Smoking Meat Questions and Discussion

[Gonzo]

That's what's awesome about smoking in general. You can produce the same or better quality with a $500 WSM as you can with a $10k offset. My guess is that the majority of people started with something even cheaper. I smoked with a weber kettle grill, then a $200 Masterbuilt Electric smoker, then a Masterbuilt gravity 560, and now this LSG. Other people buy offsets, pellets, gas, kettle, cabinet, Kamado, etc. They all have their own use case, advantages/disadvantages, etc. I still use the Weber when I want something quick and easy.

I still use my big Master Forge charcoal grill and just rig it up for indirect heat for smoking. Overall material and build quality is pretty meh, has more than its share of leaks, can be tough to regulate heat, but I've had it forever and love it. I think a big part of getting good results is just knowing your smoker, how it holds heat, etc. When this one goes I'll probably upgrade to a high-quality pellet deal, but hopefully not too soon.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

That's what's awesome about smoking in general. You can produce the same or better quality with a $500 WSM as you can with a $10k offset. My guess is that the majority of people started with something even cheaper. I smoked with a weber kettle grill, then a $200 Masterbuilt Electric smoker, then a Masterbuilt gravity 560, and now this LSG. Other people buy offsets, pellets, gas, kettle, cabinet, Kamado, etc. They all have their own use case, advantages/disadvantages, etc. I still use the Weber when I want something quick and easy.

I still just use my Weber kettle.

 

[mkadl]

I still just use my Weber kettle.

I use an electric masterbilt. Pellets or woodchips. Gotta be careful with the pellets though. Easy to get too much smoke. I have a weber gas and weber kettle. I believe I can do more than I need to with this combination.

 

[hiltonisheaven]

Until 2 days ago, I’ve just had a Weber kettle and a cheap gas Charbroil. I was pretty happy with that setup. The gasser just died so I replaced it with a Recteq pellet smoker and so far I love the convenience to start it up with the app so it’s already hot when I get home. I’ll continue to use the kettle for brats, burgers, and steaks.
Here is my favorite cook on the kettle, Baby Back Ribs from Fareway:

 

[tm3308]

Christmas dinner at my parents' place. Smoked it at 250 for about 2.5 hours, let it rest for 30 minutes and then popped it in a 500-degree oven for about 8 minutes to get a good crust. Made some horseradish sauce, and some gravy from the drippings, too.

 

[Gonzo]

Christmas dinner at my parents' place. Smoked it at 250 for about 2.5 hours, let it rest for 30 minutes and then popped it in a 500-degree oven for about 8 minutes to get a good crust. Made some horseradish sauce, and some gravy from the drippings, too. View attachment 121252 View attachment 121253 View attachment 121254

Skills.

 

[tm3308]

Skills.

Thank you. It took a few years of tinkering to perfect everything, but I think I've finally done it. I also used a garlic and herb injection mix, which helped bring some extra flavor on the inside of the meat.

 

[Gonzo]

Thank you. It took a few years of tinkering to perfect everything, but I think I've finally done it. I also used a garlic and herb injection mix, which helped bring some extra flavor on the inside of the meat.

Honestly I've never been much of a prime rib fan. I've always felt it's just a little flavorless and wet, probably from too many poorly-done wedding buffets. Yours looks delish.

 

[JM4CY]

Got a brisket flat someone gave me that’s been in his freezer for awhile. Gonna try to do something with it today. Any ideas? Thought about cutting it up and doing burnt ends. I’ve not done a lot with brisket (too expensive) but this one was free.

 

[clone4life82]

Got a brisket flat someone gave me that’s been in his freezer for awhile. Gonna try to do something with it today. Any ideas? Thought about cutting it up and doing burnt ends. I’ve not done a lot with brisket (too expensive) but this one was free.

View attachment 121265

Burnt ends typically come from the point don’t they? I’d just do that like a normal brisket.

 

[iahawks]

I know we all like our fancy smokers in here, but it's important to remember that many BBQ competitions have been won, and are still being won on WSM's. I'd wager that it is still the most widely used model in the US on BBQ circuits.

The WSM is still the best smoker for the money on the market. It just works phenomenally and has zero moving parts so it will last just about forever.

 

[MLawrence]

Got a brisket flat someone gave me that’s been in his freezer for awhile. Gonna try to do something with it today. Any ideas? Thought about cutting it up and doing burnt ends. I’ve not done a lot with brisket (too expensive) but this one was free.

View attachment 121265

The flat is going the leaner side. For some people that is their preferred side of the brisket. You could smoke it like a regular brisket and it obviously won’t take too long but might be drier than your personal preference. Cube it up and making pseudo burnt ends wouldn’t be a bad option since you could always re-introduce fat during the braising process. For me personally, I would cut smaller cubes and make some fantastic chili.

 

[dmclone]

Got a brisket flat someone gave me that’s been in his freezer for awhile. Gonna try to do something with it today. Any ideas? Thought about cutting it up and doing burnt ends. I’ve not done a lot with brisket (too expensive) but this one was free.

View attachment 121265

I did a flat only a few weeks ago. My notes

Night before, prepare(rub) the meat and fridge it
240 degree
5am 230 probe and unit
Fat side down
Spay with Apple Vinegar every hour
Wrapped it at 160 IT butcher paper. Upped temp to 275
Pulled at 202 art 2pm and let cool to 180 before putting in cooler
Ate after about an hour in the cooler

Turned out with great bark and texture. A little dry. Should have kept the thinnest part away from the heat.

