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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:Are there typically noteworthy Black Friday deals on smokers? Check Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Just looking at my local area, there are a bunch of Masterbuilt electrics up for $50-100.
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Nov 25, 2019 23:19
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After acquiring a used WSM, I did my first extended smoke last night/today - 2x ~7.5lb boneless pork butts. Was also my first test of my ESP32/MQTT-based remote thermometer, which will eventually do automatic temperature control. (Same idea as HeaterMeter, but instead of Arduino/RasPi, the ESP32 does the measurement and control and I pipe data from it to my home automation system/database, where I can do pretty post-graphics and get fun built in functions like asking Siri what temperature the meat is.) The rub I used was heavily based on black pepper with some paprika and a little bit of cayenne. Rubbed butts going on at 10 PM:  Home Assistant mobile app displaying temperatures.  Graph of the entire cook. I probably didn’t have quite enough charcoal to start out, which led to overnight temperature sag and wound up cooking for a lot of time at closer to 215 than 225-250. Sharp downward spikes are lid opens (I basted with an NC-style vinegar and pepper baste) and the 2PM glitching is from when I moved the butts off the smoker and into a 300F oven to finish them off (didn’t bother to put the air probe into the oven). The charcoal was running low and I didn't feel like lighting more and prolonging it given that they'd already been cooking for 16 hours. I did not foil or crutch, just waited it out (that's why I started it at 10 PM.) Butts came out of the oven at ~4PM, just about 18 hours after they first went on.  Final temp measured around 200 instant read, 195 on the probe. Fork turned with almost no resistance. Butts coming out of the oven, getting ready to get wrapped to rest.  After 90 minute rest in a cooler, took a slice to see what I would see. I was pretty happy.  I mean, I think I got a nice smoke ring, good bark, meat was nice and tender and pulled well.  Mid-pulling of one butt:  Sauced it with more of the pepper/vinegar baste. Probably netted around 7.5 lbs from the original 15; vacuum sealed and froze 4.5 lbs and fed a small crowd with the remainder. They came back for seconds, so I figure a successful first pork butt. Kalman fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Dec 24, 2019 |
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Dec 24, 2019 07:21
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nwin posted:Should external temp really have an effect on cook times for an electric smoker? I know the smoker will turn on more often to maintain its desired temp but I think that’s it. Do you have an air thermometer measuring air temp to see if the setpoint is actually being held by the electric?
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Jan 8, 2020 21:56
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Ranter posted:Any recommendations for a wood offset smoker? I spent a few hours watching some nerd in Texas smoke meat in these huge loving things and I wanna teach myself how to do that with wood, scaled down in size obviously. How much do you want to spend? (Also if you aren’t already a smoking nerd starting with wood is probably not a good idea. Start with charcoal. And unless you’re looking to blow 1k off the bat, start with a vertical water smoker or a drum smoker.)
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Feb 6, 2020 20:24
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2ish for boneless, 1.50 for bone in, if I’m patient. 3/2 if I’m not.
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Feb 25, 2020 20:32
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When stuck at home obviously the thing to do is a first try at smoking a brisket. (WSM 22”, home brew smoker temp monitor.) 11 lb whole prime brisket from Costco, trimmed and seasoned (this is the fat cap side—other side is a bit more heavily seasoned). Rub was mix of salt, pepper, and a little bit of garlic and cayenne. I probably could have trimmed a bit more fat along one edge and left a bit more over the flat, but all in all happy with the trim.  Smoker lit at 10:15. Meat went on around 11. Did not crutch or baste or turn - I literally did not open the lid from when I put the meat on to when I took it off. Burble at 3 am is adding water to the pan. Started to rain a little around 6 AM, which is when the temp started to slide down from 225. At 8:30 am I stirred the coals a little to knock the ash off and get the heat back up.   Meat was pulled at 10:15 AM, with instant read thermometer registering 197-200, little resistance to probe, and a good wobble when smacked. Brisket was placed in a foil lined pan inside a blanket inside an insulated cooler. Allowed to rest til 12:15.  A delicious black meteor.  Sliced. Solid smoke ring, I would say, and the bark is a really good texture.  Lunchtime.
