BBQ 2010 Thread

[Tippster]

The smoke ring formation is aided by humidity, so you'll get a more pronounced pink ring in a vertical water smoker than an offset.

Also, keep this in mind:

160°F/70°C -- Connective tissue collagen begins to dissolve to gelatin. Melting of collagen starts to accelerate at 160F and continues rapidly up to 180F.
http://www.edinformatics.com/math_sc...ow_cooking.htm

[Rontele]

Tipp has a pronounced pink ring

[irul&ublo]

Lookee what I just ordered: www.smokenator.com


Full TR upon receipt and first use

[Pura Vida]

Lookee what I just ordered: www.smokenator.com


Full TR upon receipt and first use

Looking forward to the TR. I'm waiting for the FrankenWeber kit, will turn a Weber kettle into a wood fired pizza oven:

[Crock]

this thread makes me:

[Happy Fun Ball]

I know it's pretty much blasphemy in the smoker world, but I've got an LP gas smoker that I'm going to use for the first time this weekend. I'm going through the break-in process and the lowest heat I can get this thing to achieve is about 340 degrees. Way too fucking hot for my liking. Does anyone have any experience with LP smokers? I was thinking of going and getting a new, smaller burner and see if that helps. I would assume the temp would go down a bit with a big pork shoulder in there, but how much is unknown to me. Tips appreciated.

[bagtagley]

Sounds pretty close to my standard sauce, actually. Hot sauce - check; vinegar - check; sugar - check; and Frank's has some the smoky notes of the chipotle. I thought you were going to throw out a mustard-based sauce, which I thought was the traditional NC/SC BBQ sauce and one I need to do sometime just to mix things up.

Yeah, you're right. I think I saw the maple syrup and reacted. My apologies. I usually use minimal brown sugar, enough to cut the vinegar a bit without adding sweetness.

Eastern NC uses vinegar-based sauce, western NC and into Tennessee use mustard-based sauces*, which are pretty damn tasty, and worth trying.

*This has been my personal experience, but I'm not sure about geographical intricacies.

Edit: That Franken-Weber is pretty crazy. That could be my solution to the fact that I can't afford a Big Green Egg.

[ICEHOCEY77]

Eastern NC uses vinegar-based sauce, western NC and into Tennessee use tomato-based sauces*, which are pretty damn tasty, and worth trying.

*This has been my personal experience, but I'm not sure about geographical intricacies.

fixed.

South Carolina is mustard, primarily the midlands.


time for the song:

[irul&ublo]

Smokenator set up in Weber. The center well is for water. Needs to be filled 70-90 minutes



Loaded with briquettes and wood chunks. You light about 12-15 briquettes in a chimney and pour in. Then the water well goes back in



At this point, Cosmo and Samson don't really care





Meat going on. Rubbed, wrapped and kept overnight



you can't see, but its about 240 near top of dome, which according to instructions, is about 20 degrees higher than cooking surface



About 4 hours in




Done......

Ribs were very good, nice smoke flavor (used apple wood). Temp control was an issue, but next time will be easier, just because I know kow my kettle works. Easy to keep in the 230-240 range, but checking on it is necessary, which you need to do about every hour or so anyway to fill water and stir coals.

[Happy Fun Ball]

I was inspired by this thread to expand out of the realm of smoking fish, so a few weekends ago I decided to head to the local butcher to get some hog. I purchased a 10lb Boston butt with hopes of pulled pork in the near future.

After some research, I settled on a brine solution. Which I also injected into the pork.

Here is the brine solution I used (per gallon of water):
1 Gallon Water
3/4 Cup Kosher Salt
3/4 Cup White Sugar
1/2 Tbsp Black Pepper
1/2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp Granulated Garlic
1/2 tsp Cayenne
1/4 tsp Marjoram
1/4 tsp Thyme
1/4 tsp Cumin

I let the butt sit in the brine for a little over 48 hours in the refrigerator. I mixed up a rub consisting of the following:
1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp Black Pepper
3 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Marjoram
1 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Ground Cumin

I left out the salt that the original rub called for since I used quite a bit in the brine.

