Webs’ Random Ideas

With it being sunny, beautiful, and high 70′s it’s hard not to be outside. And being able to post from my iPod also helps.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer too.

Here are my tips to get the best out of your smoking experience:

1. I have Char-broil smoker, something that looks like this. You can make DIY smokers and I have heard people have good results from them, but I got mine to do some competition smoking. Nothing big, I try to do one a year. I picked my smoker up at Home Depot on sale for around $200. The meat from it has been worth every penny.
2. I use some kind of fruit tree wood every time I smoke, especially for bird or pork. The smokeyness is really sweet and adds to the flavor. What you want to do is use charcoal, natural wood or Kingsford and add on some wood chunks on, about 3-5 chunks every hour. I don’t use chips as they burn too quickly and I try to use wood in moderation. I use one of those chimneys to keep coals going for when the ones in the smokebox go out. The idea is to be ready to use the ones in the chimney to keep up the temperature.
3. Prepare the meat ahead of time. For birds, you might want to brine. I have found I don’t have to brine for as long as you don’t over cook the bird or cook it to fast, like I did last night, it comes out incredibly juicy. For ribs, you need to pull of the membrane on the back of the ribs before you rub or cook them. This is so that the rub gets into the meat and so the ribs cook properly and fall of the bone when done. For brisket, you want only about 1/2 to 1 inch of fat on the underside. For pork, all you need to do is rub it beforehand. I usually let the rub sit for about 4 hours before cooking for any type of meat, or over night if I am starting to smoke in the morning. Then let the meat sit out about 30 – 60 mins before cooking depending on size in pounds.
4. All meat should cook about 1.5 hours per pound of meat at a temperature of 225 in the area of the smoker where the meat sits. Keep in mind this is for my smoker… The temperature should not drop below 200 and should NEVER exceed 250. The closer to 225 the better. Knowing the internal temperature of the smokebox is CRUCIAL. For ribs, smoke for 3 hours and then wrap in foil and cook for 5 more hours wrapped in foil in the smoker. Obviously at this point you really don’t need to add more wood. You can do this with any other meat too, but I only do this ribs. Brisket you want to cook to about 180 – 190. Do not over, under, or cook too fast. This will quickly ruin the meat. Everything else is ready to eat at 180, just be careful you keep your thermometers away from the bones.

Sorry for the brain dump, but for anyone interested, this is the ins and outs of smoking. I learned from a wise old sage that was damn good at smoking… come to think of it he was good at drinking too. ;-P

Oh and BTW, even though I over cooked the turkey by cooking it too fast, all the family says it is amazing. Which is the great thing about smoking, you can screw up a little and still have great results.