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Mar 17, 2020 19:14
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Canuckistan posted:My WSM must be leaky as hell because I don't get 12 hours out of single load of fuel. How are you lighting it? I fill the charcoal ring pretty much to the top, then light a half starter of coals and place them on one edge of the bed. And it doesn’t take much air to keep temp - that was at 20% on one vent and 0% on the other 2. (Top fully open always.). Also, it’s a 22”, so maybe that impacts it? But from what I’ve been told, you should be able to get 12 hours on an 18 also. Only mod I’ve made is to gasket the fire door with some lava lock adhesive gasket.
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Mar 17, 2020 19:22
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The point is perfectly tender; the flat is a little dry for my taste on the non-point side, so I suspect I actually could have pulled it a little sooner, or just trimmed less fat from the flat (the parts of the flat where the fat cap was left a little thicker were nice and tender too.)
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Mar 17, 2020 19:47
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Trastion posted:I like the set and forget part of the electric. I don't want to have to babysit it for hours. You really don’t have to babysit a (decent) charcoal smoker, outside of the first hour or so of getting it lit and to temp, but if even the occasional fiddle bothers you, you could always get a HeaterMeter or Fireboard or other such controller.
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Mar 23, 2020 17:57
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DumbWhiteGuy posted:At the encouragement of this thread, I bought a smoker and did a brisket and it actually turned out pretty well. Definitely some room for improvement but it tasted great. Grease can be wiped out with paper towels. (And should be, no need to provide additional growth media for mold and poo poo, plus it’ll go rancid over time.) For soot and baked on poo poo, get a good grill brush, brush it when it’s still warm. Outside of the racks don’t worry too much about it though.
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Apr 9, 2020 22:20
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tuo posted:Okay, got the stall at 170 (dropped to 165 now, I assume the fat is currently melting). The stall has nothing to do with melting fat, it’s the point when evaporative cooling from the liquids in the meat balances out heating from the hot air. That’s why crutching kills the stall - by enclosing it, you prevent evaporation and this cooling. If it was melting fat, crutching wouldn’t affect the stall.
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Apr 19, 2020 01:43
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5436 posted:I just got a smoker, the tiniest Weber Smokey Mountain. Charcoal starter.
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Apr 21, 2020 21:09
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5436 posted:The WSM has a temperature gauge an i have an thermoworks dot, is the webers temp gauge inaccurate or too high up? The gauge is inaccurate AND too high up - not a great thermometer even to measure dome temp, and it’s measuring dome temp, not temp at the grate. The dot is a great instant read thermometer but you don’t want to be constantly opening the lid and losing heat just to check temperature of the meat. That said... you absolutely *can* do some stuff, especially more forgiving things like shoulder or ribs, without a probe thermometer. You’re just going to be a lot happier if you get one, and less forgiving cooks will more or less require it.
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Apr 22, 2020 07:43
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5436 posted:Word that makes sense, I'll get another dot. The dual probe thermometers are very expensive on their site. I do have a raspberry pi that I don't use, worth getting a probe thermometer for it? A Dot is e: TOTALLY FINE I was thinking of the Pop. Couple other cheap options - you could probably do something with the Pi if you bought a couple decent probes. Not sure if there’s anything already out there but it’s not too hard to write, you’re just sampling a couple A/Ds and reporting results. You’ll need resistors to set up a voltage divider w/ the probe, as well as (ideally) jacks to connect the probe to the board. I wrote software for a probe thermometer for an ESP32 board that reports out via MQTT that works well (eventually I’ll add PID control when I get unlazy.) Total cost there is pretty low if you have basic electrical supplies - few bucks for the ESP and some 3.5mm jacks, couple resistors, and the cost of the probes (~15 per for good ones, less for less good ones). (Multimeter is extremely helpful to calibrate with.) That said, it’s not that much more to just get a dual channel thermometer if you don’t want to gently caress with all that. I only rolled my own because I want to play with automatic temp control down the road (and didn’t like some of the choices made by HeaterMeter or I’d have gotten one of those.) Kalman fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Apr 22, 2020 |
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Apr 22, 2020 16:58
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BraveUlysses posted:im not seeing any reason you can't use a dot, go for it Yeah I was thinking of the Pop, not the Dot - Dot is totally fine. (Edited post to reflect.)
