Kamado Joe is the way to go as far as smokers ALOT better built then the Big Green Egg in my opinion
Especially how the seal is made and the hinge on the Kamado Joe closes slowly.That’s what sold me!
Also, all the accessories the BGE has adds up fast to major $$$.

I do mine at 225 until they hit 115 - 118, then pull them off for a 6-7 minute rest. During the rest period I heat up my sear box on high. Then they get seared for about 45 seconds on each side.

The reverse sear is definitely the way to cook a steak!

Just received an email signals is 20% off
https://www.thermoworks.com/Signals

14 hours pork butt on the PBC using mulberry wood. Bone slid right out

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Smoked birria queso tacos. Smoked the beef for a few hours then crock pot

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Man, those look fantastic. Bax1 - You have a recipe you can share for the stew/consume? Haven't tried Birria tacos yet - top of my list now that i've seen your pictures.

I used her recipe but tweaked it a little. Smoked the chuck for 3 hours then into the crockpot with the sauce on high for 3 hours then low for 3 hours. I added a can of fire roasted tomatoes (drained)when blending the sauce.

They were killer. key for the tortilla is skimming the oil from the consume. need to cook till crispy. the smoke just added another layer of flavor

Ribs were good. Smoked 4 hours, wrapped in foil with butter, brown sugar, honey went another hour. Then brushed on some homemade BBQ and put on the smoker to "tack up"

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Made an itty bitty 5lb brisket flat yesterday; saw it the day before last in the grocery store butcher shop on a styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic and marked as a manager’s special for $.99/lb…it was the only one, or I would have grabbed more.

Coated in a 50/50 mix of course black pepper and kosher salt, and let it sit in the fridge uncovered overnight to tack up.

Probe tender after 6 hours @ 225 over red oak lump with some hickory and cherry thrown in, rested for two hours.
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I did some Pork Belly burnt ends. Might have been the best thing I’ve ever made. You got the sweet up front followed by the BBQ notes and finished off with the salty bacon flavor. They were absolutely delicious. I HIGHY recommend everyone try them.

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Nothing fancy, but smoked some Costco Deli Macaroni with Apple Wood for ~45 minutes. It was really good...

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4 Rivers Brats. Very good!

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Jalapeno Poppers. So much easier to core from the top, but so much harder to tell when they are full of filling.

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My newest toy. An A-Maze-N Smoker Tube. Testing it out now. So far so good. Feeding wood chips into an MES is a pain in the ass.

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Here's my first butt using the smoker tube in an MES. I used Traeger pellets. I got a solid 7+ hours of smoke which was plenty (maybe a little too much). There's definitely some smoke ring color at least. The bark is much improved.

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Everyone kept bugging me about the Parmesan Bark Brisket

In my head, I was thinking that 'brisket does not need anything other than smoke'

Yousif was driving me crazy, and actually brought be a brisket to sacrifice.

First, cut away any silver skin and hard fat. You can leave the soft fats, they just render away.

Save the hard fats, and put them in a separate pan in the smoker, this will get you a nice cup of renderings - give the remaining unrendered chunks to the dog.

Salt the brisket with coarse sea salt, then cover with fresh ground black pepper, paprika, and a little turmeric. Put a lot of spices on, you can't overdo it.

Let sit in the fridge overnight

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Stick a bluetooth thermometer into the thickest part, and set the alarm for 165*F

I used a mix of Oak and Alder for the smoke, and ran the smoker at 250*F

3 hours into the cook, I basted the thinner parts with duck fat (you can use bacon drippings in the USA, as you guys don't have a lot of duck). You don't want the thin parts to dry out. Mix in lots of ground pepper into the basting liquid, in case any gets washed away from the bark.

When the internal temp hits 165*F, it's time to wrap the brisket.

This will prevent **the stall** where the temp quits rising (saving you about 2 hours cook time), and lock in the juices. You can't get a dry brisket with this method.

Work fast, have all your stuff ready to go!

Use pink or brown natural butcher's paper.

Coat the paper with duck or bacon fat, edge to edge. Heat up the fat, and just paint a thin coat on.

Wrap the brisket TIGHT. Just a single layer

Put the wrapped brisket in a foil pan (or fold up tinfoil into a pan). Leave the paper exposed on top, so the steam can leave.

Stick the thermometer back in the thickest part, right through the paper. Set alarm for 205*F

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When you hit 205*F, cut away the paper off the top of the brisket.

Wrapping the brisket sacrifices a little bark, but pays off bigtime in juice.

I flipped the fat cap side down, to save my good bark, and cheesed the silver skin side

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Grate Parmesan cheese (don't even think of using the Kraft sawdust mixed cheese) and a little Provolone, over the hot brisket, dust with garlic powder and breadcrumbs

Quickly return it to the smoker or grill, with some fresh smoke chips

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As soon as the cheese caramelizes, you are done.

Now for the hard part.

You need the brisket to **rest** in order for all the juices to thicken and be retained by the meat.

Wrap the brisket in aluminum foil (or just make a foil tent over the foil pan).

Put a big towel down in the bottom of a cooler.

Put the wrapped brisket on top.

Stick your thermometer back into the thickest part, right through the foil

Put a couple of towels on top, enough to completely fill the cooler.

Close the cooler.

The slower the rest, the juicer the meat.

Set the alarm on the thermometer for a fall to 140*F. This will take a few hours, like maybe 6 on a big brisket.

This means that you can cook a brisket and take it to a party without needing to reheat it....now you are getting it.

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After the rest, you can cut your brisket and watch everyone drool.

