Damn!!
What a buzz kill.

Yeah, I'll be enjoying my stir-fried tofu and organic vegetables all sum....HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Not in this lifetime:

1 beef brisket, untrimmed, 7-10Lbs
Quarter cup or so of kosher salt
Half cup or so of home-made chili powder (it's easy, buy some dried chilies of various "heat," cut the stem end, shake out the seeds, snip the chilies into 1/4" strips, run them through a coffee grinder or like device until powdery. Wear gloves while doing this).
1Tbl freshly toasted and ground cumin
Say a couple of teaspoons each fresh ground white and black pepper
2 Tbl dark smoked Hungarian paprika
1/4 cup light or dark brown sugar.

Plus you can add garlic powder, onion powder, Chinese 5-spice powder (be careful! This will overpower everything else! 1 or 2 tsp. at most should do it) lemon zest, etc. Play around.

Mix with a fork and rub very liberally on the entire hunk o' meat. Really rub it in. Put the brisket in a plastic garbage bag and place in the fridge over night or at least 8 hours.

Next day, take the brisket out of the fridge and hour ahead then smoke it FAT SIDE UP at 225F with apple, oak, or hickory chips for 8 hours-ish or until tender enough to cut with a dull spoon. If you really want to do it up and can control the temp accurately (put an oven thermometer in the rack where the meat sits, that is the the air you want to measure; the built-in thermometer up top will not tell you what you want to know) start it 18 hours before you want it done and raise the temp thusly:

1st 6 hours: 160F
Next 3 hours: 175F
Next 3 hours 190F
Next 3 hours: 210F
Last 3 hours: 220F

Remove from rack and lightly tent in tinfoil for 15 minutes. Slice and serve.

A note on smoking: When using an electric, charcoal, or gas smoker or BBQ and adding the chips or chunks of wood, you only need to do this for the first couple of hours. If you keep throwing chips on the entire time you can get a very unpleasant buildup of chemicals on the meat that will ruin it (essentially creosote). Plus, the smoke will only penetrate so far in the first place. When using a purpose-built hardwood "smoker" you don't actually want a lot of smoke, since visible smoke has a lot of moisture and deposits the crud on the meat. That's why we burn the wood to coal in a fire pit then toss it into the fire box. I do burn a log or 2 in the firebox at the beginning though.

Framer-

Great recipe! Have you tried raising the temp and covering the butt in honey for the last hour or so?

Also I love my butt on a bun with coleslaw (I know, it's just too easy. I also love telling my friends how much I enjoyed rubbing my butt or rubbing my meat the night before). Try traditional coleslaw or Carolina style which might be a little piquant for some (yellow mustard, hot pepper flakes, and vinegar).

Yes, with setup lines like those, you could easily get a job as a straight man.

The two most popular "smokees" (you have the smoker and the smokee, right ?) are turkey and your run of the mill "pull it out of the lake" fish, typically whitefish or similar.

Has anyone played with those newfangled "digital smokers" which have a little power auger to drop coals in at a predictable rate so you can sleep at night ?

>>pork butt roast..often labeled as a pork shoulder blade roast

This is a useful piece of information which may reduce the number of funny looks I get at supermarkets. Thank you !!

All,

Here is a recipe that I scavanged one time (I did not write it) that would probably work well in a smoker / grill (to add to the flavor of the recipe)...takes a bit of time but well worth it!

Begin Recipe

Robert Rodriguez' Puerco Pibil (or Cochinita Pibil) from Once Upon a Time in Mexico

"Are you a MexiCAN, or are you a MexiCAN'T?" If you're a MexiCAN, follow these instructions closely:

I've taken the liberty of transcribing Robert Rodriguez' recipe from his "10 Minute Cooking School" Featurette from the Once Upon a Time in Mexico DVD. It looks mouthwatering, and I can't wait to make it. As soon as I saw it, I thought about this forum.

Clean up the kitchen, fellow SpoTTies.

You'll need:

3-5 lbs. of pork butt
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of white vinegar
Banana leaves (usually found at mexican and asian markets)
5 tablespoons of annatto seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seed
5 lemons
1 tablespoon black pepper
8 allspice nuggets
2 habanero peppers
1/2 teaspoon of cloves
2 tablespoons of salt
8 cloves of garlic
Tequila. Lots of Tequila. Mmmm.
Casserole pan
Aluminum Foil
1 Big-[censored] ziploc bag
a coffee grinder
a blender

Now, Rodriguez suggests you buy a separate coffee grinder to mix the raw seasonings, so not to cross-pollinate your spices with your coffee.

So...throw the annatto seeds, the cumin, the pepper, the cloves and the allspice into the coffee grinder and grind it into a super-fine, powdery dust. You'll combine it with some other stuff later to create Achiote Paste. Don't ask; keep reading.

Anyway, so you grind all that up until it's like drywall dust. Then dump it in the blender.

Chop up the habaneros, and be careful to remove the seeds and veins--unless you are SERIOUSLY down with super-spicy HEAT.

