Smoking Meat...

[stux]

You can put a roasting tray under the other grills on the burners to catch all the juices too. Good for keeping it tidy, but normally i find smoky juices don't make great gravy

 

[Phoney]

You can even make a smoker out of a cardboard box if you're really on a shoestring budget...

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Cardboard-Smoker/

 

[Gavo]

Is that smaller keg based offset in the background?

It was offset mk 1, It is made out of a couple of 44's. The biggest problem with using the 44's for an offset is that the thinner metal is harder to keep a constant heat with, it still gets used for parties, mainly for cooking spuds in the jacket though. The larger offset is made from a 88 gallon sidetank and is 3mm steel while the firebox is 6mm, once the coals are up it mostly requires a block or two of wood every 45 min or so.

 

[mxd]

thought I'd try and put gas on my offset on the weekend, just to see what it was like and if I was ever going to do an 18 hour smoke, the gas would be the only way I would attempt it (too lazy)

As I didn't know what it would be like, I threw a fattie on for lunch and wings and ribs for dinner

 

[Malted]

So I got my 30" Masterbuilt smoker and gave it a 3 hour run to burn off factory residues and give it a seasoning with some mesquite pellets. They heat up quicker than I expected given there is a seemingly small element under the smoker tray, it was up to 150oC (set temp) within 20 minutes. I was very pleased to see that it is in Celsius.


In the smoking photo the top vent is wide open to get any potential nasties out.
I let it cool last night and opened it up this morning to check on the contents of the smoker tray, the first lot were just ash. I can still smell the lovely mesquite smoke as I think I got some residues in my hair or on my clothes. :huh:

Pork spare ribs are a definite for this weekend.

 

[Truman42]

Going to give Malteds idea a crack but like him my bbq has a gap between the hood and base at the hinges so might not get very good smokehouse efficiency (term borrowed from Qldkev). Will play around and see how it goes.

I have a spare keg and was thinking about building a keg smoker. (More so because I enjoy building and making stuff) Ive looked at 2 online builds and one of them has a pipe that goes into the very bottom with an elbow outside up to a valve which must be used as a damper. You have to cut out a slot in the bottom of the keg to fit this in and JBweld up the gap.

Heres a picture and here is the link to the Instructable http://www.instructables.com/id/Beer-Keg-Smoker/#step1

The other just had slots cut around the side wall at the bottom.

Do you need this damper mechanism? Isnt it just to shut off air flow to snuff out your fire or does it actually control the heat as well? If so couldnt you just put an elbow in just above where the keg starts to curve (similar to where you would install a ball valve for a HLT etc?)
Or does the airflow have to be under the charcoal for some reason??

 

[mxd]

Going to give Malteds idea a crack but like him my bbq has a gap between the hood and base at the hinges so might not get very good smokehouse efficiency (term borrowed from Qldkev). Will play around and see how it goes.

I have a spare keg and was thinking about building a keg smoker. (More so because I enjoy building and making stuff) Ive looked at 2 online builds and one of them has a pipe that goes into the very bottom with an elbow outside up to a valve which must be used as a damper. You have to cut out a slot in the bottom of the keg to fit this in and JBweld up the gap.

Heres a picture and here is the link to the Instructable http://www.instructables.com/id/Beer-Keg-Smoker/#step1

The other just had slots cut around the side wall at the bottom.

Do you need this damper mechanism? Isnt it just to shut off air flow to snuff out your fire or does it actually control the heat as well? If so couldnt you just put an elbow in just above where the keg starts to curve (similar to where you would install a ball valve for a HLT etc?)
Or does the airflow have to be under the charcoal for some reason??

the damper is how you can control temperature,
if you put a "basket" in for the coals then you can have a hole down the bottom. If you look at wolfy's build you'll see he has holes and a magnet

another option (just to play) is use an electric frypan for your heat source, someone did that here (bluedog ?), then you just put you wood chips on the fypan

 

[mxd]

for the melbourne'ites

charcoal $1 a kg

http://www.charcoalsupplies.com.au/products/


never used, not known etc..

 

[cdbrown]

I had a crack at smoking some spare ribs in the weber kettle on the weekend. Set up a snake and put some jarrah off cuts on top for smokey flavour. I was trying for the 3-2-1 method (which was more like 2.5-1.5-0.5) and I'm guessing that it was running too hot as it ended up quite dry. Still very tasty but had to chuck the end pieces where there wasn't much meat as it basically turned into blackened cardboard. I had a dial thermometer sitting through the top vent to measure the weber temp and was aiming for 100c, and it was this for the most part so wondering if I should have been measuring that temp somewhere else. Have a wireless dual temp guage on it's way from the US so I can measure the the meat temp as well.

