Smoker thread? Smoker thread.

[usrifle]

That is some tasty looking Pizza Chris!!

[cmica]

the last one for sure. just make sure to precook sausage. Bought a rolling pin so it was alot more thinner and crunchier. already got an idea for next one


thanks john

[cmica]

[MadPick]

Ah, thin crust. Keep up the good work, Chris!

[usrifle]

Damn Chris, you are on a roll!

[Chip]

A quick and easy smoker application..... Smoked egg salad
My wife has been on a kick with using the instant pot to hard boil eggs. They cook perfectly and peel amazingly easy every time. She threw together a simple egg salad last week, and of course I thought - need to SMOKE the eggs next time!
I have a basic Masterbuilt electric smoker, but added a remote/cold smoker to it for doing cheeses, eggs, etc. I'm well stocked on WaGunner Larry's Lumberjack pellets (did anyone ever buy up his distributorship?), and they work great in the electric. 45 mins worth of cold smoke and they turn into a definite upgrade version of egg salad.

[cmica]

A quick and easy smoker application..... Smoked egg salad
My wife has been on a kick with using the instant pot to hard boil eggs. They cook perfectly and peel amazingly easy every time. She threw together a simple egg salad last week, and of course I thought - need to SMOKE the eggs next time!
I have a basic Masterbuilt electric smoker, but added a remote/cold smoker to it for doing cheeses, eggs, etc. I'm well stocked on WaGunner Larry's Lumberjack pellets (did anyone ever buy up his distributorship?), and they work great in the electric. 45 mins worth of cold smoke and they turn into a definite upgrade version of egg salad.

yep same here ninja foodie and eggs come out easy. 4 min... chip for devil eggs smoke the white for more the 15-20 min. the longer you leave it the more rubbery it gets. a little tip I cook a few slices of bacon and fine chop em up

[Chip]

A quick and easy smoker application..... Smoked egg salad
My wife has been on a kick with using the instant pot to hard boil eggs. They cook perfectly and peel amazingly easy every time. She threw together a simple egg salad last week, and of course I thought - need to SMOKE the eggs next time!
I have a basic Masterbuilt electric smoker, but added a remote/cold smoker to it for doing cheeses, eggs, etc. I'm well stocked on WaGunner Larry's Lumberjack pellets (did anyone ever buy up his distributorship?), and they work great in the electric. 45 mins worth of cold smoke and they turn into a definite upgrade version of egg salad.

yep same here ninja foodie and eggs come out easy. 4 min... chip for devil eggs smoke the white for more the 15-20 min. the longer you leave it the more rubbery it gets. a little tip I cook a few slices of bacon and fine chop em up

Agreed about them getting rubbery if over done, but the true cold smoke does help prevent that. I stick to about 30 mins for deviled eggs, but wanted more smoke flavor for the salad. I actually set them up on the grates so I can roll/turn them every 15 mins too, so not just one side gets any heat that makes it through from the cold smoker.

[JohnMBrowning]

So I started up the WSM at ~3 yesterday --- everything was looking pretty good.... Half way thru the cook - the skies started to darken and thunder rolling.... Thank god for patio umbrellas!!!

20210919_170530.jpg

It really POURED out! Luckily, only a few drips made it thru the umbrella fabric and the WSM didn't skip a beat --- held a perfect 250 +/- 10 the whole time.

So happy to finally try out the Plum wood! I started out the fire with 3 good sized chunks of wood.... Man, I had some real concerns as it was heating up and I could smell the smoke -- pretty heavy smoke - very fragrant - such an unusual smell --- had me concerned that I didn't let it dry long enough or that I'd be hating myself for getting Embers charcoal...... Thinking back, I had the same concerns when I used my pruned cherry wood and big leaf maple... so I forged on. As the smoker came up to temp and the smoke thinned, it was a much more pleasant sweet smell when the chicken went on. Again, for some reason, the WSM just locked into a nice stable 250 ish temp with all the vents running wide open...?...? There was nothing I could do to get the temp up any higher --- I think its the way I'm forming/containing the coals - I don't know if I should be bummed or not about it, but the WSM just chugged at 250 for a solid 3 hours. I kept tossing smaller chunks of plum on when I noticed a complete lack of smoke and smell --- I wanted this to be 'really plummy'. Two and a half hours later....

20210919_175118.jpg

The b/s breasts for the neighbors looked fantastic! My quarters looked really good too --- the skin was actually really pretty nice - but bummed that there wasn't enough heat left in the coals to crack it to 300-325 to crisp it up nicely, I opted to throw it on the gasser at 325 for a few minutes for some nice crispiness....

20210919_193510.jpg

Next time, I think I'm gonna plan on flipping the quarters for the last half hour or more - or maybe some oil or butter on the skin --- I think that would've taken care of the skin nicely.

