Smokin.....Oh Yeah !!!

[scott_vt]

Well this is a good thread.

I have an old Brinkman like Scotty's that I haven't used in quite some time. Not because it doesn't do a good job, but because it required to much baby sitting.
After looking at Bird's Great Outdoors Wide Body Smoky Mountain and reading all of these post about smokin, it wetted my appetite for some good smokin. So I wanted a smoker that I could use with out to much baby sitting. I did a little searching on the web and came up with the Masterbuilt Electric Digital Smoker at Sam's Club and our local store had a floor model and 3 still in their boxes. So it found it's way into my garage and I will have to be trying it out tomorrow.
Glad you started this up Scotty and All of you contributers thanks for your input I can't wait till tomorrow.

__________________

Good Afternoon Wil,
I agree on the amount of attention that i spent on that smoker ! A bit labor intensive, I love the looks of Birds' grill but as i stated Im just starting out ! As time goes by I may upgrade.

For fathers day Im planning on doing spare ribs and chicken, so that will be the next adventure, and hopefully it goes well because I have people coming over !

 

[Bird]

Yep, Steve, it does appear to possibly be the same fish, although I had not heard of them being in fresh water before. Of course I knew that the saltwater striped bass and even flounder have been adapted to fresh water. I just checked the Texas Parks & Wildlife website and the state record for sheepshead is 15.25 pounds, although the best I can remember about 8 lbs. was as big as we caught with 5 to 6 pounders being common years ago. And the daily bag limit in Texas is still 5, but the minimum lenght is 13", will be going to 14" on Sept. 1, 2008, and up to 15" on Sept. 1, 2009. In other words, they're getting more scarce all the time. Live shrimp makes good bait, but we generally used fiddler crabs for bait.

 

[Wil]

Bird,

Thanks for squaring that link away. I edited the original and messed it up and could not figure out how to fix it.

My new smoker is my Father's Day present a week early. My lovely wife got a cash award for doing such a splendid job and felt very generous. There is a reason I've stuck around for 37 years. Not sure why she has put up with me that long, but sure glad she has.

Scotty,

Seems like a lot of us started with that smoker and apparently many are still using it, that attest to it's quality.

Cooked Baby Back Ribs, Pork Tenderloin, Beef Brisket and Beef Roast in the new smoker today. Just finished eating, had a little bit of each item, ummmm, forgot how good it was to do it your self.

Now for clean up. All good things must come to an end.

 

[MossRoad]

Yep, Justin Wilson was one of my favorites. ...... he also was a safety consultant ....

I remember his jokes about him being a safety engineer. He always wore a belt AND suspenders!

 

[dmccarty]

Last November we got a 7n1 SS cooker from Cabela's. You can boil water, oil, smoke, grill, etc on the thing. We fried a Turkey for Turkey Day and some oysters a few times. But the main use is a smoker.

I use little pieces of wood in the smoker to both create heat and smoke. We use the starter wood for the wood stove in the smoker. I'll also just pick up hardwood limbs that have fallen and put that in the smoker. Mostly its red or white oak. None of those briquettes. Just wood. No propane either. That stuff is too expensive.

Dead wood from a tree make better BBQ and the price is right.

This weekend I had a ribeye steak that I was going to smoke but it was 100+ outside so that was not happening. Instead I put it in the oven Sunday morning after we made some sticky bun things and hit the toast cycle for 4 minutes. Should have done 3 minutes since the oven was already hot. After 30-60 minutes the oven had finally cooled down to 100ish so I heated it back up with the toast for 4 minutes again. Did this for about 2.5 hours. Should have done 2 and it would have been a bit rarer. It was very juicy. And Good. Not smoked but good.

Later,
Dan

 

[wedge40]

When I first got interested in smoking something all I had was a gas grill with three burners. I tried the little cast iron smoke boxes, but they were a PIA to use. I knew I wanted to have some way to "burn" wood chip. I finally hit upon the idea of using a 6" section of stove pipe to contain some charcoal and would put the chips on that. You had to watch it a little cause sometime the charcoal would cause the grill to get too hot, but it worked like a charm.
Now I have a huge box type smoker.. I'd love to find someone with a hickory tree that I could cut and turn into fuel.

Wedge

 

[tallyho8]

I'd love to find someone with a hickory tree that I could cut and turn into fuel. Wedge

I've got tons of pecan trees you could cut and use for fuel. I love smoking with pecan but I have way more than I will ever use.

 

[wedge40]

I've got tons of pecan trees you could cut and use for fuel. I love smoking with pecan but I have way more than I will ever use.

I did a map search.. You're bascially in New Orleans. About 850 miles away, 1700 miles round trip. Truck gets 15mpg and estimate $4.50 per gallon of gas. That would be around $500 for some pecan. Thanks for the offer though.

Wedge

 

[Bird]

When I first got interested in smoking something all I had was a gas grill with three burners. I tried the little cast iron smoke boxes

I still have that, but don't use it for smoking anymore, just the grill part.

 

[Maxfli]

Last year I bought one of those horizontal smokers with a fire box on the side, Brisket the first time didn't really work out that great, it was ok. Now this year I have done a few Briskets and several pork shoulders. My land is all white oak and Shag bark Hickory. What I am doing different is really stoking the firebox with Oak first, and let it burn down to get a good coal base going. Then add hickory and the meat. The pork shoulders I did last week I smoked for about 2.5 hour keeping the temp 240 to 275 degrees. Then wrapped them in foil, total time in the smoker was probably 6.5 hours. They were a huge hit.