 

[JM4CY]

Got a brisket flat someone gave me that’s been in his freezer for awhile. Gonna try to do something with it today. Any ideas? Thought about cutting it up and doing burnt ends. I’ve not done a lot with brisket (too expensive) but this one was free.

View attachment 121265

Update: little dry but that was to be expected. Flavor and texture wasn’t bad

 

[MLawrence]

This is going to be the start of spamming the thread about how I make brisket. Just a disclaimer, I don't claim to be an expert on briskets but I have a decent amount of experience with BBQ. I have probably done about 20 briskets, but never sold anything to the public. My source of information comes from watching multiple YouTube pit-masters including Aaron Franklin, Malcolm Reed - HowToBBQRight, Bradley Robinson - Chud's BBQ, and Jeremy Yoder - Mad Scientist BBQ just to name a few.

 

[clone4life82]

This is going to be the start of spamming the thread about how I make brisket. Just a disclaimer, I don't claim to be an expert on briskets but I have a decent amount of experience with BBQ. I have probably done about 20 briskets, but never sold anything to the public. My source of information comes from watching multiple YouTube pit-masters including Aaron Franklin, Malcolm Reed - HowToBBQRight, Bradley Robinson - Chud's BBQ, and Jeremy Yoder - Mad Scientist BBQ just to name a few.

Spam away

 

[MLawrence]

To start, the brisket I'm working with this go around is an 18.5 pound choice brisket from Sam's Club:



Next for me comes the most stress part of smoking a brisket and that is the trimming. For me, I go pretty aggressive with the trim to accomplish the following goals:

1. Remove unnecessary fat that will not render down in the smoking process.
2. Create the maximum amount of slice-able brisket
3. Shape the brisket so it cooks more evenly
4. Use every part of the brisket.

For tonight's trim, I removed about 7.5 pounds.


Don't worry, these trimmings will not go to waste. I already ground or cubed the meaty sections to be used for other dishes later in the week. The fatty pieces are going to be rendered down to make beef tallow.

So this is what the finished trim looks like:


The main things I did was to slice down the deckle of fat, remove the Mohawk in the back, leave about 1/4 of inch of fat on the back, round the flat section, trim tiny excess fat pieces off the top to have more meat exposed to the rub, and trim the rough parts on the perimeter of the meat.

Now for the rub. It's brisket and the rub is simple: 1 part coarse kosher salt, 1 part course black pepper, and .25 part Lawry's season salt. Apparently pit-masters using Lawry's is the worse kept secret in Texas. For any BBQ rub the spice has to be coarse or granulated because these BBQ cuts are big piece of meat so the spices have to be able to penetrate the meat. And honestly, I am not worried about over salting the brisket. I think we tend to under salt our meat, and that includes non-BBQ cuts. I dry brine the brisket and put it on a cookie sheet on top of wire rack to let the salt do it's thing. Don't forget to do the sides! If possible, I would leave uncovered but my wife prefers I cover it due to sanitary reasons.

Now the briskets waits until tomorrow morning. I will start the smoker tomorrow at 4 am, put the briskets on at 5 am, and serve at 5:30 pm.

 

[clone4life82]

To start, the brisket I'm working with this go around is an 18.5 pound choice brisket from Sam's Club:

View attachment 121294

Next for me comes the most stress part of smoking a brisket and that is the trimming. For me, I go pretty aggressive with the trim to accomplish the following goals:

1. Remove unnecessary fat that will not render down in the smoking process.
2. Create the maximum amount of slice-able brisket
3. Shape the brisket so it cooks more evenly
4. Use every part of the brisket.

For tonight's trim, I removed about 7.5 pounds.
View attachment 121297

Don't worry, these trimmings will not go to waste. I already ground or cubed the meaty sections to be used for other dishes later in the week. The fatty pieces are going to be rendered down to make beef tallow.

So this is what the finished trim looks like:
View attachment 121299

The main things I did was to slice down the deckle of fat, remove the Mohawk in the back, leave about 1/4 of inch of fat on the back, round the flat section, trim tiny excess fat pieces off the top to have more meat exposed to the rub, and trim the rough parts on the perimeter of the meat.

Now for the rub. It's brisket and the rub is simple: 1 part coarse kosher salt, 1 part course black pepper, and .25 part Lawry's season salt. Apparently pit-masters using Lawry's is the worse kept secret in Texas. For any BBQ rub the spice has to be coarse or granulated because these BBQ cuts are big piece of meat so the spices have to be able to penetrate the meat. And honestly, I am not worried about over salting the brisket. I think we tend to under salt our meat, and that includes non-BBQ cuts. I dry brine the brisket and put it on a cookie sheet on top of wire rack to let the salt do it's thing. Don't forget to do the sides! If possible, I would leave uncovered but my wife prefers I cover it due to sanitary reasons. View attachment 121298

Now the briskets waits until tomorrow morning. I will start the smoker tomorrow at 4 am, put the briskets on at 5 am, and serve at 5:30 pm.

I’ll be over at 5:30 tomorrow night!

 

[MLawrence]

Couldn’t sleep, so I decided to light the fire early which starts with a charcoal chimney full of charcoal which will be used for the coal bed. In about 20 minutes I will dump that chimney into the firebox and place hickory splits on top of the coal bed which will take about another 30 minutes for the smoke to heat up. In the meantime, the brisket has been pulled out of the fridge and sitting at room temperature.

 

[MLawrence]

While the smoker is warming up, I’m starting the process of making beef tallow. I took the fatty pieces of the brisket trimming and put them in a crock pot to tender down on low for about 6 hours.

Since I have all day, I’m starting to make the sides to the briskets - potato salad, roasted veggies, cornbread, and mac ‘n cheese.