Wood for bbq

[Audi Driver P.E.]

I was just reading up smoking turkeys. They actually suggest using fruit trees in the ones I saw. Bet it will turn out great.

I'm using mesquite cause that's just what I always use. Also going to brine it with some salt and spices and try injecting cajun seasoning in it. I'll probably get in trouble for making it too spicy for the kids but it looked to good not to try. 

Now...what to drink while I sit up all night tending the smoker??

Hickory is the best I've found for chicken and I would imagine that Turkey is similar (never really tried turkey for some reason). Apple and cherry make it too sweet for my taste

 

[jeb6294]

My smoker is electric, but has the wood tray/feeder for adding wood chips.  We've got a big specialty grocery here, Jungle Jim's, and they've got a pretty decent selection of wood chips.  Got hickory when I did ribs and apple for the bacon explosion and the turkey.  I'd heard hickory was too much for poultry and fruit trees were recommended.  Nice thing with the electric is that you only need to use chips to make smoke, electric element provides the heat.

 

[Supe]

Bacon explosion?

 

[JayKay PE]

Ugh, I love smoked meat, but dreading what type of wood my uncle is going to use this year...Last year he smoked the turkey with walnut, I think, but didn't use any other wood, so the turkey just tasted odd/weird.

 

[knight1fox3]

Turkey Bacon explosion?

Fixt. :thumbs:

 

[Supe]

Fixt. :thumbs:

That's just a description of what happens after you eat turkey facon, not an entree.

 

[FLBuff PE]

Fixt. :thumbs:

No.

 

[goodal]

Get the fire started with a charcoal chimney then use the wood for smoke.  I have an Oklahoma Joes with the fire box, charcoal and propane barrels.  Best $300 ever spent at Lowes.

 

[jeb6294]

There are different variations out there, but the jist is

Bacon Explosion:

• Make a bacon weave, I think mine was 8x8 or 9x9
  
• Mix up 2lb of meat, I did half beef and half sausage, with another 1/2lb of cooked bacon crumbles
  
• Put the giant ball-o-meat in a 1-gal Ziploc bag and then roll it out (you're making a perfect square of meat about 1/2in thick)
  
• Cut the bag down both sides and then I put a layer of Colby-jack slices before rolling it up so it's like a giant swiss roll made of meat
  
• Throw some BBQ dry rub on it and plop the giant meat swiss roll down on your bacon weave and wrap it up so it's all sealed up in bacon
  
• Throw it in the smoker until internal temp is ~150-155
  
• Brush some BBQ sauce on it and keep cooking until it's up to 165
  

 

[jeb6294]

Sweet baby Jesus...Kroger had brisket on sale for $1.99/lb the other day so I grabbed a couple.  Got some strange looks when I dumped 30lb of meat on the conveyor at the register.

I've been diligent in my YouTube smoking research, see Aaron Franklin and HowToBBQRight, and decided to do brisket and burnt ends.  Quick anatomy lesson for those who don't know, brisket is one hunk made of two parts, the flat (leaner) and the point (fattier), with a seam of fat splitting the two.  You can throw a whole brisket in the smoker or you can do what I did which is separate the flat and the point.  The flat gets smoked per the usual while the point gets basted and goes back in a pan.  After a few more hours, the point gets cubed, basted again and back in the smoker for a bit.  You end up with ~1"x1" cubes of beef that melt in your mouth.

 

[Supe]

I'm not sure there is any BBQ that beats burnt ends done right.

 

[Jbone27 PE]

Sweet baby Jesus...Kroger had brisket on sale for $1.99/lb the other day so I grabbed a couple.  Got some strange looks when I dumped 30lb of meat on the conveyor at the register.

I've been diligent in my YouTube smoking research, see Aaron Franklin and HowToBBQRight, and decided to do brisket and burnt ends.  Quick anatomy lesson for those who don't know, brisket is one hunk made of two parts, the flat (leaner) and the point (fattier), with a seam of fat splitting the two.  You can throw a whole brisket in the smoker or you can do what I did which is separate the flat and the point.  The flat gets smoked per the usual while the point gets basted and goes back in a pan.  After a few more hours, the point gets cubed, basted again and back in the smoker for a bit.  You end up with ~1"x1" cubes of beef that melt in your mouth.

I may have to try that one. Doing a brisket for Family Christmas this year.

My thanksgiving turkey turned out awesome. Brined for about 36 hours then injected with a butter, broth, seasoning mix. Covered with canola oil and a light rub. Smoked it for 11 hours up to 165 degrees on the breast. It tasted great but not much to look at. I'll have to slow down the browning process next time by covering with foil. 

 

[willsee]

Smoke brisket twice

Both times came out awful

 

[Supe]

I don't have the temp control to do a good brisket with my smoker.  Some day I'll buy a big green egg and do it right.  I end up too hot going into the stall period and it comes out dry.

 

[Road Guy]

This year I coated the dark meat on the turkey with some heavy pepper (steak seasoning pepper) I am not really a fan of the dark meat but this really gave it a spicy taste and for once there was not a single piece of dark meat left for leftovers - which mean more leftover breast for turkey sammiches...

We did a smaller bird around 15 lbs - still took around 10 hours in the smoker - but it was excellent!
 

I also put 2 whole chickens in there to smoke which well use for white bean chilli and other stews throughout the winter -

 

[jeb6294]

My flat was a bit overdone, but that was my fault.  I wasn't paying attention and by the time I remembered to check the internal temp, it was already over 200.  Still tastes good, just a bit too tender.  I'm sure the diehards don't approve, but one of the reasons I really like my electric smoker is because it has that digital temp...just set it and forget it.

I gotta say, so far turkey has been my least favorite.  It came out good, but just seems like more work than the other stuff I've done.

 

[kevo_55]

Overdone or not, I'm jelous Jeb!!

My cholesterol just jumped looking at that picture though.

 

[jeb6294]

Overdone or not, I'm jelous Jeb!!

My cholesterol just jumped looking at that picture though.

Best part is that it's health food for my wife and I...all keto friendly. The dry rub I make myself so it's nothing but seasonings and a bit of sugar free sweetener in place of brown sugar and I found some sugar free BBQ sauce at our local specialty grocery that is a-ma-zing.

 

[Supe]

What do they sweeten that one with?  Looks like it has a ton of 5 star reviews.

 

[jeb6294]

This stuff tastes good enough that I would use it even if I wasn't looking for something sugar free.  The only sweetener in its list of ingredients is sucralose, aka Splenda.  It has 2 grams of carbs per serving, which I'm guessing comes from a bit of cornstarch.

Since we're (sort of) on the subject, the food industry sucks.  Before coming up with my own rub, I was looking for something at the same store where I got the BBQ sauce.  There were quite a few that said they had 0g carbs, but when I looked at the label, the 1st or 2nd ingredient would be sugar.  WTF?!?!  When you looked closer, they'd use a serving size of 1 gram, or sometimes even less than that.  Apparently they are allowed to round down so if the amount per serving is <1g, then they are allowed to list it as 0g/0%.  Who the f@#$ is going to use 1 gram of rub on a rack of ribs?  They're allowed to cheat the system so people can't see that their rub is basically sugar and sodium.