What’s on the grill/smoker today? 2020

[{tpc}]

Yeah, had probably an inch thick strip on the bottom. Nothing like the one you have there. Looking forward to the results. I have two racks of ribs I plan to do tomorrow assuming the weather holds off.

Have you looked outside yet? Lol! I guess tomorrow it might be better but 50mph wind gusts?

 

[H. Vachon]

Have you looked outside yet? Lol! I guess tomorrow it might be better but 50mph wind gusts?

Yeah, I’m gonna push back to late next week I think. I was hopeful it was gonna hold off today but looks like I was wrong haha. And I’m certainly not gonna play around with the wind tomorrow. Looks like Thursday or Friday will be the day

 

[{tpc}]

I’m crossing fingers that mon/tues will offer a good enough day to do some ribs.

 

[{tpc}]

Ok so the weather today looks nice until I see the wind mapping. Being it’s in a box I’m not that worried about the wind, but I really don’t want to deal with it.

However, I somehow missed a lot of information in this thread. I know what happened with your pork butt. It’s the cold smoke thing. If you can not use that, I wouldn’t. Get the temp to 225-235,put the butt in and smoke till you wrap, but see if you can push past the stall a little bit next time. Spritz it every 1.5 hrs with Apple juice/water mix.

Get one with a decent fat cap and put that side up. You really don’t need to score it. I did it with mine this time, but I didn’t see any benefit to doing so.

The issue isn’t the total time spent on the smoker, but that cold smoke part is not helping you break down the meat and make it tender. Now these new fancy pellet deals I don’t know much about but when I hear “cold smoking” I’m thinking of cheeses.

As for the bone, I’ve done both with as without. Only difference is trying to get the probe in without hitting the bone which would give inaccurate temps. I prefer the bone because when I go to remove it, I know if it’s really got to the point I want it to be. The best ones the bone comes out perfectly clean.

But I’m telling you, that cold smoke cycle is what did it. I don’t have any cold smoke cycle and it still took 8-9 hours, so by starting at 225 you are not going to save much time.

 

[H. Vachon]

Ok so the weather today looks nice until I see the wind mapping. Being it’s in a box I’m not that worried about the wind, but I really don’t want to deal with it.

However, I somehow missed a lot of information in this thread. I know what happened with your pork butt. It’s the cold smoke thing. If you can not use that, I wouldn’t. Get the temp to 225-235,put the butt in and smoke till you wrap, but see if you can push past the stall a little bit next time. Spritz it every 1.5 hrs with Apple juice/water mix.

Get one with a decent fat cap and put that side up. You really don’t need to score it. I did it with mine this time, but I didn’t see any benefit to doing so.

The issue isn’t the total time spent on the smoker, but that cold smoke part is not helping you break down the meat and make it tender. Now these new fancy pellet deals I don’t know much about but when I hear “cold smoking” I’m thinking of cheeses.

As for the bone, I’ve done both with as without. Only difference is trying to get the probe in without hitting the bone which would give inaccurate temps. I prefer the bone because when I go to remove it, I know if it’s really got to the point I want it to be. The best ones the bone comes out perfectly clean.

But I’m telling you, that cold smoke cycle is what did it. I don’t have any cold smoke cycle and it still took 8-9 hours, so by starting at 225 you are not going to save much time.

The cold cycle would have zero effect on the meat coming out dry in my opinion. All that does is help ensure you get the proper smoke flavor because the way pellets work is they have to cool down to produce smoke, so when you are maintaining cooking temp, pellets are fed and burned faster so you get more heat and less smoke. Smoking for one hour at 120ish* before increasing to 235 should really have a negative effect on the meat from what I understand.

I can try cooking fag side up, but I’ve always been told you want the fat on the side that the heat comes from. So if the heat comes from the bottom like a vertical smoker, you put it fat side down, if it’s a convection smoker you can put it face up. I’ve definitely not an expert by any means so that may not be correct, but I figured you’d want more of the direct heat on the fat to help break it down. Especially after wrapping.

 

[{tpc}]

Well I think the theory is that you want the fat to get down into the meat to help breakdown the muscle fibers and stuff.

As for the cold smoke thing, I don’t know. I don’t have a pellet deal so not exactly sure how to do it. Just seems like that is the main difference.

 

[H. Vachon]

Well I think the theory is that you want the fat to get down into the meat to help breakdown the muscle fibers and stuff.

