Smoking Meat

Well. There’s already two types of pork… might as well go all the way and do some pork ribs or a shoulder.

If you want to continue the bacon theme, you could do a stuffed pork loin with a bacon lattice wrap.

Or, take a 90 degree turn and simmer some mole for a day or two, and have chicken and mole. Maybe enchiladas, or even tacos…

Carnitas would be good, too, if you’re set on sticking to pork.

Doesn’t matter, you’ll be full by then

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Dinner is getting close to being done.

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I’m considering a meatloaf in the smoker this next week. Anyone with tips?

… Don’t swear to love her 'til the end of time?

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And you never know how long that will be… :slight_smile:

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Best recipe I’ve tried

Obviously he doesn’t subscribe to the whole beef, pork and veal mix for meatballs and meatloaf. Much better texture and flavor vs. just beef. I’m not sure where the Jack Daniels come in on the flavor profile, the alcohol would obviously be sublimated early in the process, maybe some of the roast flavors would stay around… Sometime this week I’ll see what I can whip up. :slight_smile:

I only do beef in my meatloaf.

You’ve never had a Bourbon bbq sauce?

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What kinda pit boss do you have? I just recently got the Austin XL and I LOVE that thing.

I love my pellet smoker… I also got a smoke tube for it, but once i discovered Kingsford’s pellets were 100% hickory without any additives or binders, I rarely use it now because the smoker actually smokes as it should. SO quick to get up and running and I love how accurate the temps are and a kinda set it and forget it kinda approach. I upgraded my grates to ones simular to yours and it’s a beast!

Mine’s an older pit boss 820. I’ve had it for somewhere around 2 years now. I’ve gotten to where I don’t even use my offset smoker anymore.

Last week I was talking to a friend of mine. I was telling him that I was thinking about converting my offset smoker to a pellet smoker. The offset didn’t come with a firebox, so I keep bolting cheap fireboxes to it. Now that I have a welder and some metal experience, I’m not sure if I want to weld up a firebox, or build out a pellet setup for it.

There’s a few companies out there making conversion kits, but from what I can see, they’re just taking the pellet box and bolting it onto an existing smoker. I’m thinking I could weld up a box/enclosure and get just the electrical components. Might even go so far as to make my own controller using an esp32.

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I got my Austin XL not too long ago, and since I got it, my vertical offset hasn’t been touched. I love it. People on the BBQ forums call it ‘Easy Bake Oven’ but I’ll tell you, that thing is a beast. I love the sear function, so after a low and slow smoke of a burger, or ribeye, I’ll reverse sear it, and it has taken my backyard bbq to the next level. Only real gripe I have isn’t as much about the smoker, as it is about the fact that there aren’t alot of pellets out there that are 100% hardwood. ie If you want pecan, you can’t find 100% pecan. There’s always oak or alder mixed in. But Kingsford’s Hickory, I can report is 100% hickory. So what I’ve been doing is just buying the cheap pitboss pellets for the fuel, and using the kingsford in the smoke tube. Been working wonders that way.

I buy two different pellet mixes.

I buy the Pit Boss ‘fruit blend’ for pork, and I buy the ‘competition blend’ for beef. I’ll cook chicken in whatever is still from the last cook.

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I’ve tried the Competition, Classic, and Mesquite from pit boss. They are just so very subtle. I did try the kingsford, some i got from sam’s club too i think it’s called Smokehouse or something. But those were a little better. So far lumberjack and kingsford are my favs.

I did 2 butts 2 weeks apart. first i did with only pit boss pellets and everyone said they couldn’t taste the smoke. 2 weeks later I did the kingsford hickory pellets and everyone raved on how smoky it was and how it was better than some local bbq joint’s. Sadly that’s the down fall to where I’m at. I don’t have alot of selection of pellets here.

Assuming everything else being the same, that’s interesting results.

I’ve found how I run the pit has more change in the flavor than anything else. I try to run it in ‘smoke’ mode for an hour or two before setting the temp at 250. Once at 250 I leave it be until the meat is done.

On chicken, I’ll bump it up to 350 towards the end of the cook to crispy up the skin some.

We share the same techniques. Usually if I were using my offset on let’s say… SLS Ribs, I’d hit them with smoke for the first 3 hours. So I kinda do that with the pellet smoker, put it in smoke mode for 3 hours, then after, it’s just using the pellets as fuel to get the temp up to 225-250.

If you like hickory smoke… Try This with the kingsford 100% hickory pellets from wal mart and tell me if the results aren’t comparable to an offset smoker! I never tried the Pit Boss pellets in that tube… Hmmmmm this weekend I will!

I’ve never been much of a fan of either hickory or mesquite. I used to use straight pecan in the offset when doing briskets. My neighbor likes to use hickory in his offset.

+1000000000000 on pecan. My fav!! Know a place to get pecan pellets that aren’t binded with alder or oak?