What are you cookin on the smoker?

[BottledInBond]

10 hours ago, HoustonNit said:

Oh man this seems like the type of chili I like.  Do you have any pictures and recipe for the rest?

I really don’t cook chili with a recipe. I make it frequently, including in some competitions, so I have my staple components but I adjust things periodically based on who is going to be eating it, if I’m trying to experiment, as well as what I happen to have around for ingredients. All that said, I’m a firm believer that your base is by far the most important part, and I have a pretty consistent approach to that. Once you have a really good base, you can try different meats, braise versus stovetop simmer, add the smoking element, determine what you want to add for other peppers/tomato/beans/onions/seasoning during the cook. Try this for a badass base:

 

I start by rehydrating dried ancho and chipotle chili’s (2:1 ancho to chipotle). I bring some water to a boil, then throw in the chili’s and turn off the heat and put on a cover, and wait 20-25 minutes. Then I remove the stems and seeds and throw those in a food processor with some of that water they soaked in, along with a roughly chopped onion, several cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, some Worcestershire, and a little brown sugar. Purée that all up well.
 

Your house will smell awesome from this point forward. If I’m going to braise I’ll put this in a Dutch oven with the short ribs or whatever I’m using and throw it in the oven for several hours, low & slow, and I’ll start adding to it after 2-3 hours. At that point I’ll add chopped onion and green pepper, tomato, beans, more seasoning, depending on what I’m going for. If I add liquid at this point, I never add plain water. I’ll use tomato juice, beer, or more of the reserved pepper soaking water. 
 

One other general note, it’s easy and fast to just brown up some ground beef and if you do that with an awesome base and we’ll planned other ingredients you can still have a great, and fairly inexpensive chili. If you want to smoke and/or braise full cuts, you can get awesome depth of flavor, smoke, and textures. If you go that route, remember to cook to internal temperature of your meat and the tenderness you want, not just a time. You can’t just say “I’m going to cook this for X hours at Y temp” because at that point maybe your internal temp of the meat is only at 185 and it’ll be like trying to eat a catcher’s mitt. 
 

I love making chili.... 

[HoustonNit]

4 hours ago, BottledInBond said:

I really don’t cook chili with a recipe. I make it frequently, including in some competitions, so I have my staple components but I adjust things periodically based on who is going to be eating it, if I’m trying to experiment, as well as what I happen to have around for ingredients. All that said, I’m a firm believer that your base is by far the most important part, and I have a pretty consistent approach to that. Once you have a really good base, you can try different meats, braise versus stovetop simmer, add the smoking element, determine what you want to add for other peppers/tomato/beans/onions/seasoning during the cook. Try this for a badass base:

 

I start by rehydrating dried ancho and chipotle chili’s (2:1 ancho to chipotle). I bring some water to a boil, then throw in the chili’s and turn off the heat and put on a cover, and wait 20-25 minutes. Then I remove the stems and seeds and throw those in a food processor with some of that water they soaked in, along with a roughly chopped onion, several cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, some Worcestershire, and a little brown sugar. Purée that all up well.
 

Your house will smell awesome from this point forward. If I’m going to braise I’ll put this in a Dutch oven with the short ribs or whatever I’m using and throw it in the oven for several hours, low & slow, and I’ll start adding to it after 2-3 hours. At that point I’ll add chopped onion and green pepper, tomato, beans, more seasoning, depending on what I’m going for. If I add liquid at this point, I never add plain water. I’ll use tomato juice, beer, or more of the reserved pepper soaking water. 
 

One other general note, it’s easy and fast to just brown up some ground beef and if you do that with an awesome base and we’ll planned other ingredients you can still have a great, and fairly inexpensive chili. If you want to smoke and/or braise full cuts, you can get awesome depth of flavor, smoke, and textures. If you go that route, remember to cook to internal temperature of your meat and the tenderness you want, not just a time. You can’t just say “I’m going to cook this for X hours at Y temp” because at that point maybe your internal temp of the meat is only at 185 and it’ll be like trying to eat a catcher’s mitt. 
 

I love making chili.... 

 

Wow very similar approach to chili.  I follow this recipe pretty closely which seems very similar to yours.  
 

https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/01/how-to-make-the-best-chili-ever-recipe-super-bowl.html (Beans are optional)

 

Instead of anchovies in the base you use Worcestire and I use fish sauce for this component.  I also use dried ancho peppers, same approach but also add a small can of chipolte peppers and some bakers chocolate.  Otherwise very similar.  I’m going to try smoking the meats as you did.

[smokinjoe]

When I smoke a brisket like I did this past weekend, they usually are ~13-14 lbs.  I make sure to save a couple of pounds that I cube and freeze for things like chili Veg. Beef soup, etc.  the smokiness is particularly good in the chili.  

[BottledInBond]

4 hours ago, smokinjoe said:

When I smoke a brisket like I did this past weekend, they usually are ~13-14 lbs.  I make sure to save a couple of pounds that I cube and freeze for things like chili Veg. Beef soup, etc.  the smokiness is particularly good in the chili.  

Brisket is my favorite. Unfortunately I can only do them when I borrow my dad’s trailer. On a day to day basis, I use a Big Green Egg, and it isn’t really suitable for brisket

[bayouredd]

On 3/10/2021 at 5:44 PM, BottledInBond said:

Brisket is my favorite. Unfortunately I can only do them when I borrow my dad’s trailer. On a day to day basis, I use a Big Green Egg, and it isn’t really suitable for brisket

Not sure about this one!!! The key is controlled temperature. Why is this not working for you? I have a Primo and it works fine for brisket. The 

Primo does work better than the Egg for indirect smoking but there are plates for the Egg. Wutt's Up?

