Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

Well I’ve posted my pork butts before but here goes another, my brother has decided to visit from Texas and made the request, haven’t seen him since our dad passed

Now let it sweat till about 1 am, got the armadillo eggs to make up tonite too. Have 4 bourbons to serve him along with a couple nice cigars. Never know how long or if I’ll see him again

One of these days I’ll figure out pictures !,

Tc, when you say sweat. Your talking about dry rubbed, wrapped, and put into the fridge for a period of time.?


Looks guuud already

What's your rub? I prefer the Memphis rub, for pork.

Well Memphis yaaaa, Mike I like to rub my pork shoulder at least 12 hours before smoking. At Charlie’s we give up a little prep cause of time, but here at home and when I competed in the pork championship here in Memphis, your rub needs to sweat in. I’ll get it kinda heavy then push it in every surface. Then once rubbed cover in Saran Wrap, that gets the meat sweating better than foil. Now as for the rub, I base mine off the Rendezvous, it’s a famous bbq place been around a long time and there rub is great, I just add some course sea salt, and course black pepper. I used to make my wn for competition cause your not supposed to use a ready made by someone else, I’ve sent the seasoning to some of the other guys including all the way to shaun’s up in Canada and my buddy Roy, I’d be happy to send you some to try

Yes sir, I'd love to give it a go. PM sent

Question...

Is wood coals better than charcoal, for long period cooking times. Like pork shoulders and brisket that take several hours @ 250°F. That is of course, for my style of smoker.

I ask this, cause I went thru a 20# bag of charcoal, cooking the chuck roast. Or is that typical.

Ive learned a few tricks for keeping my heat up while cleaning out the ash box. Like putting a chimney full of coals on a metal plate, and setting it on the indirect side of the cooking chamber, while pulling the ashes from the burn box.



Any better heating tips, would be great.

Its all new to me, but I'm having a blast learning and trying new things.

Mine is like the egg Mike so my coal mgmt experience will be different but I only use lump charcoal, not briquettes. With hardwood or fruitwood chunks sprinkled throughout for smoke flavour.
A 20lb bag lasts me a few cooks, or two briskets. Never have to empty the coal box mid cook but always before any cook it’s cleaned out fully.
For low temp smoking I have my vents almost fully closed though due to how efficient the thing is at retaining heat. So use very little fuel hour over hour.
Bought one of those thermoworks ‘smoke signal’ X2 systems on sale and it might be perfect for your style cooker.
Little blower and temp probe unit that monitors and control spit temps as well as monitors meat core temps..
I had to mod mine to work by adding an additional baffle so when not running the vent was more effectively closed, but it’s a great lil upgrade.

That's what I've heard, about the egg style. Very fuel efficient.

My home made smoker seems efficient, but I lose all heat when the lid comes open for more coals, or wood. But does heat back up quickly, because of its size. I'm probably going to use it more for quick cooks, like chicken or pork loins. Small stuff for when its just the wife and I.

The new off set smoker will allow me to cook various meats, all at the same time. Depending where its placed on the cooking grate. Also can cold smoke with it, so I see some smoked cheeses in the future. We really like smoked, white chedder.

May seem obvious, but just in case folks don’t know, when cooking really low temps, always close your air inlets before opening your lid, if you have over temp issues. I found in the beginning I couldn’t stay low enough. Would keep creeping up every time I opened the lid. By closing the inlets first, it really helped reduce that inrush of fresh air to the coal bed..

You will get more mileage out of lump, but there’s no need to empty ashes before adding more fuel. The one issue with offset smokers is it takes a lot of charcoal, because your firebox is burning much hotter than your cooking chamber, it’s the nature of the system, smoke, and cook chamber in same gets all the heat so you burn it cooler, then take in the insulation of say a kamado kettle and then you really get good mileage. I’ve about given up on my old standbys and cook mostly on my Traeger, I get quite a bit of usage out of a 40 pound bag of pellets

Mike try lump, and don’t be afraid to load up the fire chamber, just regulate air to get some time out f it, I usually keep the smoke stack open to draw the heat to the cooking chamber and regulate vents in the firebox. I always use big hunks of smoke wood, instead of chips too

Thanks gents. So far it sounds like I'm on the right track for everything, but the use of lump charcoal.

Already using the fist sized smoking chunks, chips are only good for smoke boxes, on small grills. They only smoke for 20-30 minutes.

Picked up two 20# bags of lump oak, last night, along with a 4lb Boston butt to freeze till I get some of Tc's rub.

For tonite...its gonna be, chicken breasts on the home made smoker.

One rubbed with a Honey BBQ, rub. The other with roasted garlic asiago, rub. Then smoked with pecan chunks.

Pics to follow

Sounds great, I need to do more chicken, but I’m not really good at it.