- Jul 6, 2008
- 193
- 10
Hey, name is Dave and I'm in Nashville. I'm an fairly accomplished cook/chef, having been in the front of the house side or restaurants for about 15 years (with one 6 month stint in the kitchen in one of my restaurants, where I cranked out as many as 75 personal sized pizzas per hour from a wood fired hearth oven). Even though I'm FoH, I've paid a lot of attention to the chefs in each one of my kitchens.
My first smoking experience was in 1974 (thereabouts) where a group of friends pit cooked a pig. I was tasked with making the BBQ sauce. I was in Memphis at the time and made up a couple of gallons of a vinegar/tomato based sauce. As it turned out, in converting from the qt. recipe, I miscalculated and added about 3 times the amount of spices. As it turned out, the sauce was actually incredible and everyone raved about it. That taught me that you can't be shy with seasonings when it comes to BBQ/smoking/grilling. We did the ole plastic bag/lots of sauce/wrapped in foil deal. The pit was about 5 feet deep and we started with lots of wood burned down to glowing embers. Then we added the bundles and built a new fire on top. After about 12 hours, we fished the bags out and the result was amazing. The pork was like butter and the sauce had permeated every bit. My sauce was a huge hit (wish I still had that recipe).
Haven't done any smoking or much grilling in the interim and I wanted to expand my repertoire (I do a lot of Thai, Vietnamese and other Pacific Rim cuisines in addition to my normal cooking).
Just bought a Brinkmann's electric smoker. I wanted to be able to cook brisket for a long time without having to tend the fire every couple of hours. Unfortunately, I found that it cooks a bit hotter than I wanted. I experimented with a 3.5 lb pot roast just to see what would happen (it's been in the freezer for a while and I wanted to use it up). I was hoping to go long and slow, but it was well done by 5 hours (175 degrees). So, I know a lot of people have wondered about hooking up a dimmer and/or thermostat to it, but I was wondering if anyone had experimented with cracking open the feed door and/or opening the top a bit and just letting some of the heat (and smoke I guess) bleed off to get to more like 200 or so. The pot roast was wonderfully smoky from the foil wrapped mesquite and hickory chips that I added at various points but just too well-done (but not too well-done to eat, I must say). At least I know that if I do it again, I'll start with about 3 hours with a closed unit and see where that gets me. Incidentally, I did a variation of the 3/2/1 system (using apple juice in the foil - didn't seem to bother the dry rub crust any).
I'll be taking delivery of my new Weber 22" grill tomorrow, so I will be able to do charcoal smoking as well. I'm really looking forward to that.
Anyway, sorry for being so long-winded, but thought I'd prep you in advance for my potential wordiness <chuckle>
My first smoking experience was in 1974 (thereabouts) where a group of friends pit cooked a pig. I was tasked with making the BBQ sauce. I was in Memphis at the time and made up a couple of gallons of a vinegar/tomato based sauce. As it turned out, in converting from the qt. recipe, I miscalculated and added about 3 times the amount of spices. As it turned out, the sauce was actually incredible and everyone raved about it. That taught me that you can't be shy with seasonings when it comes to BBQ/smoking/grilling. We did the ole plastic bag/lots of sauce/wrapped in foil deal. The pit was about 5 feet deep and we started with lots of wood burned down to glowing embers. Then we added the bundles and built a new fire on top. After about 12 hours, we fished the bags out and the result was amazing. The pork was like butter and the sauce had permeated every bit. My sauce was a huge hit (wish I still had that recipe).
Haven't done any smoking or much grilling in the interim and I wanted to expand my repertoire (I do a lot of Thai, Vietnamese and other Pacific Rim cuisines in addition to my normal cooking).
Just bought a Brinkmann's electric smoker. I wanted to be able to cook brisket for a long time without having to tend the fire every couple of hours. Unfortunately, I found that it cooks a bit hotter than I wanted. I experimented with a 3.5 lb pot roast just to see what would happen (it's been in the freezer for a while and I wanted to use it up). I was hoping to go long and slow, but it was well done by 5 hours (175 degrees). So, I know a lot of people have wondered about hooking up a dimmer and/or thermostat to it, but I was wondering if anyone had experimented with cracking open the feed door and/or opening the top a bit and just letting some of the heat (and smoke I guess) bleed off to get to more like 200 or so. The pot roast was wonderfully smoky from the foil wrapped mesquite and hickory chips that I added at various points but just too well-done (but not too well-done to eat, I must say). At least I know that if I do it again, I'll start with about 3 hours with a closed unit and see where that gets me. Incidentally, I did a variation of the 3/2/1 system (using apple juice in the foil - didn't seem to bother the dry rub crust any).
I'll be taking delivery of my new Weber 22" grill tomorrow, so I will be able to do charcoal smoking as well. I'm really looking forward to that.
Anyway, sorry for being so long-winded, but thought I'd prep you in advance for my potential wordiness <chuckle>
