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Smoking Food Thread

Captruss, do you have the smoker boxes to indirectly cook on the 22.5" kettle? Good luck, and take lots of pictures.

No, I use two fire bricks. They are just the right length to block off 1/3 of the charcoal grate.
 
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I will post pictures of the brisket when I get home tonight....can't upload them at work. And of course I got too busy entertaining once guests came over (and the alcohol had something to do with it), so I forgot to take pictures of the ribs and pulled pork!!!

But I'm thinking a tailgating brisket is now in order after this cook. Brisket is so less messy to prepare than pork butts and ribs, and at $2/lb, I'm thinking that may become my new go-to meat. I used The Salt Lick rub and it was powerful!! The meat was ready to come off the smoker by 10am (12 hrs), but it probably sat on a bit too long while we were preparing the ribs...didn't dry out but was not 'accordion-like' in the slices. Still...its worth investing more time into perfecting. The pictures of the brisket sandwich I will post later today....you can't buy that in the Triad.
 
Good deal captruss. I've still never tried a brisket. I did try smoked marlin down here in St Lucia, now I want to catch one and smoke it myself.
 
Don't listen to TSY. He is TOO HANDY!! For less DIY-inclined people, the best option is to get three bricks and a weber Smokey Joe (tiny kettle grill). Assemble the brinkman with the "legs" on the outside of the chamber and just put the brinkman over the assembled and roaring Smokey Joe Kettle.

Smoking Meat Forums should have some pictures. This other forum that I can't vouch for has this thread on the topic.

Oh snap....that is genius, I did the mod that TSY mentioned and it is an essential improvement but adding the Smokey Joe looks like the mod of all mods for the Brinkman.
 
I'm the Cesar Millan of Beer Can Chicken. That is all.
 
Entering the foray here.

I have grilled on a weber kettle for years and years. I was going to buy a barrel smoker but dont have very much room (we are in an apartment with a small balcony) so the wife didnt want to take it all up. Instead I was convinced to buy a Big Green Egg (expensive I know). So I am now using the bge for smoking and just normal every day grilling.

I actually do not have much experience smoking, the only slow cooking I have done is ribs, I typically rub and then sauce.

I smoked my first Pork Shoulder two weekends ago on the grill and had moderate success (everyone said it was good but I wasnt happy with it). I put a thick rub on it and then cooked it at about 230 for 9 hours. I had trouble getting the temp of the grill to stay constant (this was my first try). The meat didnt pull apart as easily as it should have.

I used lump hardwood charcoal with no wood.

I buy most of my meats from costco.

I will certainly be trying again in the near future.

Did some chicken a few nights ago with a new sauce...I was ok on the sauce (tomato based)

I did a whole snapper last night that I stuffed with lemon, dill, garlic, and green onion. It turned out great.
 
Twin cities, did you check the internal temp of the meat with a meat thermometer? Anything below 190 and it won't pull apart the way most people expect. It's next to impossible to cook consistently using time and temperature alone. I've had small butts/shoulders take much longer than cuts much larger before. Depending on the consistency of the meat, some will cook faster than others.

Congrats on the BGE. It's such a versatile cooker.
 
Twin cities, did you check the internal temp of the meat with a meat thermometer? Anything below 190 and it won't pull apart the way most people expect. It's next to impossible to cook consistently using time and temperature alone. I've had small butts/shoulders take much longer than cuts much larger before. Depending on the consistency of the meat, some will cook faster than others.

Congrats on the BGE. It's such a versatile cooker.

Those BGE's look sweet. I look forward to my next rationalized purchase. I can't wait to manufacture an excuse to buy one of those.

One thing I harbor some regret is the cleaning process on my grill for my barrell smoker. On the old Weber, I'd just crank that baby up to hotter than hot and scrape the searing on grates clean with a long-handled brush right before dropping the meat. With the smoker, the fire is in the firebox, and I don't know if I ever get the chamber hot enough to sanitize with ambient heat. Having to haul those things inside while the fire heats is annoying.
 
I did have a temp gauge on the meat. I didnt bring it up that high though, I was worried about over cooking and drying it out (I had seen people say anywhere from 150-160 for internal temp). Do you always cook it up to 190?

The BGE is already great. I have had it for about 2-3 weeks now and have cooked on it 5 times. I really do think it will prove to be incredibly versatile.

The temp range is great and I am getting used to the temp control on it, I have had it up to about 700 and as low as 200 so far. I have kind of been playing with it to see how to control temps.

I am really looking forward to more smoking on it. I want to do another butt and get it right, also looking forward to a turkey, I have heard a slow cooked smoked turkey is amazing. SOO many possibilities.

I think the next purchase may be the pizza stone for the grill.
 
One thing I harbor some regret is the cleaning process on my grill for my barrell smoker. On the old Weber, I'd just crank that baby up to hotter than hot and scrape the searing on grates clean with a long-handled brush right before dropping the meat. With the smoker, the fire is in the firebox, and I don't know if I ever get the chamber hot enough to sanitize with ambient heat. Having to haul those things inside while the fire heats is annoying.

Pick up a weed burner. For a barrel smoker, the one on the left would be sufficient, but I use the larger one (hooked up to a larger propane tank) on the right on mine. It'll heat up your grate in a matter of seconds and allow you to scrape it off without having to put forth a ton of effort. Plus, it also sounds like a jet engine when you fire it up. You should have seen the looks we got when we started cleaning our smoker at Ribfest.

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I did have a temp gauge on the meat. I didnt bring it up that high though, I was worried about over cooking and drying it out (I had seen people say anywhere from 150-160 for internal temp). Do you always cook it up to 190?

When I want to chop my pork, I'll cook it to 165, but in order to make it fall apart in your hands you'll have to get it up to 190. Its at that point the connective tissues in the meat break down and make it so tender. As long as you keep your cooking temperatures within range, you shouldnt have to worry about it drying out. You'll get some barking and the smoke ring on the outer portions of the meat, but that is also where you have the most flavor.
 
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Nice,

I will let you know how the next one goes, with pics. I noticed a post about the membrane on ribs from Costco. I am pretty sure it is already removed. I always get mine from costco as well and have spent time trying to find it to get it off to no avail. I am pretty sure they take care of it.
 
I took off 4" from my firebox yesterday afternoon so I'd be able to lower the height of the smoker. The cooking level was 42" off the floor of the trailer, which meant I had to almost touch the chamber to reach the back of the grate. I'm anxious to see how the airflow is compared to before since the number and size of the air holes were designed for the previous dimensions. My hope is that it wont change very much, but we'll see.

I really, really really want to smoke some leg of lamb.....
 
Yeah, we can try it. It would have to be one of the evening games though, because it'd take between 10-12 hours to smoke. I've never done one before, so it would be a fun thing to try.

Trailer standing should not be affected. We'll just enter and exit the trailer from a different area.
 
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