Who's smoking meat this weekend?

[jammin]

One thing I love about the Big Green Egg is the temp stability. I set the Daisy and input before I put the ribs on today & the needle hasn't moved even a millimeter off of 220*!

 

[HopGobbler]

Thanksgiving turkey was a huge success, started with a 20 lb bird

Dry rubbed it over night with herbs and spices

Next morning fired up the smoker and injected it with butter and white wine, and stuffed it with garlic and onions

Covered with cheese cloth and basted every half hour with wine/butter mix

Smoked with hardwood lump charcoal and apple wood chips, literally smoked out the entire neighborhood :clpower:

Wrapped the legs and wings after a few hours, this thing barely fit on the smoker, but I made it fit

Total smoke to get the inner thighs to 165 was 5 hrs total

The finished product, the meat was extremely flavorful and juicy, so freaking good! Best one I've made yet :yum: And it was cooked perfectly all the way through

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

So just impulse bought a kamado Jr for my brother's Christmas present. On sale for $99 at Lowe's. He likes to boat and camp so figured its a good portable solution.

Any recommendations on what to smoke on it? Area seems small but I could see wings, ribs and some seafood. He's big into saltwalter fishing if you have recommendations on stripers or blues. Maybe even some desserts.

 

[jammin]

Pork Butt! Very forgiving and great way to build some confidence & pride in your new smoker

 

[lschiavo]

I second the pork butt. I just asked the butcher to set aside 20 lbs. for me today. It has become our Christmas tradition (vinegar based sauce). We've been doing the wiring for a grocery store remodel since June. I've tried to be especially friendly with the good folks in the meat department. He said I'll find it in the cooler with "special pricing". Sweet.

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice. Sounds like butt will it be. Just saw a 10lb butt being done on YouTube. I wasn't sure it had enough mass for something so big on the Jr.

 

[lschiavo]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice. Sounds like butt will it be. Just saw a 10lb butt being done on YouTube. I wasn't sure it had enough mass for something so big on the Jr.

As long as it fits in there and you can keep it low and slow for a while...nothing better. Personally, I think cold smoke is for fish. Or I did something wrong with my attempts. I have never had anything bad come out of my smoker though. Have fun with it.

BTW, you know of atomic buffalo turds right?

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

Oh yeah. I've got the normal size kamado and have done the atomics in them. Got the Jr for lil bro. Some ribbing never ends no matter how old you get ;-)

I could see doing some baked clams or something in them.

 

[HoppyDaze]

Game hens, beef short ribs, tri-tip ...

 

[CGVT]

Did a small Butt tonight.

 

[lschiavo]

It's a cute butt.

 

[kev211]

It's a cute butt.

SWMBO? Is that you?

 

[kev211]

Is there any benefit to keeping a butt whole? So I have a whole pork butt (8lbs or so). Is there a reason why I would want to keep it a whole butt? Or would there be an issue cutting it in half so it's 2, 4 lb pieces? My thought is that the 4lb pieces will cook faster and will have more bark. Am I missing something as to why that would be a no go?

 

[jammin]

I think you may have answered your own question. They will cook faster and the magic happens low n slow. They won’t retain as much moisture either.
Same reason why blade roast is preferred to picnic

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Is there any benefit to keeping a butt whole? So I have a whole pork butt (8lbs or so). Is there a reason why I would want to keep it a whole butt? Or would there be an issue cutting it in half so it's 2, 4 lb pieces? My thought is that the 4lb pieces will cook faster and will have more bark. Am I missing something as to why that would be a no go?

You can definitely do that. If you go to the grocery store often you'll get partial butts in the 4# range, and they cook up nicely.

That said I agree with jammin above that you might end up sacrificing a little moisture. You're giving it a higher surface area to volume ratio, which means more bark but also means more surface area for moisture to escape.

But I don't think that's a big deal if you take an 8# butt and cut it in half, if you're pressed for cook time. If you tried to go more extreme, like cutting it into 4x 2# pieces, I think at that point the downside would outweigh the shorter cook time.

