Who's smoking meat this weekend?

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Doing a smoked turkey tomorrow, 4th year i'll be doing it. I use the concepts from this guys website, which is packed with info although a bit hard to navigate: http://amazingribs.com/recipes/chicken_turkey_duck/ultimate_smoked_turkey.html

key points: dry rub bird with salt the night before, dont stuff the bird, make an amazing and thinner (heavy cream like consistency) gravy from the smokey drip-pan drippings. My mouth is watering already!
 
DrunkleJon said:
I have always smoked poultry at 325. What effect does doing it so much lower do for the bird. I would almost be afraid it would soak up too much smoke. Smoke sponges that they are.
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I never had an issue with it. People have disagree with me on this site but Dont knock it until you try it. All turns out tasty, last year I cooked it a little too long this year I wont. I only add a set amount of smoking chips. Especially when you make turkey soup with it. Great smokey flavor.
 
DisturbdChemist said:
I never had an issue with it. People have disagree with me on this site but Dont knock it until you try it. All turns out tasty, last year I cooked it a little too long this year I wont. I only add a set amount of smoking chips. Especially when you make turkey soup with it. Great smokey flavor.
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Cool. One more question because I am sure this matters a lot in cases like this. Electric, gas, charcoal or stick heated smoker?
 
Not trying to answer for Disturbd but I do the same thing with a stick burner. Choice of wood makes a world of difference.
 
DrunkleJon said:
Cool. One more question because I am sure this matters a lot in cases like this. Electric, gas, charcoal or stick heated smoker?
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I've done a few in an electric smoker at the highest setting to get a nice crispy skin. After about 1.5 hours I stop adding wood chips and let it cook.

Taste great!
 
Turkey is sitting in the fridge with a dry brine on it. I think last year we put apples and onions inside the turkey while it smoked. Can't wait for 5 pm tomorrow! I use an electric, and I think it only gets up to 275*.
 
DrunkleJon said:
Cool. One more question because I am sure this matters a lot in cases like this. Electric, gas, charcoal or stick heated smoker?
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I have an electric, and hit it at 225° for about 6 hours or so. delish.

Kept it around the same temp on my charcoal smoker too.


Edit: 6 hours for a breast. A longer smoke for a while turkey.
 
I'm going to try lump over briquettes in the WSM this year to try to hit the higher temps. Shooting for 325 350. I struggled to keep it at 325 last year with the door cracked. Going with Pecan as well.
 
Just loaded up the smoker with 4 Briskets, 42lbs before trim, and 4 Pork shoulders, 32lbs before trim. Also have a 24 lb Turkey for the oven in the early morning. Should be a nice holiday:tank:

Thanksgiving 2015 Meat.jpg
 
DrunkleJon said:
Cool. One more question because I am sure this matters a lot in cases like this. Electric, gas, charcoal or stick heated smoker?
Click to expand...

I use charcoal and smoke chips/pieces. I have a smoker box on the side ans just light the fire and add chips and charcoal every so often. I stop adding chips about half way through and just go with charcoal heat from then on out
 
smit70136 said:
Curtis - I think you're right. If the meat has been injected with salt water solution at the production line it won't take up much, if any of the flavor from the brine. That's pretty much the standard deal with the stand alone breast packages. Really sucks.

That said, I routinely do a brine very similar to what you describe EHV and agree with you 100% - the apple brine does wonders for white meat of any kind. I use apple juice, soy sauce, olive oil, salt, sugar, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, tarragon, and juniper berries in my brine. Soak for an hour per pound and smoke with hickory, oak, and apple (also for an hour per pound). What do you use in your brine?
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I did a dry rub of Simon & Garfunkle rub per amazingribs.com's recipe (huge amount of info on cooking turkey there BTW). Let sit over night. Sous vide'd for a few hours in the AM then finished on grill. Indirect heat and smoke for a couple of hours and then seared to brown them better on the hot side. Looked good, smelled great, moist & tender, but tasted like Chicken McNuggets to me...meaning no flavor in the very homogenous meat.

A friend asked me to cook these so I did, but seems silly to me when we can get real birds down here...which taste SO much better.
 
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448602478.066712.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448602498.350292.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448602509.667223.jpg
Bacon was added on a whim and mainly served as a smoke barrier for the breasts. Color wasn't what I hoped for but the meat was absolutely delicious. Platter was quickly taken to the table and consumed before I had a chance to take a pic of the sliced turkey. No one had any patience for my documentation attempts.
 
Smoking cheese today since it's now cold enough outside that it won't melt since I don't have a cold smoker. I use charcoal and pellets.

5lb Colby
5lb pepperjack
5lb medium cheddar
5lb sharp cheddar
 
Wednesday or Thursday, I will be taking a 10-lb piece of pork shoulder out of the molasses brine, giving it a nice rub, and then cooking that sucker for 12-14 hours, or until I can pull the bone out easily. Smoke for the first 3-4 hours, and IDK what I am gonna use for that yet. I am all out of corn cobs.
 
