Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Mike, them ribs look good. Foil or no foil? Looks like you pretty much got it dialed in with your OTG.
Oh, and I heard you polished off the entire slab all by yourself...:p :D

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks. Yeah, I used foil and I did polish it off. :D

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Wes, those flanken ribs look killer, I need to find a butcher out here that will cut them like that (leaving more of the meat attached - they carve them pretty thin across the face out here :td).


Keith, great looking meatfest!


Mike, great looking Q. Looks like you're getting the hang of the firebricks pretty quickly.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Regarding Flanken Style ribs....


Do you have Koreans in your area? These ribs sliced at 3/8" are what the Koreans use for L.A. Galbi, a very popular (among Koreans) dish. The ribs are marinated in a sweet soy marinade then grilled over hot coals. Served with rice and Korean side dishes. Delicious!

http://bitealot.com/wp-content/uploa...9/08/Galbi.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Very nice lookin' Ribs...all of you guys.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Yeah, those sliced beef ribs are perfect on a hibachi. The only way to do them. They just don't look right grilling them over a Weber, for instance...:p

I get them at my local Asian market for 3.99/lb and they usually slice them to about 1/4" thickness.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

There's a lot of every nationality here...but I have to agree that these things on the
grill are fantastic. I have just shied away cause of the price. And by the time
they are reduced, I am not too happy with the color of em, lol. Also I think they
need to change the blade on the band saw as they can be a little gritty in the bone
department. No one likes that. I tell you, if I find a few packs today I will get em.

OK, headed up to the mountains again next week, so this weekend is mondo rib smoke
weekend. Gonna do 4 racks to cool and freeze. Then gonna thaw them and flash heat em
on the grill before serving. Last weekend I did a small butt and pulled it to really nice
effect and froze that. Usually I slice a butt, but decided to pull instead. My pic is at home
in the cam, so flay away on me. So one day next week in the Smokies I will be having
reconstituted BBQ.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Brad....have you spoken to NASA about that?? :D

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

If I can get a day to myself, I'm hopefully going to try my first pork butt (or 2) this weekend.

I think I've smoked about everything else (chicken, ribs, brisket, chuck roast, etc ...), but for some reason haven't tried a pork butt yet ...

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I got plans for smokin' 3 slabs o Ribs and BBQ Beans on Sat. :dr

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I've got plans for smoking 2 racks of beef back ribs and a rack of spareribs in my WFO on Sat...:tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Fired up the POSECCB smoker and just put a bunch of various peppers on about an hour or so ago.

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/pictur...pictureid=4473

Fresnos, habeneros, some form of Thai peppers, cayennes, a couple of jalapenos, an Anaheim and some sweet peppers that I ended up growing by accident because the seeds got mixed up.

Oh, and an egg.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

****.

Temps went too high.

Anyone want a good deal on some slightly burnt chipotles?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

That's a great idea. Too bad they didn't turn out.

What type of wood did you use? What temp and for how long are you supposed to smoke them?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Beginning tomorrow, the annual pig roast. That'd be one whole hog, stuffed with whole chickens and vegetable. Plus a couple of briskets to eat while we're waiting on the pig. Some good friends, good scotch, and a herf-worthy collection of cigars to smoke...got about 24 hours to kill so why the hell not, right? Besides, my new Palio got here so I have to try it out on a few cigars, eh? The Cigar-murai Social Club strikes again here in Okinawa, Japan!! :ss

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I think I will also do some beans, Mr. B. After seeing the type of success you guys are
having with placing the beans under the meat, I figured I'd do that as well. Anything that
makes my ribs go a little farther amongst the ravenous 12 or so relatives that will be snackin
on them bones.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I thought you WANTED to burn off the skin on those things?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

You should smoke a butt and use the meat to make the hog apple beans. Once you have those beans, you will judge all others by them. Thanks again Brent for ruining me :r

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I'm thinking that it was the wind that fed more air into the vertical smoker that caused the temps to run away. Normally that old POS is actually good for this kind of work because it runs very cold (normally) and the access door makes adding wood easy.

