Social Saturday is BBQ Day V3 - How big is your meat?
- Thread starter MASShole
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So I finally got my new cooker, the BFG from Rec Tec. As I stated previously I feel like a hypocrite as I've pretty aggressively bashed pellet cookers, but I have to say I'm pretty impressed with this cooker. I can cook all night long and not worry about tending a fire...feels a bit like cheating and truth be told cooking on this thing is pretty boring. All you have to do is set the temp and you can walk away all day long and not even worry about it. I've got a pork butt on right now for dinner...just putting it through its paces to make sure it's exactly what I want to use for my business.
https://www.rectecgrills.com/bfg-rt-2500-wood-pellet-grill/
I know you ragged on me a bit for it, because I've had electric and now pellet, but it makes life so much easier, as you've now noticed.
Nothing beats a traditional wood/charcoal fire for smoking, but if you can get 95+% of the way there, with amazing flavors and less headache, why wouldn't you do it?
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I did a brisket last Thursday/Friday. Rubbed with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Smoked at 225 for 6 hours, wrapped, went until about 190, rested in oven for several hours (off), then turned on at 170 for a few hours to maintain. Some ends were slightly drier than others but when pulled apart the dry ends had really moist counterparts. So damn good.
And just for shits and giggles, I did a seafood feast at my house for my friends Sunday night. Steamed mussels in a spicy tomato broth, sous vide butter poached lobster tails, and Maryland style crab cakes with a side salad. It was damn good.
Also, last weekend, I finally made some "bacon", which really just became candied ham. I cured it for 10 days with honey, salt, sugar and some other spices, air dryed it in the fridge for 4 days after a rinse, then smoked at 200 for 3 hours. Wrapped, left in fridge for 2 days. So damn delicious to fry/bake!
And just for shits and giggles, I did a seafood feast at my house for my friends Sunday night. Steamed mussels in a spicy tomato broth, sous vide butter poached lobster tails, and Maryland style crab cakes with a side salad. It was damn good.
Also, last weekend, I finally made some "bacon", which really just became candied ham. I cured it for 10 days with honey, salt, sugar and some other spices, air dryed it in the fridge for 4 days after a rinse, then smoked at 200 for 3 hours. Wrapped, left in fridge for 2 days. So damn delicious to fry/bake!
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Well, they certainly work, but I've had food from a few different pellet cookers and the smoke flavor is pretty lacking. I'm running this new smoker in my garage and I can't see any smoke at all...nothing thin and blue, nothing white.... just nothing. There is a light smoke aroma but we'll see how the final product comes out (pork butt for dinner). This being said I can throw in one of those tubes and get a better smokey flavor...I've been using that on my propane cooker and it's actually pretty nice.
I may have ragged on you a bit...sorry. ; ) I still feel like stickburners produce the best flavor, but I'm just worn out running my smoker for 12+ hours a day and then doing a lunch service. The jury is still out on whether or not this cooker will work for my business, but we will see. After about 2 hours cooking this morning it just shut off for no apparent reason. I hit the power button and it came back on got back up to cooking temp in just a few minutes, but that makes me nervous that it just shut off for no apparent reason. My intent is to throw the food into this thing at about 6pm and then let it cook, low and slow, all night long. So when I'm ready to head out for lunch service in the morning it should be ready to go. If it's having strange issues with shutting off I won't be able to sleep comfortably...it comes with an app and I had the app running and the app didn't alert me at all that the unit had shut down.
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Strange. Mine's never shut down. I bet if there's not enough air flow/oxygen to get to the burner it may turn itself off. I think I saw in that video they used trays to cook everything in, and it may block airflow. Just a thought.
I know my pellet smoker is smaller than yours, and it could probably fit 50 lbs of brisket at a time. The 13.5 lb one didn't even take up 1/3 of the smoke area. It's awesome.
