Home Cookin' The BBQ/Smokers/Smoked Meats Thread...

Yes. I usually fill it with a cup and a half or so of apple juice.

instead of apple juice, fill the pan almost to the top with water. I use hot water because if cold, it takes a while for the temp to get regulated in the smoker.

so, apple juice, I put that in the spray bottle and give the meats an occasional spritz. the sugar in the juice helps create a crusty bark.
 
rib eyes and corn, people.
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Here is a pic from Sundays smoke (my friends g/f took it and made the collage). I usually like to sauce my ribs with about 30 minutes to go, but since we had people over I left them naked and let people apply the sauce at the time of consumption.

One rack I used the Trader Joes Coffee-Garlic rub and on the other rack I used Stubbs "Pork" rub with the remainder of my Bone Sucking' Sauce rub on top of that.

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I botched my spares. Ended up serving boneless ribs :lol:. Burnt ends were gone in less than 2 minutes. Everybody wanted doggy bags so guess they liked evrything.
 
So I've been doing a ton of reading on the arts of cured and/or smoked meats and sausages lately. I made a Mexican tequila-spiked chorizo of my own design, which I think turned out pretty well. But now...now comes the king of cured meats.

Bacon.

Got a 7.3 pound belly at a local Asian market, and cut it in half tonight. Letting a half thaw out tonight, while the other went back in the freezer. Once it thaws out, I'll be trimming off the skin, weighing it and get It started in the cure. It should take about 10-14 days in some salt, Demerara sugar, cure #1, black pepper and a little sage (because damn that goes well with pork). Then rinse, let dry a few days maybe and hit the cold smoke.

I bought an A-Maze-N smoker, and a couple pounds each of corn cob and apple pellets. I'm planning to mix those two for the cold smoke and let it run overnight.

I'm really looking forward to this. And if it works out well, I'm going to be making some Gef?llter Schweinebauch with the other half. Yeah...look that up. You can thank me later.
 
I bought an A-Maze-N smoker, and a couple pounds each of corn cob and apple pellets. I'm planning to mix those two for the cold smoke and let it run overnight.
this is the first I have heard of corn cob being used for smoking with.

I'm really looking forward to this. And if it works out well, I'm going to be making some Gef?llter Schweinebauch with the other half. Yeah...look that up. You can thank me later.

before I can thank you later, any recipes in English?
 
this is the first I have heard of corn cob being used for smoking with.

I just heard of it too. I read about it over here: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/236348/rubbed-the-belly-its-bacon-time. Several folks raved about it, so I had to give it a go.

before I can thank you later, any recipes in English?

I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but I first learned of it from an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. There's a deli in Portland called Edelweiss that showcased this on the episode. I had to do it, and found this primer here: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/241314/schweinebauch (which in turn led me to the bacon post above).

And now for some pictures:

The belly:
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Skin removed (and saved to make chicharonnes later):
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Spices ready (no sage tho. Realized too late that I was out of it. Threw a couple bay leaves in the bag though):
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Given the Bell Biv DeVoe treatment:
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It's resting comfortably in the fridge. Looks much like pastrami with all that pepper, but I can't wait for these 10 or 14 days to be up. Then it's another three days to dry out and get that pellicle so's I can smoke.
 
So the bacon is done. Methinks there's some fine tuning to do, and I think I know where I probably screwed up a little. It wasn't totally ruined...just could be better.

Out of the cure and rinsed clean:

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Then it was back in the fridge to let it dry a bit and develop that pellicle for smoking. Instructions I read said give it about 3 days. I should have checked it sooner, as I think it went a little too far:

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One thing I did learn, though, is that little A-Maze-N smoker contraption was outright ****ing awesome. I loaded it with a mix of apple and corn cob pellets, and let it run with the smoker off. It smoked a good 8 hours before I pulled the slab, and when I checked the pellets, it had burned through only 2/3 of them. That's better than I expected. Money very well spent IMO.

Post-smoke:

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I cut off a slice and fried it. It was good, but it was too thick of a slice. More reminiscent of ham than bacon, but still pretty damn good...though a little dry. I've got it in the freezer to make thinner slices easier, and hopefully that will help some. We'll see.

Next time, I think I'll try the brining method for curing, let dry overnight once cured and since my new Masterbuilt electric smoker arrived today, I should be set for perfect bacon with the other half of the slab.
 
So the bacon is done. Methinks there's some fine tuning to do, and I think I know where I probably screwed up a little. It wasn't totally ruined...just could be better.

Out of the cure and rinsed clean:

20170705_201134.jpg


Then it was back in the fridge to let it dry a bit and develop that pellicle for smoking. Instructions I read said give it about 3 days. I should have checked it sooner, as I think it went a little too far:

20170709_130752.jpg

20170709_130805.jpg


One thing I did learn, though, is that little A-Maze-N smoker contraption was outright ****ing awesome. I loaded it with a mix of apple and corn cob pellets, and let it run with the smoker off. It smoked a good 8 hours before I pulled the slab, and when I checked the pellets, it had burned through only 2/3 of them. That's better than I expected. Money very well spent IMO.

Post-smoke:

20170709_221300.jpg

20170709_221312.jpg

20170709_221423.jpg



I cut off a slice and fried it. It was good, but it was too thick of a slice. More reminiscent of ham than bacon, but still pretty damn good...though a little dry. I've got it in the freezer to make thinner slices easier, and hopefully that will help some. We'll see.

Next time, I think I'll try the brining method for curing, let dry overnight once cured and since my new Masterbuilt electric smoker arrived today, I should be set for perfect bacon with the other half of the slab.

Looks good man.

Unfortunately the Amaze-n doesn't work in my gas smoker. The burner sucks out all the air. I havent been successful trying to get a mailbox mod to work. I need to try working on it again
 
Looks good man.

Unfortunately the Amaze-n doesn't work in my gas smoker. The burner sucks out all the air. I havent been successful trying to get a mailbox mod to work. I need to try working on it again

Thanks. That is a badass mod. Thank you for pointing that one out. I just read some folks have trouble with the A-Maze-N in the MES. Once I get the MES up and running, I'll have to do a test and see if I have those issues. If so, I'll be buying a mailbox soon.

What kind of issues are you seeing with the mailbox mod?
 
Thanks. That is a badass mod. Thank you for pointing that one out. I just read some folks have trouble with the A-Maze-N in the MES. Once I get the MES up and running, I'll have to do a test and see if I have those issues. If so, I'll be buying a mailbox soon.

What kind of issues are you seeing with the mailbox mod?

I wasn't comfortable using a painted mailbox so I went with an untreated aluminum box but it might be too small. The smoke isn't drawing through the duct and out the smoker
 
Tony Chachere's Original Creole seasoning. We bought it at Stater Bros and it is outstanding. Sorry, I don't know how to post a picture. 8 oz container
 
I wasn't comfortable using a painted mailbox so I went with an untreated aluminum box but it might be too small. The smoke isn't drawing through the duct and out the smoker

Hmmm. Did you try a few extra holes in the side of the box opposite the smoke outlet pipe?
 
Haven't used my smoker in a while so I had to show it some love today with a quick smoking session. A couple of tri-tips and some corn. Turned out quite good.
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So I did a little bit of smoking this week for a party this Saturday.


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Anyone have suggestions on what kind of bread I should get? I was thinking Hawaiian rolls and hamburger buns. I also don't know what kind of quantity I should get. I made about 28lbs of meat for 30-40 people
 
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