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Hoozah, I love smoking meat! Unfortunately, I'm not fancy enough to own a green egg or a weber smoker. I just smoke with my trusty 22 inch weber kettle grill! I smoked a pork shoulder a few weeks ago that was 10 pounds on it. I used the wrap in foil method which drop down the time to cook it to about 9 hours and took it off at 195 degrees. I'll post pictures of it later tonight! It turned out pretty good but the again it is pork shoulder. I also smoked some pork ribs and beef ribs. I've never smoked beef ribs before but they turned out really tasty. I took them off when they drew up on the bone like an inch. I would definitely smoke them again. I don't have pictures of the beef or pork ribs other than right after I rubbed them a bit and wrapped them in syran wrap. I'll also post pics of my lame grill set up if anyone is interested. I had planned on smoking this weekend but the craving for homemade pizza took over.
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Mar 15, 2012 22:42
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 20:55 |
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Naked pork shoulder! This is what it looked liked after taking it out of the foil. I accidentally chipped the top part off.  GET OUTTA HERE BONE! No one likes you!  Shredded crappily woo...  beef and pork ribs!  sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures. edit: Fixed links ObesePriest fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Mar 19, 2012 |
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Mar 16, 2012 04:31
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yeah sure! you got any specific questions that need answering? I'll post a small write up when I get back from work/during work/later tonight.
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Mar 16, 2012 13:53
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Efresh posted:Can I ask for some tips on slow smoking in a weber kettle? Ive got a weber smokey mountain, but I live in an apartment and cleaning it out on the balcony is a massive pain...cleaning the kettle is much more tolerable. Kettle smoking is pretty easy its not really all that different from smoking in a smoker in terms of drip pans moisture blah blah. Mainly the only hard part is maintaining the temperature. Thats where I use the minion method that seems pretty common in smokers and can be used in a kettle as well! However! because you have to use indirect method of heating in a Kettle grill you cant just fill up your coal grate with 2000000 briquets/lumps and go for a 2000 hour burn. You need to bank all your coals to one side. You could do some of each side and put your meat in the middle for an less efficient and inferior burn.. So another problem comes from getting a good pile going in the grill since theres so much area. So you can put two bricks or something in your grate and pile them up better. Like so.  Theres usually a lot more coals inside those bricks. I usually start with 54 unlit briquets and then I light 14 briquets and spread them evenly on top of those 54 unlit ones. Wait a bit and probably close your vents 50% at the beginning. Its way easier to bring up your temperature than lower it. On a cold day I got about a 4 hour burn with very generic charcoal. ALso put wood chunks and stuff between the bed of charcoal and some on top once you put your lit coals on. After the coals begin to burn out. You gotta lift the grate off and redo the process. If you can wrap the meat in foil at this point if you'd like to power through the stall and the meat won't lose as much heat. Edit: That chicken looks delicious ObesePriest fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Mar 19, 2012 |
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Mar 19, 2012 17:02
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Yeah basically everything that Mach420 said. But it depends how small your kettle is. With a 22.5 inch kettle you shouldn't have any problems fitting a pork shoulder or brisket on. If you're low on space in your kettle then yeah I would suggest the meat rotating. Or maybe the smoke screen door but I have no experience with that. Yeah I put a water pan underneath the meat preferably warm water. You can also put one over the coals for a bit more moisture control but I'm not entirely sure how much it helps. Oh also yeah as Mach420 said the kid vent goes over the meat and always leave it fully open. ObesePriest fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Mar 20, 2012 |
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Mar 20, 2012 15:54
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Smoking my first whole chicken and duck today! Anyone got any last minute tips? I brined my chicken and just rubbed my duck with salt and pepper. I shall post pictures later!
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Apr 1, 2012 18:16
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Whats up overcooking buddy! I had a bit of a slow start due to my lack of planning blah blah. I put the birds on at 2 PM and then ended up going to church from 5:30-7 so a bit overcooked. Chicken! It turned out pretty tasty. The breast was a bit on the flavorless side but still somewhat moist which is good.  Duck! Overcooked! Way more fat than rendered out than I had anticipated. The skin was still mighty tasty especially the excess skin I left on. It had similar texture like a pork rind but crispier and incredibly tasty. The breast turned out a bit dry. The sides were pretty tasty though.  Delicious duck grease that I hear is a gift from the gods. I plan on cooking some eggs tomorrow on a bit of this. After separating out the debris and juices, I ended up with around 6-8 ounces of it.  edit: I could go for some brisket... ObesePriest fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Apr 2, 2012 |
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Apr 2, 2012 05:15
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Alleric posted:Do you brine your birds at all? I brined my chicken but I didn't brine my duck. The brine definitely helped a lot with the chicken in terms of flavor and moisture. I wanted the try duck without brining it at all to see how it went. I kind of figured that the high fat content in the duck would have kept it from getting quite as dry but seeing as I'm fairly sure I cooked it for too long most of that fat decided to drip away. Mind if I ask for your brine recipe? or at least your salt to water ratio? I brined my chicken in a quart of water to a 1/4th a cup of kosher salt per quart of water and 1/8th cup of sugar per quart. Per pound. And then I only added a teaspoon of random spices and herbs which in hindsight I should have done per teaspoon per quart I think.. I'm really not sure what I'm doing.
