Hey all:
My only previous smoking effort was a thanksgiving turkey 20 years ago on a long-gone Brinkman vertical. I was up all night tending and fretting over it - but it was well worth it.
My brother has been smoking for years and everything he's done has been good eats. He's smoked so much he can barely open the lid from all the "seasoning" it's had. Figured I'd get into smoking so I'd have it more often than the 3-4 times a year we get together. But, I want to do something different each time and experience all I can.
Wife got me a Char-Griller Duo back in May for a birthday/father's day. It has two grills on same frame. Left side is a 1300 sq in gas grill and right side is a 1300 sq in charcoal grill. I bought and installed the side fire box to make the right side a smoker only - won't be any charcoal grilling on that side.
After I seasoned the smoker side my first project was to smoke a meatloaf. I have an awesome meatloaf recipe and saw someone smoking meatloaf on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives - so figured I would try it. Absolutely the best meatloaf I ever had. Awesome squared. Fantastic meatloaf sandwiches the next few days.
Next was a brisket. Good flavor but I didn't smoke it long enough. 6 hours and it was pretty tough. Found the link to Smoking-Meat.com and realized I hadn't smoked it the 14+ hours I should have.
Yesterday was the discovery of a lifetime. Shrimp on the smoker. It was awesome.
Had the kids and their spouses over to grill steaks and I smoked shrimp for an appetizer. Steaks were great but shrimp was all gone. Did 1 lb of 9-12 size - almost the size of small lobster tails with 3-4 bites each. And a pound of 51-60 size - bite sized. Used wet bamboo skewers and sprinkled each with my own spice mixture. A little spice with the hickory chip smoke flavor. Going to try apple chips next time.
My family thought I was nuts for smoking the meatloaf. They're now believers. Shrimp will be an every time event. I'm thinking one of my next projects will be a bologna. Daughter said she wouldn't put it past me to try smoking a cheese cake. Now that she mentioned it....
Anyway, I hope to have many fantastic smoking experiences in the future and hope to learn a lot from you all.
Any thoughts or ideas on the cheesecake? Think I'll use cherry wood.
My only previous smoking effort was a thanksgiving turkey 20 years ago on a long-gone Brinkman vertical. I was up all night tending and fretting over it - but it was well worth it.
My brother has been smoking for years and everything he's done has been good eats. He's smoked so much he can barely open the lid from all the "seasoning" it's had. Figured I'd get into smoking so I'd have it more often than the 3-4 times a year we get together. But, I want to do something different each time and experience all I can.
Wife got me a Char-Griller Duo back in May for a birthday/father's day. It has two grills on same frame. Left side is a 1300 sq in gas grill and right side is a 1300 sq in charcoal grill. I bought and installed the side fire box to make the right side a smoker only - won't be any charcoal grilling on that side.
After I seasoned the smoker side my first project was to smoke a meatloaf. I have an awesome meatloaf recipe and saw someone smoking meatloaf on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives - so figured I would try it. Absolutely the best meatloaf I ever had. Awesome squared. Fantastic meatloaf sandwiches the next few days.
Next was a brisket. Good flavor but I didn't smoke it long enough. 6 hours and it was pretty tough. Found the link to Smoking-Meat.com and realized I hadn't smoked it the 14+ hours I should have.
Yesterday was the discovery of a lifetime. Shrimp on the smoker. It was awesome.
Had the kids and their spouses over to grill steaks and I smoked shrimp for an appetizer. Steaks were great but shrimp was all gone. Did 1 lb of 9-12 size - almost the size of small lobster tails with 3-4 bites each. And a pound of 51-60 size - bite sized. Used wet bamboo skewers and sprinkled each with my own spice mixture. A little spice with the hickory chip smoke flavor. Going to try apple chips next time.
My family thought I was nuts for smoking the meatloaf. They're now believers. Shrimp will be an every time event. I'm thinking one of my next projects will be a bologna. Daughter said she wouldn't put it past me to try smoking a cheese cake. Now that she mentioned it....
Anyway, I hope to have many fantastic smoking experiences in the future and hope to learn a lot from you all.
Any thoughts or ideas on the cheesecake? Think I'll use cherry wood.
