Author Topic: New smoker and no animal is safe.....  (Read 3223 times)

Offline B.D.F.

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Re: New smoker and no animal is safe.....
« Reply #20 on: January 15, 2019, 06:06:47 AM »
Yeah, very common with poultry and some pork (such as chops and other mostly lean, thinner cuts). The usual brine is salt and sugar with variances on that of course. I have even seen a couple of no- salt brines (kinda' miss- worded as 'brine' means salt water but hey....) which might be good to keep in moisture without adding a ton of salt.

Brian

     I have not done this yet but my brother will brine the fowl for a day before putting on the smoker. Don't ask me what he uses.
     Kinda like dry rubs, everyone has their favorite.
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: New smoker and no animal is safe.....
« Reply #21 on: January 15, 2019, 06:11:46 AM »
Yeah, I am concerned about doing just that- turning a breast into shoe leather. The smoker has a couple of very low temp. settings though, listed as 'low smoke' and 'hi smoke' so I plan on trying low smoke for, say, an hour just to get some smoke into the meat and then kick the smoker up to 350 or so and roast the turkey like one would in a regular oven. Of course the smoker will still produce some smoke at 350 while still cooking the bird fairly quickly so as not to dry it out- maybe I can get some smoke in there without turning the carcass into jerky.

There are also some tricks, such as covering the lean meat with soaked cheese cloth, and keeping the cloth wet with, say, apple juice for a "cold" smoke. And the age- old large pan of water in the smoker to make a very humid environment.

And I fully expect to ruin some things along the way, just as I did with that batch of potatoes. But I would rather destroy $10 worth of poultry than $60 worth of pig or cow and maybe I can learn along the way?

Brian

Problem with attempting to just some  turkey breast, or multiples, is as you said... it will turn into leather, way before the flavor permeates the meat...

Best bet is the complete thawed turkey, or multiples as we have done before...

unless you stick the turkey breast in the farthest corner away from heat, and smoke really cold... welll...
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: New smoker and no animal is safe.....
« Reply #22 on: August 27, 2019, 03:51:03 PM »
UPDATE: 27 Aug. 2019: still running the pants off the smoker and still liking it a lot. Right now there are two spatchcocked (look it up) chickens on the smoker with fruit wood pellets merrily cooking them. Tomorrow morning a 12 lb. brisket will hit the smoker with hardwood mix pellets and finish sometime tomorrow night.

So far, I am finding the pellet smoker is a great way to cook. My wife's favorite so far is Pork Butt (which is not the butt at all but the upper shoulder- go figure) turned into pulled- pork. I have done a few of those and each one gets better in our opinion (mostly the rub changes). Briskets are getting awesome as well; this latest one has the new rub and we expect it to be great.

Did the first batch of chicken wings on the smoker yesterday and they are the best we've ever had in 35 years. All previous batches were done in the kitchen oven and required turning at least once; the ones in the smoker needed no attention and were outstanding.

And of course, the ribs.... both St. Louis and Baby Back types, many of them. I am getting particular to the baby back types only because they require almost no preparation. St. Louis, or even a 'rack of ribs' (the full rack) are also excellent but often tend to be thinner, cook faster and are harder to prep. But doing three baby back racks from Aldi's at once has become the norm. and they are excellent!

Brian
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Offline MAN OF BLUES

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Re: New smoker and no animal is safe.....
« Reply #23 on: August 27, 2019, 07:25:02 PM »
dude, I know the wood piles you have used, and created for your fireplace.. I have tons of wood, unfortunately not all the types i want, but just had a huge cherry tree fall prey to our Wood boring interlopers..
Get the saw running, sharpen it well, and put good big chip cutting grinds on it.. dump the bar oil, rinse well with denatured alcohol, and fill it with Wesson oil, run it a while, then dump and refill with fresh food grade oil, and proceed to cut 1" thick slabs of cherry,oak, or other flavor wood limbs,  and have a tarp to catch all the chips from the blade.. 15 minutes will net you a huge bag of chips, and slabs that can be minced into 1" blocks with a hatchet, and water soaked, for smoking..   I take all the saw dust/chippings, and throw them in a big trashcan with clean water, in the sun, stirring them daily for like 3 or 4 days, and pour off the water, (any oils float to the top, you can rinse and repeat if desired..), then dump that on a tarp in the sun to dry..  rolling it daily, to make sure it's totally dried, like a week or so, and bag it in a burlap sack,(or for or five) and hang it(them).. so it (they) won't mold.. and use that re-wet at use time, for my smoking adders..
free man, and very enjoyable. mmmm mmmm good stuff Maynard....

Living where I live, really rich people throw away stuff, at a whim.. I slammed my brakes on this past year, when I saw the most "majestic" (angels were singing 'AHHHHHHHHH") huge cast aluminum grill, a MONSTER.. that had to cost like $2k.. flipped it into the truck bed, (thing weighs like 200#)and even tho the steel "burner diffuser covers" were rotted, the complete thing still worked.. porcelain covered cast steel grill plates up top, everything all intact, other than the "grease dripper shields' over the burners..
It's in the process of having my "external smoke box" added right now, and when finished next week, will be the King of smoker grills..

yes, I am a garbage picker, and proud of it.. mmmmmmm smokey meats.. and the deer keep taunting me.. at my door.. mmmmmm

46 YEARS OF KAW.....  47 years of DEVO..