[BottledInBond]

19 minutes ago, bayouredd said:

Not sure about this one!!! The key is controlled temperature. Why is this not working for you? I have a Primo and it works fine for brisket. The 

Primo does work better than the Egg for indirect smoking but there are plates for the Egg. Wutt's Up?

Well, mine works fine for smoking meat but the size I have isn’t great to do a full brisket. And, if you are going to do a really long cook, the fact that you can’t readily add more fuel without pulling the food/grate/heat shield all out is not ideal. 
 

When it comes to a really long cooks, I definitely prefer my dad’s rig, which is a big offset smoker which I feel full size logs into the firebox. I do some really long cooks and re-loading a BGE multiple times to do a long one is a hassle when I also have access to such a sweet rig. So, my BGE issues are clearly first world problems 

[HoustonNit]

On 3/10/2021 at 5:44 PM, BottledInBond said:

Brisket is my favorite. Unfortunately I can only do them when I borrow my dad’s trailer. On a day to day basis, I use a Big Green Egg, and it isn’t really suitable for brisket

maybe there’s a size issue on your particular egg, but I’ve seen people make nice briskets on there eggs.  This guy on @grillin_with_dad and done some good ones before.

[bayouredd]

20 hours ago, BottledInBond said:

Well, mine works fine for smoking meat but the size I have isn’t great to do a full brisket. And, if you are going to do a really long cook, the fact that you can’t readily add more fuel without pulling the food/grate/heat shield all out is not ideal. 
 

When it comes to a really long cooks, I definitely prefer my dad’s rig, which is a big offset smoker which I feel full size logs into the firebox. I do some really long cooks and re-loading a BGE multiple times to do a long one is a hassle when I also have access to such a sweet rig. So, my BGE issues are clearly first world problems 

Makes sense; I have the XLarge Primo & can go 12 or so hrs at 225 without adding most of the time.

[Skinsfan1311]

Brats! Well...it ain't exactly a smoker, but Old Faithful is my trusty Weber gasser, (Genesis Silver B, circa 2001)

[BottledInBond]

4 hours ago, bayouredd said:

Makes sense; I have the XLarge Primo & can go 12 or so hrs at 225 without adding most of the time.

Yep. The egg or a Primo has its place. My egg is not an XL, not sure if it’s an M or L off the top of my head.  12 hours is more than enough for a lot of situations but I’ve done a lot of 18+ hour cooks too. Last summer I did up to 130 pound cooks on my dad’s trailer rig

[dcbt]

13 hours ago, Skinsfan1311 said:

Brats! Well...it ain't exactly a smoker, but Old Faithful is my trusty Weber gasser, (Genesis Silver B, circa 2001)

 

I'm a big believer in Weber.  I've had a Genesis Silver since 2006 without a single problem.  Knock on wood.

[Skinsfan1311]

5 hours ago, dcbt said:

I'm a big believer in Weber.  I've had a Genesis Silver since 2006 without a single problem.  Knock on wood.

Yeah, they're workhorses.

Over the years, I've only had to change the flavorizer bars, the crossover tube and finally replaced all of the grates with GrillGrates.   I have a spare set of new  Flavorizer bars, that I snagged for  next to nothing.

Yeah, I'm a Weber Wack Job. In addition to the Genesis, I own 5 kettles, and a gas Go-Anywhere. 

[Kjbarth]

Tenderloin on 22 Weber kettle w/SnS.  Reverse sear.  Served with polenta and asparagus. Drinking EC12 and OF 1920 during cook. 

[Skinsfan1311]

Ribs!

 

[BigRich]

On 3/13/2021 at 8:48 PM, Kjbarth said:

Tenderloin on 22 Weber kettle w/SnS.  Reverse sear.  Served with polenta and asparagus. Drinking EC12 and OF 1920 during cook. 

your polenta looks suspiciously like risotto. 

[Kjbarth]

11 hours ago, BigRich said:

your polenta looks suspiciously like risotto. 

It is/was risotto. My bad. I’m finding that I’m forgetting and misremembering things as I get older

[BigRich]

12 hours ago, Kjbarth said:

It is/was risotto. My bad. I’m finding that I’m forgetting and misremembering things as I get older

You and me both brother.

[flahute]

On 3/16/2021 at 6:12 PM, Kjbarth said:

It is/was risotto. My bad. I’m finding that I’m forgetting and misremembering things as I get older

 

On 3/17/2021 at 7:10 AM, BigRich said:

You and me both brother.

I blame it on covid. Everything runs together into one undecipherable mish mash anymore.

[Kjbarth]

Brisket plus burnt ends on WSM 22 with Weber briquettes and pecan chunks. Smoked at 250, took point to 190 and flat to 201. Chunked up point for burnt ends. 

[BottledInBond]

I’m making pastrami today. The internal temp is at 165 right now. Looking forward to some pastrami rueben sandwiches later today.....

[Skinsfan1311]

Jerk pork tenderloin yesterday 

[JCwhammie]

Smoked prime NY roast as an early Easter dinner. It was fantastic. I dry brine it for about 3.5 days. 

[bayouredd]

3 minutes ago, JCwhammie said:

Smoked prime NY roast as an early Easter dinner. It was fantastic. I dry brine it for about 3.5 days. 

BEAUTIFULLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

[Clueby]

12 minutes ago, JCwhammie said:

Smoked prime NY roast as an early Easter dinner. It was fantastic. I dry brine it for about 3.5 days. 

I just licked my phone screen.

[smokinjoe]

20 minutes ago, JCwhammie said:

Smoked prime NY roast as an early Easter dinner. It was fantastic. I dry brine it for about 3.5 days. 

Oh boy, that looks awesome!  What’s your dry brine program?