I am a smoker, the BBQ type.

[Jeeebus]

The Thanksgiving preparations have begun...

This is roughly 20 lbs of ribeye for the smoker which will be joined by 8x turkey legs that will be taking a brine bath shortly.

 

[Ns1]

First go at ribeye cap and lobster. Lobster came out prime but I fucked up the cap - left it on indirect too long so couldn't sear it as long as I would have liked. Still came out OK. I'm not convinced MR is the correct temperature for prime ribeye cap - so fatty.

 

[Jeeebus]

That cap looks good to me.

 

[ponyo]

Thanks to Jeeebus, I bought two more BBQ grills. Kamado Joe Big Joe 24" and the Joe Jr. They had the roadshow today at my local Costco store so I bought the demo special promotion deal. The roadshow special price for the Big Joe is $1,200 but if you buy the show demo model, you get the $400 Joe Jr. demo unit for free. There's only one demo deal per store and it's first come, first served. So I got there early and purchased it. The only negative is I have to wait until the last day of the roadshow on Dec. 23 to pick it up. But I'm not in a hurry and the free Joe Jr. is worth waiting for. I picked up 120 lbs of the Joe brand hardwood charcoal to use with the grill. The roadshow price for the charcoal was $30 for two 20 lb bags.

That makes it 7 grills at my house. I have to figure out what I want to do with the 18" WSM smoker and Weber MasterTouch 22" grill. I think with the Big Joe and Joe Jr., I probably won't use WSM and the Weber MasterTouch much if at all. My Weber Genesis S-330 gas grill and the two Kamados should cover 99% of my home BBQ needs.

 

[Ns1]

Guys quick, got some rib tips and pork belly. What do I do these for, 225@3 hours until 195 or so?

 

[ponyo]

Guys quick, got some rib tips and pork belly. What do I do these for, 225@3 hours until 195 or so?

I do the pork belly similar to pork butt. Smoke at 250 degrees for 4-5 hours and then wrap it in foil with apple juice for couple more hours til the meat hits around 198-200 degrees. Then I remove and rest it in the cooler for about 1-2 hours.

 

[Ns1]

Guys quick, got some rib tips and pork belly. What do I do these for, 225@3 hours until 195 or so?

I ended up doing no foil. Took me around 5.5 fucking hours to get to 190+.

Not bad for a first go but I need better product next time - strips instead of pieces.

 

[ponyo]

I ended up doing no foil. Took me around 5.5 fucking hours to get to 190+.

Not bad for a first go but I need better product next time - strips instead of pieces.

Pork belly takes deceptive long time to smoke if you want the meat to hit 195+ and smoked at around 250 degrees. I foil because I want it similar to pork butt/ shoulder but even more rich and tender. This guy in the video doesn't foil and you can see it's less tender but has better bark. So it's a trade off and depends on what you like. You could also smoke it for couple hours until the meat hits around 160 degrees and then remove it. Then slice into thin strips like Korean BBQ and finish in a hot pan or griddle. Then it's like eating Korean BBQ pork belly but better since it has some nice smoke flavor as well. Or you could smoke the pork belly from the beginning like you're roasting it in the oven and put it in roasting/ aluminum pan with veggies and liquid skin side up and cook at 450-500+ degrees high heat in the smoker for the first 30 minutes or so. Then bring the smoker temperature down to about 325 degrees and cook it until the belly hits 195+. The high temp smoking method will give you crispy skin. You have to cut the skin criss cross with a knife before smoking if you want crispier skin. The higher temp smoking method is easier done on the ceramic kamado style smoker but you can also do it on the kettle or WSM.

 

[ponyo]

I picked up the Big Joe and the Joe Jr. I fired up Jr. last night and cooked some steaks for my first cook. My first impression of the Jr. is very positive and I already love the little cooker. It's my first time cooking with ceramic and lump but I already prefer it. Joe Jr. cooks very smooth. Everything from temperature control, airtight seal, and exhaust smoke. It's hard to describe but it's like driving a luxury car. It's just smooth. There's noticeable flavor and taste difference between Kamado Joe charcoal lump and Kingsford charcoal briquettes. I think Joe Jr. is the perfect size to sit around the porch and cook Korean BBQ at home. I should be able to replicate the taste by cooking over the charcoal lump. Wife is already talking about taking the Jr. with us the next time we go to the beach.

 

[Ns1]

This was from a pack labeled "beef back ribs" from Vons out of all places. 275 for 3 hours or so, pulled at 205ish. Not bad for a first time. Needed more smoke, but tenderness was spot on. And that bark was fucking amazing.

