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His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
I finally got a smoker:


But no, it didn't turn out so well when I tried to use it, this balcony with the solid concrete rail seems to gently caress up the air flow something fierce. I couldn't even get the paper properly burning and I was just left with a lot of ash that dirtied up the balcony something fierce, which again showed the flaws with my plan. Also it's probably against the rules here or something and I can just bet my neighbors will complain too.

gently caress I hate living in the city so much. At least I can take it to my parents summer cottage and go there for barbecuing but that's gonna a 50 mile one way ride for BBQ then.

His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Jun 11, 2012

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His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

Scott Bakula posted:

Buy an extension cord and an electric fan :v:

Hmm could actually work. The ash and smoke is still an issue though, it's really an outdoors activity. Some day I will own a house.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

TouchyMcFeely posted:

Any reason why you can't set it up down below next to the bikes? Grab a cooler full of your favorite libation, cook some meat, read some books and probably make a new friend or two!

This is in the city. There's probably a hundred apartments in this house alone and I know there are some weirdos in some of them. I dunno, I just wouldn't feel comfortable leaving this piece of equipment down there for even 10 minutes, especially not if it has food I am meant to eat in it.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

GigaFool posted:

As far as the guy with the WSM on the balcony goes, I'm pretty sure electric smokers were invented for you. :)

Yeah I guess, I really want to work with good old coals and fires though. If it doesn't work out here, it'll have a nice home near the sea. Perfect place to spend a day or more just chilling with a smoker and something to read.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Well got my smoker away from the city now so I can use it, spent the last 2½ days at this place and made some ribs.





I just put a homemade dryrub on the ribs that I had slathered in mustard first and let them be for about 5 hours in the smoker. What's this about wrapping ribs?

Anyway these came out really good, bone easily pulled away from the rib and that's how it should be IMO. Midsummers up this weekend and thats a big thing in Finland, plan to buy a lot more ribs.

It would be interesting to try and make more than one recipe and see which ones turns out best.

His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Jun 19, 2012

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Continuing my rib smoking experiments, this is my third time using my smoker and this time I got a whole length of rib. The ones with BBQ sauce mopped on at the end always turns out better I think. The one where I sprayed apple juice on it a few times during cooking turned out the best so far, so apple juice, maybe cider, seems like it should become a staple of my rib cooking.

I often find I'd like more salt though, should I just incorporate more salt into my rub or just put on salt separately first? Can/should you brine ribs?





These I just took of the smoker and wrapped, then forgot them a bunch of hours, just got home from the summer cottage and unwrapped them.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Hey anyone here made jerky in their smokers, I'm mostly interested in doing it with a weber bullet smoker here.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Do they have such a thing for the 18.5" model too? I would be quite interested in one for making döner kebab or gyros.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
I smoked a pork shoulder once in my smoker and it turned out really bad, like I did not eat it and threw it out. The smoke taste was overpowering with a metallic taste to it. I used sticks of applewood from some random young apple tree my parents are growing in their yard.

Did I smoke it too much perhaps (I had smoke going the whole cooking time), I am wondering if I should have stopped the smoking at 2hrs or so, and maybe wrapped it in foil for the remainder? Or maybe the wood was no good, I don't got any big chunks from aged applewood which I believe would be best, only scrawny sticks.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Yeah I guess the wood was quite green even if it had dried out (though only for a few weeks or so) and being a buncha sticks it had lots of bark.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Another question, is this piece of meat good for putting in a smoker, it's the one called Sisäpaisti:


My ideal meat piece would be the one called "Rinta", I believe that's the brisket. But every butcher I talked to said they are supplied by the big butcher centers and briskets have zero interest for finnish people, so it's turned into sausage material instead. He couldn't even get me one on special order.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

TouchyMcFeely posted:

For what it's worth, if you haven't tried it before I highly recommend buffalo wings in a rotisserie basket over a regular grill.

After a good overnight brine in salt and brown sugar they are fan-loving-tastic.

Actually (and I know this isn't the grilling thread but I'm going for it anyway) rotisserie anything with a tray of potatoes and other assorted veggies beneath it is amazing!

I would really like such an attachment for my 18.5 WSM (I also use it as a grill) but I haven't found one.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

Astronaut Jones posted:

Yes, put it in a dehydrator.

