Stopped at Boones Butcher shop in Bardstown Friday, picked up some rib eyes and a T-bone and grilled yesterday. Liberally treated with a Canadian style rub and a pepper rub, grilled to about medium. Turned out absolutely delicious!

 

On that note, I need to new grill badly. Old gas grill is broken down and has some very bad hot and cold spots, really have to watch it and be a true "grill master" to get the meat right. Might go out this week and look...also want to get something to smoke with too. Was looking at a big green egg...but I'm just not going to spend that kind of money.

My wife bought me a Weber from an auction website for less than $100 and it retails for $400. It was missing one part that costs $25. This site resells stuff that was returned from warehouses like Amazon. No returns, must pick up, but they have a lot of grill/smokers. Fast Track Auctions | Home. We have purchased several things from this website and everything was complete except this grill missing one part.

I just have an instant read thermometer and then I have one that has a wire attached to the sensor so you can monitor the temp outside the smoker.

 

A wireless one sounds awesome. What make/model do you have?

 

I have a maverick et-733, i love it. It has made thinks much easier, without taking all of the fun out of BBQ'ing. Having a meat probe in the center of a large piece of meat like a brisket or pork butt is great as you don't have to open the lid to check the internal temp. You lose a lot of heat doing so, which can add quite a bit of time to a cook when dealing with a chunk of meat that large. Also most thermometers built into grills are inaccurate, that may not be the case with yours, but the one built into mine is off by as much as 60 degrees depending on the conditions.

 

Maverick makes great thermometers and I went from being inconsistent with longer smokes to pretty much nailing them every time now. Its definitely something you should at least take a look at. They have a new model the et-735 I believe, which is Bluetooth capable and can be paired with iOS and android devices. I've never used one, but it looks interesting. The only complaint I have with the 733 is its not easy to program until you have used it several times, which is why I say the 735 interests me, as it appears you can program it on the fly in a matter of seconds.

Stopped at Boones Butcher shop in Bardstown Friday, picked up some rib eyes and a T-bone and grilled yesterday. Liberally treated with a Canadian style rub and a pepper rub, grilled to about medium. Turned out absolutely delicious!

 

On that note, I need to new grill badly. Old gas grill is broken down and has some very bad hot and cold spots, really have to watch it and be a true "grill master" to get the meat right. Might go out this week and look...also want to get something to smoke with too. Was looking at a big green egg...but I'm just not going to spend that kind of money.

 

Next time you're at Boone's, I highly recommend picking up some of the pork chops that come pre-marinated in their grub rub. They're fantastic on the grill. We've got a houseboat trip coming up at the end of June and we had Boone's cut up a whole pork loin for us and package all the chops up with the marinade. We're going to eat well on this trip.

On that note, I need to new grill badly. Old gas grill is broken down and has some very bad hot and cold spots, really have to watch it and be a true "grill master" to get the meat right. Might go out this week and look...also want to get something to smoke with too. Was looking at a big green egg...but I'm just not going to spend that kind of money.

 

Char-Griller makes something similar to the egg, but more reasonably priced. It gets great reviews but I've never used one. Its called the Kamado I believe. I use an indirect smoker with a side firebox, which is probably your best option for low and slow cooks like pork Butt's, shoulders, ribs, brisket. But if you cook a lot of hamburgers, steaks, etc you would probably want to go with something in between like the kamado or egg. Unless you do what I did and buy a low priced indirect smoker and a low priced direct heat charcoal grill like an original weber.

I have a Traeger Wood Pellet smoker. I do Boston Butts, pork tenderloin, whole chickens and turkeys, fish (mostly salmon, tilapia and flounder), chicken wings and of course ribs. I've also done asparagus and potatoes. The Traeger is really easy to use, even in the winter time (it just takes a little longer) and pellets are no more expensive than buying propane for a gas grill. I go through about 4 bags a year, and I typically use the smoker 3-4 times a month. I've don brisket, with mixed results. There's a fine line between perfect and shoe leather. I try to keep it wrapped in foil and baste it occasionally with Bourbon (something cheap) mixed with apple juice a couple of times over the time it's smoking.

 

Where did you get your Traeger? Which one did you get? Been looking at them myself. Any issues with it?

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Edited May 26, 201511 yr by JDEaston
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It usually takes a lot longer to set up but I've been grilling on an open fire for 3-4 years now. I use only hickory, oak or cherry seasoned split firewood. I have a couple different grills my dad and I have made. They are basically angle iron and expanded metal for the grates. I grilled 75 ribeyes for my cousins wedding this past weekend. It was the largest grilling job I've ever taken on but it was a fun 2.5 hours of grilling.

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Going to throw around a 10 pound brisket on tonight around midnight, if all goes well it should be done for dinner tomorrow. Normally I would wake up and check the fire a couple of times during the night but with work tomorrow I'm just gonna wing it and hope it holds steady at least until I wake up for work. The wife is off work tomorrow so she can take over while I'm at work.

