H
Hank Hill
Guest
I've been a bbq lover my entire life, but until today I had never smoked a single piece of meat. Two weeks ago, I picked up a new Bandera at Academy. Finally got it put together on Friday, seasoned it Saturday, and fired it up today. I'm glad I found this site - I owe thanks to several of you for tips on the forums here.
The bbq turned out surprisingly well for my first time. I had a 12 lb brisket, a rack of spare ribs, 3 kinds of fresh sausage from Sprouts, and a fatty (never would have even thought of it myself). No marinade, just a rub of sea salt, coarse black pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. I think I went a little too heavy on the salt, but other than that it was great.
I woke up, pulled the brisket out of the fridge, and started my first chimney of lump at 6:30. I picked up one of those wireless thermometers with smoker and meat probes, so I was able to go back to sleep until it told me I needed to adjust the fire. When I got the bandera up to about 230, I threw in some mesquite chunks and loaded up the beef fat side up. I went 7 hours without a peek at the meat, and the temp inside the pit varied from about 175 to 220. After 7 hours, I opened it up, sprayed some apple juice on it, and loaded up the rest of the meat. 3 hours later I took out the ribs and the fatty, wrapped them, and put 'em back in. Another 2 hours (12 hours total) and the beef was 188 inside. I took everything out and put it in a cooler until my 5 man eating/testing crew all made it over about 30 minutes later.
Overall, here's what I thought. Brisket was really tasty and not at all dry. I thought about wrapping it, but it never looked like it needed it so I just sprayed some apple juice on it. I probably could have kept it going at 200 or so for another few hours and it would have been even more tender. Ribs were probably the tastiest meat of the bunch, but it was also the ribs that made me realize there was a bit too much salt in my rub. All the sausage from Sprouts was great, and the fatty was tasty but a little dry (maybe I'll try 2 hours instead of 3 before wrapping it next time).
Overall, I'm definitely hooked...only problem is I have a ton of leftovers to eat before firing it back up again!
Finally, here are the pics of the finished products. Thanks again for the tips!
The bbq turned out surprisingly well for my first time. I had a 12 lb brisket, a rack of spare ribs, 3 kinds of fresh sausage from Sprouts, and a fatty (never would have even thought of it myself). No marinade, just a rub of sea salt, coarse black pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. I think I went a little too heavy on the salt, but other than that it was great.
I woke up, pulled the brisket out of the fridge, and started my first chimney of lump at 6:30. I picked up one of those wireless thermometers with smoker and meat probes, so I was able to go back to sleep until it told me I needed to adjust the fire. When I got the bandera up to about 230, I threw in some mesquite chunks and loaded up the beef fat side up. I went 7 hours without a peek at the meat, and the temp inside the pit varied from about 175 to 220. After 7 hours, I opened it up, sprayed some apple juice on it, and loaded up the rest of the meat. 3 hours later I took out the ribs and the fatty, wrapped them, and put 'em back in. Another 2 hours (12 hours total) and the beef was 188 inside. I took everything out and put it in a cooler until my 5 man eating/testing crew all made it over about 30 minutes later.
Overall, here's what I thought. Brisket was really tasty and not at all dry. I thought about wrapping it, but it never looked like it needed it so I just sprayed some apple juice on it. I probably could have kept it going at 200 or so for another few hours and it would have been even more tender. Ribs were probably the tastiest meat of the bunch, but it was also the ribs that made me realize there was a bit too much salt in my rub. All the sausage from Sprouts was great, and the fatty was tasty but a little dry (maybe I'll try 2 hours instead of 3 before wrapping it next time).
Overall, I'm definitely hooked...only problem is I have a ton of leftovers to eat before firing it back up again!
Finally, here are the pics of the finished products. Thanks again for the tips!