Anyway, not a big deal, just a tad disappointing, but there will be plenty more peppers this season. Plus, I still have some smoked peppers left from last year.

Jalapenos are traditionally smoked over pecan wood to form chipotles. I've been using plum for the last few years because I have a lot of it and it has a very unique bite. Almond would be fine, oak might work, cherry would probably be fine too. For various reasons, I would avoid hickory, mesquite & apple. Citrus wood would go unnoticed.

Since temperatures and times are dependant on the peppers, I think it's better to just explain the idea than give any definite numbers.

Start with ripe (red) peppers. Yeah, those fresnos weren't quite red, but close enough, also, fresno peppers are some of the few peppers that still taste good when you use green ones - them and certain varieties of thai peppers. Tear the stems off, try not to tear open the flesh of the pepper.

What you need to do from there is simply dehydrate the pepper with smoke. It's ok to make smoke for the whole cook, it's not going to hurt the peppers so long as they aren't dripping with tar and creosote. You also want to keep temps as low as you can to avoid burning (only use a few coals and just just keep adding a few freshly lit coals and smoke wood as necessary), below 200 if possible.

Large, thick, fleshy, watery peppers will take longer than smaller, thin peppers (DUH), and you just need to watch them until they are leathery/dry. I think the winds did me in on this cook, so instead of leathery & slightly pliable, I few right past that at the end and went to burnt cracker.

To give you a ballpark on times, habeneros cook quickly - maybe an hour or so. Thai will cook quickly also if they are in a perforated basket, if they are on foil, they'll take longer. Fresnos, 4-5 hours depending on temps. Big thick watery jalapenos, longer. Opening the lid every 30 minutes to peek and every 10 once you get close isn't any big deal, it's not like a hunk of meat where doing that can mess up your cook.

Oh, BTW, can't use most supermarket peppers because they are usually coated with food grade wax.

---

Oh, and you have to smoke an egg while doing it - it's a tradition... ;)

Take a raw egg, use one of those thingies that punches a hole in the end of the shell where the airsack is or just use a thumbtack/pushpin, then put it on the grate. After about 1.5 hours, it'll look all brown and coated, pull it off, let it cool, crack it open and treat like any other hard boiled egg.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks for taking time to explain it! :tu

I'm a big fan of chile peppers and am all over this! And, I can't mess with tradition so I'll do the egg too! I'm waiting for Hatch Chile season down here in SoCal. :tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Hey Adam...if you like smoked eggs...you have got to try this recipe for smoked egg salad...it's amazing...and super simple.

http://www.primalgrill.org/recipe_de...6&EpisodeID=35

I've done it with 6 eggs instead of 4...and 1 tsp of mayo per egg. And make sure the eggs are dry before smoking them.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks Luke, I've actually thought about doing the eggs that way before, pre-boiled until they are almost fully cooked, then peeled and onto the grill to finish, but never bothered to try it.

I'm not really a big fan of egg salad or hard boiled eggs though, just once in a while.

Here's the deal behind the egg when I'm smoking peppers - it started out as a cheap, easy, foodsafe way for me to monitor how much smoke I was laying down. I needed something that would give me an indicator by changing color as I cooked and a white egg was the best thing I could think of at the time. Lots of surface area for smoke to deposit, so I could watch the color change, if it was darkening too fast and getting sticky when I put my finger on it, I was laying down too much smoke too fast, and would be at risk for very bitter peppers (plum wood can be kind of quirky). If it had runs in the deposits, then it meant things were running moist in the cook chamber and it was going to take awhile for the chilis to dry. If it split early on, I was running too hot too fast (this was before I bothered to add temp gauges to my pits). And so on... There was no worry about it contaminating the peppers or the pit since it was a piece of food that didn't splatter or drip. I used to just leave the thing in the entire cook and throw it away when I was done. Once I got the hang of it, I started pulling the thing out after about an hour and a half and using it as a snack with what was probably my fourth or fifth beer...

