Ski-Doo Snowmobiles Forum banner

Smoking meat

12K views 136 replies 29 participants last post by  Snocheck 
I started thinking about this tonight and wanted to get some suggestions and techniques. Maybe even some recipes if you have them. I bought a charcoal smoker many years ago but could never commit to the time involved. Life always got in the way. Gave it away.

Then a few years ago I bought an electric smoker. Didn't need as much attention as it had a digital pad to set temp, time whatever you want. Also had Bluetooth so I could set it and forget it and go about my weekend honey Doo list. Could keep tract of it on my phone. Worked well but burned up the small woodchip box quickly and it needed refilling often.

Now I'm retired and bought a propane smoker. Unfortunately I haven't smoked anything all year. Am going to fire it up and see if I like it.

My question is for any of you that smoke meat, what is your preferred smoker type? Any tips for the type you use. Your favorite cuts. Favorite rubs. Recipe times and temps. Pretty much any and everything. The few times I used the electric smoker, things turned out good, but not WOW, if that makes sense.
I use a pit smoker. Specifically a Weber smokey mountain. Best bang for your $ and it lasts 30 years.

The ceramic egg cookers (big green egg or kamado joe) are a touch better but significantly more expensive. An off brand ceramic cooker may be a good way to get into that style.

I am anti pellet smoker. They don't have a very long shelf life. The auger and ECU can give you issues. They don't give off good smoke. You have to run them a lot cooler (like 200°) and the smoke still isn't comparable to a Weber smokey mountain running at 275-300. You aren't winning any competitions using a pellet grill. They are a touch simpler to use in daily use. But anything more than 5 years of use and you are on borrowed time.

I would like an offset but they use up a lot more room. I have enough big grills and toys, I don't need a giant smoker eating up more room.

The Weber smokey mountain can also be used as a charcoal grill. I used mine last night to reverse sear a few Ribeyes at about 225° and finished them off with a cooking torch. They came out about as tender as steak can be made.

Smoking is therapeutic. Setting aside a day every month or so to long cook something is a nice little getaway from the world. Baby back ribs, pulled pork, and burnt ends are my favorites. Pork shoulder and brisket are long cooks. A chuck roast is a good cheap alternative to brisket if you don't want to make some giant slab of meat.

I am to the point where I make my own rubs for my little weekend cooks. But I have about 5 or 6 store bought rubs that I like a lot. When I do big cooks for groups of people I usually use store bought. My two go to rubs are "killer hogs the bbq rub" and "Weber KC BBQ." I pick those because you can buy them in bulk at any Walmart. The KC BBQ is a little sweeter and it's great with chicken. But just as important as the rubs are what you're spritzing the meat with, your glazes, and any specialty sauces. For example, with my pulled pork I like using a sauce that is foreign to my area called Carolina gold that I make from scratch. I'm sure you can Google a recipe for it. But that flavor profile is unique in this region. When people try it they are surprised by the new flavors and it's usually a big hit.

There are a lot of championship teams that make YouTube videos to go check out. Malcom Reed is a pretty good one to look at. He is really easy to follow and he is consistent.
 
The Weber smokey mountain is the type I bought many years ago and never used. That's the type my dad had and you had to pay too much attention to it for my liking.

Although, now being retired, it probably wouldn't be so bad. Kinda wish I'd have kept it.
I just picked up another weber smokey mountain today for $100 on Facebook marketplace. I have all 3 sizes now. And the guy was a BBQ nut like me. He had about 15 other smokers, all rare webers.

If you don't really care to make top notch BBQ a trager is great. My wife wants one for Christmas that she can play around with too. Can use the app on her phone and even bake in the thing. But you won't get much for bark and the cooks take way longer. Just look at pics comparing the differences. The bark isnt really set on them and they are very light red. Not the deep dark candied bark that you look for. I cooked burnt ends on a trager last weekend and will be cooking burnt ends on a pit tomorrow. The difference in quality and texture will be night and day.

I usually wrap using aluminum foil. Once the bark has set in and it's halfway through it's water loss cycle I wrap it. If you wrap too early your bark becomes soggy and you boil your meat. If you wrap too late the outside gets a touch dry.

As far as rubs vs wet, you smoke with a rub and finish either dry or wet. I usually finish wet. Finishing is just a final glaze and throwing it on the heat again to let it tighten up for 5 to 15 minutes. If you wrapped too soon you can leave it on longer to try and tighten up the bark a little.

But smoking is an artwork. It can be a passion for you or you can be the group of wives that get drunk on wine and paint for something to do on a weekend. Only you can decide which way of the fork you take.

Ps, you only have to pay attention to it if you don't know what you're doing yet. The WSM and ceramic cookers like the green egg are the most consistent cookers on the market. Literally set it and forget it, the temp gauge doesn't move. But you have to know what you're doing. Otherwise you will be chasing your tail for 8 hours. They make dummy proof electronic control units for them too but they are far from necessary.
 
Why is it not good to smoke burgers on Traeger grill ?
I cook them all the time on mine.. is that where that twitch I got is from ..


Sent from the bakery using Tapatalk
Cook to temp and it's fine. 160 for ground beef.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top