I know my pellet smoker is smaller than yours, and it could probably fit 50 lbs of brisket at a time. The 13.5 lb one didn't even take up 1/3 of the smoke area. It's awesome.
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Could have been a fluke...I'm also thinking that MAYBE my cats hit my phone. On the app there's a power button dead center on the app...so MAYBE my cats accidentally pushed that button when they stood on my phone? My cats have been known to take selfies from time to time. haha
So far I've been going for about 3+ hours since the shut down and no more issues. Right now I'm just cooking a single pork butt (no tray)...it looks fucking ridiculous in that huge cooker. haha I'm spritzing it about every 90 minutes with water and just relaxing and cleaning up the house. I'm very much enjoying not having to babysit the cooker.
My propane cooker was pretty solid as well, but after a couple of hours the temps would always tend to drift up...makes sense as everything inside gets warmer it's going to take less heat to keep things at a solid temp. I love having the PID controller so I don't even have to think about temps. So far the highest deviation was a 3° "spike" about an hour ago. It fixed itself pretty quickly and has been riding 250° perfectly for the last couple of hours.
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Too bad that shadow ruined the picSo I had to make a small lateral move from the pit I wanted to this pit due to timing issues. Here's what I've got in the works now... already paid for, just waiting for it to be built and delivered.
I'm pretty excited about it... my only concern is that the main smoking chamber is only 5 feet long, so I'm not too sure about the size of a hog I can get in there. I live in North Carolina so hogs are king out here, but I'm thinking I could probably get a 100Lb hog in there without too much trouble. Truth be told I don't even know how to cook a whole hog right now, so we'll see if I end up getting a lot of requests for them.
This pit is pretty great though... reverse flow offset, two door smoking chamber, and then the charcoal grill at the end. Great thing is the grill has a damper to the smoking chamber, so I can actually get some smoke on the meat as I'm grilling it. The vertical smoker on top of the firebox has a damper system as well, so it can act as a warming box or a smoking chamber.
Overall I'm pretty stoked... got my business all setup, just need my pit and the paperwork for the permits to be fully processed and I'll be ready to go. I even got my logo finished off, but waiting for the trademark to go through before I post it. haha
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Huh? The shadow isn't interfering with anything and you can clearly see the entire smoker. Not sure if this was supposed to be sarcastic or not??
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god damn this thread is making me hungry and making me miss the states.
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You have some awesome steak in Spain. Go smoke some somehow. Got a grill? It can be done.
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Yeah. They're fucking hilarious
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"Meat On" is going to win
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I think so too. I actually like that song and her version. Though I will say I don't think he lyrics are as well done or witty as a lot of the other ones. Everyone is just focusing on the fact she went for and hit those high notes like Steven Tyler.
I also like Traegulators and the end of Running Down a Dream when they start singing "Wagyu!"...lol.
The catchiest one was "Hooked on Meat Eating". Like Paulie (or was it Seton) said he'll find himself singing that around the house....."Hooked on meat eating, it's all 'bout that seasoning"
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A week from now, I'll be doing brisket for a Wrestlemania tailgate. Thing is, I'll be at the Hall of Fame ceremony in Brooklyn the night before and covering a convention the morning of. I use a BGE.
I'm thinking of smoking it on Saturday morning (Mixon method,) packing it and dropping it off at a friend's place for him to transpo on Sunday. Should I slice or pull and, either way, should I do on scene or the day before?
I know that brisket deserves better but it was special requested by the guy organizing the trip so brisket it is.
I'm thinking of smoking it on Saturday morning (Mixon method,) packing it and dropping it off at a friend's place for him to transpo on Sunday. Should I slice or pull and, either way, should I do on scene or the day before?
I know that brisket deserves better but it was special requested by the guy organizing the trip so brisket it is.
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I'd do it the day before until fully done, slice, put in aluminum pan, give to friend to store overnight, reheat in microwave next day. I eat my leftovers like that all the time and they're always delicious.
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