Who's smoking meat this weekend?

[corkybstewart]

One of my French nephews rented this portable brick bread oven for his daughter's 18th birthday. Not for meat but still a really cool contraption. They used it to bake a French version of pitas for a variety of meats and other fillings.

 

[ehall]

Bacon, bacon, ribs, ribs, bacon, bacon. Couldn't decide whether to put the ribs over bacon or vice versa.

I can attest that bacon over ribs helps ribs!

 

[DBhomebrew]

I can attest that bacon over ribs helps ribs!

Yes! And rib bones drip unsightly dark stuff on things below. Big ol' red-black splotches.

TL/DR: Bacon over ribs.

 

[Dgallo]

Took my first stab at hot and fast method that @betarhoalphadelta talks about. I think it’s just as good. Progress shots

 

[Golddiggie]

Didn't take any pictures, but did up a brisket on the BGE starting last night. Went on at 11pm and the flat came off at about 11am. Point came off about an hour later. Had five people over to share it with, along with my homebrew on tap (six recipes on tap currently). Both were huge hits. I actually have enough brisket left to make chili with. Which I was hoping for. That's even with giving people some to take home (gave away the rest of the point cut).

Brisket was 12.8# trimmed. Used my normal sugar maple and black cherry chunks. I also had some beef back ribs that I put on when the brisket came off. Added one small chunk of both woods for that.

Got lucky and the rain held off, or wasn't all that much, for the day.

 

[cfrazier77]

Last weekend, smoked prime rib.

 

[applescrap]

Didn't take any pictures, but did up a brisket on the BGE starting last night. Went on at 11pm and the flat came off at about 11am. Point came off about an hour later. Had five people over to share it with, along with my homebrew on tap (six recipes on tap currently). Both were huge hits. I actually have enough brisket left to make chili with. Which I was hoping for. That's even with giving people some to take home (gave away the rest of the point cut).

Brisket was 12.8# trimmed. Used my normal sugar maple and black cherry chunks. I also had some beef back ribs that I put on when the brisket came off. Added one small chunk of both woods for that.

Got lucky and the rain held off, or wasn't all that much, for the day.

Sugar maple and black cherry, cool, I would give it a try for sure. Not sure where to get chunks like that, but suppose internet.

 

[Golddiggie]

Sugar maple and black cherry, cool, I would give it a try for sure. Not sure where to get chunks like that, but suppose internet.

Maine Grilling Woods is my supplier. Free UPS Ground shipping.
I just looked at their site and it's messed up. Called them so that they know and calls are being placed to find out WTF is going on. I guess no one else has called them with the info. So it's either just happened, or happened overnight. I need to place an order with them soon since I'm getting low on chunks.

Just looked, their web site is back up and running normally. I get the two pack of 900 cubic inch bags every order. One of each type of wood. Smoking Wood Chunks I find the combination is great for everything I smoke.

 

[jrgtr42]

Yeah, hot and fast. Typically shooting for somewhere in the 350 range.


But I've found that pork shoulder really takes to hot and fast with no downside. And if you get up >300, you're going to power through the stall very nicely and you can start cooking in the morning rather than having to sweat an overnight smoke.

So with that I wonder if there's any advantage to starting relatively low - in the 250 range, to get up the stall, then crank it up to finish up? Obviously it would take longer than starting high to begin with. but lower and slower I've found gets more on the smoke flavor deeper in (IME, anyway)
Just curious and going too the top of my head.

 

[Golddiggie]

So with that I wonder if there's any advantage to starting relatively low - in the 250 range, to get up the stall, then crank it up to finish up? Obviously it would take longer than starting high to begin with. but lower and slower I've found gets more on the smoke flavor deeper in (IME, anyway)
Just curious and going too the top of my head.

My last brisket cook (over the past weekend) was the first with the FlameBoss 500 setup. Before I went to sleep, I set the pit temp to 200F. It went all night without hitting the stall (started at 11pm, woke up around 7am). Turned it up to 225F and the flat was done about 11am and the point an hour (or so) later. I don't smoke/BBQ pork since it's not really something I eat anymore. I will be putting a turkey breast section on shortly, which I smoke at no more than 250F. I might go for 225F this time since the higher temp means you need to catch it at the right time (less forgiving with poultry).

With my current setup, I really don't worry about things. I put the charcoal in the BGE, get it running, add the wood as the meat goes on, then do other things until I get alerts. I did set alerts for the stall temperatures for the recent brisket. Then for the done temps, or when I needed to start checking on things. Low stress BBQ is the way to go.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

So with that I wonder if there's any advantage to starting relatively low - in the 250 range, to get up the stall, then crank it up to finish up? Obviously it would take longer than starting high to begin with. but lower and slower I've found gets more on the smoke flavor deeper in (IME, anyway)
Just curious and going too the top of my head.

Give it a shot. I think it would work just fine.

As for advantage, I think it might depend on a lot of things, including what type of smoker you're running. I've heard that pellet smokers tend to not produce enough smoke flavor at higher temps. I haven't found that to be an issue with my kamado, but that may be adding more smoke wood.

