Ribs are done:

Burnt ends:



I toss them in sauce and throw them back in the smoker to finish.

Doneness was pretty good as everything was tender, but the smoke taste was off, kind of bitter.

Meh no one likes burnt ends

Burnt ends are the best part, although I've never done them like that. ^^^. I usually just cut off a few fist sized triangles and cook them next to the center section of the brisket. That makes 3x as much burnt ends as a regular cook. Sometimes they can come off a little earlier as well.

Seems banworthy

You have some recipes? Im always looking for good BBQ sauces and getting tired of my basic ones right now, need something ... different.

Am I a total fish for getting an electric smoker? One of the small ones like Charbroil or Smoke Hollow I've seen in stores. I'm not looking to smoke meats all the time just for holidays or special occasions and don't need to make a whole lot at once.

My family used to smoke brisket/pork all the time but they had a big pellet or charcoal smoker that was much larger.

Yes/no to an electric smoker and any suggestions?

sure. the basic blueprint i use for my tangy sauce is-

2 cups cider vinegar
1.5 cups ketchup
1 cup espresso/coffee
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1.5 cups light brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp arbol chili powder
1-2 tsp red pepper flakes

the sweet sauce i like to make is something similar to this-

1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup ketchup
1.5 cups espresso/coffee
1/2 cup worcestershire sauce
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp arbol chili powder

just combine all ingredients in a saucepan/pot and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until it reduces/thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon fairly well (maybe 20-30 mins?). you may have to taste it and tweak the amounts of the sugar/vinegar a little bit (like, by a couple tablespoons) to get the flavor balance just the way you like it.

and you can vary the ratio of worcestershire sauce/coffee in the sweet sauce, but i dont think it makes a huge difference tbh- my gf is crazy and doesn't like worcestershire so the recipe above reflects that in that it uses a little more/less of each.

i'm really happy with both so far- use them for chicken wings and pork ribs, basically. if you try to make either, report back and let me know what you think. each recipe produces about a quart (32 fl oz) of sauce.

I'm just really really jealous that those pics are nowhere near me

I recommended my aunt buy one for ease of use. She finally smoked a brisket a couple of seeks ago and it was pretty good. She's smoked some salmon on it and that came out great.

My first smoker was propane and it was very easy to use as well. If you aren't doing competitions, use whatever works best for you.

The main reason I bought my cabinet smoker was for potential competitions, although I now know it's a little small and I'd probably have to add something else to up the volume.

charcoal smokers are great, but a whole cook is a bit of an ordeal. even if you give up a little bit in smoke quantity/quality, i kinda wish i bought an electric one now. some of those are as little as $200 so it's getting harder to argue against them now.

Awesome result midwestkc! Props props props

Thanks a lot rep, I got some ribs coming in today through the mail so Ill definitely try and make one or more of those sauces to go with them!

Bacon question for you guys
The fire basket on my UDS is out of commission but I have one of those a-maze-ing smoker trays so figure I just put that at the bottom of my barrel and cold smoke but "cold" is not a word that goes hand in hand with my climate.
I would expect the temperature in my smoker to be around 100 degrees which is just above the recommended temp. I'll be curing with pink salt at a correct ratio.

so what's the risk that I propagate some nasties on my bacon and sicken my whole family given the description above.
I'm going with <5% but I've never cured nor cold smoked

I just got one of the amazen smoker trays for MES40. I think it's going to be a lot easier to set it and forget it now for overnight brisket cooks. Just need to have vent all the way open, chip tray out and make sure pellets are good and lit right?


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You're gonna have to fiddle with finding the combination of material and packing density that works best for your ambient conditions but that's a good plan for overcoming the lack of smoke when a masterbilt is running at steady state.

As an added bonus: you can now cold smoke bacon which is approximately a million times better than most internet hot smoking make your own bacon recipes. Homemade lox, too.

Approximately 0%

Rep,

Not liking Worcestershire sauce is almost dumpworthy. I have a friend who hates onions and he wonders why he is still single.

TY!!!

Family get together this weekend, so my services were requested to provide some brisket and ribs.







I separated the point from the flat on the brisket prior to smoking. The flat was a little dry, but the point came out beautiful. Melt in your mouth bites of fatty meat goodness.

Ribs were a little overdone. I bought baby backs because they were on sale instead of spares like I usually do and they cooked faster than I expected. Very tasty though.

I have a half rack of the ribs in the sous vide for my niece's husband because his stomach doesnt like smoked meat that much. Shooting for 10 hours at 165. We'll see how that turns out.

I did an experiment with ribs a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to combine the bbq smoke with the precision temp control of sous vide. One rack went into the sous vide for 5 hours and then smoked for 2. One rack I smoked for 3 hours and then into the water for 4. One rack all smoker as a control.

The smoke first was probably the best result with the control very close. The sous vide first didn't get that much smoke flavor as the others. Tenderness was spot on with all of them though.

Sous vide ribs:

https://i.imgur.com/57fC0gI.jpg

Nice flavor despite no smoke. Doneness was perfect, nice bite.

This might be a good way to test out different rubs.

fixed

Jim,

That all looks delicious.

You gotta try 145 degree 36 hour sous vide ribs. Your favorite rub and a little liquid smoke. Quick finish on the grill or broiler.

Jim,

Cross-post from cooking thread. You gotta give it a try one time!

Three major BBQ Events in the northeast coming up:
Next weekend (6/2-6/3) is SunBBQ fest at Mohegan Sun Casino. 70 teams from all over the country will be there offering samples of true competition BBQ. We'll be there so stop by and say hi if you're in the area.

The following weekend is the Big Apple Block Party in Madison Park in lower Manhattan. Meat, meat and more meat (we aren't attending but it's still worth it)

June 23rd and 24th is the National Capital BBQ Bash in Washington DC (3rd and Pennsylvania ave NW ) 100,00 BBQ fans converge on this two day event. We'll be competing here as well if you stop by.