Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Damn nice rub Adam...looks great!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks guys. Luke, I blame you for getting me hooked on those, those ribs are just uber-delicious, but holy moley, I do not even want to think about what the fat content in them is.


On another note - just put 2lbs of cheddar over alder wood on for the Fresno herf at the end of September.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Wow!
A month long smoke?

. On cheese!?!








:r

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

:r:r:r:r

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Due to the RUN of no posting for nearly a week, I cooked some stuff today. After trimming up four racks
of ribs a few weeks back, I had bags and bags of trimmins in the freezer. I cooked up a chuck roaast and a big
bag of trimmins. Not the same obviously, but I have been itchin to cook. I will not be doing anymore chuck
roasts in the smoker. I just do not care for the flavor. Something about pork just works. Maybe it's the fat.
In the morning I am gonna rub up some chicken legs and grill em up. Cannot abide smoked chicken skin.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Yeah - I've been mostly grilling of late. Smoking some stuff since the last batch of lamb, but it was the soldering iron in the tin can cold smoke dealliewhopper. Have 4lbs of cheese done and bagged so far. 2 lbs cheddar smoked with alder and 2lbs pepper jack with almond, most of it for the Fresno herf next month. I think I pulled an OLS and forgot to take photos though.

Going to do some sharp cheddar next week, haven't decided what wood yet though. Maybe I'll shoot a photo - although I have to admit, photos of cheese on a smoker are about as boring as watching paint dry.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

So... my wife had it in her head that she didn't want me to have a smoker. So, I was thinking I would try smoking on the great gas grill I already have. But the more I read and heard about this, the less excited I was. It just wasn't going to compare. So... we compromised and I bought a great Weber 22.5" charcoal grill... PLUS, I have the Smokenator coming in the mail!!!

http://smokenator.com/ I could not be any more excited. :D

I was REALLY hoping that the Smokenator would show up in the mail today, but no dice. Now... with us going to the shore for Labor Day weekend, I will probably have to a wait a full TWO WEEKS before I get to use this beautiful new setup... :( SUCKS! :td

My plan is to smoke my first Pork Butt... maybe two. I've been looking for good rub recipes all over the net. The reason I'm thinking to make to is to be able to do one on the sweeter side, and one on the spicier side. Any exceptional Pork Butt rub recipes would be appreciated.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

WOW... Brent, I'm SO Jealous of this!... I am new to all this smoker stuff, but I was just checking out the Spicewine website... AMAZING! :tu So, which one do you have?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

At the end of the day, the smokinator isn't all that different than what a few of us are doing with firebricks in our Weber's. My two main recommendations are to mark your vent positions on the shield around the vent handle with a marker (if you have an OTG) or right on the side of the grill body with one of the silver markers (if you have an OTS). Mark your vents at 25%, 50%, 75% and the moment the vane clears and you get 100% open.

Two - don't be afraid to close the vent down to 0% if you need to keep temps down. The weber one-touch kettles leak air, so 0% on the inlets won't actually kill your fire.

As for recipes, here are some on the Virtual Bullet site to get you started:
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/cook.html#pork

Most of those recipes adapt to the modified kettle smokers quite well, except for the vent positions (temps are the same, vent positions aren't),

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

It's funny that the weather has begun to show signs of serious improvement, and maybe that's
why the sudden lack of enthusiasm for smoking. A well-tuned smoker allowed us to sit inside
while the work was being done outside. Now it's more fun to be outside, so I think folks are
doing things they wouldn't dare do last month. Fishing, golf, walking, jogging, biking,
archery, lol. I actually sat there and watched my chicken legs grill last night. It was NOT hot.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Had some friends over so decided to do up some beef ribs.

Made two types up.

The first were Kicking Horse Long Bones the other are more of a Kansas Sweet style. I like the Kicking Horse as they provide a little more spice whereas the kids seem to gravitate to the Kansas ones (more brown sugar and molasses)

For prep I rubbed down all three racks (split in half for fit on the Weber SM) and wrapped them and let them sit overnight. The Kicking Horse get a rub the Sweet get a marinade.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/IMG_4021.jpg


Onto the smoker at about noon for dinner at 6, low and slow (225 or even a little less) for 3 hours then baste them about every 30 to 45 minutes for 2 hours with apple cider and dark lager for the Sweet and apple cider vinegar, hotsauce and bourbon for the Kicking Horse.

