Anyone else a smoker? (not talking tobacco)

Cougar Community The Garage
21

Ive been cooking all of my life, I love to cook, and I learned my recipiets from the old folks here where I grew up. My gandparents were from the Great Depression era, and those people learned to provide for themselves out of necessaty, always raised thier own livestock, did thier own hunting, and consequently did thier own BBQ.

Out of all the styles of BBQ, pork ribs, hams turkeys, or fish; Brisket is my favorite! My Brother and I have tried them all, I like the dry rub the best. Some say the dry rub is an old Chicago style…Im not going to argue with anyone, but I learned my dry rub recipiet from an old Mexican guy who had never been out of Texas.
A dry rub is easy to make, and can be made very spicey/Hot, and cleanup is a snap…

As for the cooking, I believe that time is the secret. Put em on, let them smoke for about an hour, then wrap them in several layers of tin foil, and let them cook at about 220 for at least another 12 Hours. when you unwrap it the Brisket will be “falling apart” tender, and you will have to refridgerate it to slice it.

My smoker is a custom fabrication from a 36" pipe, round caps on bothe ends, a four inch stack on one end, two large doors on the side that raises to the top, and an end door for loading the wood. I dont even use a fire box. While I was building the pit I used heavy catwalk grill for my racks, and the back axle and suspension from a Honda Civic to build the “trailer.” at that time I discovered the fire box would drag ground, so I just left it off. My smoker has a small wood box for storing the cooking wood, and holding racks to set two additional gas cookers that we use for our “Fish Fry’s.” My countertops are two 2X10’s bolted to a frame made of 3/4 inch angle iron.

Where I’m from, my smoker is not considered to be “Big” or “Fancy”, but I can cook for some fairly large parties.

I dig it!

22

I do quite a bit of smoking. brisket, pork butt, salmon, ribs, ham, turkey, abts (atomic buffalo turds) which are basically bacon wrapped jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese mixed with some rub and sometimes a little smokie. we started a customer appreciation day about 18 yrs ago where I work. it consisted of a couple hundred hamburgers and hot dogs. we now have about 30 vendors that pay to set up a booth under a large tent and display their newest products. we also have drawings for prizes on everything from hand tools, to charcoal grills, to 55" big screens. last year we smoked a little over 1100 lbs of ribs, brisket & pulled pork and served about seven hundred people. The damn thing gets a little bigger every year. I also love grilled pheasant, quail and dove.

23

oooh…haven’t tried the wild game, yet…hmmmm…I’m feeling a resurgence of the hunting gene…

24

Yep, soak em in Italian dressing, season with whatever you like, I prefer cavendar’s greek seasoning, wrap in bacon and throw em on the grill with some hickory chips. Good Stuff !

25

Love the Cavendars…:thumbup:…I ahem use a store-bought bbq rub, though…Head Country. Use their BBQ sauce, too.

26

yes sir, head country is my go to for rub and sauce on ribs, pork & brisket. cavendars for poultry, game, and steak.

27

You guys have got to get away from the store bought rubs. I have a rub recipe that is simple, but absolutely awesome on ribs. The rub I used on the brisket is great too, not as simple but still fairly easy. I will post them if there is interest.

I didn’t post a picture of the finished product last night because I passed out the minute everyone left. Had 12 people over, so had very little leftovers. It was so tender that I barely used pressure when slicing. They all claimed it was the best they ever had. So that made me feel good about my relatively short smoking experience, only been doing it about 5 or 6 years.

I got it carved up, then had to tend to the onion rings, and by the time I got back to snap a pic, half of it was gone.

That baby cooked for 22 hours at around 200° and was just right. Smoked it for about 10 hours, then wrapped it in foil for the rest.

I don’t care for potato salad, so that is missing from my plate, and completely forgot to get some beans, but it was one tasty meal.

What is funny, is that the onion rings are the first thing to go. Every time I do BBQ everyone asks if I am doing my onion rings. I have a creation that I came up with for those that I don’t mind sharing as well.

That is a hell of a smoker Todd. I will have to build something like that one day, this thing just isn’t big enough and is falling apart.

28

Thanks…it’s a tank, weighs a ton.

I’ll get a better pic on here tonight, and give the “low down” on how it came to be built…

Oh, and I’m leaving work now…seems I’ve gotten hungry all the sudden…wonder why?? Looks good!