Conventional wisdom states that while the meat is at lower temp, it absorbs smoke more effectively, and that once you get to the stall, you're getting very little flavor added by the smoke. So if you believe that you'll get better smoke penetration going low and slow at the beginning and then choose to ramp it up to power through the stall and finish, I think that's a perfectly viable strategy.

 

[Golddiggie]

Current smoke going on (whole turkey breast section) via FlameBoss site (app isn't behaving on my phone).

I pull the turkey when it hits 158F. Letting it go higher (on the heat) means it's overdone. It will typically drift either to, or close to, 165F on the counter.

 

[crazyjake19]

I had a pork butt and a bunch of chicken wings ready for the smoker today. Unfortunately, life had other plans for me so they'll go into the freezer for a later smoking date.

 

[hout17]

Moving on from the Chargriller may throw a brisket in this weekend to smoke super excited! Some pellet action!

Well not quite moving on I've got a baffle and a seal kit to make the Chargriller a much better offset smoker. I plan on this new one to take on the smaller smoking tasks as I'm sure it will do the job really well!

 

[crazyjake19]

11 lb pork butt on my 14" Weber Smokey Mountain right now for some pulled pork nachos tonight and sandwiches next week. The rest will be vacuum sealed and frozen. Right now I'm prepping some tofu and seitan to throw on the smoker later for my vegetarian wife (I snack on those as well).

I was going to throw on a bunch of chicken wings, but I may save those for tomorrow as well as smoking a brick of cream cheese for a lazy Sunday of watching football and movies.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

10lb butt, was gonna use the traeger but wanted to bust out the masterbuilt for this one. Put on at 6am cause I was lazy and tired, shoulda been on at 4am.

 

[Broothru]

Currently visiting our Grand Twins, in addition to their parents, in SW Florida for a few weeks. Son-in-Law is a hard core low/slow barbecue artiste'. Yesterday was a Rib-Off with three racks of Baby Backs on the smoker along with a supporting cast of smoked salmon and turkey breast, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, and too much beer and wine.

SIL's entry was an 8 hour smoked rack at ~220F. Time and temperature were sacrificed for a more timely preparation time frame. My entry was a rack sous vide for 36 hours at 140F, then seasoned and finished for the final 2 hours on the smoker as the smoke and coals were subsiding.

By the time we got around to judging, the IPAs won. Oh, wait. The salmon was fantastic, the turkey was beyond superb. And the ribs? Aahh, the ribs!

Definitely a tie. Mine were exquisitely tender and juicy, but came up short with regard to barke and pink smoke ring from sodium nitrate in the wood smoke. SIL's entry not nearly as tender but had excellent depth of taste with great barke and internal color. They also were a bit dry, no doubt due to the compressed time frame (his face-saving rationale). For me the excuse was having to use 'unfamiliar' (by me) equipment.

But the real winners were the folks consuming the dinner. We'll be eating this for the next few days.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Good stuff @Brooothru

My wife loves sous vide ribs. I generally do 24 hours at 149, and then finish indirect on the grill with sauce for only about 30-45 minutes.

I'm more of a fan of traditional. I generally do a 3-1.5-0.5 for baby backs which gets a nice tender rack without some of the over-doneness I find with sous vide.

When I do three racks because we have the kids, I do traditional. When I do one rack because it's just my wife and I, I do sous vide...

 

[Broothru]

Good stuff @Brooothru

My wife loves sous vide ribs. I generally do 24 hours at 149, and then finish indirect on the grill with sauce for only about 30-45 minutes.

I'm more of a fan of traditional. I generally do a 3-1.5-0.5 for baby backs which gets a nice tender rack without some of the over-doneness I find with sous vide.

When I do three racks because we have the kids, I do traditional. When I do one rack because it's just my wife and I, I do sous vide...

There's a risk with over tenderizing ribs when sous vide cooking them. The biggest risk is if you brine the rack. The hack is to salt them with coarse sea salt instead of brining. I'll dust 'em with a rub, but not too much since the flavors really intensify with 30+ hours in the bag. Just before sealing, I add about a tablespoon of BBQ sauce.

The most delicious. ribs. ever.

 

[passedpawn]

Smoked fish spread. Nom nom.

 

[Kent88]

Cherry smoked half turkey

 

[Miller4]

Skipping the turkey this year and just put a brisket on.

 

[Broothru]

Skipping the turkey this year and just put a brisket on.View attachment 750130

Blasphemer!!

Brisket AND turkey AND salmon. If you're gonna' fire up the smoker, do it right.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

No turkey for us today... We actually did the turkey last Sunday.

Today will be a 10# standing rib roast.

 

[Kent88]

 

[Beerstein]

I smoked the “backup” turkey (the one in case the main turkey ran out). Yeah, it was the first one to go…

Need to convince the xyl to smoke the main bird next year.

 

[Knightshade]

Think I took this with about a hour to go with the smoke. 17lb bird, some dark meat leftover for soup. All the white meat is gone. Spatchcock that damn Turkey y’all. That is where it is at!!!

 

[Kent88]

I wish my spatchcocked birds looked that nice. That's a tv quality bird.

 

[DBhomebrew]

 

[JimRausch]

Smoked a Turkey breast as a supplement to the main bird done the traditional way.