Re: What's in your smoker?
 

The unit you have is basically always going to be an indirect heat smoker, which i can tell you from
a year's experience, is AWESOME. Not nearly as efficient or minder-free as the 3-500 dollar units,
but makes great BBQ. Make your pile of fire on the end opposite of the chimney, and toss your smoke
wood on top of the coals before closing the lid once your coals are where you want em. inside the unit,
with indirect heat, you should be getting 200-225 on the meat end. smoke will draw from the fire to the
chimney end giving you decent smoke envelopment. Fire will usually need a extra handful of coal
about every 90 mins. But regardless, it will take you several weekends to learn the quirks of your unit.
Then when you are about predictable, call your friends over.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

You pretty much nailed my experience today, but I did get it a little hotter based on temp. Middle of smoker was low 300s end by chimney 275ish was the peak.
Tritip is done. Sampled a piece and it is tasty. Middle is so juicy.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I also agree with TG in that if you have a chimney extension, (and you should) :),
it shoud be at lowest, 3-4 inches above the cooking grate and should only be used if you
have a good draw from vent to stack.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Did baby backs on the kettle this weekend while we were camping.

Offset grilled em, stacked two rib racks on top of each other and hit em with some sweet and smokey rub. Marinated with Honey, Bourbon and Cider Vinegar every 30 minutes for 2 and a half hours then hit em with the sauce for another thirty minutes.

They were awesome.

Sorry for the crappy pic it was on my iphone.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7664035_n.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

OK. To me it looked like the exhaust vent came down to the grill, not all the way down to the coals.
This might help in 2 ways. It will bring more smoke down to the grill or meat level before it can escape. Also it might let more heat escape directly up the exhaust vent alowing for even lower temps. Just my :2

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Agreed, and make no mistake, if you have a good draw, the smoke WILL not be stagnant.
Down to the cooking grate is impractical, as it steals meat space, but too high and it makes no sense
to even employ such a device. Your intake vent IS directly opposed to your chimney, right?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

In terms of height, top of the coals is about the same as the height of the grate.

And it would not allow more heat to escape out the stack as heat rises and you're taking your exhaust from a cooler area. But, due to smothering the fire, you would probably have lower temps overall.

Like OLS said, 4-5 inches off would be fine, if you need it.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

By the way, those Baby Backs look AWWWWEsome~

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Has anyone used acorns for smoking wood in their smokers? Wondering what you thought about it.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I certainly wouldn't. I HAVE used peanut shells to GREAT, buttery effect.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Got a 4 lbs. pork loin marinating in the fridge overnight. Rubbed it down with garlic powder, paprika, and black pepper. Hit's the smoker tomorrow morning.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Raw acorns contain high concentrations of tannic acid, so their taste is bitter, and some varieties can in their raw state be toxic to humans.....

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

In your opinion, should I do the loin with the foil on or off? Difference?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

if you want smoke flavor and bark, no foil... or foil later into the cook

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I ended up leaving the foil on for the entire cook. The cook times to meat weight ratios listed in my book are incorrect so far or my smoker is hotter than what they used. Taking notes so hopefully the second time around it will be better.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Two things...

Depends where the thermometer(s) are located in your lid/cooker as to how accurately they will reflect the grate temps. You can also probably take them out and test or possibly calibrate them, depending on the design, for accuracy.

Keeping food wrapped in foil while cooking will cause your cook times to drop dramatically as it traps the heat and creates a braising effect around the meat.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Ahah, this is where I went wrong. Next time I will either cut back on the time or attempt again, sensa foil. Thanks.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

'welcome.

If you're going to foil, my recommendation would be to smoke first for a few hours, then foil at the end, otherwise, you might as well just skip the BBQ and stick it in the oven in your kitchen.

Foiling is a controversial subject with BBQ. Some swear by it, some hate it. If you're not careful, you can make meat too soft with it.

Some also feel that foiling causes some of the flavor to fade, so they smoke much heavier at the onset so make up for the loss of flavor.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

last night

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...912_170603.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...TIyNC5qcGc.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...TIyOC5qcGc.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...TUyNS5qcGc.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...TcyMC5qcGc.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Cleaned up 17.55 lbs. of Butt (2 pcs.) Friday after work, sprinkled them with lovin' and bagged them for transport.

The first one's a gamma-corrected shot. Threw them on about 9 PM friday night. Didn't have a light (loaned it out...)

Second Shot: Early Saturday Morning, stirred the coals and checked the progress.

Third Shot: The stick I had to 'suffer through' while I waited on it Saturday.


They came off early (for me, at least) which means I had it turned up too high Saturday morning. But they looked great, sat for a couple of hours, and pulled nicely.

No, there are never any 'finished' shots as my greasy mitts cannot pull and photo at the same time. And yes, I only like to sevre good old fashioned hand pulled Pulled Pork.
(The only thing makes me happier than playing with my meat... hearing the ladies tell me how much they like my meat.)

