I am a smoker, the BBQ type.

[ponyo]

I picked up another 75 pounds of meat today. 50 lbs of choice boneless beef short ribs, 15 lbs of prime packer beef brisket, and 10 lbs of pork brisket bone-in. The pork brisket is for my puppy. The 3 fridges and deep freezer are completely full. My wife told me I can't buy anymore meat until I free up some space or buy another fridge or freezer.

 

[HomerJS]

I picked up another 75 pounds of meat today. 50 lbs of choice boneless beef short ribs, 15 lbs of prime packer beef brisket, and 10 lbs of pork brisket bone-in. The pork brisket is for my puppy. The 3 fridges and deep freezer are completely full. My wife told me I can't buy anymore meat until I free up some space or buy another fridge or freezer.

Hey Ponyo.
I looked over your last few brisket posts. I do my salt/coarse pepper mix by volume (ea tablespoon). 2 parts salt 3 parts pepper. This works for me. 50/50 was too salty.

I don't use crutch. Maybe because I'm lazy but rather wait it out. Therefore usually takes 1 hr/lb @250. Early on had problem with flat being too dry so when probe temp hits 195 I remove and immediately wrap w/HD foil, towel and put in cooler for a few hours. I figure temp will rise 5-7 degrees and it will steam itself.

Last few briskets have been flats. Costco in Phila area never have packers. BJs had choice flats for 4.70/lb Last time I did a packer went to Walmart but they only have select for 2.70/lb.

I know you said your flat portion was dry but pics are outstanding. Great ring for only 4.5 hrs open.

BTW - Your poppers did u pre-cook bacon?

 

[ponyo]

Hey Ponyo.
I looked over your last few brisket posts. I do my salt/coarse pepper mix by volume (ea tablespoon). 2 parts salt 3 parts pepper. This works for me. 50/50 was too salty.

I don't use crutch. Maybe because I'm lazy but rather wait it out. Therefore usually takes 1 hr/lb @250. Early on had problem with flat being too dry so when probe temp hits 195 I remove and immediately wrap w/HD foil, towel and put in cooler for a few hours. I figure temp will rise 5-7 degrees and it will steam itself.

Last few briskets have been flats. Costco in Phila area never have packers. BJs had choice flats for 4.70/lb Last time I did a packer went to Walmart but they only have select for 2.70/lb.

I know you said your flat portion was dry but pics are outstanding. Great ring for only 4.5 hrs open.

BTW - Your poppers did u pre-cook bacon?

I think 2 parts salt 3 parts pepper by volume is close to 50/50 weight. I'm doing by weight, not volume.

I'm wondering if I'm overcooking the brisket. Last two cooks, I pulled at 208 F on the flat which is kind of high. But I always read you should cook until probe tender rather than meat temperature.

I had hard time finding packers until I discovered Costco Business Center. I cooked select packer from Walmart and had great success with it. But select packer from Walmart in my area is more expensive than prime at Costco. You might want to check out Sam's Club or Restaurant Depot if you have one nearby. You can order online at Sam's Club and pick it up at the local store. I don't think Sam's normally carry packers in-store.

The flat portion was dry but it was still good. We ate it all on sandwiches, fried rice, and ramen. I was surprised how fast the brisket cooked considering the grate temp was only like 275-280 F range for most of the cook. When I checked the brisket temp at 4 1/2 hours to wrap, the flat was already at 184 F. I thought about not foiling but I thought it would help with moisture.

I didn't pre-cook the bacon for the poppers. I used raw Kirkland thick sliced center cut bacon. I cut each bacon slice into 3 parts and wrapped a piece on jalapeno. I smoked the poppers for about an hour. It was great but pretty spicy.

 

[ponyo]

I smoked pork spare ribs brisket bone-in. It's basically the throwaway part leftover after trimming spare ribs into St. Louis style. I paid $1.29 /lb. I used salt & pepper as the rub. One piece I left plain without any seasoning so I could give to my puppy. I smoked it for 4 hours on the hook at 275 F. It turned out lot better than I expected, and I think I prefer this cheap cut of meat to St. Louis style spare ribs or baby back ribs. The pieces are almost all meat with only small piece of bone at the top. It does have lot of soft white cartilage bones but I don't mind and my puppy love those. It's throwaway cut so you'll never find it in restaurant but it's perfect for home eating. Highly recommended. I also recommend smoking one without any rub or seasoning. The charcoal and smoke adds plenty of seasoning to the meat and you can really taste the pork. My wife liked it so much she ate half of the piece she was supposed to give to the puppy. Next time, I will do half naked and half salt & pepper.

