Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Man i am dying to cook something, right now at 10pm...lol

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

All night smoke, I'm loving it!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Brisket on low now. Two whole chickens and 3 racks of ribs for early
tomorrow

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Chicken breasts with Penzey's Arizona Dreamin spice rub. 5 hours of smoke so far and will bring it up to about 400 to finish them off in about a half hour. Corn on the cob to go with.

Probably will do baby backs tomorrow.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

The spare ribs were great. I was eating off of one when it was still literally burning my mouth. I can't wait to fire up some more of these. It's looking like I'm going to have to get some sort of rib rack because it stinks only getting 2 per rack on the WSM22.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Not sure if I'm ever gonna do any baby backs. I think the spare ribs are great and half the price of the baby backs, but that's just my opinion.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Sounds like you're laying them flat. Roll them up, run a bamboo skewer through them and stand them on end. Should be able to get about 4-6 per grate that way.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I'm still a newb with this smoking/WSM thing. I was just looking at the racks on amazon, but don't know if they're thick enough to handle spare ribs.

I did pick up some nice sized bags of apple, oak, and hickory chunks today at Meijer though. Can't wait to fire this thing up again already.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

We were all newbs once. Heck, for years I cooked ribs flat before someone told me about the skewer method for when I needed more capacity on the grates. As for the amazon racks, I have no clue what their capacity is.

Sweet pickup on the wood - you should easily be able to taste the differences between those three woods. From there it's just figuring out what wood(s) you like with what meats.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks for sharing :rolleyes:

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I said the same thing. And I meant it. I like spares fine. They are on sale more frequently. They are pork.
And then you eat baby backs. You see the smoke penetrate to the bone. You hear the raves from people who eat em.
You eat some and agree with them. You wait for sales on BBRs like a girl waiting for her prom date to arrive.
There is nothing wrong with spare ribs. I am confident that you will eat many of them. But make sure and write
a similar post when you change your tune a bit.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

If you want a real treat (IMO) ask your butcher to get you a rib roast!!! Thats the baby backs with the loin still attached. The outer meat taste's like a cross between the tenderloin and pork chops then you get the baby backs for desert...LOL!!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I love you.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

smoking 2 pork butts, a brisket and a Tat havana VI nobles

[IMG]http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...-43-34_671.jpg[/IMG]

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I love the nobles. they're my every day smoke. great for yard work, grillin, whatever. gotta pick some more up soon though, i'm almost out.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I will be smoking 2 racks of beef ribs and a rack of BB's, along with a few ABT's on my under experimentation, modified set up with a 10" charcoal basket, a rotis ring, and some rope gasket on my 22" kettle this evening.

Apple wood problem?
 

Hi gents! Hope you're enjoying a fine Saturday morning...

I recently had an oportunity to harvest several large branches of apple wood from tree that had been uprooted last fall. The tree was tossed on a large burn pile on my parent's cabin property, so I grabbed dad's chain saw and proceeded to cut small 3" diameter logs approx 6 - 12" long. I then used a small hatchet to remove most of the bark. ...in case you're wondering the chain was not recently oiled and it appeared quite dry.

So I return home several days later and decided to cook my first tri-tip on my Big Steeel Keg. The roast itself was cooked flawlessly. I wasn't expecting too much from this stringy cut of meat, but it cooked well beyond my expectations....BUT there was a foul smoke taste that I just can't quite figure out. This was my first time putting larger logs in my charcoal, so I might have gone wrong somewhere. The smoke tasted almost sour and bitter. It was also much heavier than I expected after only a 2 hour cook.

I don't believe the logs are green, but then again they are not 100% dry and cracked like a very old aged peice of log. Is it possible they are still too green?

I'd be surprised that a slighly green peice of wood could impart such a foul taste.

My BBQ's have largely been with lump charcoal and wood chips, so any adivse you can offer a relative newbie would be much appreciated.

Cheers :tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Sounds like you might have oversmoked the food, or you weren't burning clean. How much smoke were you making and for how long?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

:tpd:

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

HIYO!! Another smoke today, and a fun one to boot. First day with woods other than pecan and
oak or hickory. Bought some apple chunks and tried that. I am not sure they were the best ever,
but they were orgasmic for sure, SUPER juicy and the best smoke flavor I have accomplished yet.
It was also the day of the first "Stay the Hell Out of My Yard" event as a squirrel hit the grill.
He smoked up perfectly, and at the risk of starting a joke, it tasted a lot like chicken.:D Also smoked up
6 pork steaks cut from a butt. They were eaten while the rest of the food was cooking and fed to
dogs as well, so no pics, although I SHOULD have, they looked freaking awesome, fat all sizzling.....yum.

I need to stop shooting inside, the light coming in that window behnd the plate turns the pic blue and black.
The ribs were all red and purple.