At about the 5 hr mark they get a generous portion of SweetNSmokey Sauce (one of Raichlens recipes if I remember) then my own Kicking Horse Sauce.
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/IMG_4028.jpg

Give em a half hour, re-sauce and move to to the grill for a little glazing.

Then wrap em and let em sit for 15 minutes. Cut them to singles for serving.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/IMG_4039.jpg

And then I served em up with Firegrilled Herbed Potatos, Grilled Corn on the Cob, and Grilled Veg.

The ribs were awesome.


http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/IMG_4040.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Great looking food there Shawn.





I would have to agree with you Brad. Another thing is that maybe we don't plan far enough in advance or with so much else that can be done, we can't guarantee our schedules right now to allow us to set up cook, leave and come back at a predetermined time.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Looks great Silver Fox! Thanks for sharing.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Yeah, they are an awesome cooker and I absolutely love min. The one I have is a medium. I have an extra rack for a total of 4 racks. I also had a charcoal maze made. It is a U shaped maze. I light the top left and let her chug. I can usually get between 18-20 hours of cook time on one maze of charcoal, but I have gotten as much as 25 hours.

Shawn... killer looking dino bones brother!!! They are one of my favorites.:tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Brent, I'm curious, can you take a guess at the capacity (weight) of charcoal that your maze holds to get those kind of cook times? Also, how deep is the stack?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I tell u what tho, Brent, just WAIT for football season. Put on your meat, watch some
SEC football, and either check or pull your meat for game 2. And if we are lucky, a 3rd night game.
Hooowee, am I ready for some football. Poor LSU, they are gonna suck something awful.
Except the wide receivers.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

This was from last week. We had a small party and I cut up about 20 pounds of beef tenderloin (gotta love Costco) and threw them on the grill. Fed about about 35 people.
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...1/IMG_4628.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

One of the real, meaty pleasures in life is cutting up a whole tenderloin.
I would NEVER give a butcher the fun. BUT buyer beware, not all
tenderloin in a bag is all that great. I saw a great sale at Piggly Wiggly
one week and I bought two, I mean, I couldn't afford NOT TO. But
USDA Choice and USDA inspected are two very different things, lol.
How in the hell they can see inside that strap is beyond me.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

WOW... that's like an entire cow... ;) Nice job :tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

HI-yo medium Bone spare ribs just wen't onsale at Piggly Wiggly, as did 2 butts in a bag.
I think it's fair to say it's on like Donkey kong. And the freezer gets filled up, too, cause
I just found a hidden hundred in my console.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I usually will put 4-5 fist sized chunks of wood and then fill the maze with charcoal. It usually takes about 10 lbs of charcoal to fully fill the maze. The maze is about 5 inches deep.

I just had to send my camera off for repairs. When it gets back I will take a pic of it and post it.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I've got the day off Friday so last night I picked up a 10 lb. brisket and an 8 lb butt to smoke.

I've done one other brisket, but it's my first pork butt.

Figure I'll get up early when my girlfriend gets up for work - 5:30-ish, and get started. I've got plenty of work around the house to do, so it should be a productive day!

Woo hoo! :tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Great looking meat. I just wish I knew 35 people.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Picked up 5 lbs of hamburger meat, a rack of dino bones and 5 racks of ribs. Still need
to get out tomorrow and get another cryo of ribs. As many as I run through, they really
need to be gotten onsale. :D Looking forward to light off.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Doing either Brisket or Pulled Pork this weekend.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Being from Alabama I almost feel embarassed to admit it, but I've never personally owned a smoker. Well, the old birthday was yesterday and I solved that problem. Told the Missus I wanted a Weber Smokey Mountain and she had her wrapped up and waiting for me when I got home last night. It's been driving me crazy for a long, long time. Not anymore.

And I figure about the time I get her almost perfected I'll be about ready to build my outdoor kitchen complete with a built in Green Egg. At least that's the game plan. -(P

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Webber Smokey Mountain is where I cut my teeth on the art of backyard BBQ. I now have a Large Big Green Egg and am thrilled to death with it. Enjoy that webber. It is a helluva smoker. I still have mine and use it occasionally for overflow.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

:tu:tu:banger

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Dont forget to wipe down the inside and run some smoke for a couple of hours to season it before cooking any meat in there. :tu
Good Luck!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Nice man! Pics are soon to come I hope.

