Smoking food, mainly meat

[MightyThor]

My husband does metal work by hobby (blacksmithing, welding, etc) and builds medical cameras (like CT scan machines) by day job. His work lab was getting rid of some equipment and he managed to bring home the entire frame that once held a two ton camera. He built a smoker w/side by side grill on the old gantry frame and it's awesome. And huge. We can fit multiple turkeys in the thing! We'll usually run it all day and smoke a bunch of stuff at once. We'll even let the neighbors know when it's fired up and they'll throw on stuff too. If you're going to get a big smoker, might as well take advantage of the size. These are my tips if you have a bigger smoker:

1. Brine some chickens overnight and smoke. I know pork and beef tend to be the go-to meats for smokers, but juicy smoked chicken meat is the BEST.
2. Find a good source of quality meat in quantity. If you're gonna run a big smoker all day, fill the darn thing up! I go to CostCo and bring home ribs, tri-tip, chickens, etc.
3. A big freezer - if you're going to get a big smoker and take advantage of it (see point 2), you need space to store the frozen meat.
4. A vacuum sealer - to seal leftover meat for the freezer. Again, CostCo is a good source for this.
5. Keep an eye out for good smoking wood - we live in California and people are regularly chopping down fruit trees in yards. We'll pick up that wood and use it in the smoker. My favorite is apricot tree. Works really well with chicken!

We'll run the smoker almost every weekend in the fall (football season), and fill the freezer for winter. Just tonight we're having chili made with smoked rib meat that I pulled from the deep freeze yesterday!

[Mr Kleb]

Our friends from MS have one and they love it. We're getting the Weber Smoking Mountain, but I can't make smoked brisket because it's sacrilegious to my people (Hannukah Jewish-style sweet and tangy brisket all the way).

Can you grill the brisket then? Or do it in the oven? Several years ago I grilled brisket on our propane grill, very low heat, very slow and it turned out well as I remember.

Have never tried. Sounds yummy.

Oh it is, it is. I'm not a homesick Texan but I have missed smoked brisket and other meats. There's a BBQ restaurant in the city about 20 miles away (that's another story) and then there's an excellent place, Red Hot and Blue, in suburban Detroit. Now I'm not compelled to spend money, instead I can stay home and learn something.

This is the smoker we have. We have had it for 5 years now and it is the best thing we have bought. LOVE it. We do jalapeno poppers, whole chicken, pork butt, pork shoulder, ribs, chicken wings, turkey, etc. We did beef brisket when we lived in OK, can't find it for a decent price in TN which is such a bummer.

Masterbuilt 40" Electric Smoker with Window - Sam's Club

My husband does metal work by hobby (blacksmithing, welding, etc) and builds medical cameras (like CT scan machines) by day job. His work lab was getting rid of some equipment and he managed to bring home the entire frame that once held a two ton camera. He built a smoker w/side by side grill on the old gantry frame and it's awesome. And huge. We can fit multiple turkeys in the thing! We'll usually run it all day and smoke a bunch of stuff at once. We'll even let the neighbors know when it's fired up and they'll throw on stuff too. If you're going to get a big smoker, might as well take advantage of the size. These are my tips if you have a bigger smoker:

1. Brine some chickens overnight and smoke. I know pork and beef tend to be the go-to meats for smokers, but juicy smoked chicken meat is the BEST.
2. Find a good source of quality meat in quantity. If you're gonna run a big smoker all day, fill the darn thing up! I go to CostCo and bring home ribs, tri-tip, chickens, etc.
3. A big freezer - if you're going to get a big smoker and take advantage of it (see point 2), you need space to store the frozen meat.
4. A vacuum sealer - to seal leftover meat for the freezer. Again, CostCo is a good source for this.
5. Keep an eye out for good smoking wood - we live in California and people are regularly chopping down fruit trees in yards. We'll pick up that wood and use it in the smoker. My favorite is apricot tree. Works really well with chicken!

We'll run the smoker almost every weekend in the fall (football season), and fill the freezer for winter. Just tonight we're having chili made with smoked rib meat that I pulled from the deep freeze yesterday!

We're fortunate to have an excellent butcher right here in our small town. I got a brisket, point and flat, about 12 lbs. It was not cheap, about $60 if I recall correctly but well worth it. I had to do the point and flat separately.

We found that Costco wasn't cost-effective for the two of us. Factor in the two-hour round trip to the nearest one and it was not worth it.
----------------
Well I did it. Bought the Weber smoker. It will be tough to wait for warmer weather. I think my first smoke will be something not-fancy, that I won't weep over if I botch it.

