Smoked Meat

[GHL]

I do a chicken a few different ways... but this is the main one... if you put the time in it is really good as it has a marinade + a rub + a basting sauce + it gets slow smoked...

The recipe is for 4 3-4 lb chickens halved or quartered... have your butcher do it as that seems to be the easiest way.

First the marinade:

2 quarts apple juice
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup orange juice
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup kosher salt

bring all ingredieants to nearly a boil... stirring occasionally.. then remove and let cool. This may take a long time as the oil retains heat almost forever (it seems), but you don't want to put a warm marinade on the chicken and start it cooking.

Marinade the chicken in the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to 6.

For the rub...

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sweet paprika
1/4 cup kosher salt
3 tablespoons black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil


when the marinade is done... remove from the juice and slightly pat down with a paper towel... dont' remove allt he marinade as you want the oil to remain on the skin so it crisps up.

Coat the chicken on both sides with a generous amount of rub.

Smoke the chicken at around 225-250 degrees on apple wood for 3-4 hours or until the juices run clear when you poke it with a fork...

During the smoking process.. you can baste the chicken a few times (maybe 2-3 times) with this vinegar sauce.

2 cups cider vinegar
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 to 2 teaspoons cayenne
1 to 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
--- refridigerate and this will keep for several months.

*** Note ***
many consider basting / moping or whatever over kill... especially if you have a vertical smoker as there will be water / moisture in the air already..... if you baste to often the chicken will take longer so take care in basting only when you have to take the lid off...

Also... this can be done on indirect heat on a gas grill with a smoke box in the back.. the temp should be around 275-300... and it should take 1 1/2 - 2 1/4 hours... the same applies here... don't open the lid to often.

[GHL]

Up until now I have only done charcole + wood chips... not the chunks but the smaller ones... (it is harder to find wood chunks in the midwest)... I ordered some online and have about 30 lbs of hickory and some cheery and apple on hand now.

Tomorrow will be my first attempt at "chunks" only.. and my tentative plan is to use 1/3 the amount of wood that I would charcoal...

For charcoal I typically start with 20-25 coals... then every 1/2 or or so I add 6 coals... this seems to keep my smoker arond 220-250.....

I just plan on reducing the physical amount of wood as needed...

[GHL]

Here is my baked beans recipe...

1 large onion, diced
2 (16-ounce) cans pork and beans
3 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup light brown sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 pound bacon strips, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium - large bowl that you can bake (dutch oven), mix onion, pork and beans, mustard, maple syrup, light brown sugar, ketchup, and
lemon juice. Top with the bacon pieces. Bake, covered, for 45 to 60 minutes.

If you're smoking something... move the beans inside the smoker for the last 20 mins.

Sometimes I'll double the recipe (or more) and experiment with different types of beans... like i'll buy several differetn kinds of bushes baked beans.. the bbq / country / homestyle or whatever and mix them up....

[shaftman11]

[ QUOTE ]
ribeye steaks? really? how do you do those?



I have yet to do a duck, sooner or later I will, or maybe a turduckin.

[/ QUOTE ]


As for the rib-eyes, you smoke them like every thing else. Though I recomend you get them cut really thick from the butcher. Otherwise, they are done fairly quickly and don't have much of that smoked flavor. The reason that rib-eyes work so well, is becuase of the marbling in them. The small disadvantage is that they are usually med well to well done. I usually don't like my steaks like that (med rare usually), but the smoke flavor is worth it on occasion!

[blacklab]

Being from Texas and growing up on brisket it always struck me as odd when I got funny looks when you go bbq places around the country and ask for brisket. There was one place in Vallejo California that I went into and asked if they had it and the guy got all excited because he knew I was from Texas. He was originally from Houston and from that point on would hook me up when I went in there.

If you can't find a brisket at your local butchers, try sam's, they usually carry them. If no sam's in your area look for a jewish butcher. The brisket is the same cut that is used to make corned beef.

I've cut and pasted below the tribal knowledge from another message board I hang out at. I've had some of these briskets and they are incredible.

Brisket Intro

Where you get the brisket really doesn't matter -- it's a low-quality cut of meat, even at its best.

The key for meat quality is that you don't get one that's too big. The 12 pounder described above is about the biggest I will do. I prefer a 9-11 pounder. Just like a turkey, a bit smaller means a good bit more tender and moist.