Then add the OJ, the vinegar, the juice from the five lemons, the salt, the garlic, and the chopped up habaneros into the blender as well, and add a "splash of the finest tequila you can find." Blend. Blend some more. Check it closely. This is your achiote paste. Blend some more, just in case. You don't want any chunks of this stuff lingering in your mouth.

Grab your pork butt (hehehe...that was completely accidental) and HACK it into 2" cubes--preferably with a machete, for that authentic Yucatan atmosphere. Dump the cubes into the "big-[censored] ziploc bag."

Dump in your achiote paste, and do the shake n' bake, without the baking part...yet. Just make sure the meat is completely marinating. Rodriguez doesn't say for how long, so I'm guessing 2-4 hours minimum. Correct me if you know better. I haven't made this yet.

Now, grab your banana leaves (hopefully they're fresh--more moisture), and line your casserole pan about three layers deep.

Dump your achiote paste-saturated pig butt into the pan. put more banana leaves on top, and wrap that spicy meat all up in those big 'ol leaves. Then SEAL the entire casserole pan up with aluminum foil to lock in all the moisture. That's what cooks the pork.

Get a friend to help you lug all that dead meat on over to an oven you've pre-heated to 325 degrees, and heft it in. Close that door and go watch dvds for four hours. If there's any tequila left, take that with you.

Rodriguez pulled this stuff out, and it looked just melt-in-your-mouth kinda good. Serve it over a bed of rice, and hey--anything else you want to serve with it."

End Recipe

I have made this before and it is exquisite...the achiote paste has a unique flavor but it very, very good. You can probably substitute a different cut of pork...may try it on a tenderloin.

Give it a shot and let us all know how it comes out...

Disclaimer: Kids will probably definately NOT like this...

Enjoy.

WhatFurrer

It is also known as a "Boston Butt." Some people smoke the whole shoulder which is made up of the butt and the picnic roast. A whole shoulder can be pretty massive. I usually stick to the butt (again, it's just too easy).

Whatfurrer- that looks like a fantastic recipe. I'll have to try it. Later this summer a couple of the fellas and I are going to try a whole pig. Apparently a rental place in town here has a rig with a motorized spit and a charcoal tray below. I wanted to dig a pit and roast the porker under ground but WAF insinuates itself everywhere.

A lot of great ideas which I printed out and put it in her recipe folder. My wife likes the smoker which means less cooking she has to do, which I dont get since we eat out most of the time.

So... my cheapo gas bbq finally disintegrated and I'm in the market for something new. The smoking happens at by brother-in-law Rob's (the far away one, not the close one ) and Rob does all the smoking, I just do the eating.

I figure it's time to start pulling my weight. I've pretty much narrowed the selection down to a Weber bullet smoker or a Weber charcoal kettle (either the "Gold" or the "Performer" with propane lighter thingy).

The only argument for the Performer vs. a regular kettle + chimney is that in theory the Weber kettles are sufficiently airtight that you can close all the vents and have the charcoal stop burning, leaving it ready for use next time. If the charcoal is *already* in the kettle then having a built-in lighter seems like a good idea and a real convenience -- but if I had to start from scratch with new charcoal every time then a chimney would really be just as convenient and all I'm getting for the extra $$ is a cart, table and charcoal bin.

Note that in the US a Performer costs almost 3x a regular kettle, while in Canada the prices are closer, more like 2x -- presumably there is a relatively fixed transportation cost applicable to both.

The bigger question, though, is "smoker or kettle ?". I figure maybe 2/3 of my usage will be "low + slow" but it would be nice to be able to grill the occasional burger, sausage or steak.

It sounds like at least a few of you are running charcoal smokers. Is anyone running a Weber bullet (WSM) and if so do you ever use it for occasional grilling ? There is a brief blurb on grilling with a WSM at the virtualweberbullet site but it involves rebuilding the pieces in a different order and I'm not sure how stable their recommended arrangement is.

Did some more reading and it looks like summertime smoking in a Weber kettle works just fine, although you might have to check on it more frequently. Wintertime is what I'm not so sure about -- the WSM bullet seems to have thicker walls and is reported to work well in the winter while the kettles seem to be iffy for anything except grilling (where you can have a full bed of coals). I think the fact that the WSM can run with a full basket of coals even when smoking might be part of the difference.

I guess the real answer is something like this :

http://www.bbqs.com/cart_admin?func=viewProduct&wid=78&cid=1047&pid=1256

1/4" steel walls, 350 pounds...

That's the bbq I have. I have been using it for about 5 years. Got away from gas grills and never looked back. My parents keep bringing up something about carcinogens from the briquettes but I just dont want to go back to gas.

Every article I read says that the real health dangers come from animal fats at extremely high temperatures, whether those high temperatures come from charcoal or from gas.

"Low and slow" barbecueing and smoking seem to be much less of a risk, unless you REALLY get carried away with the smoke.

I think the Weber kettles are a great value and very versatile. I have smoked everything from turkeys to briskets in a 22.5" Webber, using the indirect method. I don't know that I would pay for the propane starter model.

