kevinc
Knows what a fatty is.
My wife and I bought a new home recently. The previous owners were the original owners from when they bought the home in 1967.
Although they took good care of the home, it needed updating. Part of our renovation budget was carved out for a new smoker to augment our WSM.
Enter the Assassin. I was originally going to go with a Stumps but farker mep convinced me otherwise and I'm sure glad I listened to him. Nothing against Stumps, I just happened to agree with his assessment that I got more for my money by going with an Assasin.
The Assassin actually arrived 3 weeks ago but due to renovations and other home related issues it sat in the garage taunting me until this week. Last week I uncrated it and yesterday I seasoned it.
Below are some photos from the cook. Since the instructions cautioned me against wasting heat, I decided to put some MOINK balls and birds on it.
I had never made MOINK balls before so I just wrapped the meatballs in uncured bacon and topped them with some Pineapple Head rub (from Dizzy Pig) that I had laying around.
The birds I butterflied, rubbed with olive oil and then rubbed them with a mystery rub (its unlabeled, i don't remember what it was
) under and on top of the skin.
Since I don't have a weedburner or a plumber's torch, I put one chimney full of lit coals in the firebox followed by one unlit.
Then I began hooking up the guru. I had never used it before so I plugged the fan in and set the pit temp to 300 and let it go. I checked on it every 5 minutes or so over the course of 30 minutes to see how it was going and the temperature never moved up. I removed the guru fan and realized that I didn't open up the fan damper. *Dope slap!*
I had to check the temp quickly because my dog had eyes on those birds on the counter
Once that was gone, the guru got the smoker up to temp pretty quickly. I cooked the MOINK balls for about an hour and the birds for a 90 minutes at 325.
The MOINK balls were good but a little underseasoned. Since we haven't finished setting up the kitchen yet, I didn't have any sauce on hand. I'll use more rub next time and a glaze at the end. They were still pretty good though
The meat on the birds were cooked perfectly. On my WSM, I always had rubbery skin and while this skin was not rubbery and certainly edible, it wasn't the oven crisp skin that I like nor was the color where I wanted it.
Here are some pics of the smoker coming up to temp (with my prep beer, a delicious marzen from our local brewery Port City)
and the proud owner after he switched to wine
One thing that bugged me was the temperature difference between the thermometer on the door and the digiq pit temp sensor. Since I was going ot be using the top 2 racks, I clipped the sensor to the underside of the second rack, towards the middle figuring that this would be an accurate reading.
However, the door thermometer read 30-50F off for the duration of the cook. Any thoughts there?
Two other questions:
Although they took good care of the home, it needed updating. Part of our renovation budget was carved out for a new smoker to augment our WSM.
Enter the Assassin. I was originally going to go with a Stumps but farker mep convinced me otherwise and I'm sure glad I listened to him. Nothing against Stumps, I just happened to agree with his assessment that I got more for my money by going with an Assasin.
The Assassin actually arrived 3 weeks ago but due to renovations and other home related issues it sat in the garage taunting me until this week. Last week I uncrated it and yesterday I seasoned it.
Below are some photos from the cook. Since the instructions cautioned me against wasting heat, I decided to put some MOINK balls and birds on it.
I had never made MOINK balls before so I just wrapped the meatballs in uncured bacon and topped them with some Pineapple Head rub (from Dizzy Pig) that I had laying around.
The birds I butterflied, rubbed with olive oil and then rubbed them with a mystery rub (its unlabeled, i don't remember what it was
) under and on top of the skin.
Since I don't have a weedburner or a plumber's torch, I put one chimney full of lit coals in the firebox followed by one unlit.
Then I began hooking up the guru. I had never used it before so I plugged the fan in and set the pit temp to 300 and let it go. I checked on it every 5 minutes or so over the course of 30 minutes to see how it was going and the temperature never moved up. I removed the guru fan and realized that I didn't open up the fan damper. *Dope slap!*
I had to check the temp quickly because my dog had eyes on those birds on the counter
Once that was gone, the guru got the smoker up to temp pretty quickly. I cooked the MOINK balls for about an hour and the birds for a 90 minutes at 325.
The MOINK balls were good but a little underseasoned. Since we haven't finished setting up the kitchen yet, I didn't have any sauce on hand. I'll use more rub next time and a glaze at the end. They were still pretty good though
The meat on the birds were cooked perfectly. On my WSM, I always had rubbery skin and while this skin was not rubbery and certainly edible, it wasn't the oven crisp skin that I like nor was the color where I wanted it.
Here are some pics of the smoker coming up to temp (with my prep beer, a delicious marzen from our local brewery Port City)
and the proud owner after he switched to wine
One thing that bugged me was the temperature difference between the thermometer on the door and the digiq pit temp sensor. Since I was going ot be using the top 2 racks, I clipped the sensor to the underside of the second rack, towards the middle figuring that this would be an accurate reading.
However, the door thermometer read 30-50F off for the duration of the cook. Any thoughts there?
Two other questions:
- Any guidelines for cleaning up the firebox?
- Is the weedburner really worth it or can I get by with the chimney?
