Let's Smoke Some Meat!

[MrDenton]

I've been playing around with coal burning firebox smoker for a couple years now. Can't beat the taste of meat cooked with good old fashioned lump coal.
My next attempt I think is going to be a whole ham. Anyone done one of these before?
Shoulders, ribs, tri tip, lamp shank, rack of lamb, prime rib, chicken, turkey, Mac n Cheese, pizza...all were delicious.


“Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. The US military doesn’t have that problem.”

[2manymustangs]

I did three smallish trout last night with NOTHING on them but some nice GREEN APPLE wood smoke from some small branches I cut off by big trees... I KILLED them biotches...

You may wanna try a "boston butt" (front end - shoulder) versus a ham (bootie end) or a green ham... The boston butt (used for pulled pork) is i feel better since it has the marble of the fat for flava... If you wanna do some ham you could try to find a ham steak that is GREEN (un cured)..

If you do a boston butt/shoulder, plan on a LONG cook and the outside gets crispy/black but after you chop/shread it, and mix it all together that part adds some good flava to the pulled pork... I sometimes do like a 4-5 hour slow cook on the butt and then finish it in the oven OR you can wrap it with foal and keep on roasting it on the grill but at the 4-5 hour mark it will start juicing out the fat and will make a real mess of your grill... U can throw it on a roasting rack inside of a cake pan in the oven cover with foil and finish it for a few more hours until the bone pulls out easily... Killer good stuff...

BUT my fave is to take the boston butt and have it sliced across the bone, then slow roast it for 2-3 hours as a "pork steak" and baste it with some seasoned briney mixture, or italian dressing... THEN sauce it when they are falling apart done...

I present you PORK STEAK - LOW slow indirect cook, 3 hours or until they fall apart when you start flippin/dippin in basting sauce:

[HB Vic]

Coal as in petro coal? Or coals as in burnt wood coal?

[jordy]

I got a Green Mountain Grill for my birthday this year and I'm loving it. First time out I did a 15 lb brisket and it was delicious. Followed that up with about an 8 lb pork tenderloin with a cajun dry rub. Spent weeks eating like a caveman so I took some time off. It's got wifi and an app so I can hook it up to my home network or run it from my phone and control temperature. It's pretty damn cool! Now every time I see someone cooking on TV I wonder if it can be done on the smoker. Popcorn, veggies, you name it and it seems to have a recipe for it.

[heferaton]

Apple wood is good to use with pork. For a ham I prefer to use hickory and cherry wood though and it's excellent! When smoking your meat it is all about your rub. Get online and look up smoking ham and what rubs to use. I tend to use that for ideas, but end up doing my own blends. If you end up using any cloves be careful! A little bit goes a long way.

[MrDenton]

Bruce, I've done several Boston Butts. Delicious! But I'm tired of the watery salty store bought ham. Time to try it myself.
Was just curious on temp, time and rubs. Injection or no injection. I know it appears to be leaner, but is it necessary?


“Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. The US military doesn’t have that problem.”

[riverrunner1984]

I smoked these pork butts last month used for pulled pork sliders. I'm an amateur but everyone seemed to like it.



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[MrDenton]

I learned that my friends know nothing about good smoked meat. So, after 3 years and countless free meals to them, they've loved everything I've served up. Even amateur smoke tastes 100x better than store bought stuff.


“Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. The US military doesn’t have that problem.”

[2manymustangs]

I got a Green Mountain Grill for my birthday this year and I'm loving it. First time out I did a 15 lb brisket and it was delicious. Followed that up with about an 8 lb pork tenderloin with a cajun dry rub. Spent weeks eating like a caveman so I took some time off. It's got wifi and an app so I can hook it up to my home network or run it from my phone and control temperature. It's pretty damn cool! Now every time I see someone cooking on TV I wonder if it can be done on the smoker. Popcorn, veggies, you name it and it seems to have a recipe for it.

^^^^ Those wifi controllers are pretty cool, set it and forget it... I would like to add one to my big ugly 55 gal barrel smoker, I'm still blown away how simple it is to cook on one of those...