Brisket is carrying about 1/3 of its weight in fat. It doesn't need basting, marinading, or any liquid treatment at all. The generally low cooking temp keeps a good bit of the moisture around, and the wrapping during the last several hours uses that moisture to your advantage.

I just use a plain old New Braunfels smoker, small offset box setup. I can get 2 briskets on at a time. It would be nicer if it could do more, but it's usually plenty of space for me. My biggest criticism is the thing-guage steel it's made with -- doesn't retain heat as well, and requires more fire-tending than I would like. However, I got mine almost 11 years ago, and by keeping it covered and clean, i have no real rust problems, and the metal has stood up very well.

Also, your 350 sounds pretty high -- but the rest of the process makes sense. Once you've wrapped it in foil, though, it's just a matter of heat and cooking -- with no exposed beef, it's not smoking anymore. Why not go ahead and take the shortcut of finishing it in the oven? Again, once you have all the smoking done and you wrap it, it doesn't matter what your heat source is.

I know that sounds like sacrilege, but the logic is pretty clear. Once you decide to wrap it, you're just cooking -- not smoking. Which is fine -- it's most important in that you are no longer obligated to tend a wood fire.

For my next project, I want to perfect the art of cooking a brisket cooper's style -- over mesquite coals. However, I'll have to build my pit, and I have no money, so that will have to wait a bit.

While low and slow is the rule, I think some folks put it TOO low. My ideal is 175-225, with a little over 200 being perfect. At times, let the heat approach 250 -- that's fine, and it gives you the heat you need.

At the end, when it is wrapped, you need to have it above the boiling point (212 degrees), because turning the moisture in the meat to steam is one of the things that tenderizes it, I believe. Again, when I wrap mine and put it in the oven, I do it at 220 or 225.


Brisket

Simple as hell on technique -- just requires time and patience.

Rub the night before with Bolner's brand brisket seasoning (add a little bit extra coarse cracked pepper).

By 8:30 a.m., my fire (started with some charcoal) of oak and pecan is ready. Put briskets on the smoker. Maintain heat at 170-225 for about 10 hours. At 6:30, remove beautifully black briskets from fire, wrap tightly in foil. Place in oven at 220 for 4-5 hours.

Result: perfectly smoked brisket, tender and moist as can be. Doesn't fall apart, but pulls apart with little expert. No knives were provided to my guests, and none were needed.

Brisket 101

Seeing that it’s the 4th of July weekend and Randall’s has brisket’s on sale for $.99/lb., and I have absolutely nothing to do this weekend, I went and grabbed a brisket. A friend has been wanting to learn how to do one, so I took some pics along the way. Also, since so many folks come to HD looking for brisket advice, thought someone may find this helpful. My brisket probably doesn't stack up to Brisketexan's, but it's awfully tasty.

This is my pit. It belonged to my dad. Very special to me, plus it is a hell of a smoker. Behind it is a 1/3 of a cord of oak with a few mequite logs mixed in.

First, I built my fire. Used charcoal to start it and used oak logs for the duration. I prefer oak to mesquite, as I think is gives the brisket more flavor and gives it that nice charred finish.

Adjusted the temp with the damper and chimney stack:

Rubbed the brisket. I just use equal parts salt and pepper and a little paprika or really whatever I feel like adding on that particular day. It really doesn't matter, because the flavor truly comes from the smoke and the meat.

Got the temp up to 200-225. If you go over or under, don’t panic. Just add logs and/or adjust the damper/chimney. When you're talking about 10-12+ hours of cooking time, an hour too hot or too cool can be remedied easily. When the temp was right,

I put the brisket on. Placed it as close to the thermometer as I could. I don’t use a meat thermometer, but you can.

Cracked a Dos.
Stared at my pit for a few hours. The dogs were going crazy. The one on the right is wearing a National Championship collar.

This brisket was 10.5 lbs. Basically following the 1.5 hours/lb., I pulled it off at 11:00 am after putting it on at 8:00 pm. I let it smoke all night, adding one log at about 11:30 pm. Got up around 6:00 am. The temp had dropped to around 150, but, I didn't panic and added another log and ran it up to 250 for about an hour before leveling it back to the 200-225 range.

After pulling it off, I let it sit for about 20-30 mins before slicing.

