What's in your smoker?

[forgop]

4 butts on the Traeger now. Just got the digital controller and auger motor replaced last night.

[Smokin Gator]

Originally Posted by kydsid

On another note the old lady has been jonesing for Carolina pulled pork so I looked up a sauce at the BBQ Bretheren.

What do ya'll think and/or use yourself?

1 C Cider vinegar 1 T Brown sugar 1 t salt, or to taste ½ t Ground cayenne ½ t Ground black pepper

This is almost exactly what I use for my Carolina style sauce. The only difference is I use a heavy 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes instead of cayenne. Heat it up in a saucepan and put it in a squirt bottle. It keeps forever and seems to get better as it sits.

[OLS]

I likes me some spices floating around in that vinegar, experiment a little.

Man I remember in NC one year we had a shop party pig pickin' and I was responsible for the sauce. I had tasted
a ton of NC style sauce from my many meals at Wilber's in Goldsboro, but when it came time to shop, I was lost.
I knew it had vineagar, and I knew that it had better be some kind of good vinegar, as I was not cleaning a floor
with it. By the time I finished adding stuff, it turned out to be a masterpiece. I can't say I PREFER a vinegar
slosh like those Carolinians, but I don't HATE it either. Good luck, make sure you float some good solids in there...
Make a couple of small jars and write down the contents of each. One will rise to the top!

It's GOT DANG SHOWTIME, BOYS....LSULSULSULSULSULSULSULSULSU....Whew I am worked up!
I am not usually a fan of fans chanting LSU, or USA for that matter. But in this case, it illustrates
my worked-upedness.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Smokin Gator

This is almost exactly what I use for my Carolina style sauce. The only difference is I use a heavy 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes instead of cayenne. Heat it up in a saucepan and put it in a squirt bottle. It keeps forever and seems to get better as it sits.

Originally Posted by Smokin Gator

It keeps forever and seems to get better as it sits.

Dat's the truth!

[pektel]

Originally Posted by OLS

Remember the cardinal rule of smoking, since you are going for the guest-feeding routine....THIN, BLUE smoke,
no billowing white or gray smoke. Glad to see you are enjoying the cave-man's art...I know I never smoked
anything until about three years ago, and now I am addicted. it's such a great thing to have delicious
meat that tastes better than you can get in a lot of "barbecue" places and to have it last so long in the fridge
if you can't get to it fast enough. The magical smoke rocks.

That's what I did (regarding smoke). BUT, I had a huge problem with temp off the bat. It was where it was supposed to be. Actually getting down to 225 by the time I was ready to put the butt on the grill. So I threw a few more pieces of lump coal on there, closed the intake almost completely, and opened the exhaust wide. I checked on it about 35 minutes later, and the temp was approaching 400 I ended up opening it up, removing some coals, and keeping an eye on it. It worked really well, but the damage had been done. It almost cooked the ouside of the butt too fast, so the smoke did not penetrate as far.

Only one person commented on it being "not as good as last time." But that particular person judges quality of the cook by intensity of the smoke flavor. I like to taste the meat, rub, AND smoke. But it was even too mellow for me to call it any amount of a success.

Oh well, it's all a learning process anyways.

[GWN]

Stoked about finally getting the side firebox for my CharGriller. It's a $69 unit but it would cost another $170 to ship here. Thankfully, a generous BOTL is visiting friends in MI this month, so I'm shipping to their place and he's bringing it back. Free shipping within the U.S.
Gonna have to learn to smoke all over again (been using the water pan method so far) but it's so worth it.

[OLS]

Hammered out a lil meat to celebrate the pounding Bama is going to suffer tonight. As I type this though, Jarrett lee is giving the ball away again, so he might be done tonight.
There was a barred owl in the pecan tree above my smoker who was not too happy about all the wood
smoke I was pouring into his napping spot. That's a good spot, too, lots of rats and squirrels in this
part of town. Came out late to take the meat off, and he was drinking from my pond waterfall and I scared
him back up into another tree where I got to take a good many more photos of him with another camera.

[Steve]

Very nice!!!

[kydsid]

Well was up at midnight last night to start the pork shoulders.



IMAG0081 by kydsid, on Flickr


Took them off at 10am this morning and into the cooler. Pulled and added the Carolina sauce. Thanks Brent for the tips. I made a mess of it but used a 1/4 Cayenne/Chili Flake/Adobo/Chili Powder to make the sauce. Turned out great.


