Who's smoking meat this weekend?

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My first brisket was a success!

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I just finished with chicken quarters tonight, my 7 year old was upset there wasn't any crispy skin but she devoured an entire thigh. dark meat chicken and brine=meat candy not only that its almost unable to overcook when smoking at 200.
 
Jammin,

With all respect, I think you're talking about a different thing here.

In a stickburner or other smoker, you ABSOLUTELY need a hot, clean-burning fire. Soaking the wood before throwing it in an offset would just be silly. In fact, in a lot of smaller offsets, I'd even recommend burning the wood in a pit down to ember, then shoveling it into the firebox, because a smaller cheaper offset will have a tough time getting hot enough to burn off all the volatile compounds.

In many other smokers, like the Masterbuilt electric or propane smokers, you don't WANT your wood to burn at all. You want your wood to smolder. When wood is smoldering, you're not getting all that nasty creosote. In fact, if you wood chips/chunks ignite, it's bad, because the fire isn't hot enough to burn cleanly and you get nasty white smoke.

People soak wood in those cases to inhibit actual ignition. Now, I don't think it quite works, because as the amazingribs article points out, the wood doesn't soak deeply so as soon as the surface dries, it'll ignite just as easily as if it was never smoked. But I know when I used to have a Masterbuilt Propane Smoker, I used to keep a spray bottle filled with water available to knock out the fire if my wood chunks ignited. Otherwise it would rocket up my smoker temperature and cover the food in nasty stuff.

Agreed, I soak my chips to prevent them from burning as fast and creating more smoke. I'm only talking about wood chips, not seasoned firewood
 
Looks nice and juicy, what method did you follow?

Nothing particularly fancy. It was a 4.75lbs flat that probably lost 3/4 lbs when trimmed. I injected with about 6oz of some creole garlic stuff I bought almost a yr ago. I rubbed with salt, pepper, etc etc...

Ran the cooker between 215-235F with a water pan for about 8hrs total. I spritzed with cola, cider vinegar, worschester every hour and wrapped after 6. I pulled it at 185f...rested in cooler for an hr....sliced...consumed :ban:

Had an awesome smoke ring..good bark...tender....for my first time I was really happy
 
^ Good stuff, I marinated this time but I was debating on injecting so I may try that next time

Made an 8 lb brisket, did an overnight marinade that was phenomenal, the smoker temp was a bit higher than I wanted but I was able to keep it moist and it came out nice and juicy

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After the overnight marinade I patted it dry and then dry rubbed it, let it smoke for 2 hours to start building a crust
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After 2 hours I brought out the mop sauce and started mopping
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This was taken after a couple hours
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This was after 4 hours of smoke and the meat was almost up to temp
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After 5 hours of smoke and resting, I covered with a towel after the picture
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Time to slice
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The meat was so tender and juicy, definitely happy with the end results. Everyone raved about how good it was.
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Here's a question... I'm smoking a brisket tomorrow for my bday party (my wife asked what I wanted for my birthday and I told her a brisket and a good beer haha). I was trimming the brisket last night and I went a little too deep on the fat cap and exposed about 2-3in sq of meat. I don't want the brisket to dry out, so would it help if I put foil underneath it on the rack while it smokes to hold the juices a little better? I know the bottom won't necessarily get smoked but the top and sides will. Also, 11lb brisket. Was gonna put it in tonight at 1:30am and foil at 8:30am and let it ride til 3 in the foil and rest for 3 hrs. Does that sound like a good time table?
 
Here's a question... I'm smoking a brisket tomorrow for my bday party (my wife asked what I wanted for my birthday and I told her a brisket and a good beer haha). I was trimming the brisket last night and I went a little too deep on the fat cap and exposed about 2-3in sq of meat. I don't want the brisket to dry out, so would it help if I put foil underneath it on the rack while it smokes to hold the juices a little better? I know the bottom won't necessarily get smoked but the top and sides will. Also, 11lb brisket. Was gonna put it in tonight at 1:30am and foil at 8:30am and let it ride til 3 in the foil and rest for 3 hrs. Does that sound like a good time table?

Don't worry about exposing the meat. On a brisket, the surface becomes bark. Once the surface does that, it's not going to just leak juice out of that area because the fat cap is gone. Think about it... Does pork butt end up dry because because some of the meat surface is exposed?

As for your timing, I suspect you should be good there if smoking in the 225-250 range.
 
Here's a question... I'm smoking a brisket tomorrow for my bday party (my wife asked what I wanted for my birthday and I told her a brisket and a good beer haha). I was trimming the brisket last night and I went a little too deep on the fat cap and exposed about 2-3in sq of meat. I don't want the brisket to dry out, so would it help if I put foil underneath it on the rack while it smokes to hold the juices a little better? I know the bottom won't necessarily get smoked but the top and sides will. Also, 11lb brisket. Was gonna put it in tonight at 1:30am and foil at 8:30am and let it ride til 3 in the foil and rest for 3 hrs. Does that sound like a good time table?