When I slice it, I first slice the fat cap off the top. (notice the nice charring the oak gives it?):

I slice my brisket perpendicular to the grain of the brisket. Nice smoke ring!

Slice all the way down. You can use about 80% of the brisket, if it’s a good, lean one. BTW, you know you have a lean brisket if you can bend it in half. Kinda like thumping a melon. If you can't bend it, it's likely too fatty.

That’s it. Simple. Rub it. Start a fire. Put it on. Leave it the hell alone. This was a particularly good one. No BBQ sauce needed on this one…

Some folks do a lot more than this, but I keep it as simple as possible, letting the smoke and the meat speak for themselves. The more I usually try to do, the more I typically screw it up.

Lazy Brisket

As an aside, I'd like to chime in with the "lazy brisket" technique. The last 2 years I have sponsored a team at the Houston livestock show and rodeo bbq cookoff and have picked up alot of pointers. One of the universal points of agreement is how long do you cook a brisket, the answer if four to five hours. What the teams do is cook the brisket for 4 to 5 hours, the first hour 300 then 3 to 4 at 225-50. The reasoning is that that is how long it takes to make the smoke ring, after that it does not change. The next thing that they do is take the brisket and wrap it in heavy duty foil, two or three time. They then stuff the wrapped brisket inside of old sleeping bags and put them in an igloo. The briskets will continue to cook just as if on the pit the entire time they are in the igloo. The time in the igloo should equal the time for a pit, effectively 45 mins to 1 hour per pound. Take the brisket out of the foil and let it sit for 20 minutes or so under low heat (your oven, your pit) and it will firm up. Then slice and serve.

The advantage to this method is you don't have to screw with it as much and you burn a lot less fuel.

One last tip, you can buy Prime brisket from butchers and it makes a difference.


How to slice your brisket

When you pull the brisket off, set it down fat side up with the big end on your left and the thinner, lean end on your right. Lop off the fat cap (pic above). The grain should be, for lack of better directions, going NE to SW, but only for the right 50% or so of the brisket. Start slicing somewhat diagonally from SE to NW until you are halfway through the brisket.

After you get halfway through, you get to the more marbled meat. Just slice 90 degress across the second half of the brisket. Sometimes I cut this part in half to reveal more of the fat. You will have to start individually trimming more fat off of each slice. Also, you will see a fat bulb on the bottom side that will need to be sliced out.

[guids]

Nice, everything I have read and heard pretty much says agrees with your post, except the part abotu purchasing the brisket. Ive read in the BBQ bible, and a couple forums that it does matter what kind fo brisket you buy. A typical sams club brisket isnt the best becuase of where it is cut from, and the quality etc, and to find a butcher that really knows what a good bbq brisket is etc


here is a link:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/brisketselect.html

[Klompy]

[ QUOTE ]
Seeing that it’s the 4th of July weekend and Randall’s has brisket’s on sale for $.99/lb.

[/ QUOTE ]

sweet jesus, it's like 3.00+ here and I live in an area where food is cheap.


thanks for the post, it helps a lot. I just pulled a chicken off the smoker. Didn't do anything real special with it, just regular salt/pepper.... and some bbq sauce rubbed on a few times, turned out pretty good.

[blacklab]

I agree you should find a butcher who knows what it is and get it from him. I was pointing out sam's for the guy in the thread that called several butchers and could not find one.

[blacklab]

Open a beer, drink half of it and shove the can up the chicken's ass next time. Set the chicken down so the can is strait up sitting on the grill. It becomes quite tasty.

I live in Austin and the grocery stores always have brisket as one of their loss leaders. Quite good for those of us who like meat.

[GHL]

I finished my first wood smoked pork shoulder yesterday. I did a 9 lb shoulder in about 14 hours. The temp was harder to control at first, but once I got the hang of it I was able to keep it between 220-250 or so... sometimes peaking in the 270-290 range when it got really hot. It turned out really well.. but I have a question. What % of the pork shoulder is throw away? With the bone and some grizle pockets.. how many lbs should a 9-10 lb shoulder produce?

Since I have two racks on my verticle smoker I also made a version of the "atomic buffalo turds"... which I have been making for a few years and was unaware that they had a name... although I use shrimp as the toping... you can use 26-30 ct and slice the shrimp down the middle. It was the first time I smoked them. They took about 40-45 minutes at around 250ish... and cooked up nicely.