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Apr 22, 2020 17:52
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Subjunctive posted:Say more about this? I’ve been idly thinking about some solar-charged Arduino thing that talks wifi to software on my home server instead of using GPIO to a separate Pi, but I’m not sure how feasible it is. I’d want it to be able to drive a damper/fan setup like the RotoDamper, I think. So the source for it purely as a thermometer is up at github. The ESP32 has sufficient A/Ds (they’re not perfect but it’s not a 3D printer, a degree either way doesn’t matter in the slightest). It’s written for 2 probes right now but would be trivial to extend to more. So the basic goal (WiFi to server instead of GPIO to Pi) is fully feasible - it speaks MQTT to my home server. Solar power seems plausible enough to me - I’ve run it overnight using a USB battery brick, though not tested actual power draw yet. (And adding fan/damper might impact that since those are likely more power hungry.) I still need to add in control of air supply - for that, I think the easiest way (slash the plan is) to use an external 12V buck/boost board to drive a 12V blower, but using a 4 wire blower so the ESP PWM controls the fan speed. Adding in a damper should be simple enough, the 32 has plenty of IO left over to go out to a motor controller board. (I should order one...) Most of my disagreement with HeaterMeter has to do with the over-complexity/cost of using a Pi and with the efficiency (for me) of treating the smoker as a data source/sink for my HomeAssistant setup, so that I get pretty graphs and voice control and smartphone integration for “free” without any of it running on the ESP. Asking a voice assistant “hey google what temperature is the meat?” is a fun dumb party trick.
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Apr 23, 2020 02:07
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5436 posted:Anyone have a good guide for using my Weber? Maintaining the temperature and starting the fire etc? https://www.virtualweberbullet.com has a lot of useful info for WSMs.
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Apr 23, 2020 04:03
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5436 posted:With getting wood for my WSM, should I get chunks, pellets, or chips? Any brand worth getting or its all the same? Can’t speak to brands (I just buy the Weber stuff at the local hardware store for ease of access) but you want chunks from whoever. 99% of the time it’s what you’ll be using and the other 1% of the time you’ll have free chips in the bag from the chunks that splintered in packing. (Pellets are specifically for pellet smokers and there’s zero reason to buy them for a WSM.)
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Apr 23, 2020 21:28
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um excuse me posted:I don't doubt it's possible, but this is following Webber's own instructions with Kingston briquettes. My most recent usage was about 50°F outside, 225°F inside so I'd chalk it up to that. Vents operated around 50-75% open the whole time. I still had to finish the shoulder in the oven after 10 hours so I know I was losing a buttload of heat. That’s weird; I got longer burns with less charcoal (I use maybe 13-15 lbs as a full load) in a WSM 22 with blue bag in colder weather (~35F) this winter. Really should not be eating that much charcoal that quickly. (We’re talking the 20lb Kingston bags you get as a 2 pack, right?) How do you light it?
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Apr 24, 2020 08:37
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Rapulum_Dei posted:Sorry if this strays too far from smoking but how did you use the resistors? I tried to use a wemos D1 and multiple thermocouple boards but it was unreliable. I was blaming insufficient power but maybe I’m missing something else 3.3V from the regulator into one terminal of a 2.5mm TS jack, which connects to thermistor based probes from Thermoworks, the other terminal of the 2.5mm jack goes to a built in A/D input and one side of the fixed resistor, then resistor connects to ground. For a thermistor, all you need is a voltage divider. I don’t have any thermocouple probes so no idea what kind of problems those might have. Then careful measurement of resistance of the resistor and the A/D value with the probe in an ice bath, a boiling bath, and a ~140 water bath, plus using a thermapen to measure the exact water bath temp, gave me the data points to work out the thermistor curve constants to have an equation which spits out the thermistor resistance for a given temperature. Once you have that, and an A/D voltage value, it’s basic math to get the temperature result. Kalman fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Apr 26, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 03:22
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3-4 fist sized chunks is plenty. Don’t spritz at all until the bark is set. Also, spritzing will make it take longer due to evaporative cooling. Alternately don’t spritz at all ever, it’ll come out good. Relatedly resist the urge to micromanage. Let it cook. Don’t touch it for at least six hours, other than adjusting heat if needed. Don’t try and guess when you’re wrapping by looking at something like the fat cap splitting - do it by temperature. When your meat stalls (typically 150-160) you wrap to get past the stall. If you don’t have a thermometer, you really should get one, but if you’re pulling at 203 you presumably have one. Also you don’t have to wrap. It’ll take a little longer to cook but it’ll come out with better bark for your trouble.