Hope you have a great birthday. I am going to steal your idea for my birthday. I know its late, but I guess as long as it stays above 140 it is food safe. I cut the briskets in half for my mes 30 and at 275 they cook pretty quick, but I hear all the time about great results with longer methods, well and more skill than I have, really. Im sure it will be awesome.
 
Hope you have a great birthday. I am going to steal your idea for my birthday. I know its late, but I guess as long as it stays above 140 it is food safe. I cut the briskets in half for my mes 30 and at 275 they cook pretty quick, but I hear all the time about great results with longer methods, well and more skill than I have, really. Im sure it will be awesome.

Thanks! I felt it was both a reasonable and delicious request for a birthday gift. :tup:
 
Pork butts are on sale at $1.39/lb, so we're having pulled pork tomorrow. Maybe with grilled sweet corn. And Packers football.
 
Smoking some wings tomorrow for football. Really can't wait! Also marinating a few boneless chicken breast in italian dressing to throw on the grill tomorrow after the wings are done.
 
MMMMMM y'all are making me hungry! I think I'm gonna pull a vacuum-sealed package of homesmoked pulled pork and have it with the leftover coleslaw I have in the fridge.

What a wonderful idea for lunch! I'll be there shortly to share!!!

glenn514:mug:
 
And I just remembered that I have a large tub of pulled pork in the downstairs refrigerator from my nephew's wedding two weeks ago. I need to mix up and cook a sauce for it, because it ended up somewhat dry, and then I need to get it into the freezer!

And thank you for the kind words, temptd2. I have learned that the pain of loss doesn't ever go away. You just learn how to live with it. All things considered, I'm doing OK. Went to Michigan two weeks ago for the wedding; I'll be heading up to Yooper's country in two weeks to visit another daughter and son-in-law; I have made arrangements to drive to Texas and visit two more daughters, a son-in-law and three grandchildren shortly before Thanksgiving. Then, it will be home for the holidays.

I've got the beginnings of a bourbon barrel porter in my fermentor that I need to rack over to secondary and get the bourbon and oak chips in it. Busy, busy, busy!!!

glenn514:mug:
 
It's gonna be perpetual grilling for 24 hours. I grilled some shrimp last night then dumped the hot coals from the grill into the WSM to get it going. Later on I'll take the coals out of the smoker and put them in the chimney to get good and hot to grill sweet corn.
 
Impromptu meat smoke. Ran out of gas and was going to cedar plank again. was a little nasty from before but all the meat out on it had dried out and was coal as it cooled from before i assumed. And I figured I would start it on fire again, as I started it the last two times, beginning with cooking side down. Well ran out of gas and used kingsford as back up as sad as that sounds and made a big lump fire. Man wish it was a green egg. Anywho side loaded onto the fire hickory and cherry chips, nursing them from fire to smoke. Pulled half thawed, sriracha and honey marinated, previously frozen loin from fire at 145. It was super good. I have become addicted to those expensive small bags of potatoes. A little oily but so good cooked on stone pan. Kids went nuts.

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Got a big cook coming up on Friday. Cooking for 200 people for a pretty special event that I can give details about when it is over. We are cooking a 95 lbs whole hog, 100lbs of packer briskets and 35 lbs of salmon. All of it has to be done on site so that is going to be a challenge as it is out in the country. Weather should be nice. I will take pictures and post them as the cook progresses.
 
My kids love 'em. We halve or quarter them, toss them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and then roast them for ~40 minutes in the oven at 425. Excellent stuff!
Kids are out of the house, but we got them hooked on brussel sprouts too by pretty much the same recipe.
We found http://www.pecanoil.com this and don't use olive oil any more.


@Brickman , hope it all comes together! Looking forward to the follow up!
 
Impromptu meat smoke. Ran out of gas and was going to cedar plank again... Anywho side loaded onto the fire hickory and cherry chips, nursing them from fire to smoke... sriracha and honey marinated... loin from fire at 145... Kids went nuts.

Awesome Applescrap!:) As long as you have one of those tall Eddyline double IPA's to wash down a gorgeous honey and sriracha loin like that, you can't go wrong!
:):mug::)
 
My kids love 'em. We halve or quarter them, toss them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and then roast them for ~40 minutes in the oven at 425. Excellent stuff!

I do them similarly, but use bacon fat instead of olive oil and garlic salt in place of the salt and garlic powder. KOTC and I can clear a roasting pan full of those things. I halve them, then nuke about 8 minutes til JUST tender, then toss in the melted bacon fat and onto a parchment paper lined rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle on the garlic salt and pepper, roast til browning up, tossing every 10 minutes or so to cook more evenly. They're sooooo good. If I want to amp it up a bit more, I toss on some bacon bits the last 10 minutes or so.
 
^i buy a cedar fence picket and cut it up with my chop saw for planks. Saves a nice little bit of money

Clean cedar shakes work nicely as well. I have a bunch leftover from a project long ago, stored clean and dry. I trim them down and run a side through a wood planer to make it smooth and expose fresh wood.
Works great for cedar plank fish. Might be too thin for longer cook times though.
 

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