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Smoking Food Thread

JDawg said:
I got my friend's dad's old smoker since he bought a new one. I've never used one before. I'm really excited, but tell me what to do.
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Don't use instant charcoal, but instead buy a Weber chimney for lighting the coals.

Meat, wood, simple rubs, low and slow cooking, and beer. Oh, and always try to buy natural meat vs. enhanced flavored meats. I like to control the amount of salt/sodium in my food. For example, with Smithfield pork products (ribs, butts, etc), you would want to buy the red label as opposed to the blue label. For ribs, Lowes generally carries the red label whereas Harris Teeter carries the blue.
 
JDawg said:
I got my friend's dad's old smoker since he bought a new one. I've never used one before. I'm really excited, but tell me what to do.
Click to expand...

ddeacs98 said:
Don't use instant charcoal, but instead buy a Weber chimney for lighting the coals.

Meat, wood, simple rubs, low and slow cooking, and beer. Oh, and always try to buy natural meat vs. enhanced flavored meats. I like to control the amount of salt/sodium in my food. For example, with Smithfield pork products (ribs, butts, etc), you would want to buy the red label as opposed to the blue label. For ribs, Lowes generally carries the red label whereas Harris Teeter carries the blue.
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In addition to what ddeacs98 said, get lump charcoal versus briquettes. Just a personal preference. The first post of this thread is a good place to pair up wood with different meats. I typically inject my butts and shoulders with apple juice, but after this weekend I'm not too sure I'll keep doing that on my wood smoker. Too much moisture in the meat at the end. I buy all my meat from Costco. Its pure, unadulterated, and you cant beat the price.
 
I finally got around to uploading some of the pics from the last few weeks cooks.


A mixture of the 5 butts and 12 racks of ribs I did for a family event.


Ribs from the UNC Tailgate.




After that last cook, I took took the torch and lit up the chamber getting it flaming hot. I burned out a lot of the grease and seasoning that 3+ years of using the smoker had left in the chamber. It was the best smelling grease fire I've ever been close to. Washed it out, re-seasoned it and we're ready to rock it again. I'm doing some brisket for the Clemson game, since we'll have all day to kill. Any other ideas of interesting things to smoke? I've done pretty much all of the standard meats, anyone smoked something more exotic?
 
tsywake said:
I'm doing some brisket for the Clemson game, since we'll have all day to kill. Any other ideas of interesting things to smoke? I've done pretty much all of the standard meats, anyone smoked something more exotic?
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Good point. I might have to do the same. I like 11 hours minimum on a full packer if I don't foil, so it will still be an early morning.

Did 4 butts for the Army game. Only smoked them 8.5 hours due to the start time and had to chop them because they weren't fall apart done like my normal 11-12 hour smokes.
 
Since our tailgate spot is prime territory for the Pepsi/AON parking, we're planning on setting up shop at 8am to beat the work traffic. Last time I cooked brisket it was done in 6.5 hours, so I'll most likely put it on mid morning.
 
tsywake said:
Last time I cooked brisket it was done in 6.5 hours, so I'll most likely put it on mid morning.
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Wow. Flat or whole packer?

I've got to figure out your trick for getting things done so quick. Even running higher temps, I don't like the way butts turn out after less than 10 hours of cooking.
 
TWDeac said:
TSY. Think you can get your hands on some camel?
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Hmm...wonder if camels have good fat stores for energy to go along with their water storage. Good fat content is the key to cuts of meat that work well for low/slow cooking.
 
Chickens are .69 lb (limit 4) and shoulders are $1.49 lb (limit 2)at the HT in Raleigh this week. Looks like a couple of shoulders this weekend and some beer can chickens in the near future.
 
tsy - You said you buy a lot of your meat from Costco. I bought a couple cryo'ed two packs of butts this past weekend from the W-S Costco and opened them up to find out they were boneless. Any luck getting bone-in pork butts from Costco? If that something you can ask for? That may be another reason I didn't like the way mine turned out this weekend. The bones add flavor and heat up quick to help cook from the inside out.
 
RacerDeac said:
Wow. Flat or whole packer?

