Friendly Family Smoke-Off!

[ayden lanier]

Alright fellas, my family wants to have a smoke-off this weekend! We have two teams. My dad, who is an amazing smoker, and my youngest brother with limited general cooking experience. Team two is my middle brother- who has experience smoking, but not as strong as dad, and me! I usually do the basic side dishes for meals or grill- I've only ever turned on our smoker. My mom will be the judge. We have two smokers so each team will be able to cook meats without knowledge of what the other team is doing- for the sake of fairness. My brother and I are thinking about salmon, but are looking for great suggestions for any meat. We have a green mountain pellet smoker. Pellet reccomendations are also welcome! We HAVE to beat our dad, the self-proclaimed smoke master. Please post any suggestions, great seasonings, meat ideas, or pellet reccomendations!

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Just get dad very intoxicated the night before and hope the hangover swings to your advantage? LOL JK!

ABTs and Moink balls for Appetizers and if you can do fish I'd say do fish. Who doesn't appreciate a good smoked Salmon or trout?

Some one recently did smoked salsa and it looked amazing, thats not another bad addition!

 

[radioguy]

Bone in Turkey breast is always killer. Injext or brine to Moms taste!

RG

 

[SonnyE]

I think the winner is everybody getting to eat the results!
Salmon is great! Baby Back Ribs are, too.
But pick one thing and do it well. I like to put a Honey Glaze on my smoked Salmon.
I'm still partial to Hickory for smoke.
But the whole idea is to have a Great time! And Great food.
Good Luck! :D

 

[SmokinAl]

Salmon is a good choice, but I think dear ol' Dad will probably beat the pants off you guys!
Good luck!!
Al

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

Salmon is great but if it doesn't go just right it can be easy to tell that it's just not top notch. Are you guys in an area where Tri Tip is readily available? I would suggest that. It smokes quickly but has enough fat to be forgiving and has that great beef barbecue flavor. It's like the best of all of the barbecue worlds. Any decent rub will be enough and if you cook it using a temp probe to monitor the internal temp then it's nearly foolproof. Take it to an internal temp of just about 135 and pull it. I love mine smoked with pecan wood so that would be my suggestion for wood flavors. Don't forget the pictures of your win ;)

George

 

[sauced]

Smoke a whole turkey...brine it first, then use apple wood. Smoked turkey is truly amazing!!

 

[bbqbrett]

Since mom is the judge I would say pick whatever is her favorite. That might just give you the edge right there.

 

[gmc2003]

If they don't what it is a fatty is always a crowd pleaser.

Chris

 

[ayden lanier]

Alright y'all! Dad and I joined forces to have the best smoke day ever. We decided to do something completely different. Cornish game hens. Yum! They were brined for 24 hours, injected with a cabin blend seasoning, then smoked for four hours on a blend of hickory, oak, and cherry. Yall.... this turned out AMAZING. To top the wonderful meal off- a cast iron peach cobbler coupled by blue bell vanilla ice cream. Very successful day! Smoker is Yoder YS1500.

 

[ayden lanier]

Yoder smoking the hens

 

[ayden lanier]

after smoking for 4 hours

 

[ayden lanier]

another set using different seasoning- same Cajun flavor, though.

 

[ayden lanier]

and finally the cobbler dessert. So excited to get some of this!

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Looks awesome ! Love Cobbler!