Maybe I should pull the trigger and get my self a Hark Tri fire and get used to cooking with an offset.

 

[stux]

I had a crack at smoking some spare ribs in the weber kettle on the weekend. Set up a snake and put some jarrah off cuts on top for smokey flavour. I was trying for the 3-2-1 method (which was more like 2.5-1.5-0.5) and I'm guessing that it was running too hot as it ended up quite dry. Still very tasty but had to chuck the end pieces where there wasn't much meat as it basically turned into blackened cardboard. I had a dial thermometer sitting through the top vent to measure the weber temp and was aiming for 100c, and it was this for the most part so wondering if I should have been measuring that temp somewhere else. Have a wireless dual temp guage on it's way from the US so I can measure the the meat temp as well.

Maybe I should pull the trigger and get my self a Hark Tri fire and get used to cooking with an offset.

Probably have been a good idea to measure the temp on the grill where the ribs were

Also those dial thermometers can be terribly inaccurate

My Maverick 732 just arrived yesterday

 

[cdbrown]

Yeah - I'm guessing the 100C around the vent is quite a lot lower than what the ribs are seeing. I ordered 2 of the ET732 and it was sorted through LA on Sunday.

I know that 3-2-1 is only a guide and that the times depend on the cook temp and meat temp - so does anyone have a link to good instructions which describe the signs or temps of when each stage is reached? Got have the pack of ribs in the freezer and may have another go this weekend.

 

[robbo5253]

Probably have been a good idea to measure the temp on the grill where the ribs were

Also those dial thermometers can be terribly inaccurate

My Maverick 732 just arrived yesterday

Where did you get it from Stux & how much if you dont mind me asking?
Cheers
Robbo

 

[stux]

Yeah - I'm guessing the 100C around the vent is quite a lot lower than what the ribs are seeing. I ordered 2 of the ET732 and it was sorted through LA on Sunday.

I know that 3-2-1 is only a guide and that the times depend on the cook temp and meat temp - so does anyone have a link to good instructions which describe the signs or temps of when each stage is reached? Got have the pack of ribs in the freezer and may have another go this weekend.

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/are_they_ready.html

 

[stux]

Where did you get it from Stux & how much if you dont mind me asking?
Cheers
Robbo

I paid 72USD ie 71AU$ delivered and got a bonus pencil thermo too.

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_osacat=0&_armrs=1&_ssn=buy2discounts&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313&_nkw=732&_sacat=0&_from=R40

delivery was about 12 days

 

[donburke]

Yeah - I'm guessing the 100C around the vent is quite a lot lower than what the ribs are seeing. I ordered 2 of the ET732 and it was sorted through LA on Sunday.

I know that 3-2-1 is only a guide and that the times depend on the cook temp and meat temp - so does anyone have a link to good instructions which describe the signs or temps of when each stage is reached? Got have the pack of ribs in the freezer and may have another go this weekend.

i've read quite a few reports online that suggest that baby back ribs, (is that what you cooked ?) should be done something like 2-1-1 at 225F

i dont know if we slaugher our pigs smaller here, but all the ribs i see here look smaller than what the yanks have

i bought six racks last friday that i froze, and will be cooking them australia day, and i am also umming about the cooking time (4.2kg / 6 racks = 700g each on average) dont know how that stacks up to the yanks

 

[stux]

I see that our ribs look a lot smaller too. What's worse is the butchers seem to like to scrape all the meat off the bones too. Lots of shiners

 

[robbo5253]

I paid 72USD ie 71AU$ delivered and got a bonus pencil thermo too.

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_osacat=0&_armrs=1&_ssn=buy2discounts&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313&_nkw=732&_sacat=0&_from=R40

delivery was about 12 days

Cheers mate, greatly appreciated.

 

[cdbrown]

i've read quite a few reports online that suggest that baby back ribs, (is that what you cooked ?) should be done something like 2-1-1 at 225F

i dont know if we slaugher our pigs smaller here, but all the ribs i see here look smaller than what the yanks have

i bought six racks last friday that i froze, and will be cooking them australia day, and i am also umming about the cooking time (4.2kg / 6 racks = 700g each on average) dont know how that stacks up to the yanks

That would make a lot of sense. Definitely a case of too long and most likely too hot as well with the wrong placement of the probe. Will have to try the 2-1-1 next time. The 3kg pack had 6 lots of racks in there which I used 3. Might just go for a pile of heat beads on one side rather than a snake as the ends of the ribs were getting direct heat due to lack of space.

Where did you get it from Stux & how much if you dont mind me asking?
Cheers
Robbo

I got mine from the same ebay seller, but went for the 10% for multibuy. So $63 landed each unit.

