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Who's smoking meat this weekend?

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My Weber smokey mountain is gonna go HAM tomorrow...
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Starting up 2 pork butt's in a bout an hour.

1st real smoke on the masterbuilt 800 so curious to see how it goes as far as fuel consumption. (Ribs don't count as they are short)
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In they go...
Probes to monitor temp in the morning as well as checking the charcoal in the hopper. The old pellet pooper would run out of fuel in 3.5- 4 hours, we will see if I can get 7 hr tonight before it flames out.
 
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PIcked up some nice ribeye steaks for later.

Cousin thinks we should put a little smoke on them. I think he can smoke his if he wants, just straight up grilled for me.
 
Try a reverse sear. Smoke lightly for maybe an hour then just a quickie on a hot charcoal grill.

That's what he wants to do, and that's fine.

I'm in the mood for just plain old hot seared med/med rare steak. Pretty well marbled prime grade so probably more toward medium. They're only 1" cuts so 4-5 min per side on hot grill should be close for me.
 
Yeah, I wouldn't even think of a reverse sear on a 1" steak. So no smoke & sear method either.

What type of grill? If it's a charcoal grill, I'd get it ripping hot and throw some hardwood chunks in there and once they were burning nicely (no white smoke) still do a hot & fast cook but that'll add a bit of smoke flavor. I.e. you and he can split the difference.
 
The grilling part would be good old Weber kettle with lump charcoal.

I could bring a chunk or two because all he has would be pellets for his recteq smoker.
 
I'm generally not a fan of mesquite because it's easy to overdo. But, in case we decide to grill with a chunk of wood added, that's what I'm going to bring given it should be a relatively brief exposure.
 
Made up a batch of ribs yesterday. At my parents’ second place, and mom told me she had ribs to make. I don’t have my smoker and stuff, so I made do with what I had.
She originally just wanted my bbq sauce recipe, so she’d make them. She was asking about par-boiling them first, then I have an idea she was planning on throwing them in the oven @ 375 for an hour…. 🤢
So I ended up putting a rub on, then into the oven to get started at 225, (had stuff going on so I couldn’t shepherd them the whole time. Then into the gas grill with a smoker box. Took a bit to get temps worked out - I’m not really used to that grill for low temp.
But they ended up pretty tasty.
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The steaks were very tasty with the hint of mesquite. Two small chunks was plenty.
 
got some small hams and canadian bacons out of cure and in fridge for tomorrow smoke. going to be a packed house in the 2x2 foot print. pics in the morning.

will be true test of the smokai cold smoker. along with electric elements in cabinet.
 
Mark, I was looking for the "comments section" to post something, was then going to post it here as commentary on the random link you provided...

...and then I realized that was your blog 😂

It looks delicious!

What I was going to comment was your statement about a full packer brisket. I'm assuming if you're on here and have a smoker, you have a food saver? If not, I highly recommend buying one. Especially if you have kids.

So solution 1 to the "full packer" problem being too much: I find it's the perfect thing to smoke "too much" meat and then just portion it out, seal, and freeze it. For Father's Day I did a 19# full packer for 7 people--WAY too much for us. But now I've got 5# of brisket in 1# bags in the freezer for other projects. Likewise when I do pulled pork I'll get two 2-packs of pork butt from Costco, a total of about 34-35# of meat. That makes a LOT of vacuum sealed bags of smoked pork for future meals. So that's solution 1 to having "too much" meat for your family. Doesn't solve the "not fond of the point" statement, but the following paragraph might?

Solution 2 is this... Grind the point. I find it's hard to get ground beef with enough fat for burgers. I like to cook my burgers to 150 or so IT, and you need fat in there to keep it juicy at those temps. So I've got a grinding attachment for my wife's Kitchenaid stand mixer. When I have a use for a brisket flat, I just buy a full packer anyway. I pull the point off and grind it [roughly] 50/50 with chuck roast, and again those get portioned out, vacuum sealed, and thrown in the freezer as "Brad's burger blend." And then I have the flat for whatever I wanted to do with it.

Like you point out, smaller flat cuts are hard to find and expensive, both because it's the "preferred" cut for things like pastrami / corned beef and because it comes pre-trimmed usually. But my local Costco always has some Prime full packers of various sizes, well-priced, and I don't mind doing some knife work to get the flat trimmed exactly how I want and use for the point for burger blend.
 
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