Most everything I read suggested 1.5 to 2 hours per pound at 230 to 250 degrees. With that in mind, I loaded the smoker and fired it up around 7:30 p.m. I used a mix of apple, pecan and cherry for wood. All went well and what I was hoping to take around 17 hours too just a hair over 21 hours of actual smoke time before the internal temp hit 190.

A picture of the final product!

[Dantheman]

Looks mighty fine.


Irul - What was the total cooking time on the ribs?

[bagtagley]

Solid work, Irul.

I do something similar to the smokenator setup, only with aluminum foil and a pot water. Kettle grills are great for ribs, but a good bit of effort for longer cooks. You can do a pork butt in a kettle, but I just don't have that kind of patience/dedication, so I smoke for 5-6 hours, then wrap in foil and toss it in the oven to finish. I've been reading about using fire bricks to minimize drastic temperature changes, but I've been happy with the cheater method.

[irul&ublo]

Ribs were on for a little over 5 hours

[montanaskier]

need a good rub recipe. The one I've been using is fine...a bit spicy but I want to do something different. The 6lb pork loin in the slow cooker turned out really good.

[Pura Vida]

mmm just polished off some smoked turkey breast, horseradish mashed potatoes, and biscuits leftover from the weekend, damn good.

Turkey breast, split, Brined in just a basic brine. Rubbed with a little bit of brown sugar, lots of cracked black pepper, hot Spanish paprika, cayenne pepper, ground, dried chipotle pepper, and some chopped rosemary from the garden.

Smoked at 250f for around 2? hrs, internal temp of 145f. Ended up super juicy, even when reheated. Smoked turkey breast tends to be a good Sunday evening choice. Doesn't take long to cook, taste great warm or cold, sliced into sandwiches for work etc. Never goes to waste.

DTM, did you ever get around to trying a brisket in your rig?

[Dantheman]

Yeah, it turned out great, just forgot to post a pic. I'll have to put it up.

Did you really only cook turkey to 145?

[Pura Vida]

Yeah, it turned out great, just forgot to post a pic. I'll have to put it up.

Did you really only cook turkey to 145?

Nice. Yeah, the center temp reading on the Thermapen was 145f when I pulled it out of the smoker, didn't take the temp after resting but it should have climbed a bit more. Texture and juiciness was spot on. Also this was just a breast, so temp doesn't need to be as high a whole bird with legs and what not. 145f will yield a much juicer turkey and chicken breasts, pulling it out at160 it just ends up too dry. This was a local bird, not sure I'd do the same with birds of unknown factory origins.

[Sublime]

I have built a smoker just like Dansthemans. Now the trouble is I have never smoked anything before in my life. To make matters worse I have to smoke something for 6 people on Sunday. I need a bombproof cut of meat and rub to go with it. Also how long should I be cooking and at what temp?

[PaSucks]

I have built a smoker just like Dansthemans. Now the trouble is I have never smoked anything before in my life. To make matters worse I have to smoke something for 6 people on Sunday. I need a bombproof cut of meat and rub to go with it. Also how long should I be cooking and at what temp?

Ribs are the easiest. Lots of rubs, mine is posted on here somewhere. I do mine about 250 for five-six hours. Look for the meat to be pulling back from the bone. Some people like to wrap the ribs in foil, others don't. Some will do a few hours unwrapped and a few hours wrapped. Some people like to spray apple juice on them. Others don't. There are so many different variations but generally if you control you're temperature well you should be fine.

[karpiel]

As someone who pulls their steaks off the grill at 115-120F, it was hard watching the temp readings push 160f the first time I cooked a brisket, but it's a different beast. It's amazing how juicy it can still be at those high temps (but I've also tasted some with a a nice smoke ring, tender, but dry, dry, dry). It's a bit trickier than other BBQ standards, having a high quality, well marbled brisket helps for sure.

I've never had good brisket outside of central Texas. Thick smoke ring, nice hard exterior with juices running all over the place. You could mop up the leftover juices.