I got two nice size (8-9lb a piece) boston butts in the brine right now. Will start smoking them about 6pm tomorrow and they should be done by morning. Then ill throw the 3 racks of ribs on.

Never brined ribs before and want to try.. how long do you guys suggest? I figured half the time of a butt (which i do for 24hr) since they are much smaller in thickness.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Richie... (drawn out to about 5 syllables). You need to bring that up here, hang out with me, cook overnight, drink a little Jim Beam, smoke a few smokes, and let me show the art of cooking on a WSM:tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

:banger:banger do it richie!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I've never brined ribs before, I probably wouldn't brine them at all, but let's say I were to...

There isn't that much meat on ribs nor is it that thick, so maybe 2-4 hours for BB, 4-6 for spares is probably all I would do, at least the first time.

I look at it this way, if I under brine them, then it's no loss, I can still eat them and I can always do it longer next time. But if I over brine them, they won't be edible and I just wasted a rack (or more).

Also, keep in mind I don't know how strong you make your brines.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Tomorrow will be beef ribs. Letting them marinade overnight in a vidalia onion bar-b-que sauce I got in Peach Co Georgia:tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

THAT, sounds like an offer NOT to refuse!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

good advice. i might do 1 rack in a brine to see how it turns out

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I just pulled 2 butts off the smoker and omg they turned out good. I think i hit the money on teh brine, i made it a bit stronger than i normally do which i think paid off because this meat is to die for! even my wife at 1am was like holy crap. im tired and I already wrapped them up in foil to rest for the remainder of the night, but ill post a pic tomm, i got a great smoke ring in it as well from teh soaked hickory i used.

I just had to post real quick not to brag but more to give a praise to CA folks and their mad cooking skills. If it werent for you guys, i wouldnt be so obsessed with making good quality tasting bbq and ribs and would have never known about doing brines at all! Thank you all. Now its time for bed. /delirious out

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I love hearing a good "well, I had an idea, and so I experimented with it and WOW it came out great!" story. :tu :tu :tu

What did you use in the brine besides salt?

BTW, I've noticed that some woods leave more pronounced smoke rings than others. I think the most pronounced ones that I've had were from cherry, but hickory was definately up there too.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Stop and Shop has brisket on sale this week. Picked up a 4.5 lb to cook tomorrow morning.

As a refresher, what is my time calc for WSM? I thought it was 75 min a lb? I usually wrap the last 90 minutes.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Waiting on an 8lb Boston Butt to finish off. I was shooting for an 18 hour cook a about 215-220, butt I think the fire stoked itself overnight. I woke up to 237* at the grate. Meat temp is now 187. Dumped the temp back down. Sitting at 215* not with the meat at 192.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I'm about to fire up the UDS and I have a couple Chuckies to toss on that sumb!tch.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Chuckies rule!!!! Best of luck on the cook!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Whats a UDS?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I cooked up my brine in about 1/2 gallon of water on the stove, but put enoguh ingredients for 3 gallons since I was pouring it directly over ice to melt and dilute it.

I used salt, black pepper, rosemary, thyme, garlic and onion powder, some bbq seasoning (cheap stuff from the store), crushed red pepper flakes, and i think thats about it.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Oh duh i forgot a major part, a healthy dose of syrup to bring in some sugar to the brine which i honestly dont know if it makes a difference or not on the syrup but im sticking with whats working :p

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Ugly Drum Smoker, sometimes alternately called Upright Drum Smoker.

A 55gal drum that's been turned into a smoker.


Off the top of my head, kgoings, gonesledn and bigash have them (they aren't the only ones, just the only ones I can remember right this second) and they have a few photos of them scattered in the thread.

Wes has some photos of the construction of his here:
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showth...ight=gonesledn

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Nice ingredient list. I use a very small amount of thyme in most of my BBQ rubs too, opens up a whole new set of flavors.

Maple syrup? or corn syrup?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

here is mine... home made of course.

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...0MTAtMTMzM.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...0MTAtMTMzM.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...1MDEtMTkyO.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...1MDgtMTM1N.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Hey, I didn't say your name 3 times while looking in a mirror...