What to put in the smoker this weekend?

[Gman]

So it seems that you're not too freaked out about $2.27/lb. for Prime brisket.

I'm not nearly as concerned about quality grade on pork shoulder. I've also paid about the same price for Choice brisket in the past. I found this to be a good price on an excellent piece of beef, that's all I'm saying.

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[Brian]

So, had an impromptu get together on Sunday. A few guys who were originally going to get together and BBQ and make some cider turned into several families coming over. This is only important because this was at my place and I was running around trying to take care of everyone instead of the relaxing brewing/smoking session we guys had originally planned.

So my cousin-of-sorts has a traeger, makes some pretty good stuff on it, but it's the only smoker he's ever used. I have a weber smokey mountain. He brings over a tri-tip and we agree to throw it on my smoker for a while and eat it later in the evening. I help him fire up the charcoal but then largely left him alone, since he seemed to be doing fine. Come time to check it, the meat's overdone, pretty tough, and frankly has an almost cigarette-taste to it. I ask him how many chunks of hickory did he throw on it - more than 2-3ish? He looks at me with a look of horror, and says - "no, I used like 25-30 fist-sized pieces, was that too much?" I don't have a clue how he even got them to fit in the weber, but I guess that explains the cigarette smoke. LOL. At least I had some smoked pork vacuum-packed in the freezer - a little slaw and hawaiian roles, and it turned out well.

[Jer]

For us, when smoking it's all about marbling for less that "prime" cuts. Being food snobs we're very particular about meat cuts & quality. We buy from a few small in house processing places, where they know the history of animal being cut. We drive across the denver & NoCo area buying pork & beef here, poultry there etc. So i understand what you're saying
BUT..........................................
When it comes to the smoker, less that perfect (to us) makes no difference for pork & briskets. . Considering a good BBQ place isn't smoking tier 1 cuts, we don't either. It also puts the emphasis on how one prepares said cuts and the final results. I'd prefer to screw up a $1.19 lb pork shoulder or brisket, than a $5-10 lb one.

This is one place where we will disagree. Quality of meat is everything IMO and while there are some cuts that are less important the quality of the meat makes the flavor IMO. A great example is Franklin BBQ who many consider to be the best & most consistently good beef brisket in the country. The dude has zero secrets on what is method is and it's amazingly simple: Salt, pepper, post oak wood for smoke and hand selects Prime packer brisket from consistent sources of quality beef. In other words, anyone can replicate what he does and it's nothing fancy... just perfect the basics and use quality ingredients and you're done. I've found that many will try to get uber fancy trying to re-invent the wheel with seasonings and complicated methods to try to mask their corner cutting on just getting the best meat they can get. I'm not saying you use junk meat because I know better but I happen to think that that's the most important part of the whole undertaking.

So, had an impromptu get together on Sunday. A few guys who were originally going to get together and BBQ and make some cider turned into several families coming over. This is only important because this was at my place and I was running around trying to take care of everyone instead of the relaxing brewing/smoking session we guys had originally planned.

So my cousin-of-sorts has a traeger, makes some pretty good stuff on it, but it's the only smoker he's ever used. I have a weber smokey mountain. He brings over a tri-tip and we agree to throw it on my smoker for a while and eat it later in the evening. I help him fire up the charcoal but then largely left him alone, since he seemed to be doing fine. Come time to check it, the meat's overdone, pretty tough, and frankly has an almost cigarette-taste to it. I ask him how many chunks of hickory did he throw on it - more than 2-3ish? He looks at me with a look of horror, and says - "no, I used like 25-30 fist-sized pieces, was that too much?" I don't have a clue how he even got them to fit in the weber, but I guess that explains the cigarette smoke. LOL. At least I had some smoked pork vacuum-packed in the freezer - a little slaw and hawaiian roles, and it turned out well.

Hopefully you didn't eat that. Oversmoked meat tastes bitter from creosote and can even be dangerous if consumed by humans. That numb feeling in your mouth from oversmoked meat isn't a good sign. lol

It amazes me how many people think that you need tons of smoke when smoking meat and that's the whole point. When it comes to smoking meat a little bit of smoke goes a long ways. TBS is the key here which stands for Thin Blue Smoke which is what your goal should be. You should barely be able to see wisps of blueish colored smoke coming out of your smoker. If you're getting billowing white smoke clouds you're ruining your meat. Like I stated above I'm looking to compliment the natural flavors of the meat and not mask the flavor of the meat with unnatural flavor profiles. When I used my smaller electric smoker I added a couple of wood chips to the hopper every half hour or so for about the first four hours of the smoke. After that point the meat is no longer taking on smoke flavor so it's a waste anyway.

[Brian]

Yeah I couldn't even eat a whole small slice. He took 90% of it home, wrapped in foil. My house has smelled like bad smoke for two days, which you don't notice as much until you leave and come back. I'm used to the good smell of "I just smoked meat" in the house, but this was not it.

[Gman]

Mmmmm...best one yet.

[BrianV]

I went with brisket for Memorial Day Weekend (also grilled ribeyes last Friday). But the brisket takes about 9 hours. My favorite "6 hours or less" smoker options are salmon or Tri-Tip. The tri is always a hit in our house, and here is a great recipe for it. Smoker-cooking.com has a LOT of great recipes (where I get my brisket, pulled pork, ribs, and turkey rubs/marinades):

http://www.smoker-cooking.com/smoked-tri-tip.html

[yz9890]

Turkey

[Dave]

Whole turkeys or just the legs?

[yz9890]

Whole turkeys or just the legs?

Just drumsticks. Kids asked for them. They were hen drumsticks so they only took 2.5hrs. Last time I did tom turkey legs it took about 4hrs.

[Dave]

Just drumsticks. Kids asked for them. They were hen drumsticks so they only took 2.5hrs. Last time I did tom turkey legs it took about 4hrs.

Sounds tasty. Been thinking I should try some turkey drumsticks this summer. Did you brine yours?

Just finished my leftover smoked chicken yesterday in the form of a queso dip that also had some homemade chipotle salsa.