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May 2, 2020 02:16
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Some people like a softer bark, and for them wrapping is the correct choice. Those people are objectively wrong, of course.
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May 2, 2020 02:52
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5436 posted:I feel like my meat didn't stall, its at 182F after 7 hours. Is this normal? It's a 5.5LB pork butt. The temp has been rising pretty consistently. Stall temp and time vary by cooking temp; as you increase the cook temp the stall will be at a hotter temp for a shorter period of time (iirc the stall disappears completely at around 325 air temp). If you had a 280 temp for a bit, you might have just powered through the stall while it was hot.
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May 7, 2020 21:34
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5436 posted:Good to know, is there a reason to cook it lower or higher? I was 250-260 for most of the cook besides maybe 1hr at 270-280. Tradition? I haven’t actually seen any reason to think that 225 is better than 275 (and a number of competition BBQers have shifted to higher temps anyway, and Aaron Franklin cooks brisket at 275, which definitely suggests it’s fine.) At a certain point you’d have too much temperature differential from edge to center so you’d get burnt bark and raw center, plus you might not have enough time at temperature to get your collagen conversion, but I think you’re talking 350+ before you’d have any worries like that (and probably higher.) 5436 posted:gently caress the temperature is dropping, I added some more fuel and water, then my pork butt temp dropped from 197 to 191. The smoker is getting back up to temp now to 250 but the temp is still dropping. What should I do? Wait - let the smoker temp settle and it should continue to climb. I feel like rule #1 of this hobby is “stop loving with the meat.” (If you’re really time crunched, you could wrap it now, or finish it in the oven at 325 or 350 if really time pressured.) Kalman fucked around with this message at 23:42 on May 7, 2020 |
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May 7, 2020 23:40
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tater_salad posted:2hrs per LB is the general rule.. 2 hours per lb is usually an upper limit when cooking at 225 (I plan on 1.5 hrs/lb); at 250-280, I’d expect significantly less cook time. One other thought - were you using the water pan, with water in it?
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May 8, 2020 16:09
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Paul MaudDib posted:Would I be correct that pellet smokers let you be lazier with automatic temp control and poo poo, but that "regular" smokers are cheaper? Are there other disadvantages? (5436 raises taste being a possible difference, I didn't think of that) “Regular” smokers are basically chunks of metal. Pellet smokers have moving parts which can and do break. And while you are definitely going to want a remote probe thermometer, you don’t really need auto temp control on a charcoal smoker (it’s more of a nice to have). I’ll second the recommendation of looking for a Weber Smoky Mountain (look used on local craigslist and you can definitely get a deal on one and because, again, no moving parts, used is basically good as new after a cleaning.)
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May 14, 2020 20:37
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5436 posted:How often do they do this? Should I just bite the bullet and get a Signals? They do sales on various things pretty regularly.
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May 15, 2020 03:51
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um excuse me posted:I'm trying to make pulled chicken with just breasts. I don't know how this won't turn into a dry mess. I guess we'll find out. Lotta sauce, add some rendered fat while shredding.
