BBQers unite!

[Big Dave2]

How many true BBQers(low and slow) or meat smokers do we have among us? Let us know what you are using to cook and what you are cooking.

I myself mostly use a regular Weber type grill, using offset heat with the miniun meathod to light the coals. Most of the time I use apple or red oak wood for the smoke flavor. I am also in the process of building a UDS(ugly drum smoker) and hope to have it completed soon.

This last weekend I smoked brined chicken thighs, and a pork sausage fatty as well as a couple rings of venison ring bologna and some appetizers.

Last weekend I did a rack of spareribs with a rub and BBQ sauce that I made myself.

Smoking is a wonderful way to cook. If you havn't tried it before I suggest you take a shot at it. It's not as hard as it may seam!

[Big Dave2]

[harleyharry]

Amazing. Found my two passions on one web site. I do a ton of BBQ. I belong to most of the large BBQ forums.

I have two Gator pits, both 48x20 with the offset fire box. Have one UDS finished and one on the way to completion. Have an original Brinkman S & P and more Webers than I care to mention.

Love to do ribs and pulled pork. Lately, I have taken to doing a lot of smoked chicken and turkey. I also do a lot of summer sausage on the smokers. Today I picked up a couple more Hi Mountain sausage kits which will do about 60 pounds of meat.

I have been experminting with the new Weber 22" Smokey Mountain smoker, and just love the ease of use.

[Big Dave2]

[pushbutton]

i am just about to eat a fried hamburger, thanks a lot. what is the last pic... pork roast stuffed with?

[Big Dave2]

It is called a breakfast fatty. Seasoned pork sausage wrapped around ham, eggs and cheese then wrapped in bacon.

[Big Dave2]

Amazing. Found my two passions on one web site. I do a ton of BBQ. I belong to most of the large BBQ forums.

I have two Gator pits, both 48x20 with the offset fire box. Have one UDS finished and one on the way to completion. Have an original Brinkman S & P and more Webers than I care to mention.

Love to do ribs and pulled pork. Lately, I have taken to doing a lot of smoked chicken and turkey. I also do a lot of summer sausage on the smokers. Today I picked up a couple more Hi Mountain sausage kits which will do about 60 pounds of meat.

I have been experminting with the new Weber 22" Smokey Mountain smoker, and just love the ease of use.

Sounds like you have a nice stable of cooking equipment. I also do a lot of chicken. My family likes it the best. I too am a member of 2 other BBQ forums. Probably have seen you around.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I quite a bit of smoking myself.. But may not be as popular, I use gas. Easier, and I dont feel the taste is any worse for it. I have a couple of the stand up smokers. One is a Smokehouse brand the other is a Browning. I also have a Big Red infra red grill with rotissery. Did the Turkey on it this year.. and did Ribs for 40 people for my moms family reuinion this fall.. Was a hoot!

[SkunkedAgain]

I am a cook and baker, but have to admit that I'm mostly a beer brat, burger, and steak guy on the grill. No real skills to claim. I'd like to get into doing ribs and roasts outside. Is there a decent entry level smoker that you guys would recommend?

[hoggsback]

I also am a smoker. I use a smokey mountain gas box. I haven't fired it up lately and this post has me jump started. I have a pork butt in the freezer that I just started to thaw.

I usually use apple wood for smoke, smear the meat with yellow mustard, then a good rub. Then spritz with apple juice as it cooks for a nice bark.

Throw in a few atomic buffalo turds (ABT'S) for appetizer and wash down with a good cold brew.

Wow, why haven't I done this lately?

[iland99]

I've got a Big Chief electric smoker that gets quite a workout. It doesn't get hot enough to finish anything, especially this time of year, so I have to cheat and finish everything either on the grill or in the oven. It still turns out pretty well though. Since there wasn't quite enough ice on the lakes for me this weekend I fired it up on Friday and Saturday. Friday I smoked 10 lbs of venison jerky and about 5 lbs of venison sandwich meat. Saturday I smoked 2 whole chickens and about 5 lbs of pork chops. Everything turned out awesome!

[Big Dave2]

I quite a bit of smoking myself.. But may not be as popular, I use gas. Easier, and I dont feel the taste is any worse for it. I have a couple of the stand up smokers. One is a Smokehouse brand the other is a Browning. I also have a Big Red infra red grill with rotissery. Did the Turkey on it this year.. and did Ribs for 40 people for my moms family reuinion this fall.. Was a hoot!

Hey, gas works too, whatever makes good BBQ to you is fine by me. Personally I have made the switch to charcoal and can't look back. For my taste, I prefer everything be grilled or cooked on charcoal, but thats just my opinion and like my wife says, what do I know! I have also ate plenty of good Q off of electric and gas smokers.

[Jim Almquist]

I use both gas and charcoal smokers and each have there time and place but the charcoal Brinkman is my first choice. I also have the 26" Weber with the rotisserie kit for doing birds.

I plan on pruning the heck out of my apple trees and will have some decent size chunks that I plan on using for smoking and my question is do I need to remove the bark ? The reason I ask is I have heard that the bark can give it a bad flavor or is that only from hickory bark.

My personal favorites are pork butt and brisket slow cooked on the smoker-Mmmm need to do that again soon.

[Big Dave2]

I am a cook and baker, but have to admit that I'm mostly a beer brat, burger, and steak guy on the grill. No real skills to claim. I'd like to get into doing ribs and roasts outside. Is there a decent entry level smoker that you guys would recommend?

