Smoking Meat...

[carniebrew]

Finally breaking the seal on my smoker today. Got up early and rubbed a 2kg boneless pork shoulder, left it an hour or so then popped it in, cooking at around 120/130C. Tough work keeping the Aldi smoker at that temp, having to fiddle the dial between high and off, as setting it to low makes the smoker too hot.

Got a combination of beech and hickory pellets creating the smoke. Smells great...

 

[djar007]

Mine sits on 90-100 on the low setting with the vent open at the back Carnie. very stable in my experience.

 

[Wolfman]

Finally breaking the seal on my smoker today. Got up early and rubbed a 2kg boneless pork shoulder, left it an hour or so then popped it in, cooking at around 120/130C. Tough work keeping the Aldi smoker at that temp, having to fiddle the dial between high and off, as setting it to low makes the smoker too hot.

Got a combination of beech and hickory pellets creating the smoke. Smells great...

Want me to come over in about 6 hours to show you how to use it?

 

[carniebrew]

Plenty to go around, so you're more than welcome Wolfman! It's my first ever go at smoking, and first use of this rub (dark brown sugar, white sugar, salt, paprika, garlic, onion, ginger, black pepper & rosemary), so who knows how it'll come out.

Just finished carbing up my first ever kegged beer too...shame it's a Kolsch and won't taste any good for a few weeks. I still have some bottled IPA in the fridge though...

It just hit me that my temperature tests were while I was mucking around with seasoning the smoker....I didn't have any meat in there, nor did I have any water in the pan IIRC. I will try putting the knob back on low now and see what temp it holds.

Pic at about an hour:

 

[carniebrew]

Ok, newbie curiousity question...I'm following a process which has me adding around 100 grams of wood to my smoke box every 30 minutes for the first two hours. Do people empty the wood box of the burnt wood before adding the new stuff? Or just chuck the new stuff on top? I've just left it all in there.

 

[Ranga]

Just found this thread, here's what I do using a Hark Gas fired.
Fill the wood box with pre-soaked Birch chips (Usually 1/2 an hour soak).
Placed prepared meat/s on there trays (Usually prepare with rubs 24 hours before).
Light the gas till temp dial gets to about 100c.
Turn gas down to fairly low.
Leave it alone for 12 hours, don't open, don't dick around with it.
Get up in morning and remove my slow roasted and smoked meats.
Try not to eat all of it at once

 

[Wolfman]

Chuck them in mate.

 

[djar007]

I dont empty mine. Turns to ash . I am being alot more conservative with the wood as I had an over smoked chook that was a bit awful. Too over powering.

 

[Wolfman]

Yep got to take it easy on poultry.

 

[carniebrew]

I'm not bothering with soaking my wood. Have read a few of these 'mythbusting' articles over the last few weeks: http://www.amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbusting_soaking_wood.html

 

[sp0rk]

I tend to not use much/any wood when I'm doing a chook
either just a very small amount of soaked hickory (usually in honey bourbon) or I just put the chook straight over the coals so the fat drips on the coal and smokes back up over the chook
Turn it every 20 minutes or so to avoid burning
Also when doing a chicken, you want a higher heat, 2-3 hours should be long enough to cook it

 

[carniebrew]

Argh, I seem to have hit "the stall", it's been in for about 10 hours now, and the temp has only risen 1 degree in the last 2 hours! No pulled pork for dinner tonight....

 

[shaunous]

Argh, I seem to have hit "the stall", it's been in for about 10 hours now, and the temp has only risen 1 degree in the last 2 hours! No pulled pork for dinner tonight....

I hit the stall once and fuked me why it took so long, turns out i forgot to top the water up, but my stall, stalled at 82*c anyway and pulled pork it was

 

[shaunous]

Finally breaking the seal on my smoker today. Got up early and rubbed a 2kg boneless pork shoulder, left it an hour or so then popped it in, cooking at around 120/130C. Tough work keeping the Aldi smoker at that temp, having to fiddle the dial between high and off, as setting it to low makes the smoker too hot.

Got a combination of beech and hickory pellets creating the smoke. Smells great...