 

[mxd]

I'm running off bad memory (bloody beer) here, but I think for ribs, 3-2-1, the 3 is to 165 F, then the 2 should be 195 F, the 1 is really just to dry em out and I think 205 f ?

 

[mxd]

I got mine from the same ebay seller, but went for the 10% for multibuy. So $63 landed each unit.

good price that one

I bought this one

 

[Cocko]

I now go 2-1-2-1..

@ 107 deg.

2 hours of smoke.
1 hour without smoke
2 Hours wrapped in foil
1 hour out - maybe step the temp up if needed.

Perfect.

That baby back style, with a good rub over night.

Most important, remove the sinew!!


Soak those chip kids!

 

[barls]

heres one from earlier tonight
a butterfly lamb roast that i stuffed and rolled with haloumi, Prosciutto and feta that i rolled and rubbed with a spice mix out of my cupboard
before

after a couple of hours in the smoker

and sliced

was bloody delicious, even the wife went back for a second helping something she doesnt normally do.

 

[jyo]

Barls, that looks amazing, mate :icon_drool2:

 

[cdbrown]

Looks like I'll be a proud owner of the offset Hark TriFire tomorrow. Hopefully I can do the burn in before the weekend.

 

[Cocko]

Looks like I'll be a proud owner of the offset Hark TriFire tomorrow. Hopefully I can do the burn in before the weekend.

WOOT WOOT!

Awesome CBD - report back with your findings.. /smokings!

 

[pbrosnan]

Here's a handy link: http://www.amazingribs.com

 

[Malted]

Pork Spare Ribs for the smoker: Some questions.

Stuff all meat on the rib bones was an issue I tried to tackle but this left me with more questions than answers.
So I bought a big ole bit of belly with the ribs still on that was 3.5kg before I molested it. I was thinking ribs for me, belly for the missus (and me).

My conclusion is that it was the wrong cut for either belly or ribs, or the animal was too small. I would like to learn more about it because that is a pretty loose conclusion.

You can see the three cuts I got from it.
The green section shows what I trimmed from the ribs and is only a couple of mm thick. Perhaps I should have trimmed the skin and fat and a layer of meat from the bones instead of trimming the bones away from the rest. Perhaps If I had of included the next layer of meat (shown by the red) it would have left me with some meatier bones.


You can clearly see that to the right there are short ribs. Perhaps the 'ribs' that one buys are the section to the left (plus some) instead of the short ribs to the right. I might have made a poor choice by getting this section of long and short ribs. Watching Youtube clips of ribs being prepared for the BBQ, they follow the cartilage on the ends of the bones and end up with a long rectangular section. I followed the cartilage around and thus you can see the short ribs clearly.
The bit beyond the short ribs to the right (that the butcher cut off, might have been meatier but I didn't get a good look). If I was specifically after a meaty piece of pork belly would it be from the right of the short ribs or more towards the nipples?


Here is the membrane pulled off the ribs.
When I pulled the membrane off it did not want to come off the green enclosed section although I did not force the issue because I did not want to waste anymore potential meat from that section.


I think I probably should have just cut the skin and a layer of fat off and just called it meaty ribs (is this what 'country style' ribs are?) To get ribs like we see our American BBQ peeps using, I'd say that the carcase needs to be cut specifically for that section. In the picture below, I have indicated in red, how perhaps a carcase might be cut to get the nice rectangular section of ribs.



So my questions are, where does one get the meatiest pork belly from, where do the best spare ribs come from, should I have cut the skin and fat from the bone instead of cutting the bone away from the rest (to give me meatier spare ribs since ours don't seem very meaty). Maybe I need to find a butcher who slaughters bigger animals? Thoughts y'all?

 

[Malted]

I'll leave my post up just for the heck of it, but it all seems to be answered in the site that pbrosnan linked to. Specifically this page: http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/pork_cuts.html

 

[stux]

I just ordered a whole pig

The rib tips have a tendon or something in them. Not much fun eating around.


Getting all the ribs cut into thirds to get finger ribs.

Going to keep the belly with loin for makin bacon. Two shouldersgoing in the smoker for pulled pork too.

Will keep the hocks for my German wife

And have swapped one of the legs with the butcher for one of his hams.

Now. I just need to upgrade my deep freeze... And then I get a 'new' keezer

Still gotta order the brisket!

 

[jyo]

My first foray into smoking meat!

Pork shoulder, rubbed overnight with a dry rub from BBQ pitboys site.

Ghetto style in the weber, kept it between 80-120 for the first two and half hours, smoking with hickory, then added more charcoal and let the temp ride up to 220' for two and a half hours. It was awesome. I have a feeling this is my new obsession h34r: I get to wet my wood, and rub my meat without anyone questioning my actions. It's a win-win!

Cheers to Cocko and others here for the advice.