Ditto, I made jerky once in the smoker, dehydrator's way better.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

niss posted:

So I was pretty surprised yesterday when I went to try out the first cook on my new little smoker. I had two 6lbs chickens and figured I would put one on the bottom rack and one on the top rack. I then quickly realized I could fit them both on one rack. So this little thing can hold 4 whole 6lbs chickens, way more than I thought it would be able to handle. They turned out really good too.

All in all a fun little project.



Looks wonderful, the skin looks crispy and all (keep hearing that smoking chicken makes the skin rubbery). Recipe / cooking procedure?

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

niss posted:

The skin was more crisp than usual, but it was still a bit on the rubbery side, def not up to grilled chicken standards. Those cooked at 210 for about 6 hours, the temp got up to 230 or so for the last hour. I realized I didn't need to fill the pie tin/heat diffuser with water on this cooker. I never stick to any particular recipe, just grab whatever spices look appealing in my cupboard, I always have pepper, garlic and onion powder, and the rest is usually just whatever else i feel like grabbing. I think had some sage on them if I remember right.

I've been reading up on this and it seems like not using water when smoking chicken (and higher temps) is the way to go. I am considering filling up the water pan with sand or stones for heat regulation and trying this out.

Maybe one could use some water at the start as it seems to make the smoke penetrate the meat more, experimentation is needed. I think I will try a dry smoke first.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
I read you cover the thing in foil. The more I read I think I will just foil the empty pan and leave it at that.

I am not sure which method is better of the following though:
1) Smoke at lower heat for a longer time, then crisp up the skin by conventional grilling
2) Going high temp from start to finish (about an hour cook time total, 300+ temp, maybe 350).

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Smoked some chickens for midsummers celebrations (a very big thing in finland);

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

PhotoKirk posted:

Those look good to me. Falling off the bone is overdone.

Personal taste, I dislike ribs that aren't coming off the bone easily. My fiance thinks differently I found out when we where out eating and she had ribs and I had steak. She said to try these ribs they are wonderful, but I found them so woefully underdone I couldn't finish the one.

I use the pull/bend test to figure out when they're done as well, usually its about 4 hours as well.

His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Jul 27, 2013

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
OK looks like I got lucky. My fiances sisters husband is a dairy farmer and they had to put down a bull recently and the meat was hanging in a cooler. I figured this could be the only chance I get so I asked if I could buy the brisket cut from them. At first they didn't know which cut that was, then when I found an old cookbook that showed the cuts of beef they asked why I wanted that, it was near garbage meat in their opinion, only good for dog food or mixing into cheap lauantai-sausages (a traditional finnish type of sausage).

Anywayyy looks like I got hold of some brisket, should have it in a week or so which is in time for the Venetian festival and a perfect time to have a biig cook off. Now I need help, it's my one chance to make brisket and I don't wanna screw it up. What do I dooo?

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

cobra_64 posted:

A brisket off an old bull might be close to a baseball glove in terms of texture. Low and slow needs to be your mantra, you will not be able to cheat your way though that piece of meat.

It was a young animal, bulls don't live to be old on dairy farms before they're sent off to the slaughterhouse for meat, 1 year or so I think, this bull had to end his days earlier than that because of injury. I got the meat recently in the form of two big frozen pieces I think they cut it in half so it's probably 2-3 kg a piece.

The end with a noticeable fat cap and point is the one I'm thawing since yesterday now. My plan is to salt it (coarse flake salt, sounds good?) and add my own homemade rub, wrap in foil and then around 5-6AM this Saturday I will throw it on the smoker and it should be ready for dinnertime I hope.

Is two days too long for the meat to spend wrapped in foil with rub, I understand one day is good but is two days too much?

Also for how long should I be adding wood chips (wish I had whole bits but alas) I don't think you want to smoke it non-stop or it'll be too overpowering.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

coronaball posted:

You want smoke for about 2-3 hours, then wrap it in foil once you get to about 150 degrees until it's done, which is anywhere from 195-205 depending on who you ask..

Make your life easier and go to Home Depot to get some chunks. A bag of hickory, a bag of cherry, and a bag of apple and you'll be able to smoke just about anything properly.

