HeSmellsLikeSmoke
somebody shut me the fark up.
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- Location
- Warren...
I was totally blown away by the quality of the chicken entries at Merrimack, NH. I had no idea that chicken could be so good. I cry uncle -- my chicken, which until this weekend I thought was good, sucks.
I have read a lot of threads and a lot of books on the subject but have never produced anything close. Of the six boxes I tasted, two were outstanding, two were excellent, one was very good tasting, but had a rubbery skin and one was just like I cook - pretty bad.
The best two, I noticed, had the skin wraped totally around and under the piece -- I assumed it had been held with toothpicks during the cook. It seemed that this stretched the skin thin and during cooking promoted the fat rendering out of the skin itself. Both were really tender and had skin that was so easy to bite through, you hardly realized you were eating it. The one with rubbery skin was not fully covered so it looked like the skin shrunk during cooking and thickened to produce rubbery, hard to bite through skin.
The biggest difference in the best ones and mine, however, was that the smokey flavor penetrated into the meat, unlike mine where the skin seems to stop the smoke from going any further.
Pretty long winded, but I need help here.
Seeing that I have a WSM, a new to me Performer and a Brinkmann SnP Pro, how would I go about approximating what I experienced this last weekend? Don't have to tell me EVERYTHING, but I sure could use some hints and tricks.
(My ribs, pork butt and brisket, on the other hand, don't suck in comparison.)
I have read a lot of threads and a lot of books on the subject but have never produced anything close. Of the six boxes I tasted, two were outstanding, two were excellent, one was very good tasting, but had a rubbery skin and one was just like I cook - pretty bad.
The best two, I noticed, had the skin wraped totally around and under the piece -- I assumed it had been held with toothpicks during the cook. It seemed that this stretched the skin thin and during cooking promoted the fat rendering out of the skin itself. Both were really tender and had skin that was so easy to bite through, you hardly realized you were eating it. The one with rubbery skin was not fully covered so it looked like the skin shrunk during cooking and thickened to produce rubbery, hard to bite through skin.
The biggest difference in the best ones and mine, however, was that the smokey flavor penetrated into the meat, unlike mine where the skin seems to stop the smoke from going any further.
Pretty long winded, but I need help here.
Seeing that I have a WSM, a new to me Performer and a Brinkmann SnP Pro, how would I go about approximating what I experienced this last weekend? Don't have to tell me EVERYTHING, but I sure could use some hints and tricks.
(My ribs, pork butt and brisket, on the other hand, don't suck in comparison.)