My Second smoke w/Qview - breasts!

chubbabubba · Oct 6, 2011

I learned a few things from my first smoke, and applied them to the second smoke.

1. Added more salt to my rub

2. Added smoke longer - to give me more of that smokey goodness, at the same time I had to be careful since my wife's allergic to a lot of woods. If we go to Cracker Barrel and the fire's going, neither of us can breathe usually if we're nearby.

3. Add more water to the water bowl so I didn't have to add more every 30 - 40 minutes, and the drippings wouldn't harden on the bowl...still can't get them out from the first smoke. lol

So I asked my wife to season up the breasts for me before I got home, so they would have time to marinate. Threw them on the fire, and using the vents and control levers I put over them through modding I was able to maintain a controlled 250 degrees. Here are the results. I don't have all of the pics, they are at home. I'll add more as I get them, especially of the cut turkey breast, and sandwiches we made from them. =D

Prepping the fire with a nice big chunk of Hickory, and apple.

Here are the breasts ready to go on the fire, the turkey on the left with a small extra piece and 2 chicken breasts.

The smoker's warmed up to the right temp, and a nice small wisp of smoke is flowing. Perfect!

After an hour this is how they look. Looking and smelling great. I put the glaze on a little aftewards. Same recipe as my first smoke.

Here's the chicken pulled after 1.5 hours, along side the sweet potatoes my wife made for dinner in the oven. Wonder how well potatoes smoke? Anyone?

The Turkey breast pulled after 2 hours, so beautiful and smells so good. Was sooo delicious too, and perfect amount of smoke.

And here's my dinner, the small chunk of extra turkey breast and the chicken breast was dinner when I smoked it Tuesday night. The big turkey breast was for dinner last night, carved it up for sandwhiches. YUMMMM!!!

And the close up, or if I'm correct the "Bearview!" lol. Thanks for looking.

oldschoolbbq · Oct 6, 2011

Bubba, nice post of some good looking Bird

. You said you learned from your last smoke

Here's an idea for constructive self critizism

.

Get a spiral notebook and keep records of each smoke you do> date , time , weather , fuel , type of meat , proceedures of the cook , cooking temp. through the cook and so on...a good reference to go to when a problem arises and you correct it... record how you did it giving you a solution next cook.

Do you add hot water to your water pan

Keeping some hot water on hand will help in temp. management.

Keep doing what you are doing , practice your abilities as often as you can......

Have fun and ..............

chef jimmyj · Oct 6, 2011

Great looking Bird and wondrful pics...JJ

SmokinAl · Oct 6, 2011

Looks like you learned a lot from your first try.

This one looks perfect.

Great job!

jrod62 · Oct 6, 2011

Looks great!!!
As far as smoked potatoes:
Your oven will NEVER see another potatoe again !!!!
Don't wrap them. I poke few holes on top . Some garlic butter on them and throw them on the smoker.

masterofmymeat · Oct 6, 2011

Nice job with the birds! Like Jrod62 said, smoke those potatoes and you'll never put

them in the oven again unless you absolutely have to for time constraints.

I even did a twice smoked version of the "twice baked" potato and my family could

not get enough.

Also, I do what OldSchool recommends, I keep track of almost everything from smoke

to smoke just to see what variants there are and compensate and to change up recipes.

Great to see you didn't give up...James

billyj571 · Oct 6, 2011

Looks awesome nice job

Looks delicious!

chubbabubba · Oct 6, 2011

Thanks guys, and thanks for the suggestion on the log oldschoolbbq. Man I definitely will do that. Because I've been losing sleep the last couple of nights trying to think of how I'm going to maintain my temp for 6 hours. I'm using briquets versus lump charcoal, and man they seem to go fast. I've been planning out my rib smoke for this weekend. lol.