 

[HomerJS]

This was from a pack labeled "beef back ribs" from Vons out of all places. 275 for 3 hours or so, pulled at 205ish. Not bad for a first time. Needed more smoke, but tenderness was spot on. And that bark was fucking amazing.

 

[ponyo]

Ns1, great job on the beef ribs. That looks amazing. I prefer less smoke as I hate the taste of bitter over smoked meat. Less is more when it comes to smoke taste IMO. Did you spritz the ribs with anything while it was cooking?

 

[Ns1]

Ns1, great job on the beef ribs. That looks amazing. I prefer less smoke as I hate the taste of bitter over smoked meat. Less is more when it comes to smoke taste IMO. Did you spritz the ribs with anything while it was cooking?

Nope, just let it go au natural, no spritz/foil/anything. Although the smoker device I'm using does have a water pan type thing going for it.

 

[ponyo]

Nope, just let it go au natural, no spritz/foil/anything. Although the smoker device I'm using does have a water pan type thing going for it.

Nice. If you're a fan of bark and deep smoke ring, you can spray the meat with water or liquid of your choice like every 20-30 minutes or so and it will add heavier bark and deeper smoke ring in pretty much anything you smoke.

 

[HomerJS]

Nope, just let it go au natural, no spritz/foil/anything. Although the smoker device I'm using does have a water pan type thing going for it.

What about seasoning, S&P or some kind of rub?

 

[Ns1]

What about seasoning, S&P or some kind of rub?

Oh sorry I was just referring to the smoking technique. These all have Meat Church Hoky Cow rub on them.


Today's offering is a pair of short ribs off a small roast that I plan on doing tomorrow. They went for a whopping 5.5 hours @ 250. Pulled them at 195, where it seemed to stall. My wife actually said her piece was too barky - I happily destroyed it.

 

[ponyo]

Oh sorry I was just referring to the smoking technique. These all have Meat Church Hoky Cow rub on them.


Today's offering is a pair of short ribs off a small roast that I plan on doing tomorrow. They went for a whopping 5.5 hours @ 250. Pulled them at 195, where it seemed to stall. My wife actually said her piece was too barky - I happily destroyed it.

Couple of smokes and you're already a pro. I'm itching to smoke some spare ribs on the new grill but been busy with work.

 

[Jeeebus]

made some thick steaks on the kamado tonight. reverse seared to medium rare (ok, more rare than medium rare) perfection. would have taken pics but was too busy om nom nom'ing the ribeye.

 

[Ns1]

Okay guys. I think I took it too far today - I smoked a rib roast. I used a little too much hickory - the end caps were borderline too smokey. The inside pieces were good though. Not sure if I'll add wood next time.

200 for 3 hours or so, pulled at 120. Rested for an hour, seared @ hot as shit for 4 minutes. In hindsight I probably should have seared it longer at a slightly lower temp to get a more crackly crust.

 

[ponyo]

That rib roast looks good. Inside is evenly cooked almost like it was done sous vide.

I smoked the spare ribs on the Joe and it turned out great. I foiled and added butter and brown sugar on two slabs and added spicy gochujang based sauce on the third slab. Gochujang glazed ribs were good but I preferred the traditional BBQ sauce.

Aldi is having sale on chuck roast and country ribs later this week. I might pick some up and smoke both. Chuck roast should make great pulled beef sandwich and country ribs should make nice pork meat candy.

 

[Ns1]

This is probably the last of the beef ribs for a little bit as I let my cholesterol recover from the holidays.

225 for 6 hours or so, pulled at 195 cuz I was hungry. I should've left them on until 203-205.

 

[zinfamous]

That rib roast looks good. Inside is evenly cooked almost like it was done sous vide.

Exactly what I was thinking--nice work, NS1. That meat of your is totally fappable.

 

[Ns1]

Visually and from a technical standpoint that rib roast was pretty much what I was aiming for. From a taste perspective, it fell short The crust was not nearly crackly enough.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Visually and from a technical standpoint that rib roast was pretty much what I was aiming for. From a taste perspective, it fell short The crust was not nearly crackly enough.

Yeah, the meat looks perfect, but the edges don't look like the fat rendered out well. How thick was the fat before it started cooking?

 

[Ns1]

Yeah, the meat looks perfect, but the edges don't look like the fat rendered out well. How thick was the fat before it started cooking?

A thin layer, not too much. I think my problem was the searing "as hot as possible", I had to pull it off after 4 minutes or else the crust would've burned all over. Definitely next time I'm sticking to the instructions and doing 500' indirect heat for 8-10 minutes after resting.