Back in September or so I treated myself to one of these beauties. Though not technically a smoker, it serves the same function for me. I have used it a dozen or so times. It works as advertised. Incredibly simple. No temperature worrying. No fuel adding. One basket of charcoal and some wood chunks will cook for 8 hours, which has been more than enough for what I have done so far.
I have smoked ribs (baby back and St. Louis,) a whole turkey (13 lbs.,) Boston butts, a boneless turkey breast, chicken thighs, and even a small chuck roast I had in my freezer. I also did some phenomenal jalapenos one time.
While everything tastes fantastic, the larger cuts definitely do not get as tender as I would like. The cook times are faster than a traditional smoker. Of all the items above, the boneless turkey breast was my favorite (which surprised me.)
There is one thing I have wanted to try since I got the cooker: brisket. It’s my favorite smoked meat. The main reason I haven’t done it yet is the price. A decent size flat brisket in my area runs $40 or so. I have been a little hesitant because I’d hate to ruin it. I never seem to see brisket for less than $8 /lb. I was hoping with St. Patrick’s Day coming up it might be on sale for people who wanted to corn their own, but no luck yet.
Anyway… What do you smoke? Anything interesting I should try? This cooker utilizes hooks to hang the meat from rods, but there is also a standard rack.
I’m waiting for my deck to thaw out so I can start smoking again. I have the Weber Smokey Mountain, a Weber kettle, and a Charbroil gas grill. I’ve used all three to smoke foods. I love briskets, but I’ve also done bottom round, top round, and rib roasts. For pork, I’ve done baby back, St. Louis cut spare ribs, and full cut spare ribs. I’ve done chicken, both whole and in parts (especially love smoked then grilled buffalo chicken wings).
As I mentioned in another thread, wrapping my beef or pork (usually with just a 1/4 cup of liquid) speeds cooking past the stall and results (for me) in moister, more tender meat, but it softens the flavorful bark.
An open pan of water can help keep your temperatures lower and better regulated. That’s especially true if you can put the pan between the heat and the meat, so that you’re blocking direct radiation and convection. Might be worth a try.
I actually like to smoke at higher temps than regularly recommended. My best brisket ever cooked way too hot and I pulled it at 3 hours of cooking and let it sit 2 hours wrapped in foil and towels. The bottom was so tough and hard that we couldn’t eat that part, but the rest of it was perfect. My pork ribs are about 2 or 2 1/2 hour cook times with an hour to rest.
Are you using an internal thermometer when you cook? The thing about cooking any kind of meat is to avoid thinking time and start thinking temperature. When you hit the target temperature, you’re done. I don’t care if it took 2 hours or 10, just call it done. Maybe this is why some cuts are tough? Collagen starts breaking at something like 170 F and if you didn’t get up over that, you’ll be left with more of the tough connective tissue in place. (It’s still winter here, so I’d need to check my temperature tables again to remember exactly what the targets are.)
I’m also of the opinion that 2 hours of smoke is pretty much all you can taste. Longer cook times may help with the tenderness of the meat, but there are diminishing returns on smoke.
As for what I smoke, a whole turkey is my favorite. We usually do 20 lbs turkeys because the meat/bone ratio is better. We make thorough use of the leftovers so that we can have turkey all year and only cook them once or twice. (In fact, my grill/smoker is big enough for two turkeys so I have sometimes done them both at once.)
I usually smoke brisket using a homemade barrel smoker made out of a 55 gal drum that once held malt syrup. Off-set firebox and a smokestack cut from a semi tractor. The problem I’ve found is that we haven’t been entertaining at home as much the last few years, and the thing is a pain in the ass when just smoking enough for the two of us. Makes me seriously want to pick up a new Little Chief for the patio.
Brisket is hard to ruin. It’s also hard to get right, but you likely aren’t going to reduce it to shoe leather unless you cook it too fast/high. Low, slow and finish in the oven as needed.
Yes, I use temperature to determine done-ness. The meats aren’t tough necessarily, just not fall apart tender. If I do a Boston butt, the bone slides right out clean. The meat isn’t easy to pull apart though so I wind up slicing it. Still tastes great.
I had a oven disaster finishing the last butt I smoked in the oven. After smoking it to about 165, I pulled it and wrapped it in foil, adding about a quarter bottle of beer. Back on the smoker a bit and then into the oven. Must have pierced the foil with the thermometer somehow because the liquid leaked out into the oven. Ugh… Thank goodness for the self-cleaning feature…
Instead of just a flat can you get a full packer? I much prefer it because when you slice it up you have the full range of meat from lean to fatty. I’ll usually slice the leanest and fattiest ends off and combine them in chopped beef. Everything in the middle I slice. Look at the Sworkin Method mentioned on AmazingRibs.com to see how he does it.
I smoked a 12 lb prime packer last weekend. It was $4.50 a lb and the natural selection was $5.50.
I put brisket in a makeshift foil pan, otherwise the bottom dries out and hardens and any reasonable temperature. I use a baster to drain excess liquid and use that for an occasional mop to keep the top moist. You need to let it go slow at low temperature to get it nice and tender. I knew I had it right the time I didn’t notice I was slicing it with knife upside down.
You can use a corned beef to make pastrami. I take a commercial corned beef point cut that has plenty of fat, put a pepper rub on it and smoke it. It’s not a whole brisket so it won’t take as long, and it’s a manageable amount of meat when I’m not throwing a party.