 

[ponyo]

I wanted to try hanging fish so I bought some red snappers and used the fish hooks that came with the Weber extended smoking rack kit instead of the meat hooks from the Pit Barrel Company. The fish hooks worked well and fully secured the fish. I smoked the fish at 280 F for about 45 minutes. The dripping fish oil and skin kept the flesh super moist. It was like eating steamed/baked fish but with charcoal flavor. But the skin was rubbery since it was smoked at low temperature. I think I should have seared the skin with direct high heat at the end or smoked at 350-400 F like chicken for crispier skin. But overall, everything was great minus the rubbery skin. You get firmer flesh and crisp skin with direct grilling vs softer, moister flesh and soggy skin with smoking. I think I will stick with direct grilling for fish but it was fun experiment.

 

[Jeeebus]

fish looks good. I made baby backs today against my better instinct to get st louis ribs. did them 2-2-1 and they came out really dry. still good, but nowhere near the joy of 3-2-1 with st louis. I'm guessing they needed the full 3-2-1 as the cryovac baby backs are still quite meaty.

I have a couple whole chickens in the fridge which I'll make on the rotisserie in a couple days. Made picanha again yesterday and it was damn near perfect.

 

[TeeJay1952]

Anybody use copper grill mats?

 

[ponyo]

Anybody use copper grill mats?

I bought a fiberglass coated grill mat from Walmart on clearance for $2 but haven't used it yet. I'm kind of scared to use it. It says it's safe for temps up to 450-500 F. It might be good for cooking fish so the skin doesn't stick to the grate.

 

[ponyo]

I used the electric meat slicer to cut the beef short ribs and brisket. It worked great and I was able paper thin slices from the brisket. It was simple to use and the cleanup was easy. Money well spent.

I wanted to grill the meat outside on the Lodge cast iron hibachi but it rained so we cooked everything on the electric griddle inside at the table. I think we ate like 5 pounds of meat between the three of us and the puppy.

 

[ponyo]

Today I smoked 17 lbs of pork picnic. Smoked it at 275 F for 4 hours with apple and hickory wood in the Big Joe. Foiled it another 2 hours until the picnic temp hit 198 F. Pork picnic is similar to pork shoulder but has slightly stronger pork taste and the meat fibers are longer. The bone is also bigger than the one in the shoulder. I like it because it was only $0.99 /lb. I saved the skin as I want to dry and crisp it. My puppy loved the pork picnic. Her eyes got huge when she saw the big pork bones. She's in food coma now and sleeping off the all the pork she ate.

 

[Jeeebus]

Made 2 chickens on the rotisserie today. More for the family than myself as I've been dealing with food poisoning from some sandwich place last Thursday. Ughh.

 

[mztykal]

That pork and chicken look amazing! I blame you guys if I come home with a 1k grill...

 

[ponyo]

Kamado Joe held the Costco Road Show at my local warehouse this week. They had the discounted rotisserie for the regular Joe but not the Big Joe. I did check out the new updated kamado in person. The new air hinge, gasket, firebox, and the exhaust top were all cool but I don't if it's worth the added cost. The new door latch seemed flimsy and easy to break. Someone had already broken the latch on the regular Joe demo model. The new Kamado Joe lump charcoal was real nice. The pieces were like giant logs. But I didn't buy any as I still have plenty of lump from the last roadshow.

I did buy new BBQ toy. I bought a terracotta pizza oven. Someone at The BBQ Brethren bought one and posted pictures of it in action. http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=247906&page=3
It looked cool and fun and was cheap so why not? I picked up some additional free wood someone was throwing away so I have plenty of wood to burn in this oven and for smoking. I also want to get the yakiniku grill but I already have the Lodge sportsman cast iron hibachi and I sort of want the Weber Go Anywhere grill. If I buy both the yakiniku and the Weber Go Anywhere, I know my wife isn't going to be happy as she already said I have too many grills so I have to choose one and choose wisely.

 

[ponyo]

I'm enjoying the cheap Chef Choice meat slicer. I sliced up another 7 lbs of beef boneless short rib, brisket, and top sirloin for Korean BBQ dinner. We couldn't eat it all. We did eat about 5 pounds.

 

[ponyo]

I smoked more pork brisket. 3 1/2 hours on the hook at around 285 degrees. I didn't put any seasoning or rub on three of the pork briskets. Just naked smoked meat. On the other two, I used salt and pepper. At $1.19 /lb, pork brisket is incredible value. It's better than baby back and spare ribs and I'm no longer buying or cooking pork ribs other than brisket. I ate the pork brisket wrapped in lettuce and perilla leaves with a dab of chili pepper.

