Want to buy a BBQ smoker

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

225 - 250.  the central temperature typically crosses 160 after about 3 - 3.5 hours and hits 205 in the 6 - 8 range

[Caliga]

How big of a pork butt are we talking here?  The one I did (which turned out perfect btw  ) was 8 lbs.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Usually 6 - 8 pounds.  My experience with both pork and beef is that one hour per pound is the rough cooking time at 225, in a cooker with good temperature control like I have now.

[Caliga]

  I've usually heard 1.5 hours per pound for pork butt.  Do you pull it, slice it, or chop it?  I pull it and I wait till it hits 208 degrees to take it out of the smoker.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I do all three.  That is the standard practice in KCBS competition and I like the variety for non-competitive cooks as well.  I pull the butt off the smoker at 195 and let it rest up to 205.

[Jacob]

Smoking related question:

My father-in-law has been curing some Sichuan style meat and homemade sausage in the back yard. He would like to smoke them as well, but I guess he's looking for some sort of cold-smoker since he doesn't want to the meat to be cooked.

Any suggestions on the most hassle free, low-cost way to do this? I'm up for buying a smoker of some sort if necessary (it probably is, since I'm not going to build one), but I don't really know what's what.

Any tips or suggestions?

[Caliga]

I do all three.  That is the standard practice in KCBS competition and I like the variety for non-competitive cooks as well.  I pull the butt off the smoker at 195 and let it rest up to 205.

Do you have a BGE?

[Caliga]

Smoking related question:

My father-in-law has been curing some Sichuan style meat and homemade sausage in the back yard. He would like to smoke them as well, but I guess he's looking for some sort of cold-smoker since he doesn't want to the meat to be cooked.

Any suggestions on the most hassle free, low-cost way to do this? I'm up for buying a smoker of some sort if necessary (it probably is, since I'm not going to build one), but I don't really know what's what.

Any tips or suggestions?

I have a cold smoker kit for my smoker.  I haven't actually used it for cold smoking but for meats (as opposed to cheese) it supposedly works well.

Smoker:



Cold Smoker Kit:

[Caliga]

Total cost of those together is about $200-250 US, depending on if you can get them on sale, etc.  I paid only $130 but that's because I had tons of gift cards for Bass Pro Shops (where I got the main unit) and then I got the cold smoker with credit card reward points.

[Jacob]

But I need a smoker before the cold smoking kit will be any good, right?

[Caliga]

But I need a smoker before the cold smoking kit will be any good, right?

Well that cold smoker was designed to go with that smoker, but I guess in theory you could buy the cold smoking kit and then rig up a metal box on your own to attach to the cold smoker.  You basically just need to pass smoke from the cold smoker into a closed chamber with minimal venting.

[MadImmortalMan]

I made a roast beef on the CG kamado. The fire was burning for less than a half an hour, but the thing kept its temp at 250 for about five hours now. It's still doing it even though I took the food out. That thing saves so much charcoal.

[Caliga]

Nice.

I think the next thing I'm going to try is a pulled beef with a chuck roast.  After that, I may go for the 'gold' and finally do a brisket in my smoker.

[Scipio]

Jacob, try this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cardboard-Cold-Smoker/

[Caliga]

As much as I love my new Big Green Egg it takes forever to get to temp with those wimpy wax and sawdust starters.  Think I'm gonna go buy a heat gun.