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Apr 2, 2012 19:29
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Alleric posted:
Awesome write up. It answers a lot of questions that I wasn't sure on like mixing in rub and so forth. I have 2 questions though that if you would be so kind to answer I would be forever in your debt. I hear some people that they wash their meat after the brine to get rid of some of the salt on the surface and then air dry. Do you do this as well? Also do you boil your brine first to release the herbs and/or vegetables like for your turkey brine? Or have you found that it makes no difference?
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Apr 3, 2012 16:11
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Alleric posted:
Excellent, thanks a lot for the write up. It's exactly what I've been looking for. Every time I brine a chunk of meat I will make a small sacrifice in your name. MoosetheMooche posted:
You could use a 22.5inch Kettle grill like I do which will cost you from $100-150(new). It's not optimal as an actual smoker but you'll get some good meat out of it. The main issue with them is that when smoking more than around 5 pounds of meat; you're going to have to move the meat around which is only a problem for whole briskets and shoulders. Clean up is easy though! Then you can just use it as a grill with your buddies when you get tired of smoking delicious meats.
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Apr 5, 2012 20:05
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Anyone smoking anything this weekend? I just put on a few trouts!
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Apr 15, 2012 23:07
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If they were tight and tough then they probably weren't cooked long enough and didn't get to the right internal temperature to break down the connective tissue. 170 is pretty low. I was thinking more along the lines of 190. But at the same time since rib meat is so thin is hard to get a good gauge on when to pull. It becomes more of a feeling. Falling off the bone is overcooked but that doesn't mean you want ribs that are tough and tight. They should still pull off the bone when you want them to. Baby backs are a tough rib to cook and I personally wouldn't recommend them for a first smoke. They don't have as much fat as spareribs, so they are really unforgiving. One thing though and completely personal preference but that's a lot of rub for small pieces of meat. Was it not overpowering your porky flavor? ObesePriest fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Jul 25, 2013 |
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Jul 25, 2013 16:28
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Tuxedo Jack posted:So the overwhelming opinion is that I should've been cooking the Baby Backs at a higher temp, around 275, and for only 4 hours? How would that break down, 90 minutes in the smoke, 90 minutes in foil and another hour in the smoke at the end? And that last hour is contingent on the "bend test" or "pull test" - am I correct? Nooooo not necessarily, you're kind kf extracting the wrong reason from the given comments. People are saying that you smoked them too long doesn't necessarily mean that you need to cook them at a higher temp. It means more like your temperature control needs to be much more consistent which will cut down on your cooking time. You can leave it in your smoker as long as you want but don't keep adding wood passed like the first 2 hours if that. There's no sure fire timing for smoking meat. You can't go based off of hard times saying that 4 pounds of ribs will always take 4 hours. Given bad temp control or numerous other factors it can take longer. Some people like to cook them faster at 250 to 275. I feel thay 250 is the optimal temperature for ribs but 225 works just as well. 275 is a bit on the high end for me but still acceptable. The main thing is coming at 225-250 constant should have made you finish before the 5.5 hour mark. With all smokes, you pull when either the internal temp is high enough or you perform some sort of "doneness" test. I've smoked meat longer than it should have and pulled out off because it was time to eat but my lovely temp control at the time left me with this tough rear end piece of brisket. Some people foil their ribs some dont. I'm on the side of not doing it because I'm lazy bastard. It will help speed up your cooking time but with meats as small as ribs I find the cooking time cut down is minimal. There's other reasons to foil but again I'm lazy. Edit: also the internal temp for pork at 168 is probably the "safe" temp to eat pork at but I believe that has been lower 20 degrees or so. Thats for lean pieces of pork but big cheap tough meats like pork shoulder and brisket need high internal temps. Ribs as well. ObesePriest fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Jul 27, 2013 |
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Jul 27, 2013 16:30
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Meclin posted:I did my first beef brisket yesterday. I use an Oklahoma Joes smoker (charcoal only) with mesquite wood. Using an external probe I am able to monitor the temperature pretty accurately--it was 220-230 for the duration except when I opened the smoker to mist the meat with apple juice or added a bit of charcoal/wood to the fire box. I only opened the smoker 3 times and it quickly got back up to temperature. I include an oven thermometer (as you can see in the pictures) as well as the built in thermometer on the lid, mainly because I'm paranoid about the temp being incorrect. Internal temperature at 170? Was your brisket not mega tough? Foiling also generally starts at 150ish when the temperature starts to stall. Smoking isn't an exact science. There can be a lot of variables affecting your cooking time. 7 hours does not sound too ridiculous. You can bump up the temperature to 250 if you'd like. I dont see any pictures in your post though. Edit: oh pics are up. Your brisket does not look done but if you like it then who am I to say. What external probe are you using? Is it calibrated? ObesePriest fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Aug 1, 2013 |
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Aug 1, 2013 16:00
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 20:55 |
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Meclin posted:What internal temperature do you shoot for? It wasn't tough, but I imagine it could have been more tender. As for the pictures, I'm trying to figure out how to do thumbnails from imgur. I used the timg tags and a link when I edited--are they showing up now? If not, can you let me know how to post a pic without them being huge, please? Judging by your pics, I would say that your temperature didn't get hot enough. Your thermometers might be off or something. Theres no bark on your brisket which makes me wonder about the temperature. Similar to pork shoulders. I aim for at least 190 ObesePriest fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Aug 1, 2013 |
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Aug 1, 2013 16:06
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