Smoking Meat Questions and Discussion
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Anyone have a traeger tailgater? Thinking of getting one but there are quite a few bad reviews. Most of the bad reviews center around holding temp and it seems a lot of that might be not cleaning often enough.
I’m hoping he meant 14 lbs instead of 4 lbs as that seems really long. I usually do around 1- 1.5 hours per lb of brisket.
The biggest issue I have doing a whole brisket is not having the flat dry out during the cook. Most briskets I get only seem to be 1.5” thick on the flat end and they tend to dry out. I will even cook them fat side down to try to prevent it.
Smoking wings for the first time. My only concern is getting them crispy but sounds like throwing them on the grill for 4-5 mins per side at the end should do the trick. Excited to see how they turn out.
I ended up following this recipe. I thought it turned out well, but it had a strong flavor that the rest of my family thought was a little too smokeyI liked heygrillhey's
Best Ever Smoked Mac and Cheese - Hey Grill, Hey
This smoked mac and cheese is creamy, rich, and topped with a crisp panko topping and rounded out with the perfect kiss of smoke flavor.heygrillhey.com
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7.5 hours on these. Spritzed with ACV about five times and sauced twice. Took them to IT of 185. They did pass the bend test!
Can also crank the temp up to 350-375 to finish. Or fry/air fry. Lots of options, but adding smoke flavor to wings is amazing.
Some nice looking ribs! Question for everyone here, anyone not sauce their ribs? I used to sauce and after reading and watching several BBQ experts and shows I never sauce my ribs during cooking anymore. Am big believer now that if you want sauce on them you lightly brush some on before serving or have some sauce on the side.
If seasoned and cooked properly a rib without sauce will taste so good you won't want sauce. You also run the risk of sugars in the sauce burning a bit and creating an undesirable bitter flavor or the sauce overpowering the flavor of the meat and rub you used. Everyone likes their BBQ a certain way but after ditching sauce during cooking I'll never go back to it. I will have a little sauce on the side or lightly coat my ribs when I eat them but ribs done right you I feel you enjoy more without a bunch of sauce on them.
I do not sauce my ribs for a couple of different reasons:
1. I like my ribs un-sauced
2. Reheating ribs is easier without being sauced
3. I run my smoker hotter so I do worry about sugars burning
4. I don’t want to goober up my smoker
I
I prefer to have sauce on the side or none at all. Less mess and tastes better.
I shy away from spare ribs. Was looking for some St. Louis style but all they had were Baby Back. My son and I devoured one rack in 10 minutes. Figured I had better save the other rack for my wife and other son.
Agreed. I have similar issues. I don't know how to fix it, but you could try not trimming anything from the flat, and trim from the point. The more even the brisket is distributed between the point and flat, the better. If your grill cooks hotter on on side, put the point on that side. I saw one guy even puts the point trimmings on the flat to try to even things out. But I think that would mess up your bark.
I prefer dry rubs on my ribs. Sauces have their place, but it's on the dinner plate and not the smoker.
Nope, 3 lbs and 18 hrs. Put it in at 225 at 10am, expected it to be done early to mid afternoon after doing the wrap at 165 and later the rest. It hit a stall at 164 for about 6 hrs and at 176 for about 7 hrs. I'm not a patient person but refused to do anything and just let it go on it's own schedule. Finally got done at 4am.
For just the wife and I, I didn't want to do a full packer so just got a dinky thing at Target while we were there (since I already had another 10 lbs of meet to do this weekend). Usually we get those small ones in place of a roast during the winter and cook them in the dutch oven in the oven.
It was arguably the best tasting brisket I've ever had, but not sure it was worth it given the time and pellets consumed.
For just the wife and I, I didn't want to do a full packer so just got a dinky thing at Target while we were there (since I already had another 10 lbs of meet to do this weekend). Usually we get those small ones in place of a roast during the winter and cook them in the dutch oven in the oven.
It was arguably the best tasting brisket I've ever had, but not sure it was worth it given the time and pellets consumed.
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I’ve had pretty good luck with this one.
Four Cheese Smoked Mac 'n' Cheese
You'll be blown away by the smoky, cheesy flavors in this Four Cheese Smoked Mac 'n' Cheese. If you've never made macaroni and cheese in a smoker, you're in for a real treat! The smoker adds a hearty, summer flavor to this mac and cheese recipe to make it a whole new flavor experience. If you...
I'd like to smoke brisket sometime but they can be expensive so I worry about if I mess it up I am stuck with a pricey big chunk of meat I am disappointed in. Eventually will probably try a small brisket I'm sure. Ive gotten very comfortable with ribs and pork butts along with some chicken at times too I rather just stuck with what I know I am good with and keep improvingon it. Recently have done some smoked pork loin roasts that turned out great that I think a whole pork loin is in my future to try. Smoked a bone in turkey breast and couple drumsticks for Thanksgiving for the first time too I could see myself trying a whole turkey some day too.
Ever since the first bowl game in Memphis, I swear by dry rubs and not saucing. If people want to add sauce, they can do that on their plate, but 90%+ choose not to after trying dry rubbed ribs.
I will be honest, I am a little perplexed by this. So just out of curiosity how cold was the brisket when you put it on? Are you sure the temp in the cooking chamber was 225? How many times on average per an hour did you open the smoker to get a look at the meat? Apologies for being a bit nosy but I love to barbecue, and you can totally ignore me want but I’m just curious.
Also, if you want to speed up the cooking process, you can wrapped the brisket in butcher paper or tin foil after you get the bark at it’s desired color.
If you can do a pork butte, a brisket isn’t that big of a step up. The hardest thing about a brisket is knowing how to trim it. Also, you have to prepare yourself when trimming you might be discarding 2-3 pounds of fat which seems like throwing money in the garbage if you don’t have another use for it. Another important thing, is letting that hunk of meat rest for a couple of hours.
Me too. I go with pork back ribs every time. I smoked three racks on Saturday, turned out very good but I steamed them too long in the foil for the second stage of the 2-2-1. So there was a lot of pullback at the ends and the meat was falling off the bone when I cut them. I'm trying to get to where there's decent pullback but the meat sticks to the bone when cutting. Been battling this charcoal barrel with offset smoker box for 2 years now and still don't have her figured out. Yours looked scrumptious.