 

This will be the first time I've smoked anything on the Akorn so I'm a bit nervous about not overshooting my cooking temp. These things heat up super quick and once they're hot, it's hard to get them down in temp. But on the bright side, if I can get the temp where I want it, it should hold throughout the smoke without having to do anything to the fire. I wouldn't even attempt throwing it on tonight with my offset smoker as I need to tend to the fire every few hours. I'll take some pics and hopefully figure out how to post them, haven't had much luck with that in the past.

Going to throw around a 10 pound brisket on tonight around midnight, if all goes well it should be done for dinner tomorrow. Normally I would wake up and check the fire a couple of times during the night but with work tomorrow I'm just gonna wing it and hope it holds steady at least until I wake up for work. The wife is off work tomorrow so she can take over while I'm at work.

 

This will be the first time I've smoked anything on the Akorn so I'm a bit nervous about not overshooting my cooking temp. These things heat up super quick and once they're hot, it's hard to get them down in temp. But on the bright side, if I can get the temp where I want it, it should hold throughout the smoke without having to do anything to the fire. I wouldn't even attempt throwing it on tonight with my offset smoker as I need to tend to the fire every few hours. I'll take some pics and hopefully figure out how to post them, haven't had much luck with that in the past.

 

I got a Akorn Kamado for Christmas and I've been working on perfecting my smoking technique. I haven't tried a brisket yet because I wanted to get to where I could consistently keep the temperature where I want it. I went from a 4 hour smoke to an 8 hour smoke and finally managed to keep 2 whole Boston Butts between 225-275 for a full 12 hours. The key to me seems to be how you place the charcoal. Building it like a volcano with a hole in the center and lighting it from the bottom center allowed me to slowly bring it up to heat. The last batch turned out perfect. The first few were okay but didn't quite get as tender as I wanted but I think I've got it down now.

I got a Akorn Kamado for Christmas and I've been working on perfecting my smoking technique. I haven't tried a brisket yet because I wanted to get to where I could consistently keep the temperature where I want it. I went from a 4 hour smoke to an 8 hour smoke and finally managed to keep 2 whole Boston Butts between 225-275 for a full 12 hours. The key to me seems to be how you place the charcoal. Building it like a volcano with a hole in the center and lighting it from the bottom center allowed me to slowly bring it up to heat. The last batch turned out perfect. The first few were okay but didn't quite get as tender as I wanted but I think I've got it down now.

 

I'm not sure how mine turned out yet, internal temp of the brisket was 207 this morning when I woke up at 745, grill temp was at 325, which is much higher than I was shooting for. No idea how long it ran at that temp though or if it just spiked in the early morning hours, which is what I'm thinking because when I put my hand over the top damper the smoke coming out was still moist and there was still plenty of moisture in the drip pan. I didn't have time to mess with it before work so I asked the wife to pull it from the Akorn and let it rest for 15 minutes, then wrap it in butchers paper and throw it in a cooler until I got home. She cut one of the burnt ends off and says it was excellent, so there may still be hope for it hah.

 

I had no idea that it would cook that quick, even if the grill spiked in temp for a period of time. If I had to guess the temp spiked right around the stall, so in turn there was no stall. My plan was to keep the temps low and her watch over it while I was at work today, shooting for a finishing time of around 2pm then she could pull it from the grill and let it rest for a few hours. But like a lot of things in life it didn't go as I had planned and was done before I woke hah.

 

It's still wrapped up right now, I'll get some pics and let you all know how it turned out in a few. Like you mentioned I built a volcano and placed a weber starter cube in the hole. It used very little coal, maybe half of what I put in the smoker, but still got hotter than I had wanted, next time I will nearly close off the bottom damper, I had it between a quarter and half inch open, with the top damper just open enough to let the smoke escape. I may also go with half a cube next time, as I believe a full cube lights too many coals for a slow smoke.

Anyone ever turbo smoked a picnic shoulder? I thought the wife bought a ham for dinner tonight, I was going to smoke it slow for about 5 hours, putting in on around noon. When I pulled it out of the fridge it was NOT a ham hah. Turns out it's a 10.5lb picnic shoulder. I got it on around noon and and debating whether to crank the temp up on it to try and get it done around 7 or bite the bullet and pull it off before bed and eat it tomorrow.

Got to get this thread revved back up guys.

 

I have been doing quite a bit of smoking on my new electric smoker (no longer looks new at all) and have been turning out some exceptional food.

 

Have done a couple of pork shoulders/butts for pulled pork and oh my. Last one I did took over to my buddies house to watch the UK/UNC tournament game and his teenage son scarfed down 3 huge bbq sandwiches and now asks for bbq all the time. His dad told me they went out to eat the other night and his son ordered bbq and his reaction was "this isn't as good as Danny's".:lol2:

 

Smoked 10 chicken legs and a pork tenderloin Saturday and took it all with me to my buddies house for poker night. Between the 5 of us and the odd wife/kid here and there it was devoured. Thinking of getting another pork shoulder and doing some more pulled pork here soon.