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Looks good Dan. :tu

Great job.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I cold smoked some Paprika over Apple. Came out great. I will post some pics later.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Marinated more chicken in jerk sauce and scotch bonnet sauce overnight. Going to throw them on the smoker at lunch today. Hope this batch turns out less dry and with more fire.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Looking forward to eating this tonight. The one piece towards the back doesn't have the habanero sauce.... it's for my wife. :)

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...icture2532.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

:dr

i should not be looking at these pics during supper time, my hot pocket does not compare

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

picked up a double pack of butts, and a chuck roast. froze one of the butts, and smoked the other. sorry, forgot pics of the chuckie before it was eaten... butt should be done shortly.


http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...TIzNC5qcGc.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...TIzNC5qcGc.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...TI1My5qcGc.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...1OC5qcGc-1.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I haven't smoked anything on the BGE in I don't remember when. I have been itchin' for some brisket and decided to do one overnight. Picked up a choice 14 pounder and rubbed it with Plowboys Bovine Bold. I didn't want to fire up the Spicewine for one brisket so it is on the BGE now. Hopefully, I will remember to take pics in the morning!!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

:banger:banger:tu:tu:dr

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Man my back porch smells wonderful this morning.

Attachment 7305

This was at about 14 hours and the internal temp was 182. Won't be long now!!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

looks dam tasty Gator!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

looks like u still got it brent! :D

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

This one turned out to be one of the best briskets I ever cooked. Cooked it really low (200) overnight an then bumped the temp up this morning. Pulled it off after 16 hours and an internal of 195. Separated the point and flat. Put the flat in a cooler and put the point back on the cooker for another hour for burnt ends.

The burnt ends turned out great and the flat sliced perfectly!!! The slices were moist and such great beef flavor. Man I love brisket. Only problem is we had family over after church and it is pretty much gone. I may have enough left for one small sammich:td

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

:dr:dr

I'm sitting at the office trying to catch up and I read this...argh!

Sounds yummy Brent!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

That looks delicious!!! :dr

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Dang, I love that...

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

the finished pork pics from the other day....


http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...TUzMC5qcGc.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/s...TUzNy5qcGc.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

nice :dr

i'm gonna starve myself for EPIC :D

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Man the weather cools off and people just abandon cooking on coal, lol. Actually there is some nice meat on this page,
and I even cooked a few racks but before I posted them, realized they look like all my other meat photos, and I just
didn't bother. But Man let the temp drop and this thread slows to a crawl. This used to be the only thread in this
sub-forum that was new every day, mostly every 30 mins. So I broke out some wings, some rib trimmins and a rack
of BBRibs for the crack of dawn for Saturday, the best day of football i will see all year maybe.
Oh, here's last weekend's ribs.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Super Nice Wes and Brad!!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Maybe for our northern brethren this slow down Brad... Me... I am just getting started after several months of it being too hot to enjoy cooking out in the barn.

A while back someone asked to see my charcoal maze. Here it is:
Attachment 7427

Attachment 7428

Under the charcoal on the left side are four chunks of cherry. I light the far left corner and let it get up to 250 or so. Then I put the meat on and put on the Stoker. Depending on how much I am cooking and how warm it is outside it will usually run from 16-24 hours on that maze.

Tonight I am doing 71 pounds of pork for a benefit at church tomorrow:
Attachment 7429
Attachment 7430

Got the Spicewine settled in at 220 and sitting here acting like I need to do something other than drink this rum and smoke this Party Presidente!!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Nice.
Did some St.Louis ribs today. Wife loved them, but said tbe smoker must be moved further from the house. Smoke smell inside. Still learning, but learned some things today about my smoker.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

That's what it is all about. Once you learn you smoker and can deal with the differences in temp/humidity it is all downhill from there. Kinda like setting up up a humi!!!:banger

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I was the one who asked about the maze, thanks for the photos.


That's one helluva rig... :dr:dr

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

That's the way to load up a smoker! I'll have the Lang loaded up again in a couple of weeks I think. Cooler weather DEFINITELY makes it more enjoyable. The last time feed the firebox I don't think it got below 90* that night with about 90% RH. Not real comfortable tending a firebox!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Love your Spicewine Gator!!

Right now I'm dialed in and smoking some BBs with cherry and a little hickory in the 26.75". Pics to follow...

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/p...Q/IMG_3013.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

used a little too much smoke, and all I had was oak, so it isn't necessarily made up for with taste.
But man LOOK at the cook job on these BBRs!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Before the crutch... I had to add a water pan cuz I didn't close the lid all the way and temps spiked a bit.

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/p...Q/IMG_3015.jpg

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/p...Q/IMG_3014.jpg [/quote]

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Those last two rib shots look mighty tasty. My cook came off without a hitch!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Great looking stuff guys.

Brad, that smoke ring is killer!