I'm thinking of putting the minion method I keep reading about to use, and every 2 hours or so shake the ash lose to keep it from snuffing it out. Then after the first 3 or 4 hours dump my ashes and put in new load of briquets from the chimney. I can't believe I'm losing sleep over this. LOL. I guess I'm addicted.

coffee_junkie · Oct 6, 2011

yes, I would highly suggest the minion method. I usually start out with a good ring of briq's ( as much as I can fit and still fit my lit briqs) then I light about a 3rd if a chimney and let it get hot. Then just dump the hot on and let er roll until its all burnt up, sometimes shaking the coal container to get the ash off. then when you start to loose heat just start up another 3rd (or less this time depending on how many coals are left) when those get ready lift the cooker off and place as much unlit coals as you can in the pan, shove them all to one side and drop in your newly lit coals. You probably will need to do this every 2 hours or so. I still use my ECB when I go camping etc and I just love it! It makes some really good food!

chubbabubba · Oct 6, 2011

Sweet! Thanks coffee_junkie. I'm loving my ECB, I read a lot on these forums before deciding which would be a great starter smoker. I spent less money even after the mods for a very good smoker that's helping me love smoking meat. I'm excited about smoking my first ribs this weekend. I'll definitely have the QView up afterwards with my success story I'm sure. =D

By the way, I was thinking of trying to keep the smoke on them at least through the first two hours if not the first 3.

1. Would that be too much smoke for ribs? Since they are thin.

2. I was thinking of putting wood chunks on the fire, as well as on the minion pile and hoping they'll burn up without too much initial smoke so I don't get nasty creosote flavor. I learned from reading that you want a light blueish wisp before putting the meat on. Would having wood chunks on the minion pile cause too much smoke to get to my ribs? Should I just place all of the chuncks on the fired coals to at the start?

Thanks guys.

teeznuts · Oct 6, 2011

Congrats on your 2nd smoke! looking good. Glad to see you're already planning your 3rd smoke. The notebook is a great idea. Detailed Q-view is also great cuz you can always go back and look up one of your older smokes and compare pics or read how you did a certain smoke that you want to replicate. Just my opinion.

chubbabubba · Oct 6, 2011

By the way I almost forgot the finished product pics of the turkey breast. Here they are.

Cut up and ready to serve. Thought I did pretty good with the slicing, pretty even. May need to look into an electric cutter, and vacuum sealer for storage. Because the wife said they were absolutely fantastic, and I need to do this more often. =D

Turkey sandwhiches! This is how we do it in our family. Cranberry sauce and Miracle Whip. =D

coffee_junkie · Oct 7, 2011

Chubbabubba said:
Sweet! Thanks coffee_junkie. I'm loving my ECB, I read a lot on these forums before deciding which would be a great starter smoker. I spent less money even after the mods for a very good smoker that's helping me love smoking meat. I'm excited about smoking my first ribs this weekend. I'll definitely have the QView up afterwards with my success story I'm sure. =DBy the way, I was thinking of trying to keep the smoke on them at least through the first two hours if not the first 3.

1. Would that be too much smoke for ribs? Since they are thin.

2. I was thinking of putting wood chunks on the fire, as well as on the minion pile and hoping they'll burn up without too much initial smoke so I don't get nasty creosote flavor. I learned from reading that you want a light blueish wisp before putting the meat on. Would having wood chunks on the minion pile cause too much smoke to get to my ribs? Should I just place all of the chuncks on the fired coals to at the start?

Thanks guys.

Just place about 3 fist size chunks in the unburnt briqs, make sure at least one chunk is close to where you are placing your lit briqs. every time you add lit coals throw in a couple chunks. If you are doing the 3-2-1 method, throw smoke to them for the first three hours. Maybe give them a chunk at the end. I normally apply smoke for my whole cook (except when in foil, if I foil), cuz I like the smoke flavor.

SmokinAl · Oct 7, 2011

Man o man that's some good looking turkey breast!

As for the ribs. I put smoke on them for the whole smoke, except the foil part.

realtorterry · Oct 7, 2011

Those look great friend! Can't wait to see those ribs

My Second smoke w/Qview - breasts!

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