IMAG0082 by kydsid, on Flickr


Also did some ribs and ABT's. Had the crew over for a herf and had great eats and great football. Was a good day, smoked a lot of meat and great cigars!

[Steve]

Looks pretty good to me...

[Smokin Gator]

Great lookin' yard runner Brad and killer lookin' butts Jason. I made the hot smoked wings and some ABTs yesterday. One of my favorite meals!!!

[IndyRob]

Smoked Chicken was the course of the night. Spent about 4hrs on the grill, came out tender, juicy and smoke-a-riffic!

I wish I had a full fledged smoker though. I use my 21" weber and obviously that has a few disadvantages. Mostly you have to babysit it quite a bit more often.

[OLS]

Indy, there is no need to worry too much about a proper smoker. I am handicapped a bit, too
in that I do not have anything but a grill. I just pile the heat and smoke on one third of my space
and meat on the other 2/3 and I do fine. It's also a little less trouble than a real smoker with a
separate firebox. The output is a little less consistent but in the end the meat it creates is downright
amazing. The point is to commit to practicing enough to work out any kinks the circular grill forces onto you.
There are a coupla smokers here who kick-a55 on a circular weber!

Sorry about my pic, it was taken right after I painted the ribs with SBR sauce, so it is not carmelized.
But man was that chicken purty. Plus when the ribs were finally black-purple, I was already demolishing them.

[IndyRob]

Ohhh worry not, I make do with my grill as a smoker! A Smokey Mountain is just on my wish list.

[OLS]

Mine takes a good lot of babysitting as well. TO ME, though babysitting is what grilling and smoking are about.
To be outside with the beer and nature while the family is dealing with each other, say at Thanksgiving
or Easter or whatever get together there is. Sometimes it's a PITA, too, though, but in the end,
we buy gear so we can enjoy cooking outdoors. I admire the set and forget crowd, but I have no burning
desire to be there with em. When you do all night smokes for large groups for money, or competitions,
sure, automation and consistent performance over time are where it's at. I like my little Char-Griller fine.

[T.G]

I have a 21" Weber OTG that has a pair of firebricks and part of the lower grate sealed off and once it hits the temp I want to cook at, it doesn't seem to require any more baby sitting than really any other comparable sized non-power draft controlled smoker that I've used, in some cases, even less actually. It doesn't have the run time of a WSM without reloading though - 6-7 hours is about max on one load of fuel, but it holds considerably less fuel than a WSM...

[pektel]

Got a long time friend and his GF coming over Saturday night from out of town. Since its so close to thanksgiving, I'm going to smoke a couple turkey breath (bone in), thighs, and drumsticks. Whip up some cornbread stuffing and homemade Mac and cheese for the sides. Never smoked turkey parts before, do if anyone has any tips...
Posted via Mobile Device

[T.G]

Originally Posted by pektel

Got a long time friend and his GF coming over Saturday night from out of town. Since its so close to thanksgiving, I'm going to smoke a couple turkey breath (bone in), thighs, and drumsticks. Whip up some cornbread stuffing and homemade Mac and cheese for the sides. Never smoked turkey parts before, [b][u]do if anyone has any tips...
Posted via Mobile Device

"...going to smoke a couple turkey breath (bone in), thighs, and drumsticks...."

Well, that's basically the whole turkey...

Try this... Alton Brown's recpie but cooked over mesquite.

But rather than an oven, load mesquite charcoal into your smoker and use it. No need to make smoke, if you are using mesquite lump, just mimic the oven temps that Alton calls for.

Typically, I wouldn't use mesquite in a smoker, but charcoal is a bit different... I've used Lazzari Mesquite Charcoal and it rocks. Never had a complaint yet.

[pektel]

Much thanks for the tips. I'll be checking it out now.
Posted via Mobile Device

[forgop]

Originally Posted by IndyRob

Smoked Chicken was the course of the night. Spent about 4hrs on the grill, came out tender, juicy and smoke-a-riffic!

I wish I had a full fledged smoker though. I use my 21" weber and obviously that has a few disadvantages. Mostly you have to babysit it quite a bit more often.

Have I got a setup for you...22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain and an iQue 110 controller. I'm in Indy and the smoker itself was new in April. Worked great, but I got sold on the idea of a Traeger and found a used one not too far from me.

LMK if you're interested. http://pitmasteriq.com/ for more info on the controller

New I have about $475 in it and then have a few bags of charcoal left over.