My new smoker!

Mott the Hoople

Mott the Hoople

Sweet Jane
I just bought a smoker a couple of weeks ago and it was a righteous purchase. Here's what I've cooked/smoked so far.

I smoked a pork shoulder but muffed it up by not smoking it long enough. I had it in the smoker for 4 hours. I should have kept it in there double that long. Grade B+ could have been an A+ if I hadn't of fucked it up.

I then smoked some brisket. Grade A

My next experiment was to cure and smoke some salmon filets. That was an A+ experiment. Turned out real good!!

I then did a mix of baby back pork ribs and some beef ribs. That was another A+

My next experiment was I dressed up a chicken with seasoning and then I poured some beer in the drip pan and roasted that chicken in the smoker. Grade A.

My last experiment was I dropped by a meat market and got some fresh made uncooked Kilbasa sausage and smoked that. OH MY GOD!!! That was A++

Any good suggestion fellas?
 
Mott, you can cut and grill after you've smoked, so you could have saved the pork shoulder... B+ isn't good enough.
 
Damocles said:
Mott, you can cut and grill after you've smoked, so you could have saved the pork shoulder... B+ isn't good enough.
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That's pretty much what I did. I wasn't about to throw out a good piece of meat like that. Actually I sliced up about half of it and grilled it. The other half my wife chopped up, mixed with some raw onions, a little fresh ginger, cilantro and lots of fresh lime juice and some asian seasoning. That was pretty damned good too. My goal though was to make fall off the bone tender pulled pork BBQ and I didn't get there if you know what I mean?

It has been more challenging then I thought as you need to keep the temp very consistent and you need to be very patient. I've been learning that the dry rubs and bbq sauces is a bunch of hooey. Not that they aren't important but that with a little trial and error finding a good one for the meat your smoking is pretty easy. Getting the combination of temperature, smoke and timing for a given piece of meat, on the other hand, is quite a bit harder and plays a bigger role in how good the end product is.

I found ribs, both pork and beef to be particularly tricky. You don't want them to be quite fall of the bone tender but you want to get them tender enough that when you take a bite the meat pulls off the bone clean and easy. That's tough to do. There seems to be a narrow range between under done, over done and just right.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
That's pretty much what I did. I wasn't about to throw out a good piece of meat like that. Actually I sliced up about half of it and grilled it. The other half my wife chopped up, mixed with some raw onions, a little fresh ginger, cilantro and lots of fresh lime juice and some asian seasoning. That was pretty damned good too. My goal though was to make fall off the bone tender pulled pork BBQ and I didn't get there if you know what I mean?

It has been more challenging then I thought as you need to keep the temp very consistent and you need to be very patient. I've been learning that the dry rubs and bbq sauces is a bunch of hooey. Not that they aren't important but that with a little trial and error finding a good one for the meat your smoking is pretty easy. Getting the combination of temperature, smoke and timing for a given piece of meat, on the other hand, is quite a bit harder and plays a bigger role in how good the end product is.

I found ribs, both pork and beef to be particularly tricky. You don't want them to be quite fall of the bone tender but you want to get them tender enough that when you take a bite the meat pulls off the bone clean and easy. That's tough to do. There seems to be a narrow range between under done, over done and just right.
Click to expand...
Ribs are easier to just grill. Rubs suck, it really doesn't have enough time to really settle to add flavor although marinating rocks. That's kind of like using the coals with mesquite in them for grilling, the smoke really doesn't have enough time to flavor the meat on a grill, that's what smokers are for...

I've been trying to come up with new ways to use honey rather than just as part of BBQ sauces when grilling. (I've had the smoker a while, the new grill not so long.)
 
Damocles said:
Ribs are easier to just grill. Rubs suck, it really doesn't have enough time to really settle to add flavor although marinating rocks. That's kind of like using the coals with mesquite in them for grilling, the smoke really doesn't have enough time to flavor the meat on a grill, that's what smokers are for...

I've been trying to come up with new ways to use honey rather than just as part of BBQ sauces when grilling. (I've had the smoker a while, the new grill not so long.)
Click to expand...

Here's an idea. Add some fresh vanilla bean to your honey. Then dip slices of melon, strawberry's, mango, pears, what ever fruit trips your trigger, then grill on high heat till the honey begins to caramalize on the fruit.
 
Damocles said:
Ribs are easier to just grill. Rubs suck, it really doesn't have enough time to really settle to add flavor although marinating rocks. That's kind of like using the coals with mesquite in them for grilling, the smoke really doesn't have enough time to flavor the meat on a grill, that's what smokers are for...

I've been trying to come up with new ways to use honey rather than just as part of BBQ sauces when grilling. (I've had the smoker a while, the new grill not so long.)
Click to expand...
I've never had any luck grilling ribs unless I've done it by indirect heat, which is essentially the same as smoking.

Now I can think of a good dessert using honey though this wouldn't be a grilling recipe.

Peal, half and corp 4 asian pairs. Add to a suace pan and cover with some prosecco, add about 4 tbs of honey, a 1/2 cup expresso or strong coffee and a vanilla bean (or a tsp of vanilla extract). Poach the pears for about 20 min or until tender. Remove the pears and reduce the sauce until it becomes a syrup. Place a round of sponge cake in a dessert glass, place a poached pear on top of that, the drizzle a liberal amount of the syrup over the pear. Shave some good chocolate over the pear and then sprinkle with some powdered sugar. This is best if the honey is a dark, smokey flavored honey.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
I've never had any luck grilling ribs unless I've done it by indirect heat, which is essentially the same as smoking.

Now I can think of a good dessert using honey though this wouldn't be a grilling recipe.

Peal, half and corp 4 asian pairs. Add to a suace pan and cover with some prosecco, add about 4 tbs of honey, a 1/2 cup expresso or strong coffee and a vanilla bean (or a tsp of vanilla extract). Poach the pears for about 20 min or until tender. Remove the pears and reduce the sauce until it becomes a syrup. Place a round of sponge cake in a dessert glass, place a poached pear on top of that, the drizzle a liberal amount of the syrup over the pear. Shave some good chocolate over the pear and then sprinkle with some powdered sugar. This is best if the honey is a dark, smokey flavored honey.
Click to expand...
We got mostly Alfalfa honey, it's a good rich, dark honey...
 
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