My kids got me an electric smoker from Lowe’s for Father’s day… very similar to the ones at Cabella’s. This is now the second smoker I have and the 5th “grill” overall. I haven’t had it for long, but I love it so far. My first try was way over cooked, but the ribs (and baked beans) I made next and then the Jerky were wonderful. You can’t beat it for ease. It has a digital temperature gauge and a meat probe so you can be very accurate. The addition of wood is simple without opening the door and letting the smoke out.
The other smoker is propane, upright cylinder with a dome lid. It works great, but I didn’t use it much because it was harder to add more wood and harder to clean up. Electric may not be for purists, but it works great for someone who has other things to tend to during the hours of smoking.
For a side of beef I’d dig the pit deeper. And build my coal bed deeper as well as lay on more wood before covering. That way you can get a longer cook for those massive muscles like a steamship round. You wouldn’t want to cook the beef in its own skin either. So rub the whole thing. And pack some fresh herbs in the wrap.
Barbecue is a Carib Indian word. Pirates brought this form of cooking to the Southern Colonies.
Finally, perfection. It took a couple of tries but with a quality 8 1/2 lb packer the final product was every bit as good as what I’ve found at Lockhart, Giddings, etc.
Rubbed it down the night before with a good domino rub, not too heavy. I woke around 5 am thinking about all the BBQ tips I’d read recently and went ahead and started the fire, so I was cooking right at sun-up.
I used lump oak charcoal for most of the way but with some hickory logs early and some pecan thrown in from time to time. At 225 it took about 13 hours for it to reach an internal of 203F but when it did the fork in the side turned like buttah.
I wrapped it in grill foil and then a towel and put it in a pre-Yeti for two hours. When it came out I used the Sorkin method of slicing detailed halfway down the page. It really pays to set the right parts aside for chopped, cut the best w/o too much fat and realign the two halves for final across the grain cuts. In the end everything came out perfectly flavored and incredibly tender. I t was a joy to feast on through a good part of the week.
Tomorrow it’s back to what looked best at the good grocery yesterday, chicken quarters, baby back ribs and a pork butt. I’m still looking for that perfect meat market that’ll always have exactly what I want each time, but until then we’re good with grabbin’ the best they carry each week.
My old roomie used the word in the same sense. Do you eat barbecued burgers or grilled burgers? Barbecued ribs or grilled ribs? Seems like there is no pork butt or brisket smoking going on there. Are your steaks barbecued?
Calling a get-together a Barbecue is common enough, but is still a misnomer. If BBQ sauce is being used, fine, call it that if you must. If it is nothing more than grilling meat, you are grilling meat. You are not barbecuing a hot dog, you are grilling it. On the same token, you are not grilling a brisket, you are smoking it, and may make it barbecue flavored.
Toss another shrimp on the grill, because direct heat and actual barbecuing have nothing to do with each other.
This thread is making me hungry! I have a Big Green Egg and I do both grilling and BBQ on it. Love to grill burgers on it as it gets a nice smokey flavor to them. I just did (4) 7 1/2 pound pork butts on it for a party we had on the solstice. Personally I like the range I get with the BGE (and I find out it is elitist too! all right!)
Brisket–that is one tough piece of meat. I have done two, one was okay the other was better but still not where I want it to be. Need to work on that a bit more I think.
Ribs and pork butt are easy to bbq on the BGE. I smoked our turkey last year on it, haven’t tried smoking cheese or fish on it but I am sure it would come out fine.
Chicken, burgers and fish are good for grilling. It is awesome for searing a good steak.
What I like about the BGE is the versatility of it, the range of temperature, the efficient use of lump charcoal AND not much clean up.
I always wanted a true smoker but to be honest I don’t see the need for it since I have the BGE. My brother in law is coming to visit tomorrow for a week and he is a big bbq guy, will be interesting to see what he thinks of the BGE compared to his setup.
Any advice for a low and slow bar b que in an electric oven? I’ve got a really nice Miele electric oven with a rotisserie. Haven’t really done much except rotisserie chicken and some spare ribs. What should I bar b que in the oven?
You know, you seem awfully defensive about this. I understand that, in your cultural milieu, the word “barbeque” has a specific meaning. In my original post, I pointed out that, in other cultures, the word has a different meaning. It’s not a “misnomer” for Aussies to call an outdoor cooking event a barbeque. And it’s insulting that you suggest that it is.
Australian English is not American English. Not better or worse, either, just different.