29

Just reading about the jalapenos wrapped in bacon and seeing these pics has got the Jerry Clower in my head hollering “haaaaaawwwww!!!”

I love me some barbecue. I’ll have to go eat at 12 bones (local awesome rib joint) again soon. :beerchug:

30

Thanks for the tour, and the idea, Mike. That got a lot of minds thinking. :thumbup:

The whole thing is mouthwatering.

31

A’ight, Mike, here you go…better pics…

backside “weld-graving”?? LOL

Patch job on the stack:

And, a gratuitous shot of the grill island, just because we’re men, and who doesn’t like a grill??

32

So, the story on the smoker. My dad was a Tulsa police officer from 1969 to the fall of 1991. Tulsa Truk Quip was your standard truck rigger, utility beds, and the like. Well, they had a few trailers stolen, and dad recovered them. In appreciation, they built him the smoker. In the fall of 91, he retired from TPD, and moved to Norman, becoming the Director of Public Safety for OU. Basically, that was a fancy name for Chief of the campus police. He did that until…'03, I think, when he retired from that, and just took it easy for a while.

Well, that didn’t last long. Now, he is the Sheriff of Cleveland County, OK(Moore/Norman area, just south of OkCity). Well, he used and abused the smoker for almost those first twenty years, called me up two years ago, and asked if I was interested in it. Heck yeah, I wanted it! So, now it’s mine, and at some point I’d like to replace the stack with a new one, and either have it powder coated, or at least wire-wheel it, and give it a nice new coat of high-temp.

33

OK, I would like the recipe for those onion rings, looks delicious!

34

That is a pretty cool story behind it, and a nice looking smoker. I need to build something similar one day. It is about the same size as mine, but mine is made out of fairly thin metal, something like 18 gauge.

On the stack, if you were to make the bottom portion angle down at a 45° angle, it might work better for you. It probably rusted out before because of moisture settling on the level surface. Overall though, it is a great design. I would like to do something similar to your grill with a smoker. Build it into a permanant location with lots of counter space around it.

35

Thanks. I have never really measured the ingredients before, so you may have to play with it a little. I usually just add the stuff until it looks “right”.

Must use sweet onion, and preferably Vidalias when in season.

Use one beer (I prefer a heavy lager, like Grolsch, Harp or Red Stripe, but have had good results with Negra Modelo as well)
1 1/2 cups of flour ( may have to add a little beer or flour to get it to the right consitancy, you want it a little thinner than pancake batter.
about 1 TBS Paprika
about 1 TBS Black pepper
about 2 tsp garlic salt
about 1 tsp cayenne (maybe more if you like spice, but even another tsp doesn’t add much if any heat)

When you mix it up, the beer will foam, so use a bowl about twice as big as the batter needs. The beer will be flat long before you are done mixing, but that is ok, you dont want it foamy on the rings.

I always just cut the onions in half, the cut the waste off the ends. I like them a little fatter. Then just dunk them in the well mixed batter, let the excess run off a bit, but you still want them dripping when you put them in, and drop them in 375° oil. Cook until they are golden and crispy, only takes 5 minutes at most, maybe not even that.

Pretty simple, but like I said, everyone always asks about them when I am doing a cookout.

36

Thanks Mike!

37

HOLY SMOKES!!!(pun intended) That is almost the EXACT recipe we use for beer-battered fish!!! Only change, we use Aunt Jemima pancake mix, instead of flour!

38

Thanks, we’ve enjoyed having it around. The stack, I reckon dad had the cap open during an OK gully-washer, or two. Don’t think it had sat “level” in years before I got it, as the drippings had all run to the firebox end, instead of the drain-pipe, right under the stack! LOL.

I’ll keep that 45* in mind, though, might even help the “flow”…

As for building the smoker in…would have loved to have done that, but, simply ran out of room…I have spent many an evening out there playing with ideas on how I could do it, and it not look cheesy.

39

Not to be a wise ass, but specifically Aunt Jemima or will any pancake mix suffice?

40

You know, I’m not sure…I haven’t ever used anything else. Oh, and I lied, too…one more change, we use half pancake mix, and half cornmeal…apparently, I wasn’t reading too straight last night!