Beef prices are on the rise. Beef prime brisket is now $3.89 /lb at Costco Business Center. Choice brisket is $3.49 /lb and Choice flat $7 /lb. That's up around 33% since April.

 

[Kaido]

Smoked a 30-pound pig today on the Traeger. Not bad! I've been wanting to do a whole hog for awhile now. I'll spare the pics, as a full dead pig is not for everyone, haha. Thoughts:

1. I got a small pig because I have a small smoker. Even that size was a bit too big for my small pellet smoker, but because it's basically a convection oven, it came out fine.

2. Pretty much everything turns into pulled pork. You're not going to have chops or ribs, unless you cut pieces off at different times. Everything shreds otherwise.

3. The smaller pigs don't have much meat on them. The farm sold them between 30 to 150 pounds; you'd probably get more bang-for-your-buck with a 100+ pound pig. I think I got maybe 5 or 10 pounds of usable meat out of it lol.

4. The skin came off easily, bones pulled right out effortlessly. Almost all of the meat shredded just by touching it, perfectly cooked (205F @ the shoulder). Good meat in random places, like under the cheeks. If you've ever got a half a bird from Boston Market, that's pretty much how easy it is to pick out a smoked pig. The skin cuts off like paper & everything pulls off easily.

5. tbh I've had better results just smoking regular shoulders for shredding, top loins, etc.

6. Note: don't use sauce or anything other than oil on the outer skin, as it will caramelize, then burn. Not that you'll probably be eating the pig skin, but it looks nicer just brown than burnt.

Would I do it again? Probably not. Maybe if it was a much bigger pig (to get more meat, for the money), but even then, you can just buy the cuts individually & get better results by cooking them at their individual proper times & with their individual techniques. Amazing Ribs has some really good reading on doing a whole hog:

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/whole_hog_pig_picking.html

Aside from bacon, I think my favorite pork cut, in general, has been Berkshire chops, which are, dare I say, better than steak. Just amazing. Smoking pork top loin also gives great results (bacon steak, mmm). Pork shoulder is good either pellet smoked or pressure cooked. The Berkshire chops are best over natural charcoal (tried sous vide, but they slightly better just done over charcoal!).

 

[ponyo]

I like the idea of smoking suckling pig. Just to say I've done it. Costco Business Center sells the whole pig. But it's expensive for pork and it's just too much meat for what's basically pulled pork. I do like eating pig skin but I get enough skin from pork picnic. How long did it take you to smoke 30 lb pig at what temperature?

 

[ponyo]

I smoked 14 lb Choice brisket. I smoked it fat side up for 6 hours at 275 F in the Big Joe. I had plan to foil after 4-5 hours but I was busy cooking smashburgers for guests and it rained heavily so I didn't get a chance to check on the brisket or wrap. I didn't even put a temp probe in the brisket to monitor. At the 6 hour mark, it stopped raining so I went out with Thermapen and poked the brisket in several areas. The probe slid in like butter everywhere and the temperatures ranged from 198 F to 207 F. So I knew it was done. When I lifted the meat, it jiggled like jello which is what I wanted to see. I removed it from the smoker and rested uncovered for about 10 minutes to stop the carryover cooking. Then I wrapped it tight in foil and towel and placed it in the cooler fat side down to rest for 4 hours. Then I removed it and separated the point and the flat and sliced the meat. The bark was really hard so it was tough to slice through it. The flat and the point was moist and juicy. The brisket had perfect seasoning from the salt and pepper. My wife commented this was the best brisket I had cooked and I fully agreed. The brisket was outstanding. I think the key was cooking it fat side up instead of fat side down like I did on the last two failed brisket cooks. And not wrapping during the cook gave me the crazy hard bark which I loved. So I don't think I'm going to wrap anymore. I only wrapped because I thought it would help with the tenderness and moisture. Today's cook showed me wrapping is unnecessary.

 

[Kaido]

I like the idea of smoking suckling pig. Just to say I've done it. Costco Business Center sells the whole pig. But it's expensive for pork and it's just too much meat for what's basically pulled pork. I do like eating pig skin but I get enough skin from pork picnic. How long did it take you to smoke 30 lb pig at what temperature?