Bayless ; those snack sticks look great.That is a nice fine grind. Hoping to shoot some this week myself .If some walk by my stand that is.
 
vanishingpint said:
Bayless ; those snack sticks look great.That is a nice fine grind. Hoping to shoot some this week myself .If some walk by my stand that is.
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Thanks! I only ran the meat through the grinder once with the fine plate. It does a great job.
Good luck in the woods this week. Shoot straight be safe!!!!
 
BaylessBrewer said:
Throwing 5lbs of venison snack sticks on tomorrow. Wanted to do 10lbs but the kids were driving me nuts and things are bad enough using a kitchen aid stand mixer for grinding and stuffing.
Done and boy are they good! View attachment 319612View attachment 319613
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Do you use store bought spice mix or something you came up with yourself? I dont do venison but I do beef snack sticks and I cant seem to get the seasoning right. I've tried store bought and recipes on the net but nothing comes close to what I want. They are edible but not quite right.
I do have a couple pounds of deer ground meat in the freezer but i think it's mixed with green onion. Might be good to just try that and see how it turns out.
 
brew703 said:
Do you use store bought spice mix or something you came up with yourself? I dont do venison but I do beef snack sticks and I cant seem to get the seasoning right. I've tried store bought and recipes on the net but nothing comes close to what I want. They are edible but not quite right.

I do have a couple pounds of deer ground meat in the freezer but i think it's mixed with green onion. Might be good to just try that and see how it turns out.
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I use my own mix of spices. I'm sure you could use beef and it would turn out perfectly fine.
Here's what I use for a 5lb batch that is 80/20 venison/pork fat
2.5T Kosher salt
2.5T Sugar
2T fresh ground black pepper
1t Cure # 1 (pink cure)
1.5t nutmeg
1.5t curry powder
1.5t garlic powder (granulated)
1.5t mustard powder
1.5t onion powder (granulated)
1.5t red pepper flakes
1/2C cold water
Grind the meat with a fine texture plate or twice with a coarse plate and set in the fridge while u assemble spices.
Mix all spices together in a bowl and add the cold water and mix till combined and salt and sugar dissolve.
Remove meat mixture from the fridge and add the spice/water mix. Mix by hand for 5 min to make sure all spices and cure are evenly distributed.
Stuff In collagen casings or leave naked and form into logs. I use 21mm casings. Refrigerate over nite.
Preheat smoker to 150 and smoke at 150 for 1-2hr
Raise temp to 170 and smoke until internal temp 150.
Remove from the smoker and let air dry for an hour or two. Don't dunk in ice water bath. Let them naturally cool.
That's it. Enjoy!!
The cure #1 is important if you want to smoke at a low temp. I don't recommend smoking at this low of a temp with out it.
 
brew703 said:
Are you able to keep the temps low enough using charcoal? Do you get any weird charcoal taste? I use one of these,http://www.amazenproducts.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=AMNPS5X8, and they work great. No heat only smoke.
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That looks interesting. My smoker is actually big enough to stand inside so my cheese is about 5' above the heat source. So I can keep the heat low enough unless the weather is to hot. Yesterday the weather was to cold and could barely get enough heat for the cheese to absorb the smoke. Usually I don't get charcoal taste because I use so little but this time I probably will since I had to use a lot more because it was only 22* that day.
 
BaylessBrewer said:
I use my own mix of spices. I'm sure you could use beef and it would turn out perfectly fine.
Here's what I use for a 5lb batch that is 80/20 venison/pork fat
2.5T Kosher salt
2.5T Sugar
2T fresh ground black pepper
1t Cure # 1 (pink cure)
1.5t nutmeg
1.5t curry powder
1.5t garlic powder (granulated)
1.5t mustard powder
1.5t onion powder (granulated)
1.5t red pepper flakes
1/2C cold water
Grind the meat with a fine texture plate or twice with a coarse plate and set in the fridge while u assemble spices.
Mix all spices together in a bowl and add the cold water and mix till combined and salt and sugar dissolve.
Remove meat mixture from the fridge and add the spice/water mix. Mix by hand for 5 min to make sure all spices and cure are evenly distributed.
Stuff In collagen casings or leave naked and form into logs. I use 21mm casings. Refrigerate over nite.
Preheat smoker to 150 and smoke at 150 for 1-2hr
Raise temp to 170 and smoke until internal temp 150.
Remove from the smoker and let air dry for an hour or two. Don't dunk in ice water bath. Let them naturally cool.
That's it. Enjoy!!
The cure #1 is important if you want to smoke at a low temp. I don't recommend smoking at this low of a temp with out it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recipe. I'll give this a go once the weather cools down here. Temps here are still in the 70's.
 
Dixon9717 said:
Smoking cheese today since it's now cold enough outside that it won't melt since I don't have a cold smoker. I use charcoal and pellets.

5lb Colby
5lb pepperjack
5lb medium cheddar
5lb sharp cheddar
Click to expand...

I thought (read) cheese does not take smoke well at all, and that smoked cheeses were flavored when made with smoke flavoring. Please let us know how that works out.
 

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