So - as far as the plum smoke.... I knew it was going to be good - I just didn't know how good..... All I have to say is WOW!!! Holy shit WOW!!! I was not expecting it to be that good, but it blew away all the hopes and expectations I has for it! Such a deep sweet fruity flavor --- it really DID taste 'plummy'! It totally blows away any cherry or apple or combination thereof. I have to say also --- this is the first time I've smoked chicken WITHOUT saucing it on the smoker - just a light rub for seasoning - so all the sweetness really did come from the smoke! The color was exceptional too - the meat was a NICE dark red right off the smoker. I was debating about tossing a few chunks of cherry in there for color... but it turns out it wasn't needed.

Can't wait for leftovers tonight! I ate the two legs last night, those thighs just look so spectacular.... Already planning another cook next weekend - my neighbors are HOOKED! Even after just one cook, I won't have any problem throwing a shit load of plum at some pork butts! I'll probably toss some cherry in there for color just for the hell of it - I'm certain it wouldn't hurt.
The WSM just got a lot more fun!

Pablo ----- I challenge you with a new quest.....
https://knottywoodbbq.com/
Almond now has my attention too.... note how they say 'try mixing the plum with the almond....' ---- I'm betting better than Applemash!

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[MadPick]

Hmmm.

*eyes the nasty plum tree in the backyard*

[JohnMBrowning]

Hmmm.

*eyes the nasty plum tree in the backyard*

Don't let it go to waste!!!!!!
I'm kicking myself for not grabbing more big rounds....

[bubblewhip]

I've been running the pellet grill for about 2 months now, and it seems extremely tempting to sell my weber charcoal grill since its significantly more convenient than charcoal and less wasteful while delivering 80% of the flavors.

The main difference i see is that the pellet grill produces a cold smoke esque, bacon like beef jerky bark where charcoal produces some blackened surface like a meteorite.

I prefer the charcoal bark, but the smoke ring is significantly more pronounced on the pellet grill and the product results in "different but good" barbecue.

Chuck roast on pellet grill


Brisket on charcoal



Not sure if the extra work is worth it vs. setting and forgetting but it might be day specific.

[MadPick]

I dunno, but I'd bury my face into either one of those....

[cmica]

bubble don't get rid of your webber. the trick is less coals evenly spread (6-8) and a few wood chips will get you the same will take longer but low and slow

[MadPick]

I spent quite a lot of time playing with my food today, and much of it involved a smoker, if not actual smoking, so I'll put it here. :)

First up was a new jar of pickled onions. Nice and easy.

Next I wanted to do more pickled eggs, but I wanted to do something different than what I've done before. My last couple of batches were okay, but they were just too tangy for me -- I guess I'm looking for something a little different, less acidic.

I roughly followed this video here, but without the child labor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBYhaNH5cPY

First I took a store-bought smoked sausage, cut it up and then smoked it (yes, more!) until it was bleeding out some of its fat, which I wiped off. Which left me with this:



Then I "hard boiled" some eggs in the Instant Pot, then cold-smoked them using my smoke tube. After a while I did turn the smoker on to "low," and they were probably on there for a total of maybe 45 minutes? Here are before and after pics:



And the setup:



Then I boiled the pickling liquid, which is apple cider vinegar based. Instead of salt, I added some Recteq "Bangin' Brisket" rub. This was my final haul in the pickling department:



Then I pulled a vacuum-sealed package of leftover pulled pork out of the freezer, and thawed it using sous vide in my Instant Pot. Drop in the package, cover it with water, set it to 150 degrees and let it ride for a couple of hours . . . it's about the bacteria "danger zone," and it's nice and hot when I'm ready for it.

I decided to make pulled pork fried rice, and kinda do a little fusion of BBQ and Chinese, especially as it was a good excuse to give my Recteq Bullseye griddle another try. I made some Carolina pepper/vinegar sauce and squirted it in there along with some Chinese 5-spice BBQ sauce, hoisin sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and dark mushroom soy sauce. Here it is prior to the green onions and cilantro:



And the final product:



So let's see, my conclusions for the day:

- I still love pickled onions as a topping on lots of dishes, and they are crazy easy to make.
- The pickled eggs and sausage are a TBD for another couple of weeks, but I'm optimistic. The brine itself actually tastes pretty good, quite mellow and flavorful.
- The smoked eggs by themselves did have some smoke flavor; I ate the ugly one. I don't think it was a "wow," and if I was just making hard-boiled eggs I don't think it would be worth the extra effort. We'll see how they are pickled, though.
- My fusion fried rice was good. Not great. No surprise there. I have 11 bowls of leftovers though.....
- The Recteq griddle worked fine for this, but as I was pushing fried rice around I realized a couple of things that would be nice about the Blackstone-type griddles compared to this:
1) They have flat sides. I had trouble trying to push fried rice up onto my spatula, as I was always pushing up against curved edges.
2) They have tall sides. If I pushed up against the edge, it was really easy to lose food over the edge.

It was a busy day. But fun, and I learned a lot!