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 Smoker thread? Smoker thread. 
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It all looks good.

Someone’s been busy!



(By the way, The Sausage Maker is having a sale…15% or more off…)


Sun Nov 06, 2022 7:02 pm
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MadPick wrote:
I'm getting more and more comfortable with my two Recteq pellet grills, the RT-680 and the Bullseye, and I'm really enjoying them.

Safeway had bone-in pork butts on sale for $1.89/lb this past week, so I bought two of them as an impulse buy. Yesterday I turned one of them into breakfast sausage (more below) and put the links in the fridge to dry, and last night I put the other pork butt into the RT-680 (which has a big hopper and wifi control and monitoring) to smoke overnight.

This morning I semi-wrapped the pork butt (foil boat method) and moved it to the Bullseye, so I could use the RT-680 for lower-temp smoking of the sausage links.

Here's the finished pork butt, which I pulled, mixed with a tangy sauce, and immediately vac-sealed and froze:

Image

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And here's the sausage, which uses a commercial spice mix (PS Seasonings #117) but then has pieces of scrambled egg, bacon, and high-temp pepperjack cheese embedded into it:

Image

Image

And yeah, it was supposed to have diced hash browns too, but I forgot to add them. :facepalm2:

The basic concept comes from this Chuds BBQ video, though I made a few alterations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr9aIvqWlaM

And man, that sausage is DELICIOUS! I like the overall sausage flavor, and getting pieces of melted cheese is a real treat. The bacon is good, but there's not much of it -- I'd add more next time. The egg is fine, but it doesn't really add anything to the overall experience, it's a bit too neutral-flavored I think. Next time, maybe I'd skip the egg, give the diced hash browns a try, increase the bacon, and keep the high cheese content!

And since I was on a roll, I also made a batch of Texas Red Chili, generally following the Meat Church recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePlqYj7e46A

Yeah, the pan's a mess, but here it is:

Image

This is the first time I've made a pure chili like that, no tomatoes, no beans, no other veggies . . . just pureed chili peppers, some spices and meat! I'm not in love with it, but it's good and I'm glad that I made it.


Awesome! Let's do that Sausage Steve! Oh wait, that sounds funny. icon_eek

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Mr. Q wrote: so basically, if you have to smoke some asshole, make sure they become fertilizer and then Bounce? got it.

Guntrader wrote: Huh, maybe I was an asshole.

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Sun Nov 06, 2022 7:18 pm
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Just, umm, no pics, please…


Sun Nov 06, 2022 7:21 pm
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NWGunner wrote:
Just, umm, no pics, please…


I showed Steve's Sausage to my wife, she was impressed.

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Mr. Q wrote: so basically, if you have to smoke some asshole, make sure they become fertilizer and then Bounce? got it.

Guntrader wrote: Huh, maybe I was an asshole.

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Sun Nov 06, 2022 7:23 pm
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Lol


‘Cause she was used to small links…


:wink05:


Sun Nov 06, 2022 7:26 pm
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usrifle wrote:
NWGunner wrote:
Just, umm, no pics, please…


I showed Steve's Sausage to my wife, she was impressed.


I like how she pretended that it was the first time she had seen it. :wink05:

You know, in general . . . I'm really enjoying the sausages that I've made that have had cheese chunks inside them. Hmmm, this may need to be a rule going forward.

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Sun Nov 06, 2022 7:45 pm
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:ROFLMAO:

Fresh sausage is the bomb-diggity :thumbsup2:



(Ummm, of the food variety, I mean…)


Sun Nov 06, 2022 8:01 pm
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Steve does have some pretty impressive cooking skills, (and all the cool kitchen gadgets too).
He schooled me on making Sausage once, and has impressed me with his food too.
That guy can make some good eats. :bow:

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Mr. Q wrote: so basically, if you have to smoke some asshole, make sure they become fertilizer and then Bounce? got it.

Guntrader wrote: Huh, maybe I was an asshole.