Dunno if letting the meat sit rubbed for 2 days will do anything negative to meat. Probably not.

We don't have home depot and smoking meat like this is generally unknown. Smoking meat here = cold smoking stuff like ham. "Warm smoking" which is what we could call this and for that it's pretty much only for smoking fish and there we only got alder. And only chips, never ever seen anything but chips and I have no idea where I can find chunks without chopping down and drying my own trees. I just consider myself lucky the weber dealer have chips, or I would be restricted solely to alder, I just have hickory now. Don't have mesquite but that place had weber mesquite chips for sale too.

We really don't have a barbecue culture at all here. People think grilling sausages and some pork is barbecue. That's why it took me two years to find a brisket, it's just trash to most people.

His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 10:29 on Aug 30, 2013

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
First brisket was cooked this weekend, it was first a failure. Then a success. Reason being I had to adjust my cooking to other peoples schedules and thats just wrong, it's done when it's done as they say and it wasn't done. I put it in the oven at low temp for a few hours the next day and that did the trick, now it's falling apart and it's wonderful, possibly a bit dry but still really nice.

Some photographs from the process:


After being wrapped in plastic wrap overnight, also added extra black pepper:


20 minutes on the smoker:


Whut?


4-5 hours I think:


After that I only have this one I took last night after finishing it in the oven:



Next time I want to try mesquite, I wasn't able to acquire it this time but just hickory worked, applewood is also on the list.

I think I will also foil it after a few hours and see if that helps it keep more moisture, I wanted to try without foiling the first time, I used the drippings from the pan below to mop it every hour or so.

And no other people telling me it needs to be done now. I noticed the brisket seemed to have run into a stall wrt temperature and should probably have been foiled and given more time to get to 185F or more, it was stalled at 170.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

bunnielab posted:

I have piles of cherry and hickory wood laying around, if you want I can mail you some. I should be able to fit a decent amount in a USPS flat rate box.

Might be expensive to ship to finland that but I could pay shipping for a box o' cherry, pretty good for hickory already.

I'm gonna go talk to the weber dealer to see if they can start take home chunks instead.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Awesome news, I did what I should have done earlier instead of looking in stores in person like some scrub. I loving googled it and there's a finnish website that sells firespice applewood, cherry and mesquite chunks. Looks like I got my wood supply fixed now.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

cornface posted:

Do this. You will not regret it.

I made this but I didn't have my smoker, or chuck, or the time to watch it either. So what I made was beef brisket in the oven for almost 24 hours at 100C, but like this. It turned out pretty wonderful despite that.

In other news I found a local farm that raises grass fed highland cattle, organic and high class and all that stuff I actually don't care about, what I do care about is that it's a small farm and I can buy stuff like brisket and chuck from them, rather than being reduced to what I can find in the stores (ground meat essentially). The prices are a bit steep at 16 euros a kilo for chuck, but gently caress if I can find it at all I guess I should take it.

Also thinking about buying beef ribs from them.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
All that smoked fat sounds a tastebomb worth saving. I'd probably cool it and spreadit on bread as butter. I do this with leftover fat when I fry pork belly slices or bacon. It's actually healthier than butter.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

bunnielab posted:

If you are going to do slowcooker pork do yourself a favor and stick it in the over for a while first to get a bit of crust on it. Pulled pork with no bark is sad pork.

What temp/time would you recommend for this?

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Looks like those local highland beef farmers got some brisket for me. A 12lbs one, but it's 80 euros. They want the same for a 5.5lbs piece of chuck. Pretty expensive, but possibly the only brisket I'll find in 2014.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Finland is weird, I've complained about it before so I'll spare you another rant.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Once my house is built and I got a freezer of decent size I will try and get in one of those group buys where a few people buy a whole cow and divide it up. Given the lousy taste in meat that finns got I bet I get the brisket & chuck all to myself.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Well it's highland beef, raised locally, ecologically, organically and all that other -lly stuff that adds shittons to the cost. I honestly don't give a gently caress about highland cattle, it was just that since these guys raise and butcher their own cows they can give me the cuts I want.

