Another smoke

[wavector]

1 - beef fatty
2 - sausage fattys
1 - slab baby back ribs
1 - slab spare ribs
1 - 5.64 pound chicken roaster

For the chicken I bought a stainless steel thermos to use and re-use as a can for the drunken chicken. It's big enough for a turkey too. Using an aluminum can didn't appeal that much. Anyway, I filled it with apple cider for the smoke. I found a good use for my old propane grill though.

Using four woods today: live oak, white oak, hickory and pecan. I found a good chain saw.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-...22,2007006.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-...22,2007004.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-...22,2007005.JPG

 

[deejaydebi]

Lookin good Wavector! Can't wait to see supper finshed! I hope those furries aren't on the menu to they look like little lovers!

 

[wavector]

Those are two of my babies. Pood is the blue and white NFC (Wegie) and lil' bit is the kitten next to him. The are not on the menu. Though they do get to taste some smoked meat now and then. I'll show pics of the smoke and mods tomorrow.

 

[dbeast420]

That's the perfect use for a retired gasser.

Awesome looking kittys too. Love the blue and white one.

 

[wavector]

The mod I made to my vertical smoke was the removal of the water/drip pan and the addition of a terracotta planter pan. I lined it with aluminum foil to catch the drippings. It allowed me to raise the temp to a constant 250 degrees with a rise of 300 degrees for the chicken. The other mod was a tweeking of the charcoal pan to further ventilate.

Nopsmoke ring on the fattys, but good flavor. I had them on top of the terracotta tuning/drip pan so very little smoke got to them. Next time I'll do it differently.

The rest of the meat has a good amount of smoke to them.

My junior smoker is a Cajun Cookin' one level smoker I mad a vent mod to, and just bought it today at a garage sale for $5.00. Decent little smoker. I smoked the spare ribs on it.

The chicken was rubbed with the Paul Prudhommes that came with it. It's basically a kicked-poultry seasoning. Temp to 185 for the thigh and 170 for the breast. The thermos put a gigantic hole where the chicken's rear end use to be. I mean large.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...2007012.50.JPG

But, as you can see in the pic of the thermos it cleaned right up.

The baby backs got a bit hot as I was smoking the chicken at the same time. They may end up being little dry. I'll have to adjust the 3-2-1- method for higher temps.

Everything remains to be tested today for taste, moisture and smoke flavor. I'll post later with the results of my findings. The taste tester is still in bed.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...2007001.50.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...2007014.50.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...2007002.50.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...,2007017.5.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...,2007025.5.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...2007008.50.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...2007010.50.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...2007011.50.JPG

 

[meowey]

Good looking grub!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[deejaydebi]

Sweet looking kittys! They look very playful!

Does the terracotta reflect the heat or absorb it? I still use the big ole water pan in my ECB but it's so big it limits the amount of fuel I can get in there.

Great looking chicken and ribs! You can see all the way up to the neck on that chicken. Fattys are always great looks like you put something in one of them it's got light colored lumps Onions maybe?

Looks like it worked out great and what a deal!

 

[bbq bubba]

May i ask why your sticking a thermos up your birds rear end??

 

[wavector]

I don't like the beer can idea too much. I'm not a big fan of aluminum and meat. The paint on the can had me worried. Anyway, I could drive tank through that chicken now.

 

[wavector]

The terracotta seemed to absorb and maintain the temp in the smoker, kind of like a brick in a horizontal would do. It also didn't absorb as much heat from the fuel allowing higher temps to be achieved. Water in this type of smoker absorbes too much heat and I was using too much fuel in previous smoke, not to mention constantly having to watch the smoker temp. This time I didn't have to stand over it. Remember this is the Brinkmann Smokn' Pit King Smoker we're talking about, not an ECB. The ECB is probably better at maintaining a constant temp of 225°, but to get to 300°+, I'm not sure about that. The Cajun Cookin'® ($5 at a garage sale Saturday) smoker barely reached 250-260° briefly, after refueling, before dropping back down to a constant 225° and maintaining it for the duration.

The thermos seemed to help cook the chicken rather than keep it moist indie. Eventhough it's insulated, it still helped the smoke, and I didn't lose much juice from the smoke. About half of it was used (Apple Cider). I bought it at Big Lots® for $5 and had to try it. I do believe it would be better for turkeys though. Clean-up was a breeze with an S.O.S® pad. Gotta love stainless steel.

The ground beef fatty is for another recipe. I call it my favorite casserole. I'll post it later on today. The other two fattys I had trouble rolling the onions, bells pepper and cheese, I guess I used too much. So, what I did was mixed it altogether and formed something that looked similar is size and shape, spinkled on some rub and smoked it. The taste-tester said it's just sausage, and yes it did taste like sausage without much smoke. Next time the fatty's go on top where the smoke will definitely penetrate them. Oh well, there always the next smoke indeed.


The taste-tester and I are giving the apartment a thorough cleaning as the last two smokes have generated much dirt from me tracking in my mess. A little steam cleaning is in order for today.

 

[wavector]

The spares came out good she said, but she would try the baby backs. So, I did and they were over cooked. I can see now that I must now smoke poultry and ribs in this smoker at the same time because of higher temps. Planning my smokes is now a priority because of the limitations I have with the smokers I own. All of the ribs wouldn't fit on the Little Cajun Cookin' smoker so I put the baby backs on the Brinkmann with the bird and fattys. Perhaps changing the 3-2-1 method to account for time at that temp 300° plus would have helped, but I didn't do that. It may not work, thus the planning. I won't risk it again.

Normally, I would brown the meat for My Favorite Casserole. I'm doing the ground beef fatty in place of browning.

The recipe is as follows:

1 lb. Ground Beef (I use ground chuck)
1 - 8 oz. package of large elbow macaroni
8 ounces, or more, of shredded cheddar cheese (I use sharp cheddar)
one cup - V-8 juice (sometimes I use a bit more, buy a 12 ounce can and drink what's left)
1 - medium onion diced
1 - green bell pepper (color doesn't matter)
1 - can of whole kernel sweet yellow corn (wished I had smoke a couple of ears, or so, for this just to try it)
1 or more cloves of garlic (again, I wished I had smoked it)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta, drain and set aside. Brown or smoke the ground beef and drain fat, set aside. In the same skillet brown onion and bell pepper (for this amount I usually use half of the bell pepper and onion) in some of the grease from the beef or add oil for browning, then close to the translucent stage add the garlic (or add it when want to). After that, in a large bowl mix the beef and the remaining ingredients together minus the cheddar cheese. Then layer the mixture and cheddar cheese in a loaf pan(s) or casserole dish(s), starting with the mixture. then layer of cheese, then layer of mixture,then cheese, eventually topped with cheddar. Bake in a 400° oven for 45 minutes to and hour covered with a lid or foil (watch the cheese of top, maybe tent it a bit). You should be able to smell it pretty good while it's cooking, before removing it. If it's under cooked it won't taste right. I cover mine with foil to keep it from drying out. Some kids love it. It's an excellent after school snack that can be heated in the microwave, one that you control what's in it. Hamburger Helper® is high in sodium and preservatives, etc. I usually double the recipe.

Tell the kids to watch out for hot cheese in the roof of their mouths. We usually reheat at 40% power for a couple of minutes instead of using the reheat button which is half power. I'll sometimes drop it on down to 30% and extend the time.