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Sun Nov 06, 2022 9:04 pm
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So - I took my second stab at brining chicken this week - took what I learned from the first one and tried to improve on it....

Two six # birds - cut the backbones out. Swapped out cheap Safeway produce bags for saved hamburger bun bags --- I couldn't get a leakproof tie on the burger bags but knew I could tie a tight knot on the flimsy veggie bags - I really didn't hold much hope for them not punching a hole - but they worked out really good when handled with care! (and they are free).

Bird into the bag. Added pre mixed --- 2 cups apple juice, 1T Memphis rub (dollar store), 1T garlic pepper mix (dollar store) and a heavy T of brown sugar. Into the fridge for 30+ hours.

Attachment:
20221110_150421.jpg


Every 2-3 hours or whenever I thought about it I would pull them out and flip the bag over and splash the brine around. After ~30 hours - 9pm the night before cooking - pulled them out of the bags and let them drain in the bowls in the fridge for ~half hour - then a heavy coating of Memphis rub (1/3 sugar added) and back in the fridge to dry until cooking.

Attachment:
20221111_135607.jpg


Onto the smoker --- it was chilly yesterday and the smoker was running at 260-270 instead of the 290-300 that I expected.... Started out with a big chunk of plum followed by smaller chunks of cherry and apple.... another chunk of plum followed by more cherry and apple --- whenever I noticed that there wasn't much smoke coming out, I'd toss another one on there. I was hoping that removing the spines would make it cook faster..... it didn't.... still took a solid 3.5 hours - had to fire up some more coals and add in ~the last hour to make sure it didn't go cool. I ended up pulling mine at ~155 after 4 hours (more on that later) --- I was cooking crecent rolls in the oven so I threw the bird in the oven @350 for 5 minutes to finish it off.

Attachment:
20221111_185747.jpg

Attachment:
20221111_191204.jpg


I let it rest for ~40 minutes before I dug into it.... Oh good gawd.... by far the best chicken I have ever made!!!! Soooo tasty -- this time I could actually taste the salt getting into the meat, along with the sugar and apple juice..... and I was worried that i 'may have used too much smoke', but it was just fantastic! The combo and the amount were excellent --- you couldn't say if it was too little or too much --- just perfect! And the skin was just ohhh so close to being perfect too - just a little bit tough, but tasty and satisfying without any bitterness that I sometimes get.

This was the chicken taste that I have been striving for all this time :thumbsup2: :bow: :thumbsup2: I will definitely be doing this many more times.... I'm at the point where I can't tell what it needs or is missing any longer. I'll even adapt it to do thighs in a pinch.

Being the second brine cook, I noticed again that even tho the birds were with in 1/10# of each other -- for some reason one of them stalled out ~150ish while the other kept climbing up to 165 ?!?! I l gave the finished bird to my neighbor and let mine run for another 30-40 minutes before I called it and just finished it in the oven. I'm kinda at a loss to figure out why this happens, but it taught me that I need to temp both birds and not assume that they will both finish at the same time. I also noticed on the first cook that the brining kinda makes the birds 'flop' on the smoker.... wings get unwieldy and get caught up on the lid..... so I snagged some elastic butchers 'scrunchies' from the butcher block at safeway --- strapped the legs and the wings together to make sure I wouldn't be fighting wings in the lid. I ended up cutting them ~1.5 hours into the cook when the meat had firmed to allow for more circulation. Pro tip --- free scrunchies at safeway and butchers twine at QFC if you ask them nicely :bigsmile:

I'm not convinced yet that many of the spices and seasonings in the rub are making it into the meat yet.... I'm curious if you could get by with just salt and brown sugar with the apple juice.... But, being that the dollar store rub is so cheap, I don't mind using it.... I don't think I would waste $10-15 a bottle rub for brining.