As for the cold smoke thing, I don’t know. I don’t have a pellet deal so not exactly sure how to do it. Just seems like that is the main difference.

I’ll just have to play with it an see. I’m very new to smoking meat and that was my first time ever doing a pork butt so I suppose I can’t be too upset. I look forward to the trial and error. That’s what makes the hobby fun. As I learn things though I’ll probably share them here so others new to pellet smokers can skip the headache lol

 

[{tpc}]

I’ll just have to play with it an see. I’m very new to smoking meat and that was my first time ever doing a pork butt so I suppose I can’t be too upset. I look forward to the trial and error. That’s what makes the hobby fun. As I learn things though I’ll probably share them here so others new to pellet smokers can skip the headache lol

True true. Learning is part of the fun part. and it is officially way to windy today to mess around with the smokers imo. Lol....all of a sudden and the wind has arrived.

 

[H. Vachon]

True true. Learning is part of the fun part. and it is officially way to windy today to mess around with the smokers imo. Lol....all of a sudden and the wind has arrived.

Yeah, I looked this morning and was like, shit, I could have done it today. Now 4 hours later I’m glad I didn’t. Haha

 

[smellysell]

Fat up is the tradition, so it drips into the meat, amazing ribs, or good eats, can't remember which debunked that though. My guess is it was just a lean cut, I don't see why cold smoking would have an affect.

By far my favorite trick I've learned, is when you pull something off the smoker, wrap it in tin foil and then put it in a cooler with all the empty space filled with towels. This allows you to keep it warm for hours and hours (which is extremely helpful if you're cooking for a party and serving at a specific time), and also allows the connective tissue to continue to break down. It does tend to wrap havoc on bark unfortunately, but if I'm doing ribs I'll fire up the propane grill and put a really light glaze on them and give them a little char after pulling them out of the cooler to help with that.

 

[H. Vachon]

I have heard it’s important when wrapping ribs to put the meat side down so it soaks in the drippings. I plan to try that whenever the weather decides to behave itself

 

[smellysell]

I have heard it’s important when wrapping ribs to put the meat side down so it soaks in the drippings. I plan to try that whenever the weather decides to behave itself

Interesting

Only thing I ever wrap is brisket.

 

[The Black Cloud]

The results from yesterday. I got some of the best bark I've had on this one and I give credit to Justin's recommendation of salting overnight and I also spritzed with apple juice/water more frequently.

8:30 am yesterday, got it rubbed and ready to go on the smoker:

New item by Jeff Krueger

photos.app.goo.gl

After 11 hours. Used maple wood chunks along with Kingsford charcoal. Temps varied between 220-255.

New item by Jeff Krueger

photos.app.goo.gl

The end result. One section of the butt did come out a little tougher than the rest. I think it may have needed a touch more time.

New item by Jeff Krueger

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[H. Vachon]

That looks awesome man!!

 

[smellysell]

Looks fantastic, Jeff. Just salted a pork loin for tomorrow.

 

[{tpc}]

Looks great! Nice smoke ring on there! I don't worry about the smoke ring anymore, so long as the smoke flavor is there, but its always satisfying to see it!

Weather, smeather...I just tossed a rack of St. Louis style on the smoker a min ago. Didn't even bother with the probes, getting lazy lol. I'll probe it in 3 hours, box temp I have figured out at this point.

 

[H. Vachon]

Looks great! Nice smoke ring on there! I don't worry about the smoke ring anymore, so long as the smoke flavor is there, but its always satisfying to see it!

Weather, smeather...I just tossed a rack of St. Louis style on the smoker a min ago. Didn't even bother with the probes, getting lazy lol. I'll probe it in 3 hours, box temp I have figured out at this point.

I feel like ribs would be hard to probe anyway. Just the ol bone a twist

 

[CBoukal]

Here is what my weekend looked like

 

[smellysell]

The ring on that brisket is sexy as hell! Sadly, since I've switched to using mostly pecan, don't get the killer smoke rings anymore.

I just go with the shake test for my ribs, thanks again amazing ribs.com! Noticing a theme?

 

[H. Vachon]

Impromptu fryer chicken on the smoker. The weather cleared up and I didn’t really want to throw this in with the ribs tomorrow due to the temp difference. This will be my first chicken, so we’ll see how it turns out. Got the smoker at 325 to make sure the skin gets nice and crispy.

Just tossed it on


Very happy with the outcome