Round one with the MES 40 that I just got two days ago and I'm pretty darn excited with it's performance. I thought it was about the coolest thing in the world to clean the garage , watch football & drink some brew while checking the internal temp of my beef butt with the press of a button on the handy wireless MES controller! It was very addicting and I annoyed my girlfriend by asking her to guess the temp of my beef butt every five minutes.. hehee.
I was just going to do ribs but then I got a thinking, that MES 40 is pretty roomy...I better not waste all of that beautiful smoke with 3 of 4 racks being empty! When I went to the store, I literally just walked around looking for anything to smoke. I'm sure YOU ALL have done it before! I found turkey legs, a beef butt and some hearts & Gizzards. Great Idea!
I seasoned the MES 40 Friday evening and rubbed my ribs and soaked my turkey legs in a brine overnight for Saturday.
RIBS
RUB:
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Paprika
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup garlic powder
2 Tb Ground black pepper
2 Tb Onion Powder
1 tsp Rosemary Powder
2 tsp Thyme
1 Tb Red Pepper Flakes
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper Powder
1 Tb Cumin
1 Tb Chili Powder
I did a quick oil rub on each side and used 1-2 Tb of the rub on each side. Wrapped ribs in plastic wrap and let sit over night.
Smoked them at 200° - 220° for 4.5 - 5 hrs with 4 pans of wood chips (my amns hasn't arrived yet). I put baby rays spicy & sweet sauce on one rib and famous dave's Devil's Spit on the other (one my favorite bbq sauces ever!) - smoked those for another 20 minutes to crust up the sauce a bit.
Fantastic Ribs!! Don't get me wrong, I've smoked a bunch on my other smoker but I didn't expect everything to come out SO good as it did the first time using the MES 40.
Turkey Drum / Legs
I let the turkey drums / legs sit in a gallon zip lock of water with three TB of sugar cure and 1 TB of McCormick's rotisserie chicken seasoning overnight. Patted them dry and put them on the smoker.
I'm pretty new at the smoked turkey legs (well not eating them, just smoking them) so this was an experiment. These came out great! The skin was tougher than the store bought but I just removed it with one quick tug with my teeth. Meat came out moist and smokey. Very happy.
Beef Butt
I didn't write down my rub for this but it was pretty common for red meat and consisted of Salt, Thyme, Sage, Oregano, Rosemary, Pepper, Garlic & Onion powder & some Cayenne powder.
I just rubbed this about an hour before smoking. Smoked until 140° internal. Turned out great. Medium done and super tender. I was surprised at how tender it turned out. If I had a slicer I'd make some nice thin slices for sandwich meat. I sliced it about 1/4'' by hand and can't wait to have a cold mayo, wheat bread sandwich after I write this post.
Chicken Hearts & Gizzards
This might not be normal, but every single time we cooked a duck, goose, turkey for any occasion my two brothers and I would always fight over who got to eat the heart and gizzard. The neck was a very distant third.
Salt N Pepper and into the smoker. They came out great except they took a little too much smoke flavor. Next time I will put them in when there is not much smoke because they really seem to have some super smoke absorbing skills. My dog also loved them.
Jalapeno Powder
I just dehydrated some Jalapeno peppers and ground them to powder. Very tasty heat on everything, including rubs and in sausages.
*** I think the back right corner is a little hotter than the rest, especially on the bottom rack closest to the heat source / smoke pan. I also think the back right get's more smoke when the vent is wide open being it's the quickest point from A to B for the smoke to escape. I'm guessing the amns will fix both problems.
* post got kind of long so here are some pictures!
I was just going to do ribs but then I got a thinking, that MES 40 is pretty roomy...I better not waste all of that beautiful smoke with 3 of 4 racks being empty! When I went to the store, I literally just walked around looking for anything to smoke. I'm sure YOU ALL have done it before! I found turkey legs, a beef butt and some hearts & Gizzards. Great Idea!
I seasoned the MES 40 Friday evening and rubbed my ribs and soaked my turkey legs in a brine overnight for Saturday.
RIBS
RUB:
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Paprika
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup garlic powder
2 Tb Ground black pepper
2 Tb Onion Powder
1 tsp Rosemary Powder
2 tsp Thyme
1 Tb Red Pepper Flakes
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper Powder
1 Tb Cumin
1 Tb Chili Powder
I did a quick oil rub on each side and used 1-2 Tb of the rub on each side. Wrapped ribs in plastic wrap and let sit over night.
Smoked them at 200° - 220° for 4.5 - 5 hrs with 4 pans of wood chips (my amns hasn't arrived yet). I put baby rays spicy & sweet sauce on one rib and famous dave's Devil's Spit on the other (one my favorite bbq sauces ever!) - smoked those for another 20 minutes to crust up the sauce a bit.
Fantastic Ribs!! Don't get me wrong, I've smoked a bunch on my other smoker but I didn't expect everything to come out SO good as it did the first time using the MES 40.
Turkey Drum / Legs
I let the turkey drums / legs sit in a gallon zip lock of water with three TB of sugar cure and 1 TB of McCormick's rotisserie chicken seasoning overnight. Patted them dry and put them on the smoker.
I'm pretty new at the smoked turkey legs (well not eating them, just smoking them) so this was an experiment. These came out great! The skin was tougher than the store bought but I just removed it with one quick tug with my teeth. Meat came out moist and smokey. Very happy.
Beef Butt
I didn't write down my rub for this but it was pretty common for red meat and consisted of Salt, Thyme, Sage, Oregano, Rosemary, Pepper, Garlic & Onion powder & some Cayenne powder.
I just rubbed this about an hour before smoking. Smoked until 140° internal. Turned out great. Medium done and super tender. I was surprised at how tender it turned out. If I had a slicer I'd make some nice thin slices for sandwich meat. I sliced it about 1/4'' by hand and can't wait to have a cold mayo, wheat bread sandwich after I write this post.
Chicken Hearts & Gizzards
This might not be normal, but every single time we cooked a duck, goose, turkey for any occasion my two brothers and I would always fight over who got to eat the heart and gizzard. The neck was a very distant third.
Salt N Pepper and into the smoker. They came out great except they took a little too much smoke flavor. Next time I will put them in when there is not much smoke because they really seem to have some super smoke absorbing skills. My dog also loved them.
Jalapeno Powder
I just dehydrated some Jalapeno peppers and ground them to powder. Very tasty heat on everything, including rubs and in sausages.
*** I think the back right corner is a little hotter than the rest, especially on the bottom rack closest to the heat source / smoke pan. I also think the back right get's more smoke when the vent is wide open being it's the quickest point from A to B for the smoke to escape. I'm guessing the amns will fix both problems.
* post got kind of long so here are some pictures!