I'm now a believer in brining.... even tho I said I would never do it because its too much of a bother..... but I still say I will NEVER bother with injections....... :wink05:


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Sat Nov 12, 2022 1:37 pm
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JMB, please let me know when your neighbor's house is up for sale ;)

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Sat Nov 12, 2022 2:49 pm
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First time this has happened to me.

Cleaned the smoker today, then threw in some ribs 3-2-1 method.

After the 3 hours I took them out to wrap and they were covered by ash as if the smoker wasn't clean.

Smoker was set at 185. It's cold and where the smoke is there isn't much of a breeze.

Would a welders blanket have kept the temp easier for the smoker to regulate?


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Studying for my Liberal Arts degree at Evergreen College.

YouTube taught me, just like everybody else.


Tue Nov 15, 2022 3:05 pm
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stompah wrote:
they were covered by ash as if the smoker wasn't clean.


Brush on some BBQ sauce. :bigsmile:

stompah wrote:
Would a welders blanket have kept the temp easier for the smoker to regulate?


Well, it will save you some pellets . . . but it's probably not worth the hassle.

I used to get a bunch of ash flying around too. I also used to clean more. Coincidence?

I remember watching a Recteq video where they recommended keeping the fire pot clean, but letting ash build up on the bottom of the rest of the smoker. Maybe they're on to something? Maybe the settled ash catches the new ash and keeps it from blowing around?

But yeah, I think you'll always get a little ash with a pellet smoker.

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Leave it cleaner than you found it.


Tue Nov 15, 2022 6:50 pm
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Yep, Ash buildup. Check the smoker exhaust grate too, it may be partially blocked by smoke "creosote" and that messes with temps. I have used a moving blanket in the past, works pretty good with cold temps.

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Mr. Q wrote: so basically, if you have to smoke some asshole, make sure they become fertilizer and then Bounce? got it.

Guntrader wrote: Huh, maybe I was an asshole.

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Tue Nov 15, 2022 7:06 pm
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usrifle wrote:
Yep, Ash buildup. Check the smoker exhaust grate too, it may be partially blocked by smoke "creosote" and that messes with temps. I have used a moving blanket in the past, works pretty good with cold temps.


I had just cleaned the grill and vacuumed the chimney. In fact I just replaced the chimney. There is very little build up in there.

Madpick, I did finish the ribs in my oven. I knew it would suck down the pellets if I finished them on the smoker.

I'll only clean out the pot next time. We will see.

I'm doing two butts this weekend. We will see if the problem repeats itself.


As for the ribs they didn't come out that great. I think I might go 2-3-1 next time. The ribs weren't over smoked, but I'm just thinking a little less smoke flavor and a little more pork flavor. And for some reason these ribs didn't pull back from the bone. I even baked them a little longer to see if they would soften up some more.

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YouTube taught me, just like everybody else.


Tue Nov 15, 2022 9:23 pm
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Have y'all seen the YouTube show "Hot Wings," where celebrities get interviewed as they eat progressively hotter and hotter chicken wings? It's pretty entertaining; here's a sample if you wish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7rm_01SIuA.

Well, I got a wild hair and decided to buy their current hot sauce lineup (Season 19):

Image

Then I filled up the Recteq Bullseye with frozen Costco wings:

Image

Then oldkim and his family came over, and three of us (oldkim, his son, and I) started working our way up through the sauces. The ladies tried a few here and there, too.

All three of us made it through all ten, and I wasn't shy with the saucing either. But man, what a mixed experience! On one hand, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. On the other, it was still pretty damned brutal, and I drank a lot of milk last night! Funny enough, the part that I'm still feeling right now is my right palm . . . I guess from holding the wings as I ate them. My hand is still tingling from the heat.

"Da Bomb" (#8) is absolutely the worst. It's really, really hot, and it doesn't have any redeeming qualities such as good taste!

I'm most recovered now. Am gonna take a chance and leave the house shortly. :bigsmile:

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Please support the organizations that support all of us.

Leave it cleaner than you found it.


Sat Nov 19, 2022 7:07 am
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