A Smokey Introduction

[JustMax87]

Hello, my name is Max and i'm new to the smoking world. Just received a Bradley Digital 4 Rack smoker and Oven and I'm excited to use it.

I love to grill so excited to move into a new realm. My wife and I eat all of our red meat (steaks and burgers)as rare as possible... AKA so rare a skilled vet can bring my meat back to life... AKA so rare I like my Steak Moo'ing... AKA We like our meat so rare, our steak could give us a blood transfusion....

Anyway... On that note, I'm looking for some tips and recipes on smoking and how to ensure that my meat stays rare. 

Mainly, i love making steaks on the grill, but as I said I like it rare, so i'm curious how much additional cooking does a smoker do, or how much should I undercook my steaks/burgers before I throw in a smoker so that it doesn't get overcooked?

Thanks and look forward to reading and learning and then contributing!

 

[noboundaries]

Max, welcome to SMF!  Glad you're here and excited about smoking. 

Grilling and smoking are two different beasts.  Grilling is really set up for low final temp meats that you like; steaks and burgers.  Obviously rare isn't something you do with chicken if you want to continue living. 

I've never smoked a steak.  I can't imagine smoking a rib eye steak or NY Strip on my smoker, and I like them rare too.  A seared outside is essential to a good steak, and you can't get that in a smoker, only a grill or frying pan (I've never pan fried a steak either).  A Tri Tip roast is steak-like, and I like it rare to medium rare.  I've smoked plenty of them, then reversed seared it on the grill.  You could do the same for steaks and burgers.   

The key is a good meat thermometer, whether you use an instant read or a wireless probe for continuous monitoring.  Look up the temps for rare.  They work for the grill or the smoker. 

Roasts that make rare roast beef are great to smoke.  Once again, a good thermometer. 

Now, a smoker best serves meat that is tough until cooked to a high enough temp to melt the structure that makes it tough.  Brisket and Pork Butt are two examples.  Eating a rare brisket would be like chewing shoe leather, I imagine. 

So a good thermometer is the answer to your question to keep your meat rare. 

Ray 

 

[gary s]

  Good afternoon and welcome to the forum from a sunny and  kinda hot day here in East Texas, and the best site on the web.   Lots of great people with tons of information on just about everything.

 

        Gary