I have to apologize, I took a big bite out of the squirrel before I remembered, $HI+....PICS.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I asked if my buddy was going to soak his wood (for charcoal smoking) he said no because it causes ash to fly. At first I was going to laugh at his ignorance but then thought I'd ask if anyone here has experienced problems with ash. I certainly have not, but then again I'm still a noob.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I used to go to the trouble of soaking wood, and then I read that no one should ever soak wood, and I knew so
little I didn't argue. I get better, or as good results dry over the wet. In fact I think would say better, but that might
be just my skill level rising. I cook a mean squirrel, lol. Could not corroborate the flying ash results...I think that's WIND, lol.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

You could be right. The smoke was a little white. Not always the translucent blue/black that I was hoping for. I believe it smoked for 1.5 hours.

I didn't expect the small log to over smoke. This particular branch was only 2" x 6".

Should I allow all sides of the wood to become charred before putting food on the grill?

I normally add dry wood chips during the cook and haven't had any problems, so I assumed adding food while the log was not completely charred wouldn't be a problem.

So do you think the flavours I described were not a result of green wood?

Thanks!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I was wondering this, i just cut up some maple and oak from my dad's property, but havent used it yet, wondering now, is there something you should do to it before using it...

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Smoked 2 chickens and 3 racks of ribs this morning, on pecan wood from my own tree. Everything was good.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

cooked some burgers over pecan wood today. I am doing some reading to find out how to smoke some cheese. Anyone done any cheese smoking? I am smoking a couple of pork tenderloins tomorrow.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Did you leave the bark on the log/logs or did you remove it? Tree bark can really burn nasty and impart a horrible flavor.

If you still have some of the wood, just split a few chunks and let them sit a day or so and see how much if any sap comes out. That could be the problem too?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

It might be a little green, but hard to say from here. What sticks out to me is that's a lot of smoke wood. Different design pits work differently though, some designs it might be ok. If I were cooking, I would use probably half or a little less than half of that.

When you use chips, think about how many handfuls of chips you use, and now think about how much a handful compresses. Compare the number of compressed handfuls to that log you tossed on to get an idea.

As for char all the way around, I don't worry about that, I put the wood on and maybe bury a chunk or two in the unlit briquettes, and after the flames and heavy smoke have died down (15-20 minutes usually) I put the meat on. That's what works for me with the smoker I use. If it works for anyone else, that's a bonus.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Si.

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showth...73#post1078073

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

have not done it but i love it.

my smoker has been cold for to long. i am going to have to crank it up soon.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks TG. I'm inclined to agree with you. I don't think the wood is bad. I believe the tree has been down for nearly a year and the banches I used looked to be die back from previous years. I did remove the bulk of the bark, with exception of a thin brown layer that is stuck to the core wood.

I'll split these branches in halves and quarters and try again.

Cheers :tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

BTW, 4 Top Sirloin Tri-caps going on the Keg this afternoon. I'll play it safe and use a small handfull of hickory for this cook since I'm feeding 12. ...and I love hickory on beef :banger

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Adam, what brand of cheese was that that you were smoking? What an excellent idea to keep the cheese becoming a puddle.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Looks outstanding.
What internal temp did you pull it off at, Mark.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

:tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Looks outstanding Mark.

I'm a firm believer in tri-tip should be grilled over oak, mesquite, or grape but damn if your photos and reports from the front don't make me want to try one smoked one of these days.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks Jorgen.

Looking at the shapes, it appears that the ones across the top were Tillamook medium cheddar. The ones at 4 & 8 o'clock were Safeway (one of the large supermarket chains out here) house brand medium cheddar and judging by the color, the one at 6 o'clock was also safeway, but it was sharp or x-sharp that was double smoking - It had already been smoked with a hickory based blend a few months earlier, vacuum sealed, then opened back up and smoked again with alder (double smoking didn't do anything special - I could have done it all in one shot with a mix of woods).

I actually thought the Safeway house brand gave a better end product than the Tillamook. Smoke didn't penetrate as well on the Tillamook.

I found that Costco/Kirkland sharp cheddar also works really well.

If you decide to set up something like that, shoot me a PM, I'll pass along some of that I've learned on it it, and save you some experimentation.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Looks great Mark!! Now I'm hungry!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I just might - I have a small vacuum sealed cut of tri-tip in the freezer I need to do something with. Is that a wet rub or a thin layer of bbq sauce on the ones in your photos?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Sunday, I smoked another corned beef brisket (this one was uncured and 3.5 pounds) and a couple of small (~3/4 lb ea) boneless turkey breasts. Both turned out quite tasty.

So I have a question for the experienced (food) smokers here. What does it take to get that really dark crunchy bark? Is it a really thick layer of rub? Higher temps? Longer smoking? A combination of the above? Something else I'm missing?

UPS delivered four 20 pound bags of pellets today - 1 each of hickory, pecan, alder and cherry. :dance: Shipping costs ? $0.00!

What's next? Pizza? Ribs? Jerky? Chicken? Pork shoulder? So many choices.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Next on the smoker for me tomorrow:

3 spare ribs
7.5 lb brisket
12 lbs pork line back ribs (boneless)

Re: What's in your smoker?