I'm no expert but IMO first you have to decide whether you want to use charcoal, wood, wood pellets, electricity, or gas as your fuel source. I prefer charcoal but that is a personal preference.

Once you determine this, there are lots of reasonably priced entry level type smokers to choose from. Just like anything else, you get what you pay for.

Most people start out with either a small bullet type like the one made by Brinkmann or one of the cheaper off-set smokers that are widely available at some of your favorite big box stores. Either of these would be fine smokers if properly modified. Unfortunately, not too many of the entry priced smokers on the market do a very good job out of the box but are fairly easily modified by anyone to become a good smoker.

Personally I would stay away from the cheap small bullet type water smokers with the exception of the Weber Smokey Mountain but they are expensive. There are some good cheaper off-sets out there but like I said it is best to research what mods a perticular model needs in order to perform better.

If I were you, I would look up UDS smoker(ugly drum smoker) in google. You can build one yourself for not much money if you can find a clean 55 gallon drum. A UDS will outperform almost anything you can buy and can be built at a reasonable price. Its a no-brainer kind of a set and forget way of smoking with charcoal. Not much reason to mess with it once you get the temps cooking at the right temps. Very easy for someone just getting started and unique!

[Big Dave2]

I use both gas and charcoal smokers and each have there time and place but the charcoal Brinkman is my first choice. I also have the 26" Weber with the rotisserie kit for doing birds.

I plan on pruning the heck out of my apple trees and will have some decent size chunks that I plan on using for smoking and my question is do I need to remove the bark ? The reason I ask is I have heard that the bark can give it a bad flavor or is that only from hickory bark.

My personal favorites are pork butt and brisket slow cooked on the smoker-Mmmm need to do that again soon.

Personaly I always remove the bark om my smoking wood. I'm not sure if it is necessary with apple but I don't like to take a chance. It's not part of the wood or charcoal so I don't want to burn it and cook over it.

[Jim Almquist]

Thanks for the input BD2. It will be a while before it gets used and hopefully the bark will just peel off by then.

[croixflats]

Any body use or have used the Green Egg? I have talke to a few people and they would'nt grill or smoke with out one. I think they are spendy tough.

[Big Dave2]

Thanks for the input BD2. It will be a while before it gets used and hopefully the bark will just peel off by then.

I've never given too much thought to this bark issue before, like I said I always remove it. I decided to do a bit more research and found that it seems most folks go by the rule, if it comes off easily take it off if its hard to get off leave it on unless it is moldy or excessively dirty. I like this rule!

[Big Dave2]

Any body use or have used the Green Egg? I have talke to a few people and they would'nt grill or smoke with out one. I think they are spendy tough.

I've never used one but you are right, there are a lot of folks who swear by them!

You are right about them being spendy too. I think a BGE goes for around $800 or so.

[Cads]

The Big Green Egg is a nice tool. I use it often; however, I don't smoke with it much. The last thing I smoked was venison jerky in the spring, and it would have turned out well, but I had to go fishing while the jerky was cooking, and surprising the final product wasnt burnt, but it was a little overdone.

I do cook everything from beef roasts to potatoes on that thing. It is almost impossible to screw up a good meal. I can honestly say it is the best grill/smoker I have ever used.

I think the cost is somewhere around $650-$800 depending upon the size you get.

[croixflats]

Nice review, The one guy I was talking to was a client. We were installing some noclimb fence for his dogs and I took a break and was shootin the breeze with him and got to talking about his Egg and how he loved it so much. Then we got back to talking about the job at hand how he was thinking of expanding the area of fence and was'nt to sure if he could offord it or not.

I looked at him then the grill. He smiled and said ah what the heck expand the fence but I'll pay cash you dont get the grill.

[Fisherman For a Lifetime]

I do a lot of rib smoking and several other items.

Being an Engineer, I used DOE (Design of Experiments) to find the best combo of wood, temp, rib rubs, etc.

TRY THIS!!!

--> Cut your ribs into thirds.

--> Put different rubs on each three and keep track.

--> Smoke all three the same

--> Taste each three and decide which one you like the best.

--> Do the same with the favorite, then try 2 more rubs and do it over and over.

--> Then do that with different woods and different temps

There you go guys, hope this helps...

[Big Dave2]

Thats a great idea Fisherman FAL. I'll have to try that since I still have not come up with a rub that I think is perfect. I'm not much on sauce but my wife and son like BBQ sauce so I recently started making a simple memphis type sauce that I found on the internet that we think is pretty good. I need to try a lot more rubs though! What are your favorites?

[wmn luv me walleye fearme]

Bought an egg last year was one of the better things I've ever bought. Took a ton of heat from the wife for the cost but after cooking on it for the last 2 years she's gotten over it. Way better then my old webber for regular cooking and like it a lot better then my charcoal water smoker. Make a lot of brisket/pork shoulder and to be able to basically adjust it and once I get it dialed in go to bed and iwhen I wake up it is still roughly at the same temp is great. Also like to get that think up to 750 and make my steaks, or a pizza on it as well. I like my steaks rare and at that temp 2 minutes a side and they are perfect.

[fishorgolf]

I have been thinking about getting and egg myself as all I hear are great things about them. Currently I use a cookshack electric smoker. It is a smaller one but CS makes larger ones for commercial operations also. What I like about it is that you set the temp, put in about 2 oz of wood (yep thats it) and it will smoke for 8-12 hours. The only thing about it is that it does not give you the char you get from charcoal etc. So if you want a char you need to put them on the grill for a few min.