I sometimes finish short ribs and baby back in the oven too when I really want tenderness to be off the chart. While I prefer to smoke them outside for two hours first just to impart that perfect flavor, there’s nothing wrong with those done inside. Saturday I finished mine indoors when it started raining like hell and the smoker temp dropped 50 degrees.
I’d be very curious about that too. Please report back if there’s anything worth sharing.
BGEs have been adopted by dozens of professional or competition smokers. Go to a competition and they’re strapped to the back of the majority of trucks in addition to the big metal smoker.
We call it braaing in South Africa, and absolutely the best wood to use is grape vine cuttings (wingerdstokke in Afrikaans) which gives lovely coals. Favourite things to braai include fish (snoek, basted with a butter-and-apricot-jam mix), lamb chops, boerewors andcrayfish (rock lobster) if you can get it.
Very interesting, we have a great deal of local grapevive and I’ll have to check if this variant is acceptable too. If so it’s certainly in plentiful supply. The snoek looks quite popular. Steelhead is on my short list. How do you do the lobster?
Boerewors, eh? I’ve held off on smoking my venison cuts so far since there’s so little fat on them, removed to reduce gameyness, but I do have quite a bit of sausage I need to start smoking. It should do better than on the grill where it’s leaked and caused flare-ups. Boudin should be worth a try too.
Yesterday was an outstanding hickory and cherry wood smoked pulled pork. Had to use the Texas crutch, as time was an issue.
Tonight we move to the grill for some fresh blackened bluefish tacos (the reason time was an issue was we were going bluefishing that evening - actually, I was hoping for stripers but they were nowhere to be found).
I’ve read about the Texas crutch but always had enough time that I didn’t need to employ it. Did it work to your satisfaction?
I found large 4 bags of pin and southern red oak firewood this weekend. They’ll make a nice base I can add hickory or pecan to. Also, finally got my custom meat market! The in-laws are coming next week and are keen to try some Texas BBQ so I’ve got a 12 lb prime packer brisket ordered. Having had good success with just a select, the prime out to be a real chain breaker. They even said they can get Kobe if we want. Heh, I want.
It affected the bark a little, but I think the two hour braise did wonders for tenderness. It was a trade-off. Finishing the last 30 minutes on a ‘hot’ (just over 300) smoker re-crisped it a bit, but not the same as when I didn’t use the crutch.
And the blackened bluefish was better than expected.
A bit of updating to do, although the basics in general don’t change too quickly with cooking good Bar-B-Que.
I found this book, The Prophets of Smoked Meat, which was an interesting collection of the histories and techniques of most of the famous regional joints in our state. Most everyone has some secret ingredient or process but overall low and slow was of course the common denominator.
Awhile back I visited with a family where all five men were into smoking and all had slightly different smoker styles. One had a pellet system and he was able to get his temps down to 165 F and hold it indefinately. With my firebox that’s almost impossible without constantly maintaining it so I ammended the process. What I do now is the evening before we want to eat it I’ll prep it and put it in the kitchen oven overnight at 165, usually for about 8 to 10 hours. In the last hour before it’s transferred outside to the smoker I’ll start to bring the temp up to the 225 it runs outside. The result has been more than worth the effort, just incredibly tender, juicy brisket.
Also, previously I’d rub the brisket first with kosher salt and coarse ground pepper on both sides and didn’t do anything to the fat cap. But the problem was that there was too much fat on some slices afterwards and in cutting it off you lost the seasoned flavor and crunchy texture. Now I trim that cap down to no more than 1/4 of an inch. It still stays moist and you just slice and enjoy.
The Prophets book also indicated a lot of the more famous establishments used Post Oak and I was able to find a source for that. If you can get it it’s a fantastic accent that still lets the natural flavor of the meat come through without overpowering it. A new grocery has a steady supply of real quality full packer briskets, whch help guarantee it’s gonna be awesome. Right now it’s about $4.50 for Prime and $5.50 for the Natural.
A number of places sell internal thermometers that will send you a digital signal as to where you are with the temp. That’s really helpfull for when you’re cooking the bigger, longer cuts. I’ll go between 18 and 22 hours with the total cook time so this lets you pay attention to other stuff while it’s getting there.
Since it’s just as easy to do a full smoker as not, usually I’ll do an extra butt to give to friends and neighbors or I’ll give away half the brisket. It’ll sure make their eyes light up when they see what you’ve brought to their door.
(But I did want to address the issue that it takes a whole bag of charcoal to barbecue something on the WSM.)