Re: What's in your smoker?
 

oh my... great thread!! recently purchased a traeger grill. fun fun!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Haha, yeah, this thread from beginning to end is quite a commitment in time, and you will see many people who
never smoked a single ounce of meat go from nothing to pretty damn fine smokers in it if you can read it all. I don't
think anyone does that anymore. But a reverse read can show you a lot of nice meat til you just can't take it no mo.

I just took a giant bag of leg quarters out of the freezer, no sense in smoking em much, the skin on chicken just kills
the smoke penetration. But just getting me outside again after months off will be something. Also gonna smoke some
'country style ribs' while I am out there.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Pretty dismal effort on my end, although in flavor it is a great success. SOMEHOW this is not over-
smoked. I had no charcoal, so I had to end up picking up all the sticks in the yard. When you do that
you end up having wood that burns hot and leaves little coal left over. So I ended up basically using the
hot fire and the white smoke to cook my food today. I tried to burn out most of the smoke before I cooked, but
to stoke the fire I basically had to throw in more sticks. At the end, I went with a large bag of peanut shells
which works GREAT for both heat and smoke. It looks like a slagheap when it glows. I ended up with a deep purple
exterior and a very tasty meat that was just on the high side of smoked, not a delicate smoke flavor, but a strong
smoke taste without being creosote or over-smoked. As this was a RARE bag of leg quarters in that it was all fryer-
sized, the meat is just perfectly cooked and delicious. Outstanding effort, if horribly non-typical.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Preparing to do 4 racks of baby back ribs and a couple of whole chickens today.
Can't wait. :dr

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

i'll bring the chili!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I'll bring my appetite :dr

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Beef cheesecake - short ribs on the WSM!

If you tire of the brisket quality lottery, try a nice whole rack of beef short ribs on the smoker. Super trim the fat, as there is mucho internal fat to render, simple salt & pepper rub with a touch of garlic salt. These look small, but are literally as rich as NY cheesecake, treat yourself Sometime!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Well look who the cat dragged in.
Where have you been hiding, my friend?
Good to "see" you.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

i'll give those shortribs a try!! i'll be smoking a couple pork shoulders this week. i'm on for the pulled pork sammichs for a work party on sunday. good stuff!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I found out a couple days ago that my BIL can get 55 gal drums for free. I will be making a smoker come spring.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Going ot do (2) Bone-In Shoulders this Friday night for our Church's 15th B-Day Pot Luck on Saturday. I will "try" to remember to take pics. Seems like the last 3-4 times I have smoked, I forget about the pics all-together.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Cured and smoked a 2.5lb salmon filet for the 4th Annual Napa Polar Bear herf (BABOTL Indoor herf)

Cured with a modified version of Peter's recipe: Cold Smoked Salmon
Smoked with pecan wood.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Looks delicious Adam.
What modifications did you make?

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I just posted them in your thread.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Been thinking about doing a bacon explosion lately. Came up with a different take, a cheeseburger bacon explosion. I had a bag of high temp cheese in the freezer I'd been meaning to use. It's the type you find in things like snack sticks. Perfect! Simply did the bacon weave, mixed about 1/2 lb of the cheese into 2 lbs of ground beef, rolled that out and seasoned, the filled with some cooked bacon and BBQ sauce, then rolled it all all up. Here's the pics to prove it happened. :D

Before going into the smoker.
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/pictur...pictureid=6636

After finishing in the oven and glazing with some BBQ sauce (mix of Snkbyt's and another of my faves).
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/pictur...pictureid=6637

A pic of the last bit after slicing and gnoshing.
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/pictur...pictureid=6638

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

YUM! :dr

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Very Nice

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

that'll be my next venture!!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

My store trip last week resulted in not just the neckbones from which I made a great stew,
but also 3-4 packs of the "Western Style Ribs" which makes no sense. Obviously they are not ribs,
but some kind of spare meat cut off of a Butt or even an actal butt cut up. But they are tremendous
grill fare no matter what, so I picked them up and a pack of reduced short ribs and a rack of
beef ribs at regular price. Cooked the last of em today, only remembered to photo the rack of
ribs, and only THEN inside where the light was bad. Couldn't get a decent macro in the kitchen
light streaming in from outdoors, so it is not in focus. The rack is, but that was from farther away.

