I am a smoker, the BBQ type.

[MongGrel]

Falling off the bone and moist works for me, my wife has become an expert at it.

I used to think I was the rib cooker, I let her do it now.

+1

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Lil' Smokey doing the Lord's work today...

 

[GasX]

Flat, point, packer?

How are you able to hold low temps on your gasser? I've had webers, kenmores, costco, none of them could consistently hold anything below about 275.

I bought a 2-3 lb flat.

My gasser is a Bull 3 burner built in. I put the flat on the left hand burner and the smoker box on the right hand burner. The temperature probe was on the rack just above the brisket. I was running 225-250 nice and steady and could have gone lower if I'd wanted to. I had about 2 solid hours of really good smoke. The rest of the time it was slow but steady as long as I kept feeding chips to the smoker box ever 45 mins or so...

After 5 hours I was firmly stalled at 135 and had to fire up the grill for the skirt steak dinner I had planned, so I wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven to finish at 250. About 2 1/2 hours later it hit 198 and I took it out.

The meat was cooked to perfection, but it is salty as all hell. Next time I will soak the cured meat overnight to reduce the saltiness before smoking. I had soaked it for an hour and rinsed well, but the salt goes all the way through the cut. I have to figure out how to manage this piece though as even cooking it into a has as planned will leave the dish too salty to really enjoy...

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Sounds like you smoked a corn beef..? I do a minimum 24 hour soak, replacing with fresh water every 5-6 hours.

 

[GasX]

Sounds like you smoked a corn beef..?

That's what pastrami is...

 

[zinfamous]

Lil' Smokey doing the Lord's work today...

awesome. very similar to my set up.

what model hotplate do you use? Mine tend to crap out rather quickly, and I replace them after 3 or 4 smokes. very annoying.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

awesome. very similar to my set up.

what model hotplate do you use? Mine tend to crap out rather quickly, and I replace them after 3 or 4 smokes. very annoying.

Honestly, I can't remember the model, but that's because I've had it for a couple years now, I figure. Guess I got lucky or something. I did have to reconnect one wire that broke off after a while, but she's still cooking.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

14lb CAB brisket going to go on the egg this afternoon for an overnight cook.

Salt, Pepper, little granulated garlic.

Going to try fat side up. Fat trimmed to 1/4-1/2"

250f

Expecting 1.5-2hrs / lb

No foil

 

[Kaido]

Why doesn't this guy live in my neighborhood?!

http://imgur.com/gallery/jhDj2MK

 

[ElFenix]

I'm going to try one of these Atlanta briskets over the weekend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPwQW46Pt7U

what is the south's obsession with dumping sugar on everything?

 

[Ns1]

Thread needs more pics. I want to get a smoker in order to do something like this, but I think a smoker on an apartment balcony is bad form.

 

[zinfamous]

Now with actual property, and because I deemed it a waste of space to move my flower pot from the east coast to the west...I purchased a large green egg 2 weeks ago.

First run was a delicious smoked chicken. no pics.

2nd run was pork shoulder; but the coals went out overnight Idiot that I am, I put way too many little pieces of lump in the chamber and I am certain that it stopped my air flow.

Anyway, perhaps I will load pics in the near future.

NS1: no one cares if you are smoking on the balcony. If they complain too much, you can just tell them to eat a dick (like the one that you would be smoking on your balcony, most likely)

 

[Ns1]

NS1: no one cares if you are smoking on the balcony. If they complain too much, you can just tell them to eat a dick (like the one that you would be smoking on your balcony, most likely)

Ns1, now serving oak smoked bovine phallus

 

[MongGrel]

It's hard to say anything bad about rezzing a smoker thread.

But I could see some apartments complexes having an issue on the balcony, might depend on who your neighbors there are.

 

[Ns1]

Thanks assholes, now I want one of these

http://www.bbqislandinc.com/green-mountain-grills-davy-crocket-pellet-grill.html

 

[Jeeebus]

2nd run was pork shoulder; but the coals went out overnight Idiot that I am, I put way too many little pieces of lump in the chamber and I am certain that it stopped my air flow.

It's blasphemy, but I've been smoking pork butts and brisket on high heat (around 350 degrees) for a total of about 5 - 6 hours and the results are basically the same. The trick is sealing it in foil the last couple hours with a cup or so of apple juice or your preferred liquid and it's just as tender as smoking for 15 hours. No more starting a smoke at 3am so it will be done for dinner. For an example of what I'm talking about - see the 'high heat cook' section of this page:

http://virtualweberbullet.com/pork4.html

 

[zinfamous]

It's blasphemy, but I've been smoking pork butts and brisket on high heat (around 350 degrees) for a total of about 5 - 6 hours and the results are basically the same. The trick is sealing it in foil the last couple hours with a cup or so of apple juice or your preferred liquid and it's just as tender as smoking for 15 hours. No more starting a smoke at 3am so it will be done for dinner. For an example of what I'm talking about - see the 'high heat cook' section of this page:

http://virtualweberbullet.com/pork4.html

well, the woman does prefer the pork shoulder to be closer to roasted: tender slices as opposed to real pulled pork, so I have done that a few times. Honestly, it's just as delicious, but you do end up with less food, in some sort of blasphemy towards the laws of entropy...but I swear it's true! Do you get it to pulled form at 350 for ~6 hours?