When I did the brisket I tried something different. I had noticed previously that the meat temperature 'stalled' at about 150 for quite some time. Did some research and found this is a common thing. One recommendation was when it reaches that temperature, tightly wrap it in foil and put it back on the grill. I tried that and the brisket reached 195, the temperature I was aiming for, in about one hour less than previously. Doing this meant I didn't get that 'bark' on the outside that an unwrapped brisket gets. I thought it was a good trade-off though. A 5 lb. point took about 7 1/2 hours to smoke.

[doubledip1]

I do it in the crock pot, actually. Once it is cooked in the crock pot, I pop it into a casserole dish, put it in the refrigerator all day and then cook it in the oven to reheat.

I usually get the point. I chop up a TON of onion (usually 2-3) into a dice, and put that in the crock pot with the point. Add some chopped garlic, freshly ground black pepper, kosher salt, a sprinkle of paprika, a sprinkle of some herbs, a handful of sugar all on top. I'll then get a can of tomatoes (my favorite are Muir Glen brand) or fresh tomatoes, chop those and pop them on top and add beef stock.

Lots of my other Jew friends will do a Dr. Pepper brisket, a beer brisket, etc. Some people do half chili sauce and half ketchup with the beef stock.

For some reason, the crock pot, fridge, oven combination is just amazing.

[Georgia]

I'm a little late to the conversation but just saw this thread. We smoke all the time. We have a cabinet style propane smoker by Smoke Hollow. Hubby makes excellent ribs! One of our favorite things to smoke is a meatloaf. You can smoke a meatloaf in a couple hours which is nice and meatloaf is delicious in the smoker. We also love to smoke turkey breast. Yum!

[Mr Kleb]

Not late at all, I hope this will be an ongoing conversation.

I'm itching to get out there and get started. Almost all the snow is gone, the backyard is a swamp at for now and should begin drying out soon. I'll probably calibrate it the first couple times by doing something low-stress like a pork roast I can turn into pulled pork, such that if it turns out badly I won't be upset.

I do it in the crock pot, actually. Once it is cooked in the crock pot, I pop it into a casserole dish, put it in the refrigerator all day and then cook it in the oven to reheat.

I usually get the point. I chop up a TON of onion (usually 2-3) into a dice, and put that in the crock pot with the point. Add some chopped garlic, freshly ground black pepper, kosher salt, a sprinkle of paprika, a sprinkle of some herbs, a handful of sugar all on top. I'll then get a can of tomatoes (my favorite are Muir Glen brand) or fresh tomatoes, chop those and pop them on top and add beef stock.

Lots of my other Jew friends will do a Dr. Pepper brisket, a beer brisket, etc. Some people do half chili sauce and half ketchup with the beef stock.

For some reason, the crock pot, fridge, oven combination is just amazing.

I've seen crock pot brisket recipes, have never tried one. Yours sounds good, may have to try it next winter when it's too cold to smoke one.

[Georgia]

Today was the first brisket of the year. DH put it in the smoker around 10 pm last night and dinner was at 6 pm today. We got the brisket at WalMart of all places. Baked beans, mashed sweet potatoes and homemade cornbread rounded out the menu!

[Mr Kleb]

Oh that looks absolutely marvellous. Very nicely sliced. Did he wrap it in foil? Or is that a State Secret?

[Georgia]

HaHa! Not a state secret - no foil. Smoked it right on the rack.

[Mr Kleb]

The first half of this weekend promised to be spectacular. So on Friday I washed the smoker and lightly oiled the interior. I decided to skip calibrating the smoker then cooking a low-stress meat. Jumped right in with back ribs.

I sliced the rack in half, rinsed and patted it dry, then removed the membrane on the bone side. Then I rubbed it with mustard and sprinkled on a dry rub. Here they are, sitting on the counter while I fired up the smoker.


It took less than an hour to bring the smoker up to temperature. Above temp actually because I was mentally programmed to working with the leaky, thin-walled old smoker. Had to close two vents and only crack the third to cool the fire back down to 225 degrees. I also threw on some potatoes, washed, lightly pricked twice then lightly oiled. Here are the ribs and spuds about three hours along.


The potatoes were essentially done at this point. A little later I added three links of jalapeno garlic sausage. Ribs were done in just short of six hours, potatoes in three plus, and sausage in two. The ribs were a bit overdone but thankfully not dry. Faye made a tasty carrot side dish.

Dinner is served!

[Hunter23]

Try pepper jack cheese. Very good. Just have to keep heat very low