Figure out what direction the muscle grain is going for each part of the brisket, always cut across the grain.

There is no shame in spinning the brisket, cutting diagonally, or cutting off the cap if the direction changes.

I use a serrated carving knife, it does great with the soft meat fibers

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How does it taste? Almost a nutty/buttery accent, that complements the beef incredibly.

The smoke totally **grabs** the cheese.

If I was doing a brisket for a party, I'd do the Parmesan bark for sure - just for the shock value of 'WTF is that??' while it's being carved

Money Shot

Prime brisket, 3 racks of ribs, and 4 pork butts

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beautiful,are you cooking for the whole firehouse ? Either way looking good.

Here’s a few recent cooks on the Kamado Joe

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I think I just made my best turkey yet.
12 lb turkey cooked on Kamado Joe using some cherry wood.
I injected it with unsalted butter and rubbed mayonnaise and meat church holy voodoo rub under and on top of skin before cooking at 325 f.

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Nothing special. Sunday pork butt, smoked over applewood and hickory. This one will get a blend of teriyaki and a little barbecue. Got some great fresh buns locally to serve it on....with homemade loaded steak fries (my wife does this, they are the best and I can't come close)

I feel a beer is in order but which one?

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Texas style Brisket, some Rib sticking baked beans, cole slaw corn bread, and some red velvet cake.

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Brisket today. Put it on about 12 hrs ago

I did these beef short ribs recently on my Weber with a slow ‘n sear. Can’t say enough good things about this setup.

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My wife came home with a Cowboy Ribeye and said "Here, cook this for me". So I did.

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I do ribs at least a few times a month. I've tried every method that I can find to switch it up, but lately I've settled on a pretty basic method that always turns out awesome. Yellow mustard baste, cover with homemade rub. 230 temp, cook for about 5 hrs. Smoke for at least three. No foil, just keep water pan full and spritz ribs the last 1 1/2 hrs. of cooking with a mixture of apple cider/beer in a spray bottle. Here are a few pics of my most recent batches. 1st pic is sauced, 2nd is unsauced, 3rd smoke ring, picture didn't pick it up that well though.

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So I did some Bacon wrapped Oreo Cookies last night for some friends that came buy for a few beers.

They looked nice coming off the smoker, but I have to say they were one of the most foul things I’ve ever eaten.

It was like eating bacon flavored toothpaste. We all hated them, but they looked pretty.
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Would have never guessed.

Turns out bacon and smoke doesn’t make everything better! A+ for experimenting.

Yeah, it’s kind of counterintuitive.

Did these last night. Sausage for the base, wrapped in bacon and stuffed with cream cheese. Pretty good, but I’m definitely good on pork for a few days.

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Yeah those look great!

I never know what to do with beef shank when we buy a 1/2 cow besides soup. Trying "smobraised" method. Smoked for a few hours them panned in liquid under foil for at least four more hours. I chose cherry wood, and for the liquid a blend of beef soick, coffee and garlic. Jury's still out as dinner is about am hour away but looks and smells good.

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The meat was ok, but the real winner was the gravy made from the drippings!

The smoking purists May downvote me, but finally fired up my new toy. Reviews were positive. Not bad for my first swing - but got a lot to learn!

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It's that time of year when Wallmart blows out all the grills and smokers.

This year's best bargain is the Cuisinart 4in1 pellet smoker

Came out a few years back and was always $599, they put it on clearance @ $499, but now it's either $149 or $199

So you are getting a monster pellet smoker for the price of an electric smoker.

https://brickseek.com/p/cuisinart-woodcreek-4-in-1/8686409 to check your local stores

It's a monster of a smoker, with a PID controller, Blutooth, 2 temp probes, 30 lb pellet hopper for 25 hour smokes without refilling.

Box says it weighs 220 lbs, so bring a suv or truck

It can also burn charcoal, comes with a cast iron griddle for fish or eggs, a ceramic briquet thingamabob for searing, halogen lighting,

You can get an extra 3 year warranty for $23, so if you are worried about the electronics going out...walmart will buy you another
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All assembled grills @Wal-Mart are now 1/2 off, just make sure you get any accessories that were supposed to be with it

9 pork butts are on the Hasty Bake. My kids have a marching festival tomorrow. I hope this will feed 100 high schoolers.

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9 pork butts! That’s awesome!

Curious, has anyone tried smoking hamburgers? Seems like it would be a lot of extra time, and wonder if it is really worth it…

I mean you can do anything you want, but...

Burgers, by design that they are mechanically tenderized when they are ground, don't have connective tissue to render/gelatinize. And unless you kept a constant temperature check on them, they would likely get to the well done stage quickly and dry out...and no one wants well done burgers, haha. Also, considering how small a burger is, they probably wouldn't absorb a lot of smoke flavor, as generally speaking, meat absorbs smoke when its still "cold", and the mass that a burger lacks, would cause them to heat up quickly.

I'd put a drop of liquid smoke in the mix prior to forming patties, and/or grill them over charcoal with a couple small chunks of your preferred smoking wood to get that smoky flavor.

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the advice.

I smoked Ribeyes at a low temp once before finishing them on the grill. It definitely added flavor. I liked it. I'd think you could do the same with hamburgers. Hell, pop them in the freezer for a bit to chill them before smoking.

I highly recommend one of these. It turns a grill, or any other smoker into a pellet smoker. MY MES maintains the temp and this provides reliable smoke for hours without babysitting it.

If anyone has a trick for removing the membrane easily, please share! Some racks ...it just doesn't want to come off. is that a freshness, or freezing issue?

Dang!