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May 16, 2020 20:03
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Internet Explorer posted:The water pan, I just let the fat cool and solidify and spoon it into the garbage. Usually there's water underneath the layer of fat that I just dump down the drain. Then I toss it in the dishwasher, usually without cleaning it first. Can't say I've ever had a problem cleaning the waterpan. From TVWBB: “Dispose Of The Water Pan Waste Let the water pan cool enough to handle safely before removing it from the cooker. Here are two proven methods for disposing of the contents: Bag the fat and water with the cold ashes: Using a heavy duty trash bag, place the cold ashes in the bag then carefully pour the pan contents into the bag. The ashes will absorb the liquid. Tie the bag shut and dispose of it in the garbage. Thanks to Doug D on The Virtual Weber Bullet Board for this idea. Separate the fat from the liquid: Allow the fat to solidified on the surface of the water, skim it off and place it in the trash, and pour the remaining liquid down the sink. The success of this method depends on the type of fat and whether it gets cold enough to solidify.” I usually go with method one, though I still wind up scrubbing the water pan to get the last of the grease off.
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May 17, 2020 18:22
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Might do a brisket.
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May 20, 2020 03:21
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Republicans posted:Me too, if I can find one. Last time I was at costco they had absolutely no fresh beef and they only pork was shoulder (which came out real nice). Mine’s the opposite - plenty of brisket but almost no pork of any type (and definitely not shoulder or I’d have bought a few to throw in the freezer for later use.)
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May 20, 2020 04:33
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Also smoky salty environments are not generally hospitable to growth of foodborne pathogens.
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May 23, 2020 00:19
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5436 posted:Any charcoal people prefer? I got some Jealous Devil Briquettes and I'm not sure I like how variable every piece is. Theres a lot of charcoal on sale, should I switch to lump? I feel like the consistency would make it easier to guage how much to put in. I have a WSM 14. Lump is less consistent than briquette.
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May 27, 2020 03:25
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gwrtheyrn posted:I want to say like $4 a pound. I want to say that they were like $60-70 per brisket last time I bought one, now they're mostly 90+ Normal price is 4 per lb, at least in northern Virginia.
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Jun 11, 2020 00:21
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Zaepho posted:Dear lord, packers are still 2.49/Lb here at HEB in Houston For prime graded?
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Jun 11, 2020 05:24
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unknown posted:Usually the curing process is days long (look at the process for making bacon), but people have used it in bbq competitions to "cure" the outside edge of meat which looks and tastes like the classic "smoke ring" you see in pics - hence why smoke ring isn't a category any more to be judged on. Or you can just cook it in a smoker that uses actual combustion and you’ll get a smoke ring without any need to gently caress around with sodium nitrite. The only real reason to use pink salt is if you’re using an electric smoker, which doesn’t generate the right combustion products to create a smoke ring naturally. Since the goon asking the question has an offset there’s no reason to bring pink salt into it.
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Jun 15, 2020 18:45
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Tezcatlipoca posted:Squash of all kinds, tomatoes, potatoes, onions. You can grill, fire roast or smoke all kinds of poo poo. The best answer is obviously corn, though. Make elotes or succotash. Grilled pineapple loving owns, obviously corn, grill some avocado (pitted but still in skin), grilled eggplant (brine, then pat dry and grill) is delicious, grill some asparagus or green beans (you want to get them to the point where they’re starting to char all over), blistered shishito peppers, etc. Also, bring a cast iron pan and you can do eggs with whatever you want, make some toast, do grilled sweet corn kernels cut from the cob and squash sliced thin and then briefly heated in an agrodolce (vinegar/sugar mix) til it reduces/glazes and is delicious, etc.
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Jun 17, 2020 05:59
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I. M. Gei posted:Is Wagyu brisket good? Everything you ever wanted to know about beef graded and breeds. Short version: could be worth it but maybe not because it’s almost certainly American wagyu which means there’s no enforcement of standards on it.
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Jun 19, 2020 08:59
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talktapes posted:WSM water pan chat - I haven't been foiling and it's gotten pretty grody. Was doing some research and some people have recommended spraying it with oven cleaner, throwing it in a trash bag overnight and hitting it with a hose after to rinse off. Viable or a terrible idea? I just scour the thing with a brillo pad after each cook (once I've poured out water/scraped out fat) and never felt it was getting too bad. Pressure washer is tempting tho.
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Jun 24, 2020 20:22
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antisocial democrat posted:RE: WSM water pan chat For which size WSM, 14?
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Jun 26, 2020 00:23
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