Oldhoss
Full Fledged Farker
Well it's been 2 weeks with the New Braunfels I picked up used for 75 bucks. My first cook was drumbsticks and peameal bacon rubbed with paprika and chipolte powder:
I have done 8 cooks so far with mixed results. A few shots of my efforts.
Pork butt and beans:
I start with Bush's Beans and then add bacon. oinions, red peppers, jalapano peppers, sweet peppers, bbq sauce, smoked pork belly, garlic powder, chipolte powder, beer and pinnapple chunks cooked to an internal temp of 160f:
I have some in the fridge right now that I did with a prime rib with which I added in some of the aujus I made as well as a shot of yellow tequila. It tastes awesome - had a buddy tell me he would gladly pay me for more than just the sample I brought in to work.
This is the prime rib I did yesterday....rubbed with a blend of - black, red, white, green, schezwan and chineese long peppers as well as paprika, galic powder, onion powder, a 5 italian herb blend, smoked salt and chipolte powder:
I made a few posts but mostly I have been searching old posts for tips....now I need to pick your guy's brains on a couple issues.
Question 1:
I have some wood I cannot identify.....in a thread I started I was able to identify some of it as red maple and ash. I also have what I think is apple!!! This is it:
I have used it and it smell sweet and is definately some sort of fruit wood.
I also have this wood I cannot identify:
closer:
and a side view:
It smells sweet and has that reddish interior. Dad had a Locus or Locust tree in the backyard that he chopped down. I looked at images on google and found no similarity to what I found there. Anyone find this familiar?
Question 2:
With my smoker I have tried using charcoal from the bag and charcoal I made from the ash and maple. I took the coals from the fireplace and put them in the hotbox. For smoke I have used chunks, chips and small sticks. I have had clean smoke and dirty smoke and have figured out what I need is a smaller fire but I still get dirty smoke sometimes. Yesterday I decided to try sticks. I started off with a little smaller than forearm size sticks but my temps were in the low 400's. And this was with fairly low starting coals left....and this was in -10 or 14f weather. I quickly shifted to smaller sticks:
These are the cherry sticks I made from bought wood. The smoke the cherry sticks provided was hard to keep thin so I am thinking it is not dry enough. The smoke the apple sticks I made was easier to keep thin but even it wanted to get thick at times. With these small sticks I was adding about 1 every 13-18 minutes. I kept the fresh wood and the coals from the previous few pieces near the air intake of the firebox (if it was toward the cooking chamber I got darker smoke). When I closed the air intake further than about a third most of the time I got darker smoke. My internal temp when I got the coals and stick size down got to in the 260-310f range at the cooler side of the cooker. Big question is - Why does so little fire in such cold weather produce such high temps and some dark smoke? What am I doing wrong guys?
I have done 8 cooks so far with mixed results. A few shots of my efforts.
Pork butt and beans:
I start with Bush's Beans and then add bacon. oinions, red peppers, jalapano peppers, sweet peppers, bbq sauce, smoked pork belly, garlic powder, chipolte powder, beer and pinnapple chunks cooked to an internal temp of 160f:
I have some in the fridge right now that I did with a prime rib with which I added in some of the aujus I made as well as a shot of yellow tequila. It tastes awesome - had a buddy tell me he would gladly pay me for more than just the sample I brought in to work.
This is the prime rib I did yesterday....rubbed with a blend of - black, red, white, green, schezwan and chineese long peppers as well as paprika, galic powder, onion powder, a 5 italian herb blend, smoked salt and chipolte powder:
I made a few posts but mostly I have been searching old posts for tips....now I need to pick your guy's brains on a couple issues.
Question 1:
I have some wood I cannot identify.....in a thread I started I was able to identify some of it as red maple and ash. I also have what I think is apple!!! This is it:
I have used it and it smell sweet and is definately some sort of fruit wood.
I also have this wood I cannot identify:
closer:
and a side view:
It smells sweet and has that reddish interior. Dad had a Locus or Locust tree in the backyard that he chopped down. I looked at images on google and found no similarity to what I found there. Anyone find this familiar?
Question 2:
With my smoker I have tried using charcoal from the bag and charcoal I made from the ash and maple. I took the coals from the fireplace and put them in the hotbox. For smoke I have used chunks, chips and small sticks. I have had clean smoke and dirty smoke and have figured out what I need is a smaller fire but I still get dirty smoke sometimes. Yesterday I decided to try sticks. I started off with a little smaller than forearm size sticks but my temps were in the low 400's. And this was with fairly low starting coals left....and this was in -10 or 14f weather. I quickly shifted to smaller sticks:
These are the cherry sticks I made from bought wood. The smoke the cherry sticks provided was hard to keep thin so I am thinking it is not dry enough. The smoke the apple sticks I made was easier to keep thin but even it wanted to get thick at times. With these small sticks I was adding about 1 every 13-18 minutes. I kept the fresh wood and the coals from the previous few pieces near the air intake of the firebox (if it was toward the cooking chamber I got darker smoke). When I closed the air intake further than about a third most of the time I got darker smoke. My internal temp when I got the coals and stick size down got to in the 260-310f range at the cooler side of the cooker. Big question is - Why does so little fire in such cold weather produce such high temps and some dark smoke? What am I doing wrong guys?
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