Mine will sit at 90-100 in the lowest setting, but last one I did i had it under a carport, when the summer sun hit it in the arvo the temp went high tide, moved it into the shade with a breeze and it come straight back down. Just a newbie thang.

 

[carniebrew]

Took a few hours to get through the stall, the temperature eventually hit 90 just before midnight last night, so 14 hours! I was then supposed to let it sit an hour before pulling, but I cracked the *****...after trying some (wow), I wrapped the whole thing in foil, put it in the spare fridge and went to bed. I guess I'm gonna have to go higher than 225F to get it done more quickly next time. I'm not getting up at 3am to put a shoulder on for 6pm dinner....

 

[lukiferj]

I'm not getting up at 3am to put a shoulder on for 6pm dinner....

No commitment carnie. That's your problem

 

[Edak]

I usually cook for lunches, so I start it at 8-10pm, try that one mate

2am - How's that BBQ going?

3:30am - dreaming about BBQ, better wake up and check it...

5:00am - sun's coming up soon, better check the BBQ

9:00am - done, rest for a couple of hours

12:00 - time to pull and eat... :icon_drool2: :beerbang: :super:

 

[carniebrew]

Yeah, I was thinking that...the process I was following only had me adding wood to the smoker every 30 mins for the first 2 hours, so if I start it at 8pm, I can leave it alone from 10pm, and it should be ready to remove from the smoker at around 9am, rest for 2 hours, pull and ready to serve around 11am.

It was still bloody awesome the next day, 30 seconds (for a few pieces) in the microwave to warm it up, the family devoured it all in one day.

 

[Edak]

Yeah, I was thinking that...the process I was following only had me adding wood to the smoker every 30 mins for the first 2 hours, so if I start it at 8pm, I can leave it alone from 10pm, and it should be ready to remove from the smoker at around 9am, rest for 2 hours, pull and ready to serve around 11am.

It was still bloody awesome the next day, 30 seconds (for a few pieces) in the microwave to warm it up, the family devoured it all in one day.

Nice, yep that's the way to do it. Next time pig out and put 4kg shoulder on. You'll be eating for days!

 

[shaunous]

Nice, yep that's the way to do it. Next time pig out and put 4kg shoulder on. You'll be eating for days!

Yeh that works good in theory, i done a close to 6kg and 8 of us demolished it in minutes. Was soooo good.

 

[Edak]

well, the whole plan is to eventually have the computer run the lot, switch on the heatbelt when it is too cold, cool it when warm(i hadn't thought of that till you mentioned it brewmaster)

but i am going down to jaycar today to see what they have.

will keep you informed

Respect.

 

[carniebrew]

Yeh that works good in theory, i done a close to 6kg and 8 of us demolished it in minutes. Was soooo good.

Crikey, how much longer does it take to cook a 4kg or 6kg shoulder over a 2kg one?

 

[doon]

could always cut the larger piece down to reduce cooking times

 

[shaunous]

Crikey, how much longer does it take to cook a 4kg or 6kg shoulder over a 2kg one?

My 5.8kg took 13hrs to get to an internal of 82*c and be pulled. Was amazing... Cooking temp was 110*c

 

[carniebrew]

I let mine get to 90 before taking it out, and if anything it was a little drier than I expected. I did spend a lot of time early on stuffing around with the temps, but now I am more familiar with my unit it should be more consistent next time.

 

[Edak]

I am going to be cooking up 8kg (2x4kg) shoulders next week, hope the weather is good!

 

[shaunous]

Hells yeh Edak.


Please rain though, us farmers are dying here... Well not us, our cattle are....

 

[SmallFry]

Oh say, can you say, "chipotle"?

 

[adryargument]

Oh say, can you say, "chipotle"?

Can i come over? That looks absolutely delicious / awesome.

 

[SmallFry]

Home grown Jalapenos, pretty tame in terms of heat. Gave them 2 hours of Mesquite smoke, and they've turned semi-sweet with a subtle kick.

Also did some marinated eggplant along side them, and some store bought salmon fillets along with them for the first hour.

Needless to say, today's lunch was delish.