Either way, both are delicious. I am going to try brisket soon, but I have no experience with brisket, plus all of the easily available cuts I am seeing around here are horrifyingly thin and mal-formed. I need to find a real butcher...because there is also no pork belly to be found in the DC area.

None. Not a fucking one. It's driving me nuts (I've contacted 4 local farmers, as well, and they only sell the bacon. They won't sell you slab, the assholes. One will sell belly, but it's stupid expensive and involves a month wait. I'm trying to make pancetta, jerks!)

BTW, I have no idea why people inject things into the meat. That is the dumbest, most useless enterprise when smoking meat. Lookit: that dude in the link is also covering it with another layer (of equally useless) thick barbecue sauce when it is served. SO like, what is the point of the injection, all of the rub, the smoking, and then the sauce at the end which masks every single flavor that has, supposedly, been added already? I think one of the issues with the bbq world is that a lot of people don't stop to consider what they are actually doing at each step, right? I mean, brine and rub and all that, absolutely. But why add sauce at the end? was the smoking such a failure? Or, go ahead and add sauce, but why not skip the brining and injecting if that is your plan all along?

 

[ponyo]

Thread needs more pics. I want to get a smoker in order to do something like this, but I think a smoker on an apartment balcony is bad form.

Smoking isn't quick like grilling. You might get away with occasional grilling but I wouldn't try with a smoker. Any kind of grilling in apartment balcony is usually against the rule and you live in socialist Cali. Another reason why apartment living sucks.

 

[ponyo]

Either way, both are delicious. I am going to try brisket soon, but I have no experience with brisket, plus all of the easily available cuts I am seeing around here are horrifyingly thin and mal-formed. I need to find a real butcher...because there is also no pork belly to be found in the DC area.

None. Not a fucking one. It's driving me nuts (I've contacted 4 local farmers, as well, and they only sell the bacon. They won't sell you slab, the assholes. One will sell belly, but it's stupid expensive and involves a month wait. I'm trying to make pancetta, jerks!)

Try Costco for pork belly and Walmart for packer brisket.

 

[zinfamous]

Try Costco for pork belly and Walmart for packer brisket.

nope.



Seriously: it's the region. This area just doesn't sell pork belly as it is not part of the demographic. (not enough koreans and vietnamese, I guess).

Strangely, though, while Tri-tip really doesn't exist outside of the west coast and the non west-coast version that you find are so far from tri tip that you might as well call it top sirloin, the few Trader Joe's here do carry their very same tri tip that you can find in any of their stores, which is a nice thing.

Costco is not a west coast business, though; and I think more than a place like TJ's, their inventory is based on local demographics.

 

[Ns1]

@Zin are you in DC now? An old site that I used to visit suggested H-Mart, a large and good korean supermarket chain. I hear there are a couple in that direction.

 

[zinfamous]

@Zin are you in DC now? An old site that I used to visit suggested H-Mart, a large and good korean supermarket chain. I hear there are a couple in that direction.

yeah, I'm going to check those out. There is a Korean community somewhere, but I think it is on the opposite side of me--I'm northeast DC, in Maryland about 1 mile north of the border.

 

[drebo]

Turkey time coming up again. I'm looking forward to smoking a turkey again.

 

[ponyo]

yeah, I'm going to check those out. There is a Korean community somewhere, but I think it is on the opposite side of me--I'm northeast DC, in Maryland about 1 mile north of the border.

Pork belly is expensive at H-mart. I wouldn't recommend buying from there unless you're desperate. I'm not sure if they have thick pork belly slabs. Koreans prefer thinly sliced pork belly slices for grilling.

 

[zinfamous]

Pork belly is expensive at H-mart. I wouldn't recommend buying from there unless you're desperate. I'm not sure if they have thick pork belly slabs. Koreans prefer thinly sliced pork belly slices for grilling.

yeah, I just looked, and there is one ~30 minute drive from me. They only sell them in ~.7lb chunks, and looking to be near $9 lb (for industrial pig! D

The two quotes I have so far, a heritage breeder up north that will sell slab for $9/lb (still more than I want to pay, even for quality), and another that sells her Berkshire slabs for $6/lb, which is just about right, imo. But she is flaking out on me, and plus she would need to hand it over to her neighbor, who maintains a booth once/week in a market near me. Which is fine, but this has been obnoxious trying to organize it.