BBQ Diary with Woody

[Mechanic of Smoke]

Hey folks,

In this thread, I'd like to write down my recipes and share them with you.
These will be a wide variety of dishes, featuring different types of meat and everything that goes with them.
The descriptions will be a colorful mix, ranging from short and sweet to long and detailed.

As described in this report, I built my smoker, Woody, myself and only recently put it into operation.
So I'm a rookie who still needs to get to know his cooking equipment.

Woody - My first BBQ Smoker Build

Hey guys, On various trips to different corners of the USA, I became increasingly addicted to BBQ. I love to cook myself, and I enjoy working with metal both personally and professionally. This led to my desire for my own smoker. Having already experienced the quality and flavor of BBQ in the...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

The very first dish I prepared on Woody was pulled pork.
I was so excited that I completely forgot to take a picture.
But I can say that it fully met my expectations in terms of taste and appearance.

The second dish was baby back ribs.
These turned out quite well, but the pull-back and tenderness could be improved.

Last weekend I made beef chuck roast.
And the next day, I made poor man burnt ends from the leftovers.

I made these sauces, the pickled onions, and the coleslaw myself, following Meat Church's recipes.

 

[Jim_C]

You are breaking in Woody very nicely. What rub did you use on the pulled pork? What about the ribs?

 

[Mechanic of Smoke]

Thanks
For the pulled pork I used Loot N Booty Everything rub.
And for the ribs Fire & Smoke Pork Perfekt rub.
As binder I used for both cooks yellow mustard.

 

[chilerelleno]

That all looks good, off to a nice start.
Looking forward to your cooks/recipes.

Quite a number of folks have such threads, and they're all troves of info.

Here's mine,
Thread 'Chile's Cornucopia of Cooks' https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/chiles-cornucopia-of-cooks.277881/

 

[Mechanic of Smoke]

Wow, a very impressive collection!
And a great example of how something like this can be designed.

 

[crazymoon]

MoS, Good looking smoked goodies !

 

[bauchjw]

Nice! Now that’s how you.break a new smoker in! Beautiful smoke ring! You definitely nailed the craft.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Beautiful!

 

[Mechanic of Smoke]

Thanks guys!
The debut looks pretty good so far, I'll keep at it and practice diligently.

 

[Mechanic of Smoke]

Yesterday I had beef back ribs.
Unfortunately, I missed the right time to wrap them, so they turned out a bit dark.
But the taste and texture more than made up for it.
Overall, I was quite happy with them.

 

[normanaj]

They look awesome to me! I like the dark color.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Yep, look great to me, as well...

 

[DRKsmoking]

Yesterday I had beef back ribs.
Unfortunately, I missed the right time to wrap them, so they turned out a bit dark.
But the taste and texture more than made up for it.
Overall, I was quite happy with them.

View attachment 728758

Nothing wrong with those.

David

 

[Mechanic of Smoke]

That's great to hear.
Do you think I'm being a bit too self-critical?

What's your opinion on the membrane in beef back ribs?
I cooked them with the membrane, and I think it helped keep them together.
However, it was also quite firm and hard to chew.
Is there a trick to dealing with that?

 

[Mechanic of Smoke]

Over the weekend, we had another classic dish, although this one had nothing to do with smoking.
Fried chicken with a buttermilk coating, served with oven-baked wedges.
I used peanut oil for frying.

 

[kilo charlie]

Welcome to SMF and great looking means so far!

As @chilerelleno mentioned, there are a few of us who have put similar things together. Mine is here .

 

[Mechanic of Smoke]

Thank you so much!

I'll enjoy browsing through your posts and getting some inspiration.
The pictures look great!

 

[Mechanic of Smoke]

Last weekend, it was that time again: Woody was fired up.
The temperatures are getting milder, and my experience is growing, so I tackled the ultimate challenge and the reason I built the smoker in the first place:
beef brisket.
Even though it was "only" the flat part, the result spoke for itself.
And for me, it has the advantage of being faster, easier due to the consistent thickness of the meat, and not quite as large as a whole brisket.

I rubbed it with Fire & Smoke Brisket & Burgers and Meat Church Holy Gospel.
For the fire, I used almost exclusively German oak and a small amount of beech.

The two 5.5lbs pieces were on the smoker for 10 hours and then wrapped up in the oven for another 2 hours.

We've tried quite a few briskets in the States, and even though self-praise is no recommendation, this was the best brisket we've had so far.
Juicy, with just the right amount of fat, great bark, and a superb texture.
And the reheated brisket we had the next day was just as good.

Since I'm usually my own harshest critic, I'm really proud of this and hope it wasn't just beginner's luck.

...we want more!

 

[Astralogics]

Looks like your cooks are coming around nicely! That golden band of sweet fat is lovely. Glad your smoker is getting some good love!

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Looks pretty good from here...