The main idea is to get the shoulder to 205F. A $25 pen thermometer works fine if you don't have a wireless probe:

https://www.amazon.com/Lavatools-PT12-Javelin-Thermometer-Chipotle/dp/B00GRFHXVQ

I started mine out on smoke (180F), then 225F, then 250F, then 325F. I think maybe 8 hours total, although if you do normal recommended temps it's like half that time. I did a lower ramp up because I wanted more smoke flavor, however, it did not have any smoke flavor...I think the skin prevented it from absorbing the smoke. I'd imagine a butterflied whole pig would pick up more flavor, but I only have a small Traeger, wouldn't fit. The 30-pounder barely fit with a closed belly!

Mine was $165 from the farm. The local Chinese place sells them for $200, so it was a decent savings. However, again, everything turned into pulled pork, and I doubt I even got 10 pounds of actual meat out of it - doing a Boston butt is a better decision for sure (far cheaper + more smoke flavor + crispy bark pieces + less cook time). It was fun to say I did it, but I don't think I would do it again because I just went to a premium meat shop and got a ridiculous amount of amazing meat for $100...six huge Berkshire pork chops (if you haven't tried Berkshire chops, they're like heaven...oh man), an entire chimichurri flank steak, and several pounds of amazingly marinated steak tips. It was like 3x the amount of meat for $65 less, and tbh everything tasted way better doing it individually to the temperatures required (over hardware lump charcoal).

 

[Kaido]

I may have posted this earlier, but Blackstone has a kabob charcoal grill/smoker for $200:

https://www.amazon.com/Blackstone-Charcoal-Barbecue-Automatic-Rotisserie/dp/B01CTS3DFY

My buddy got one and it is SUPER excellent. It has a 3-section grate plus eleven 23" motorized kabobs. Yes, you read that right - motorized kabobs on a $200 grill. I've been working with marinated steak tips & chicken kabobs lately and am amazed at how good they've come out on the auto-rotating kabobs. I thought it would be gimmicky but it's pretty legit! I may have to pick one up at some point. Some pics off google images:

 

[echo4747]

question for the beef brisket smokers:
I am just curious to know if anyone has seen just the "point" meat for sale anywhere. I really prefer the point meat more than the "flat". I only see whole packer briskets and flats for sale in my area. Does the point cut go by another name?

 

[Ns1]

question for the beef brisket smokers:
I am just curious to know if anyone has seen just the "point" meat for sale anywhere. I really prefer the point meat more than the "flat". I only see whole packer briskets and flats for sale in my area. Does the point cut go by another name?

korean markets

 

[zinfamous]

I like the idea of smoking suckling pig. Just to say I've done it. Costco Business Center sells the whole pig. But it's expensive for pork and it's just too much meat for what's basically pulled pork. I do like eating pig skin but I get enough skin from pork picnic. How long did it take you to smoke 30 lb pig at what temperature?

FYI, last I recall, a true suckling pig is generally defined as under 12-14 lbs...it might be even smaller. I had to find one of these several years ago and it was rather difficult, and very expensive. You usually have to go direct to a farmer because they don't like selling them that young, which is why they are very expensive.

 

[ponyo]

I may have posted this earlier, but Blackstone has a kabob charcoal grill/smoker for $200:

https://www.amazon.com/Blackstone-Charcoal-Barbecue-Automatic-Rotisserie/dp/B01CTS3DFY

My buddy got one and it is SUPER excellent. It has a 3-section grate plus eleven 23" motorized kabobs. Yes, you read that right - motorized kabobs on a $200 grill. I've been working with marinated steak tips & chicken kabobs lately and am amazed at how good they've come out on the auto-rotating kabobs. I thought it would be gimmicky but it's pretty legit! I may have to pick one up at some point. Some pics off google images:

That's cheap for motorized rotisserie grill. I've read some good things about Blackstone griddle and pizza oven. I ordered the Blackstone pizza oven for $200 before my wife made me cancel the order. At $200 price point, I suspect the motor is really cheap and weak.

 

[Kaido]

That's cheap for motorized rotisserie grill. I've read some good things about Blackstone griddle and pizza oven. I ordered the Blackstone pizza oven for $200 before my wife made me cancel the order. At $200 price point, I suspect the motor is really cheap and weak.

I've had the Blackstone griddle for several years now; it's a beast. My FIL just got one too; the burners appear to be upgraded because it gets a lot hotter a lot faster than mine does. It's awesome if you want to do meal prep or just cook a ton of food at a time.

My other buddy has the Blackstone pizza grill & it is amazing. 6 minutes per pizza using Mark Bittman's 2-hour dough recipe. You really can't beat it. His has been in use for about a year and a half now with great results. I recommend them to people all the time. Alternatively, a Baking Steel is a good investment if you don't want an outdoor pizza grill.