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Fired up the smoker last night and woke up to one of the best smoked pork shoulders I’ve ever made. Smoked it low and long and it literally just fell apart when i was pulling it out earlier. I marinated it a day in seasoning and injected it with juice and brown sugar. My wifey doesn’t eat much meat but she’s lovin this stuff. My son in law swung by just now and took 4 sammiches with him. Lol
i love smokin meat!
ohhh yeaaaa , I built a smoker out of a old water heater , the smoke box is from a propain tank , I need to cut that one out and replace it with a larger tank though, it builds good smoke but not good heat, another project for another day , if I put coals under the meat or fish then it does better , it’s funny you can be totally stuffed to the gills and drive by somebody’s smoker and it smells soooo good .and want to stop to try it out.lol
ohhh yeaaaa , I built a smoker out of a old water heater , the smoke box is from a propain tank , I need to cut that one out and replace it with a larger tank though, it builds good smoke but not good heat, another project for another day , if I put coals under the meat or fish then it does better , it’s funny you can be totally stuffed to the gills and drive by somebody’s smoker and it smells soooo good .and want to stop to try it out.lol
hey I like to repurpose old stuff like that. I’ve been wanting to build a combination wood stove/smoker for my garage so I can smoke while I tinker in the garage in the winter.
And I agree, I love the smell of a smoker going and wondering what’s in it. I generally smoke something every two weeks. The norm is two whole chickens and s rack of ribs. Between my family and our kid’s boyfriends/girlfriends, there are a lot of mouths to feed.
Yep, I raise my own beef and pork, keeps the cost down, I sell the rest , usually 6 hogs a year and 4 to 5 Cows every three to four years depending on weight , when I do smoke I like it heavy , my wife not so much , what kind of wood do you use ? I use Apple , cherry for hog, Mesquite or hickory for beef, my cup of fluid usually has some kind of Wiskey or depending on what I’m smoking , it keeps the moisture in the meet .
Yep, I raise my own beef and pork, keeps the cost down, I sell the rest , usually 6 hogs a year and 4 to 5 Cows every three to four years depending on weight , when I do smoke I like it heavy , my wife not so much , what kind of wood do you use ? I use Apple , cherry for hog, Mesquite or hickory for beef, my cup of fluid usually has some kind of Wiskey or depending on what I’m smoking , it keeps the moisture in the meet .
Ive been wanting to raise our own at some point when we have more time to spare. We have two large fields we do nothing with.
I typically use mesquite, apple, or cherry. That’s what they sell at my local store. I’ll have to give the whiskey a try. I usually do apple juice in the water bowl.
I did 4 pork butts a few weeks ago, 16hrs and they are good to go. I use a mix of apple and cherry normally. Once i find pork belly i am making bacon, not easy to find around here though.
I did 4 pork butts a few weeks ago, 16hrs and they are good to go. I use a mix of apple and cherry normally. Once i find pork belly i am making bacon, not easy to find around here though.
that sounds really good , my hogs usually get a thick back strap for bacon , if you haven’t tried it yet or can find it the Jowl bacon is the best, not the best for ya but what is ,lol, by the way when I run out , Winco carry’s jowl bacon, just slice it kind of thin and fry it up to lite crisp .
Here’s the last three beef harvest, lots of fat and steak marble was great, tender tasty , sorry for the graphics if kids are around , they have to learn somehow,lol
Hopfully going fish this weekend. I have a cold smoker too so depending on what I catch I might smoke some fish.
I did find some pork belly, but it was a hole pork belly, don't think it would have fit in my smoker. Plus it was frozen so cutting it in half would have taken some work lol.
My daughter is coming home from her Middle east deployment this summer and you can bet that I'll have some brisket, baby backs and some cole slaw along with a tub of cold ones.
I smoked some Baby back ribs last night for the first time and they turned out great! I just a got a Weber Smoky Mountain this summer and have had a great time with it so far. I've only cooled chicken on it one time and the skin was rubbery but everything else has turned out really good.
I smoked some Baby back ribs last night for the first time and they turned out great! I just a got a Weber Smoky Mountain this summer and have had a great time with it so far. I've only cooled chicken on it one time and the skin was rubbery but everything else has turned out really good.
I just stumbled in to this thread.
Good deal on the smokey mountain. I have the 18" one, one of the best purchases I've made. Dad and I started smoking with a Char-broil offset style smoker. We modified it with baffles under the pit and a BBQ Guru Pitminder temperature controlled fan to stoke the fire box. We put 2 thermometers on the pit lid to balance the pit temp (with the baffles). It was a neat smoker, and really easy to run. Over the years it got coated with junk and we had a few flame-ups. I lost eyebrows cooking a turkey for thanksgiving... Pit was sizzling and making funny noises with the temp gauges pegged. I went to open the lid to figure out what was going on and cool it down. Big mistake... I tried to burn out the pit every once in a while after that to reduce the flash up potential. At this point the smoker was pretty well rusted. Dad went to the big 22" or so smokey mountain for bigger runs. We kept the Char-Broil deal for a 2nd smoker/additional when we did big runs. Then when he moved he got rid of the char-broil (neighbor has it now). I picked up the 18" smokey mountain around 2012 so when Dad and I run any more we just fire up the two smokey mountains. We set up for Thanksgiving last year and had turkeys running in one then had ribs and chicken rotating through the other.
My favorite is to do chicken thighs for 3 hours on a wood-fired smoker (no charcoal) with oak. A lot of people would say it was over-kill on the smoke flavor, but I like the pungent oak smoke - especially on an easy to cook meat like chicken thighs. I cut the wood in to big chunks. First goes charcoal in to the chimney, light it and get it hot. Oak chunks go on top to catch. Then once the charcoal burns down add more chunks of wood. Then when the smoker is ready to put fire to it the lit chunks go in and small split oak logs go on top of the chunks (about 6" long or so, 2-3" wide).
For long runs like pork shoulders and brisket I will usually run mostly cherry wood on top of charcoal for heat. If we're doing a big run (like cooking everything for Thanksgiving) we will mix up the wood a bit - mostly fruit wood.
I use the base of my smokey mountain as an open pit grill also. I put the fire ring down on the fire box grate (just like you would for smoking) and then use one of the food grates directly on top of the ring, no lid. I put about 1/4 round of charcoal inside the ring, fill up the chimney, light it, then spread out the unlit coals in the ring, and lay the hot coals from the chimney right on top. I try to go for about a 3/4 round layer of coals in the ring, all the way up to the bottom of the food grate. Get you some thick steaks (1-1.5" thick) and lay them right over the hot, flamed up coals. Flame the steaks (fat on fire, the whole 9 yards) for about 4 minutes/side, check the char and try to balance it out with an extra flip for 30sec-min or so over more flame if necessary, then pull off. A hot flame puts a coarse char layer on the outside (meter the time to get the char you want) and leaves the inside pink. It took me a couple rounds with some Ribeyes to get it right, but I've got it down now. Best steaks in the world. Add some wood right before the steaks go on and you can experiment a bit with some different flavors. Season to your liking (I use black pepper, coarse ground, and Lowerys seasoned salt - not too much, I can't stand overly salty steak).
Smoked a 7 Bone Pot Roast the other day. Did it a little different in that I never used a dry rub but instead marinated it for 4 hours before putting in the smoker. After 5 hours I wrapped it in Aluminum foil at that point I added Potatoes, Carrots and Onions and some of the left over marinade and put it back on the smoker for another 3 1/2 hours. It still wasn't tender and I was running low on coals and it was wrapped in Aluminum foil I decided to bring it in the house and put it in the oven for another hour. It turned out really good.