The finnish brisket looks almost exactly like the american one. It's just that here it's ground down and mixed with flour and other stuff to make a really cheap and traditional sausage called Launataimakkare (saturday sausage):

His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Feb 21, 2014

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Cool, a butchers shop opened nearby and they got brisket (the rarest or rare meats) from time to time. Sadly they cut it up into smaller portions, I got a 2kg (4lbs) piece with bone, all they had left when I got there, also got a piece of chuck the same size, I am thinking I'll do both in the weber, can I treat them like one big piece of meat when it comes to cook time then?

Also what do you think of using the bones afterwards for soup? Maybe some of the meat too.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

Errant Gin Monks posted:

Out of curiosity where are you that brisket is hard to gets. I have 8 in my freezer right now and can go and buy then from the grocery store a dozen at a time.

I'm in Finland and the only time I have been able to get brisket was when a guy I know who makes a living as a dairy farmer had to put down a young bull and I asked if I could have the brisket, both he and his parents wondered why I wanted the absolute worst junk rear end part of the cow, barely qualified as dog food to them. Got some nice steak parts in the edible parts of the cow after all!

That's basically what the non steak pieces are considered to be in the shitasticly limited finnish kitchen. Usually parts like chuck is turned into cubed soup meat and sold for the same kilo-price as steak. Or ground beef mix. Brisket is usually made into a sausage component.

The internet seems to be slowly changing it as people learn about things like american BBQ and brisket from it, and also re-learning some older cooking back when people ate all parts of teh animal.

This must be the 10th time I've shat on Finlands cooking culture in this thread. Feels good every time.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

PhotoKirk posted:

http://www.texasbbq.fi

Contact my buddy Jotu. He cooks on and sells Gator Pits.

I've gotten that contact before in this very thread, but he's some dude in southern finland and I'm not interested in shipping meat or stuff like that across the country. I want to be able to buy it locally at decent prices. I was able to score brisket from a local organic farmer, but it was like 80 euros for a brisket so haha never gonna happen. I don't care about organic or high land cattle or whatever either, just your average cow as cheap as possible please. I still paid 40 euros for the brisket and chuck (8-9 euros a kg) I got there and that hurt, but I can freeze it and save it for a special occasion.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

Trastion posted:

You may want to call them or stop in ahead of time and ask if they can keep one whole for you when you want it. If they are a true butcher and cut the meat themselves they will have no problem with this. If they just sell already butchered meat then they may be able to request it from their source for you if you let them know enough in advance.

As for cooking time the flat will probably take slightly less time because it is thinner. Maybe just check each for temp separately and go from there.

Well here they are in the smoker, still there as of this writing:



Been there since 14:00, 20:30 ish now, haven't checked temps but they don't feel done.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Thanks, took them off the smoker now and continuing in the oven at crock pot temp (with water pan) as the meat still doesn't feel done. Chuck piece feels more done than the brisket which definitely needs more time.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
Count me in amongst those.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

Fog Tripper posted:

Last chuck I slow smoked ended up like pulled pork, and was the best beef I have had in ages. I hate to give up on brisket because of this recent "eh" experience, but I am having a hard time justifying the choice of brisket over chuck. Better flavor, more tender with less hassle.

I have to say I thought the chuck came out way better out of these two, but I think the part of the brisket I got was the one with the least fat content of them all. But I was disappointed with the brisket this time.

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

Woof! Woof! posted:

To be fair cooking is definitely a choose your own adventure and all that but if you're gonna treat it like a goosebumps book why not just get a crock pot full of KC Masterpiece and dump some ribs in? If you've seriously done the googling to understand NO/CO interaction with Myoglobin and yet still think "fall off the bone" ribs are good then get after it, but it's loving gross by any real standard, not just KCBS Snake Oil.

What is wrong with you?

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His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
My WSM had developed a nasty mold problem during winter. My fault for keeping it outside and not prepping it in any way. Previous years it's been in a shed and never had problems. Anyway I burned it out twice and then cleaned it out good, and burned it out a 3rd time afterwards. Then I smoked some pork, first time I got to use my smoking wood chunks, went for apple and mesquite (I really wanted to try this even though it's supposed to go better with beef), also put a pan of beans underneath the meat. All turned out swimmingly, much better results from this wood than hickory which is what I've used in the past. Mesquite smells real good too, made the whole yard smell nice.

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