National Homebrew Club Ireland

General Discussions => The Food Board => Topic started by: Eoin on October 21, 2015, 03:39:43 PM

Title: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: Eoin on October 21, 2015, 03:39:43 PM
I've given mine a few tries at this point, with varying degrees of success.

I made my own rub with brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, chili powder and salt and pepper.

I did chicken a few times, turned out really nice, very tasty, good smoke ring. I did a spatchcock chicken too and it was great.

I did texas ribs...it was a disaster, it was as if something dead had crawled inside me, I gassed myself out of it for a whole day after, the wife was terrified of it too. I wasted about a tenners worth of ribs as I was afraid to touch them again. Anyone got any ideas as to why this might happen? It was truly woeful.

Next on the list is pork shoulder and I should be giving that a try halloween week so I'll have a report back on that once I've tried it out.
Title: Re: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: lordstilton on October 21, 2015, 03:58:16 PM
What type of ribs? How long you cook them for? What temp? Did they bend when you lifted them with a tongs?
Title: Re: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: Pheeel on October 21, 2015, 04:07:17 PM
DPD couldn't find my house so they returned the smoker :( Luckily it's getting resent

Would like to know what was wrong with the ribs. Have you made any mods to the smoker yet?
Title: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: Leann ull on October 21, 2015, 04:31:58 PM
Quote from: Eoin on October 21, 2015, 03:39:43 PM
I did texas ribs...it was a disaster, it was as if something dead had crawled inside me, I gassed myself out of it for a whole day after, the wife was terrified of it too. I wasted about a tenners worth of ribs as I was afraid to touch them again. It was truly woeful.


I have to stop reading this forum in coffee houses as uncontrollable hysterical laughter is not a positive public attribute, sorry for your trouble.
Title: Re: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: nigel_c on October 21, 2015, 04:40:31 PM
Ribs sticky or sour at all?
Any chance you may have gone too low and slow?
Title: Re: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: Eoin on October 21, 2015, 04:51:10 PM
They were texas beef ribs. They tasted delicious. I did them dry rub and then with a wet barbecue sauce from heinz when they were well on. Temp was inconsistent but finished around 120c, had been as high as 170. I put in a tray of water to slow them a bit later on.
Title: Re: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: Eoin on October 21, 2015, 04:52:04 PM
I used my meat thermometer on them so know the temps were good.
Title: Re: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: Eoin on October 21, 2015, 08:17:51 PM
The ribs were cooked for about 7-8 hours. They were large beef rib pieces so didn't bend. No mods made to the smoker yet, I can get a pretty steady burn out of it. It has an open bottom unlike the one in the mod pics,the sealing is really the issue.
Title: Re: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: lordstilton on October 22, 2015, 12:07:27 AM
All sounds like you did them right..meat thermometer doesn't lie ..google texas crutch...its a great way to speed thing up and make them really tender.
Title: Re: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: Eoin on October 22, 2015, 08:08:18 AM
No ideas as to why I nearly gassed myself....and the dog?

I suspect the garlic and onion powders in the dry rub, or eating a lot of the bark...I'd love to know what it was though, because I want to avoid it at  all costs in the future.
Title: Re: Anyone else tried out their smoker yet?
Post by: Eoin on October 22, 2015, 10:02:26 AM
Thanks for the info Garrett, done a bit of checking on texas crutch, makes sense, makes it like a hybrid between my oven pulled pork and a smoker pulled pork.