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Who's smoking meat this weekend?

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Having cooked various steaks with just about every possible form of heat, I decided to throw a few thick NY Strips in the smoker for dinner for myself and the kids last night.

1 1/2 hours @ 225 then to the cast iron skillet on the side burner of the gas grill for a sear.

Smoke ring on a steak was different, but they were VERY tasty.
 
Bacon! Hickory and Cherry for 3.5 hrs to 150.
Running a little on the hot side. Overshot my temp and struggled keeping it under 240. Was wanting to be closer to 210 and a 5.5hr smoke.
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I can run my smoker at 225F in the winter but getting it under 250F in the summer seems impossible. I think I'll just stick to making bacon in the winter.
 
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Pork Butt on the smoker getting ready for the 4th of July Party
 
I wanted to talk about microwave finish. Man the reheat on the ribs vacuum sealed from the freezer was killer. Have any of you noticed that that final reheat in the microwave can really render all that fat quickly. I think with ribs especially a last minute blast before serving can take them right where you want them instantaneously. You could pull them over an hour underdone and boom. Finish them like you wrapped them for 2 hours in a minute, without the boiled aspect. Have noticed the same with pork butt etc. Anyone ever notice how great microwave render and reheat.
 
6hr 40 min, flat out. Hickory and cherry and heavy kosher salt. Trimmed to an eighth inch around as aerodynamic as possible and quick. Cut into flat and point. The point is still cooking. Now get me away before I take it down standing here.
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Cut the point up cold. Easy to see fat from meat. Cut out big pieces of fat, scraped a lot out too. Then chopped it up. Nothing but olive oil and salt. It made a massive pile. So stoked to cook with it. Here you can see it was pretty tender. Dang, I was nibbling like a delirious fool.
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Wrapping at the end, last 2 hrs, gave me the best pork spare ribs I ever made. Swmbo hates pork and kept going back for more of these.
Traps some mosture, and makes your cut falling off the bone tender. Kinda steams it.
Not sure about the cooler bit...
 
The primary reason to wrap is it kills the stall--which is caused by evaporative cooling. Without ready access to atmosphere, evaporation is limited because you quickly hit 100% humidity, and you can continue to drive heat into the meat.

That said I generally don't wrap--even though that means I sometimes have a brisket stall for 8 hours. :eek:
 
I wanted to try not wrapping during cooking but afterwards while resting. The two main reasons I let it rest in the cooler after hitting temp. Our guests weren’t coming over for a couple hours. Amazingribs website said to rest in a faux cambro before slicing and serving. My non expert thoughts are it is like resting a steak except for longer, it helps the moisture and meat juices go back into the meat so you don’t lose it all when slicing. It was delicious, whether that was helped from the rest or not I’m not sure.
 
Depending on the size I just cover with foil when done, sometimes in a steam tray--cooler not required. A brisket will still be hot after 3 hours, a pork shoulder much longer than that.
 
Pork steaks with garlic and cracked pepper, hamburgers and Kawolski polish sausage and sipping on Dirty Bastard and Dirty Blonde.
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