Recent content by BarbecueFAQ

So i've personally never done the mailbox setup but it often has to do with two things: 1. The movement of the smoke within the chamber. 2. The maze and tube both generate heat - which people are trying to avoid. What can happen in the MES is "stale smoke" meaning no air movement - this ends...

So this is purely anecdotal and you'd have to do it for yourself but I find: 1. Traditional temp settings for smoking sausage don't result in worthwhile smoke flavor. IE. If you're smoking at 180>275F, it's not enough time to get any worthwhile smoke on the sausage before it hits 160F...

With something like cheese it's a borderline necessity just because you risk melting/sweating the cheese. The melting of the butterfat happens at around 90-95F-ish. The problem is, most smokers can't go that low. Even my old MES (model is from 2018) can only go as low as 110F before it...

Not everybody likes to use cure though :) This argument has been around since I started making Jerky like 17 years ago. His question is super common for someone who doesn't want to use cure and is looking to use salt and certain salinity percentages to kill bacteria. (People also like to cite...

So a couple things here because I'm a jerky fiend and I've read the confusing documentation by the FSIS and USDA multiple times. @Culinary Otter's point about pre-heat treatment is sound advice, especially if you're worried about certain temp. sensitive harmful bacteria. Documentation I'll be...

I disagree with this regarding texture. Most of my hot and fast cooks are done on a PBC, on the grill grates - brisket fat side down and rotated 90 degrees every 45-60 minutes (whenever I add a new wood chunk). The meat is tender - it'll pass a bend test and tear test, but when you go to bite...

For this reason I'm a big fan of wet rendering the tallow with water - far more forgiving and I often find the yield is better and there's far less taste/odor taint. I actually did this outside last weekend. I boiled the grinded tallow for 2-3 hours, then threw the pot in a snowbank (it's like...