Cooked them with smoke for 90 mins and without for another 90 mins. Delicious. My best smoke
for months. Apple chunks and peanut shells

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

8 pounds of marinated London Broil for beef jerky.

Later today, herbed lemon marinated chicken breasts.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Cooked some burgers last night and rather than grill them, I decided to put them in the smoker with a bunch of lemon wood and let it run with all the vents wide open (300-350F ish).

Topped with brie, salted super thin cucumber slices and red onion.

Wow. Delicious.

(no photos, sorry, was too hungry)

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

got a tri tip waiting for me!! 3 hours at 225... :dr

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

You guys are killing me here! lol... I want to fire up my smoker, just have not had a chance since deer season. Here is a pic of a whole brisket that I did back around thanksgiving time.

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/attach...1&d=1327958021

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I like the idea Jeff for the other temp probe, using a potato. :tu Oh yea, the brisket looks good too.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

That is the actual goal of this thread: To KILL......and to MOTIVATE.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

lol it works too! :)

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Made a 12-pound packer brisket on my Weber Performer on Saturday. Smoked with maple and a little mesquite. It was my best one yet!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Here are a few more shots from Labor Day...

A pair of whole beef briskets...

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/attach...1&d=1328049297

Country style ribs with my famous beans...

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/attach...1&d=1328049297

When I'm doing serious cooking, I put up my smoke shack tent... keeps the sun off of my drink. :)

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/attach...1&d=1328049297

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Very cool. Love that Weber Performer too, I'd like to get one someday.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Got it on craig's list a couple years ago. It's the older style with the stainless steel table.

I have a dedicated smoker, but unless I'm cooking a bunch of food (like your awesome pics!) I use the Weber and it puts out some great food!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

In my opinion the Weber Kettle is the finest grill ever built. You can do a fine job of smoking on the Weber too, you just have to be patient. Using indirect cooking methods you can smoke anything low and slow... I too have cooked some fine grub on these things. I even got pretty good at doing whole briskets on the Weber. In my opinion the brisket is one of the most difficult of the large cuts to get right consistently. :)

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Anyone use a Louisiana grille (pellet style)? I was perusing CL just now, and they intrigue me.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I love my pellet bbq. Not an LG. It's a Traeger

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I've been contemplating the WSM for a while and would love to hear everyones thoughts. It seems to be highly represented here. I have smoked some butts on my kettle that have come out good and bad. The bad was just too much smoke. Smoking on the kettle requires quite a bit of attention also. And there just isn't enough room to do any quantity.
Also, any recommendation for a good remote thermometer would also be appreciated.
Most of my smoking knowledge has been acquired on amazingribs.com

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

The WSM is a world class smoker especially now that it's made in the 22.5 inch diameter. A buddy of mine has one so I have been able to play with the thing a bit and I like it a lot. Same quality you would expect from Weber with the high gloss finish like the kettle grills. He's cranking out some nice Q with the thing too. I'm sure this smoker will outlive the owner as long as taken care of, it's a really nice smoker.

If I were buying a new thermometer today I would get http://www.maverickhousewares.com/et73.htm which has two probes, one for the meat and one for the chamber temperature. I'm currently using two units to accomplish the same thing.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I'm using that same Maverick temp probe in my Bradley. Works pretty good and surprised how long the batteries have lasted. The wireless range is pretty acceptable too. I get decent reception in my house, about 35-40 feet from the garage.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

amazingribs.com is a great site.
I've heard nothing but good things about the WSM. That being said, I own a Traeger pellet smoker and absolutely love it.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I started off smoking on my 26.75" kettle and decided that I wanted something a little easier to use. So, I pulled the trigger on the 18.5" WSM and love it! It's very easy to use. It'll run a little hot at first, but once you get several cooks on it, it will gunk up and run a little cooler. Plus, it's a Weber! They have great customer service and really stand behind their products. My only regret is that I didn't get the 22.5". I cook a lot of ribs and there's a lot more room on the 22.5".