Thanks... that helped me make the final decision. I ended up going with a 22-1/2" kettle but at the last minute decided to get the Performer with the cart and gas lighter. Here's how I figured it :

22-1/2" gold kettle - 190 CDN
chimney starter - 30 CDN (don't need with Performer)
mod to add a thermometer in lid - 20 CDN (included)
baskets for coals - 30 CDN (included)

I'm already up to $270 CDN, so the extra $130 for a Performer doesn't seem too bad considering you get :

- a nice, really well built cart and work surface
- convenience of not having to take partially burned briquettes out to relight them
- very convenient lid holder
- thermometer already built into lid (no modding)

Everything you get for the $$ is convenience, of course -- it won't cook any differently from a Silver kettle -- but if the convenience lets me use it more often then I figure it's a good investment (carcinogens notwithstanding).

I picked it up after work today and assembled it as soon as I got home.

Tossed on a bag of chicken leg quarters (smear on some jerk seasoning, sear for a few minutes on each side over the coals, then indirect heat over a drip pan for an hour turning every 15 mins), which should be done... now.

Gotta go

EDIT -- Dang, that was good. I guess the charcoal adds a bit of smoke flavour even if you haven't added any smoke wood. The outer part of the chicken had a nice red/pink smoke tinge and the meat was really tasty even though I didn't have time to marinade at all.

Close the vents, charcoal seems to go out. Fire up the gas starter, charcoal gets going again. I like it.

I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it may incriminate me.

I'm starting to notice that some boards have a set of very specialized smileys. Here's one I found on a site dedicated to the Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) cooker, aka the bullet.



We need some good Axiom-specific or HT-specific smileys. Any ideas ?

BTW I'm trying my first "top down burn" aka Minion Method cook on the Weber today. With briquettes a few people have managed to get 13+ hour burns and relatively stable temperatures without having to add fuel. I stuck a couple of firebricks into the Performer to divide it in half, filled one side up with lump charcoal then dropped some lit briquettes on top.

Here's a pic while I was getting it started -- the small pile of coals in front is over the Performer's built-in gas ligher, and the big pile of coals in the back is unlit.



After the small pile of coals got started I dropped them on top of the unlit pile then added foil and drip pan where the small pile of coals was in the picture. Added a water pan over the coals and 3.5 pound pork sirloin over the drip pan and it's been going for a couple of hours at a rock-solid 275F.

I've never used lump charcoal before so I'm guessing I'll only get 5-6 hours before having to refuel. Fingers crossed.

Yeah lump 'coal burns hotter and faster than briquettes. Mass is your friend when it comes to heat regulation. I always have a few bricks here and there in my rig.

I have taken a lot of heat (NPI) for occasionally using water/beer pans instead of dry drip pans when I do my thing. Some of the fellas are real purists about this stuff. While it does cause some contamination due to the vapor trapping smoke particles it really helps with large, lean cuts like whole pork loins.

I know it's been done to death, but not by me.

Beer can chicken and BBQ'ed cabbage :



Both cooked indirect for about 1-1/4 hrs, lid temp 325-350. Chicken was extremely good, but cabbage wasn't quite cooked enough and probably needed another 1/2 hr.

That is my favorite way to cook chicken.

What's that thing that you killed with a toothpick?

I'm not sure I want to know.

That is an Atomic Buffalo Turd, known in polite company as an "ABT". Type it into Google if you don't believe me.

- Split a jalapeno in half lengthwise, cut off stem & remove some or all of the veins & seeds

- Fill with a small block of cream cheese plus some smoked meat or sausage

- Smear with hot jerk seasoning (recipe says mix cayenne into the cream cheese)

- Wrap with 1/2 strip of bacon, kill with toothpick

- Cook with indirect heat or smoke for 30-45 minutes or until bacon is cooked. Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy

Nutritionally the best thing I can say for them is that they appear to be compatible with the Atkins diet. Taste-wise there are many good things to say about them, assuming you enjoy spicy food. These are apparently a popular finger food on the competition bbq circuit.

Replacing jalapeno with habanero gets you an Atomic Dragon Turd. I imagine you could skip the cayenne pepper.

NOTE - sometimes ABTs are made in a "vertical" format (see link). I haven't tried this -- seems too unstable on the grill :

ABTs standing on their hind legs

I love beer can chicken. Best way to get rid of bad beer after someone brings it to a party.

What do you do with all the chicken ? Most bad beer comes in 24 packs and nobody drinks any at the party

Is there any canned beer that's actually decent?

Of course -- there's.... just a minute... might have to get back to you on that. Maybe Guinness ?

Sapporo is pretty good but the can is about the right size for an 18-20 pound turkey. I normally buy Molson Export when I need something in cans -- Molson Canadian was our traditional camping beer for 25 years but it tasted like dishwater (for 25 years ) so we replaced it with 5 liter cans of Grolsch.

Beer Chicken = Goooood!

I live in a province where, believe it or not, canned carbonated beverages are still outlawed. It's actually a big deal to bring back canned beer when you go to the mainland.

Still, I don't like canned beer. Except for Guinness. That widget thing invention really does make it taste like the real thing straight from the keg. Bottled Guinness is just awful.

I am the proud owner of a Molsen Canadian Dancing Beer can though.