can't imagine anything being much easier to regulate temp than my Big Joe.

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I have the Kamado Joe. I constantly overshoot 225 when I try to do a low and slow cook. I find it way easier to maintain the WSM at lower temps. Also BW how many chunks of wood would you use in your Kamado when doing a low smoke? I find I get minimal smoke output from my wood chunks and they seldomn burn completely. Every now and then I get hints of that target blue smoke but it just doesn't stay consistent for those critical first hours.

I also use Kingsford with my WSM in addition to the wood chunks for smoke.

The WSM can be tricky to control temps in windy conditions if you don't specifically build some kind of wind break and/or insulation for it, but apart from that I find it very easy to keep at steady temps.

How about some brisket? 16 lb packer trimmed to 14 lbs. 1% w/w kosher salt on the surface for 24 hours. 19 hours of 6 month seasoned red oak (a lot of it) until probe tender. 6 hour rest in a faux cambro.









And double smoked Kielbasa and Bratwurst?






Cold smoked for 8 hrs



Then hot smoked for 2 hrs

dstar26t said:

How about some brisket? 16 lb packer trimmed to 14 lbs. 1% w/w kosher salt on the surface for 24 hours. 19 hours of 6 month seasoned red oak (a lot of it) until probe tender. 6 hour rest in a faux cambro.

And double smoked Kielbasa and Bratwurst?

Cold smoked for 8 hrs

Then hot smoked for 2 hrs

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I might be in Ridley Park this week, save me some! Looks terrific.

There was only 1 lb of brisket flat left that I sliced thin-ish for lunchmeat and is frozen now. We also cooked some 2 week maple-brine-cured pork spare ribs that were pretty great...smoked bacon on a stick. No pictures though.

dstar, that kielbasa looks great! I have been spending too much time brewing beer this winter and have neglected my yearly batch of Polish Kielbasa. Looks like you use my between the chair blooming method. The wife hates it when I do that. Ha ha!

Don't have the app so it's hard to put pictures in but I smoked a brisket last weekend. I think the trim was so key. A nice 8th inch all the way around. Did not cut into the fat between the point and flat because I wanted to leave it to support the meat. Really rounded all cuts keeping aeroDynamics in mind. Then just cut it in near half because the whole thing would not fit in my smoker. Set the electric smoker to 275 and thermometer the flat first because it was thinner cooked in 7 hours the point took 8. Just salt and pepper I could see doing that on pork butt to

Here's some pics also smoke a pork loin cook the brisket to 200 degrees the pork to 1:45

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EHV said:

I have the Kamado Joe. I constantly overshoot 225 when I try to do a low and slow cook. I find it way easier to maintain the WSM at lower temps. Also BW how many chunks of wood would you use in your Kamado when doing a low smoke? I find I get minimal smoke output from my wood chunks and they seldomn burn completely. Every now and then I get hints of that target blue smoke but it just doesn't stay consistent for those critical first hours.

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I don't overshoot, but I start closing down vents well before I hit 200 degrees. If you close the vents too late, you have too much for and it's hard to stop it from creeping up afterwards. Generally for low and slow I'm lighting the smoker at least an hour before putting food on. I'll sometimes go 90-120 minutes so I can be sure the temp is stable and heat soaked.

I use a lot of wood chunks. I do agree that it's harder to get as much smoke on a kamado due to very low airflow, so I compensate with extra smoking wood.

Sous Vide Flat Iron direct seared on mesquite coals

@jammin
Nice

A friend gave me a venison tenderloin. I marinated it overnight in a homemade teriyaki, seared in some bacon fat, then smoked it using hickory and mesquite, before finishing it off on the grill. Pretty yummy, especially with my first sample of a bock that I started back in December and bottled 3 weeks ago.
Sorry, no pictures unless you want one of my belly
Since I have 2 levels on my smoker, I also did a couple of salmon fillets on a cedar plank. Put those in the freezer for future consumption.

Smoked some ribs on my POS smoker. Heating element burned out so I swapped in an element from some electric thing I had sitting around. It doesn't quite get hot enough to cook, though. I may have to buy a new smoker. I love the convenience of electric. Set and forget. I often start the smoke during break at work and don't have time to mess around with charcoal. I'd love to have a charcoal smoker, but it's not convenient for me.

Burned the cobwebs off my ole Bradley yesterday. I've been neglecting her with my new found beer brewing hobby. LOL! Smoked some chicken leg, thighs & boneless breast for the wife.

jammin said:

Sous Vide Flat Iron direct seared on mesquite coals

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That's awesome! Looks great!

Corned beef, like to pick up like 8 on clearance after st. Pattys

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Picked up my new, used smoker yesterday. It was a Brinkmann electric Gourmet. Like my old one, but actually works.

Lady said her husband converted it from charcoal to electric. The element he put in it is now selling for $100 on Amazon as Brinkmann is going out of business.

Now I guess I'll simply put that element in my old smoker and convert the new one back to charcoal.

Need a decent thermometer to put in them both.

Homercidal said:

Picked up my new, used smoker yesterday. It was a Brinkmann electric Gourmet. Like my old one, but actually works.

Lady said her husband converted it from charcoal to electric. The element he put in it is now selling for $100 on Amazon as Brinkmann is going out of business.

Now I guess I'll simply put that element in my old smoker and convert the new one back to charcoal.

Need a decent thermometer to put in them both.

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Bingo bango bongo! I love it nice score. I don't know if it's a good one or not but I use sur la table thermometer that gives me the temp of the meat and the temperature of the smoker so it dual reads. I'm sure there are more expensive ones but this one is nice has magnets and works, some of them will tell you via wireless to your phone or the receiver giving alert excetera. I prop my smoker in front of the door so I can see the temp just looking out

Short Ribs. Cooked Souse Vide & seared over Apple wood

I need to smoke something soon!

May make some lox again soon...

Smoked a 5 1/2lb pork butt today. 10hrs at 245 with Apple wood.
She's resting now and I can't wait to get a taste!! View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1462585617.985321.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1462585632.352805.jpg
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Ribeye on the hibachi

@jammin i love the work you do at bayless looks good.

Smoking ham tomorrow neelys rub.

About to go to bed, but I'd gladly stay up and devour that entire deliciousness!

I'm now smoking everything right out the door so I can see the thermometer from inside and have chips right there. Roughing it. Got ham going hickory and apple, as always I swear by Hickory and Cherry but my wife accidentally bought Apple. Have used it before still just don't care for it that much. I think I would like to try Oak and apple

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Went a little too high on it while I was working in the bathroom cooked to 160. It is really really really good. 4 hours smoking the whole time

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