I've got to figure out your trick for getting things done so quick. Even running higher temps, I don't like the way butts turn out after less than 10 hours of cooking.
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That's doing the whole packer. Costco is a great place to get them btw. I never could cook it that fast with charcoal without drying it out though. I've found that using just wood is much more forgivable than charcoal. Of all my cooks, I've only overcooked the meat once, and it was some ribs that I'd forgotten about because I was drunk and talking to someone for an extra hour. The only thing I can figure is there is a small amount of moisture left in the wood that is released when it is burned that makes the smoke a little less dry than plain charcoal. I used to inject my butts/hogs/large briskets, but I honestly think I'm going to give up that technique. The last butts I did (picture above) had juice pouring out of them when I finished, which was a little too soggy for my tastes.

TWDeac said:
TSY. Think you can get your hands on some camel?
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I've seen lots of cameltoe at the tailgates walking by, but never any camel.
 
tsywake said:
That's doing the whole packer. Costco is a great place to get them btw. I never could cook it that fast with charcoal without drying it out though. I've found that using just wood is much more forgivable than charcoal. Of all my cooks, I've only overcooked the meat once, and it was some ribs that I'd forgotten about because I was drunk and talking to someone for an extra hour. The only thing I can figure is there is a small amount of moisture left in the wood that is released when it is burned that makes the smoke a little less dry than plain charcoal. I used to inject my butts/hogs/large briskets, but I honestly think I'm going to give up that technique. The last butts I did (picture above) had juice pouring out of them when I finished, which was a little too soggy for my tastes.
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I only inject fowl...and only if I didn't have time for a proper brine. The other smoking meats have plenty of moisture to be rendered out in their fat anyway IMO.

See question above about Costco meat source. Similarly, I didn't see any full packer briskets on display but I've heard you can typically ask for them. Up until now, I've bought my briskets at Walmart/Sams, but Costco has Choice cuts, so I'd rather buy there if available.
 
RacerDeac said:
tsy - You said you buy a lot of your meat from Costco. I bought a couple cryo'ed two packs of butts this past weekend from the W-S Costco and opened them up to find out they were boneless. Any luck getting bone-in pork butts from Costco? If that something you can ask for? That may be another reason I didn't like the way mine turned out this weekend. The bones add flavor and heat up quick to help cook from the inside out.
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Butts and shoulders are the only thing I dont like getting from Costco. Those were actually from Lowes. I get all mine from Shulers, mainly because they are bone in.
 
tsywake said:
Butts and shoulders are the only thing I dont like getting from Costco. Those were actually from Lowes. I get all mine from Shulers, mainly because they are bone in.
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Makes sense...I ended up having to tie these up. Sucked. I'll try asking to see if they have any bone-in butts in the back next time I'm at Costco.
 
I asked them for some bone in one time and they said that's how they get them from the supplier. His reasoning scarred me. Most of their butt business is women who buy them to cook in crock pots.

I dont even like injecting birds. The only ones I've ever done were some turkeys I did one time, but the brine worked so much better.
 
One thing I forgot to mention. Check out Myron Mixon's philosophy on smoking. Its unorthodox, but you can deny his results.
 
tsywake said:
I dont even like injecting birds. The only ones I've ever done were some turkeys I did one time, but the brine worked so much better.
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No doubt. It's a hail mary play for when someone wants me to smoke a bird that hasn't spent the last night in a salt bath.
 
tsy, What's your method of determining when ribs are done. I've gone to long lately and they aren't bad but drier then I wanted. With the meat so close to the bone I can't get a very accurate read from a meat thermometer. Any advice?
 
Wuffey said:
tsy, What's your method of determining when ribs are done. I've gone to long lately and they aren't bad but drier then I wanted. With the meat so close to the bone I can't get a very accurate read from a meat thermometer. Any advice?
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I'm not tsy, but for me, it's all about feel. Grab a bone and see how things feel. Temp is worthless for ribs. Even on butts, I only use temp to know when I need to start checking the "feel" of the bone. Brisket and birds are a little different...I rely on temp almost exclusively since feel is hard to determine there.
 
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