P.S. we have a pizza stone JUST for the grill at my pop's party pavillion... I get that biootch real hot for about one hour while grilling other stuff before I try to slide a pizza onto it from a PEEL... AND if your doing lots of HOmade pizzas on the thing, keep the dough in the refrigerator and let it keep on "proofing" until the very moment your ready to toss the dough/make the pizza or you will have a real mess on your hands, use LOTS of corn meal on the peel/stone and it will slide on/off easy, just brush the burned corn meal off the stone between pizzas. I had made up about 10 dough balls and let the kids make their own pizza on my PEEL and then slid it onto the pizza stone... let the stone get REAL hot and the crust will start to bubble almost instantly when it hits the stone... ABout 5 minutes cook time depending on how hot you have the stone...

Its nice to change it up and have something else off the grill besides meat (caveman) I always have BIG thick slices of sweet onions (we get vidalia's from Georgia here in the midwest but TEXAS sweets are great too), low and slow... HUD's Kung Foo mushrooms are always a favorite and I get alot of grief if I dont have a big pile of shroomies (PM me for the marinade)... Zucchini is reaaaaaaaaly good as are red/yellow sweet bell peppers smoked and of course sweet corn... I typically make a meal snacking on (testing) the veggies...

Apple wood is good to use with pork. For a ham I prefer to use hickory and cherry wood though and it's excellent! When smoking your meat it is all about your rub. Get online and look up smoking ham and what rubs to use. I tend to use that for ideas, but end up doing my own blends. If you end up using any cloves be careful! A little bit goes a long way.

Agreed, the fruit wood has a really nice light smoke!!! ALSO, if you use oak/hickory for smoking, JUST A LITTLE mixed with your coal, to do a full cook with the wood can be a disaster unless you are really good at cooking with 100% wood...

You can destroy a nice piece of meat by OVER smoking it if you are just adding the wood on top of the coals/burner... LIke the cloves, a little goes a long way...

I learned that my friends know nothing about good smoked meat. So, after 3 years and countless free meals to them, they've loved everything I've served up. Even amateur smoke tastes 100x better than store bought stuff.


“Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. The US military doesn’t have that problem.”

Look at RiverRunners boston butts!!!!!!!! He a pro four at a time!!!!!!!

Agreed on the HOmade smoked meat, I have had some NASTY tasting stuff, UNedible from "professionals"...

I will say this, ole BIG STICKY has some killer stuff, his place is close to me and he cooks with 100% hickory that he buys locally... It's super common here in every yard...

https://www.facebook.com/bigstickysbbq

I had a lengthy chat with him and asked how much WOOD and how much charcoal he uses. I was surprised to find out that he cooks with 100% hickory. He enlightened me to the fact that you can't COOK with a dampered down/low temp fire when using a ALL WOOD fire... He said that is where the sooty/tar comes from, when your fire is dampened way down like a small scale smoker we are cooking on... He has a massive custom built cooker with a fire box on the side with a blower/stoker fan, the cooking chamber is big enough to dissipate the high heat that is created in the fire box...

It would take a little bit of science/experimentation there, and I'm sure you could scale it down to a 55 gal size drum with an offset fire box, but your going to need a stoker/blower fan to keep the fire going real hot... And small fire with the BTU's down to a level that wont be too high/hot for the volume of the 55 gal barrel.


HUD had a great suggestion for grilling/finishing a large piece of meat like a boston butt OR your green ham so that you don't get the outside OVER cooked to get the internal temp where you want it... WHen your outside is done and at risk of getting TOOOO done, have a small foam cooler that is not TOOOO much bigger than the piece of meat your cooking, something like the Omaha steaks are delivered to your house in, wrap up the ham/butt/prime rib/pork loin/whatever, and put it in the cooler and LEAVE IT for a long while until your ready to eat dinner, letting the internal temp come up and finish cooking from residual heat of the exterior. Be quick about it so that you get all of that heat into the cooler, then close it/walk away... THe meat relaxes and finishes cooking... TY Hud for that tip!!!!!!

[jordy]

Hud is the master! Big smoke! C'mon! Shrooms on a stick. YUM!!!