And even then, you need to get it quite high to really screw it up. I like my barbecue at the high end of the usual barbecuing range, around 275, but there are guys who do it as high as 300-350. The only really tricky bit is getting the flat just right. I prefer to do a whole packer cut brisket (point & flat) as it seems much easier to get the flat right that way. Plus the point can stand overcooking more (in my experience, probably due to having more fat and collagen) than the flat.
I personally only occasionally check on temp of the meat itself as a “sanity test” and to give me an idea of how far along I am, but I let the meat be my guide. This isn’t some sort of crazy zen BBQ thing. I don’t find my meats finishing right at exactly the same temperature. I’ve had briskets done just short of 190. Others I’ve had to take to near 200 to be the right texture. I’m not sure what it is about the meats that causes this variance, but I experience it in brisket and pulled pork.
I’ve ammended my process recently and actually start it in the oven the night before so it can sit at a cool 165 for 8 to 10 hours. Then I bring it up to match the 225 of my smoker over the last hour.
An internal thermometer is key. You can watch it climb through the stall and more closely judge just when it’ll be ready. I take it to 203 and when it hits that it’s consistency really is close to Jello. It’s remarkable how it just loosens everything right up.
Wrap it, let it sit in an insulated box like an ice chest so it’ll cool off slow and draw in the juices. I usually don’t slice the whole thing at once but just as needed. That way it stays moist for days.
When are you inviting me to dinner? I’ve got a homemade margarita recipe to die for, and my cilantro-jalapeno slaw goes with any Q.
Sitting through the stall can be exasperating when one is expecting company, mostly because there is no set time before the temperature starts rising again. I’ve found brisket to be the worst offender, and chickens don’t stall at all.
Regarding pork butt, sometimes I’ll cook it until 195, then slice and serve as a roast. Other times, I’ll take it to 205 for pulled pork. Either way, it’s wonderful.
I have a Maverick wireless thermometer which reads both smoker temp and meat temp, and I double check my meat temps with a Thermapen, the Rolls-Royce of digital thermometers.
I agree that you should probably get a packer to make smoked brisket. I’ve only had good results with them, and less than spectacular results when I try to do either half of a packer.
As far as method, I personally go high at first. 250 doesn’t bug me for the first hour or so. After that, i shoot for 180-200 for at least 6-8 hours in the smoker, adding more damp wood chips or chunks periodically. Any time less than that in the smoker, and I don’t seem to get an acceptable bark. If I’m industrious, I’ll replenish the fire enough to finish the (usually) remaining 8-10 hours in the smoker. If it’s cold, or I’m tired and lazy, I’ll make sure the bark is well developed before moving it over. If it is, it gets wrapped in foil (no liquid) and it goes into an oven at 200 for the rest of the time, determined by temp.
I personally prefer to use the water smokers, as they do seem to control the temp better. If I was using the OP’s machine, I’d put a pan of water on one of the lower grills. If it’s boiling after the first hour, the temp is too high =)
If anyone’s interested in using a pre-made rub, my favorite is Angelo’s. Not much too it, mostly just salt with black and red pepper, but it’s in the right proportions.
I have an electric smoker from Cookshackthat I picked up used; it’s really easy and takes very little oversight as it has a good thermostat on it. It has a temp probe as well, and it’s so well built and tight that it doesn’t need a pan of water. Very happy with it - in fact I’ve used it in 20 deg F weather, with steady 10kts wind and it held the temp, no problem.
I’ve made brisket three times; always a flat as a full packer isn’t really available where I am, and found that it’s much harder than the other things I’ve smoked, in that it’s easy to dry it out. The first time I cooked at 225 (smoker) to 190 (internal) temp, second I cooked at 225 to 200 and third time I cooked at 250 to 195. The first one was good, but a tad dry and not as tender as I would have liked, the second was moist and tender, and the third was also a tad dry, but tender. I try to take copious notes everytime I smoke (can’t recommend this enough), and the things that set the second ahead of the rest was the slightly higher internal temp (I hear 190 - 195 for slicing and 200-205 for chopped), and I did the popular FTC method afterwards (wrap in Foil, then a Towel, then put in a Cooler for a few hours). From now on, that’s what I’ll do; smoke overnight, then the FTC to ensure the juices return to the meat. I also put some beef broth in the foil, as well.
I’ve done pork butts 4 or 5 times; for me these were super easy, and came out great each time. Each time I change the rub I make, as my method of cooking it at 225 for until 205 has yielded great 'cue. I’ve done turkey twice (big hit), and baby back and St Louis style spare ribs a dozen times.
The kids and I like something smoked every 10-14 days, but my wife gets sick of smoked food really quick, so I have to space out using it to ever 4 weeks. In fact, it’s about that time.
My wife gets the same way, not just about smoked foods, but about some other foods I fawn over and could have every other week, if not every week. While I do try to keep her pleased, I remind her that she could shop for, plan, prep and cook the meals herself. Then I plan one of the meals I know she likes before my next Q.
I just bought a Boston butt. They were on sale and I picked up a smallish one for under $10. It’s just me and my 3 young boys eating, so it’s plenty. I plan to make it Sunday. I usually bring it up to about 165, take it off, wrap it foil, and put it back on the smoker until it get to 195-200. Am I better off putting it in the oven after I wrap it? It will already have gotten all the smoke it needs by then.