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Great idea :tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I adapted this recipe to exclude the apples which I love fresh, but am not a fan of cooked.
I diced some peaches in there which I love every way you can make em. I am sure there is
no significant damage to the recipe. Put too much mustard though, and I am sure I am going to
hear about that one.;) I got em in the fridge waiting for Saturday.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

As usual, I get the meat off the grill and foiled up and THEN I remember that
if I do not photo the meato, I get a rash round here. Cooked up 4 racks of spares
today, plus a large foil pan of beans placed under under the meat, cooked
along the lines of the recipe above, the apple hog. Cep'n mine was with
peaches. Beans came out great, the ribs were 4 perfect racks, but I foiled
three before I remembered to get the camera. Still, better one photo than
none. Imagine this pure perfection, x4. Everything was cooked to be frozen
for a trip to the Smokies on Sunday. Who knows what day we will eat it.

I am much happier with my smoke ring this week. I kind of dropped the ball
a few weekends ago and it took me a while to figure out what I had done wrong
Mostly just inconsistent fire.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Seriously good looking stuff there Brad.

Even if you really only cooked one rack of ribs. ;)

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Great lookin' ribs Brad!!!

I too like the bean recipe better with peaches and make them that way most of the time. 4 Time World MIM Whole Hog Champion Myron Mixon makes them in his restaurant using pretty much the same recipe with, of course since it is in GA, peaches. If they are good enough for Myron the are good enough for me!!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

x2!:dr :tu:tu

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Is THIS the recipe you guys are modifying? Or is there another one around here somewhere?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

That be the one!!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Mike, I think I know why you temp readings are high. The lid thermometer on your 26" OTG is mounted directly opposite the vents, on the other side of the lid, and sits almost directly above the coals. Using another thermometer through a vent hole should give you a much lower and accurate reading.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Very nice lookin' ribs Brad.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I did a case (8) of butts this weekend. I was cooking 4 for a family get together and figured I would put the rest in the freezer. Dang easy cook... on at about 9 Friday night off at about 1 yesterday afternoon. Gotta love a Spicewine and a Stoker!!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

That's some good thinking George. Thanks. I'm going to order the one you suggested.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Paella Cabra on Friday night. That's goat to the rest of us. It sad to see how young this goat was, but it was tender and novel meat for me to use in Paella.

The whole front end of a goat works well in a smoker similar to a lamb shoulder, but is smaller. The back half of the goat does not fair as well in the smoker; tends to be tough.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Cooked a couple of butts for a friends lake party. Turned out great. 11hrs on the smoker after a 24hr soak in the brine.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Scott, I've never brined pork butts because they seem to be juicy enough with all of the fat content and the low/slow method. How much of a difference have you noticed when you brine them? I did 2 butts this weekend and a brisket via the overnight method and they were a massive hit for my family reunion. BTW, I use a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. Thanks. Steve

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

The texture and saltiness are different from brining. You'll notice it on any meat you brine. I think it becomes "stringier" with brining.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Wow Brent, thats a lot o Pork. Sounds fun.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Lookin' very good Scott.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I'll be cooking for a catering gig Friday night. Looks like I'll be doing 4 butts, a couple of points, several slabs of ribs, plus anything else that pops up around the house for myself.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Go Big or Go Home Brotha!

Right on Steve! Sounds fun.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I never had till the last 3-4 times I did it (after hearing the guys here talking about it). To me with the brine, i use it to infuse the flavor into the meat better. I love using like rosemary/thyme a bit of chipotle powder and LOTS of black pepper to make the brine and it just gives it a great flavor, and stays as tender and juicy beyond all belief.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Thanks; I gotta try it now with that kind of recommendation.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Smoking a Bacon Explosion and Brisket right now. If they turn out well I'll post a pic, if not...................:sad

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Post them either way :banger

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Yup!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Now that I have a hand full of cooks under my belt, this is what I use!! Very effective for the kettle!! Thanks for the advice!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Glad it is working for ya brother!!! Keep on smokin'!!!