As for remote thermometers, I have the Maverick ET-732. It works really well and I'm able to get reception all throughout my house. I also have the ET-73 and recommend that you do not get it. There are problems with reception, which are well documented on BBQ forums and is the primary reason I bought it's replacement, the ET-732.

As for instant read thermometers, I love my Thermapen! They come calibrated, but can be re-calibrated if necessary. They read temps almost instantly and are very accurate. The one down side is that they are pricey.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

One more thing....if you haven't already done so, check out this site. It's dedicated to Weber products, has a lot of good information and people are very helpful.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Weber makes great products, no doubt about that and the aforementioned VirtualBullet.com website is a great place dedicated to them.

Something to consider, rather than a remote read thermometer, is that if you think you might want draft control with a BBQ Guru or Stoker, where these controllers integrate the functions of the remote read thermometers for the meat and cook chamber with a variable fan and the ability for custom programming. You tell it what temperatures you want for the cook chamber and what the "done" temp is for the meat, and it will control the airflow into the firebox as to maintain that temperature and then when the meat hits whatever temperature you programmed for it, it shuts down the airflow. Different models have different features, some will allow for multiple different temperature stages in the cooking, some have ethernet or wi-fi connectors so you can control, log and do all kinds of techno tricks from your computer. The Stoker even has an iPhone app now.

Costs a bit more, although it's really not that bad and the functionally and consistency that you gain is immense.

Two of the best controllers out there:
http://www.thebbqguru.com/
https://www.rocksbarbque.com/

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Awesome information guys. I have a lot of reading to do.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Honestly, best grill I ever saw in my 50 years was the one they gave Dave K at his herf in 2011.
That thing was impossibly bad a55. HUGE surface, super versatile. But it was a charcoal grill
which puts some folks off.....not me, but some. That is the BBQ U special, the giant weber.
The one he puts the clod or packer brisket on in the middle and indirect cooks it from both sides.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

The Ranch Kettle? Those ARE bad-ass and for $1400, they had better be.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I'm going to do a couple of butts for the Blue and Gold Banquet Friday night. I think I'll use the small offset for this one.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Let me just say....
You people a frekin killing me with this stuff.

I foolishly lock my WSM up inside the Camper, and wrapped it up for the winter.
I can't get to it for another 70-something days. :(

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

My Big Green Egg cracked in 4 places last night. Not like little cracks, but horribly epic top to bottom, egg shattering cracks. Literally out of no where. Was cooking some steaks, went inside, came back outside, and noticed one. Within a few more minutes, they were all over. Email'ed BGE customer service, they told me that the crack in the photo comes when the egg is "dropped or moved" and if I needed to replace my base "it is not covered under their warranty" and that I should "order one from my local dealer and would have to pay". I told them it's been in the same spot since day one, never been moved or dropped. He asked me for me pictures, I happily sent all of the angles he asked, and more.

I did some more research, and found someone of EggHeadForums that had nearly identical cracks in near identical places. Funny thing is, that person had his egg base replaced without a problem by the same person who told me that my Egg's cracks were a result of the egg being "dropped or moved". I sent the customer service rep the link to that thread as well....

Still no response. We'll have to see how this tale ends. It's a damn shame.

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Butts are on, Uzi is smoking fine!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

Normally, I would be firing up my Big Girl

http://oldchurchbbq.com/sharedpictur...s/Photo265.jpg

but since tonight I'm only doing a couple of butts, I figured I'd give my Little Girl the call

http://oldchurchbbq.com/sharedpictur...s/Photo264.jpg

http://oldchurchbbq.com/sharedpictur...s/Photo263.jpg

Ah, yea!

http://oldchurchbbq.com/sharedpictur...s/Photo262.jpg

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

My hero!

Re: What's in your smoker?
 

I'm blushing Peter :chr