However, note one thing: cook time isn't based on weight so much as it's based on shape. As Amazingribs says:

So you might find that you end up cutting it in half and the cook time stays pretty well constant, in which case you've done absolutely nothing of a favor for yourself by cutting. I.e. in the example above, if you had the 4" diameter 10" long piece of meat and you cut it into two 5" lengths, you really haven't changed cooking time. Given the shape of a typical butt, if you cut it crosswise rather than lengthwise, I think you wouldn't really change cooking time.

The one other thing I'd say is that if you have a boneless butt, cutting it is difficult because the way it's cut to remove the bone means that one end of it is already kinda hacked up. And if you have a bone-in butt, cutting it in half without a band saw might be difficult lol.

 

[kev211]

Thanks for the pointers guys. I think in this case I'm not super concerned about losing a little moisture since I'm gonna be using the meat to make tamales for Xmas.

 

[CGVT]

I did a turkey breast on the Weber yesterday. I usually wet brine turkeys but I dry brined this one. It was really good. My son said it was the best that we have had. I think I am sold on dry brining. So much less of a hassle and it was really good and extremely moist.

 

[Schlenkerla]

You can definitely do that. If you go to the grocery store often you'll get partial butts in the 4# range, and they cook up nicely.

That said I agree with jammin above that you might end up sacrificing a little moisture. You're giving it a higher surface area to volume ratio, which means more bark but also means more surface area for moisture to escape.

But I don't think that's a big deal if you take an 8# butt and cut it in half, if you're pressed for cook time. If you tried to go more extreme, like cutting it into 4x 2# pieces, I think at that point the downside would outweigh the shorter cook time.

However, note one thing: cook time isn't based on weight so much as it's based on shape. As Amazingribs says:

So you might find that you end up cutting it in half and the cook time stays pretty well constant, in which case you've done absolutely nothing of a favor for yourself by cutting. I.e. in the example above, if you had the 4" diameter 10" long piece of meat and you cut it into two 5" lengths, you really haven't changed cooking time. Given the shape of a typical butt, if you cut it crosswise rather than lengthwise, I think you wouldn't really change cooking time.

The one other thing I'd say is that if you have a boneless butt, cutting it is difficult because the way it's cut to remove the bone means that one end of it is already kinda hacked up. And if you have a bone-in butt, cutting it in half without a band saw might be difficult lol.

I need to remember this....

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Smoked prime rib might be my favorite thing ever [emoji16][emoji482]

 

[kev211]

Got an amazen pellet tray for Xmas. First task... Smoked almonds

 

[Jayjay1976]

I'm hoping to have mine smoked in advance of the weekend. Then on Saturday perhaps a brisket, too.

 

[brewerJase]

I did a turkey breast on the Weber yesterday. I usually wet brine turkeys but I dry brined this one. It was really good. My son said it was the best that we have had. I think I am sold on dry brining. So much less of a hassle and it was really good and extremely moist.

View attachment 551070

Is that an upside down rib rack? If so,great idea.

 

[applescrap]

Arghh, no picture yet but smoked a ny top loin, I think its called. Took a long time to smoke for its size and was awesome, I loved it. Will upload pics tomorrow. The usual, cherry and hickory. The cherry was particularly nice with this meat.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Is that an upside down rib rack? If so,great idea.

Pretty sure it's just a roasting pan insert. But guess what my roasting pan insert just became? Thanks for the idea @brewerJase [emoji482]

 

[CGVT]

Is that an upside down rib rack? If so,great idea.

No, it's a rack from a roaster pan. A low quality pan with a rack is really cheap.

This one is twenty bucks on Amazon. (Of course, you can buy a rack without the pan for about the same price)

 

[JonM]

Nothing on the WSM right now but I did receive as a gift a Flame Boss 300 controller. I can tell already this thing is gonna be awesome - it connects to a phone or computer by WiFi and I can monitor the pit and food temp AND control the pit temperature remotely. Pretty sweet.

 

[jtp137]

Just finished some ribs and some poor mans burnt ends. I will never smoke meat again when it is this cold outside what a pain keeping temps

 

[HoppyDaze]

Get a ceramic smoker!

 

[stosh]

Smoked 5lbs of my brown sugar bourbon bacon today.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Smoked 5lbs of my brown sugar bourbon bacon today.

Recipe please!