Noo Yawker trying to BBQ

Cookin BBQ in Texas is almost like Politics. I have use the Brinkman charcoal for 20 years. My brisket wins contest, well not all the time, but enough to keep me cookin! I have seen folks with $1,000 cookers loose, and I have seen guys with homade cookers win. It is all is what you get use to, and know how to work.

And, if you really want to start a fight, just try and tell someone down here how to cook Chili!
 
Rustic23 said:
I have use the Brinkman charcoal for 20 years.
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You are definitely the man on the Brinkman then.

I've been on several wild game cooking teams and we always smoked a herd of brisket for the public, usually on one of those huge pits that fit a full sized trailer, and I enjoyed that. The charcoal Brinkman was my first attempt at home smoking and it was a total disaster. I took it to the hunting lease to provide some extra grill space, but nobody could get it to work right even as a grill. One afternoon during bird season we sat around drinking beer and shot the hell out of it before hauling it down to the dump pit.

I know the electric is not in sync with dogma, but it works well and it is easy as can be. I gave some of my first brisket to a neighbor who used to have a bbq restaurant in S.A. and he gave it high marks.
 
Leonidas said:
I've been on several wild game cooking teams and we always smoked a herd of brisket for the public, usually on one of those huge pits that fit a full sized trailer, and I enjoyed that.
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Yep. My SIL had this one custom made a couple of years ago.

img_819066_0_5cb607ec2a83ee995046a045ba79b037.jpg
 
I did see an electric one at Amazon. I'm not buying yet...need to do some more looking about. Keep those suggestions coming. :D
I'm willing to go up to $100, maybe a tad more if it's worth it.
It turns out that some NYANG friends have a larger metal box style smoker. They suggested the Brinkman also, but did mention the ventilation features were better on their box style. Similar to this one
Amazon.com: Brinkmann Vertical Meat Smoker: Electronics

I FOUND BRISKET!!!!!!

I stopped at my local grocery store today. They have brisket for $3.99 a lb, and they will cut it to order for me, any size. It was vacuum packed and looked really good. The meat counter guy said he has it every day during summer months, but will order some any time of year.
Right next to it was flank steak, and to my eye, they looked identical in grain. But I will get the real stuff.
 
I will confess my first brisket cooked on a Brinkman made better shoe soles than dinner!

I was at a brisket cook off in Pasadena, Tx, when one of the cookers told me the secret of great brisket. Well 80% of the secret.
 
freebird5825 said:
They have brisket for $3.99 a lb, and they will cut it to order for me, any size.
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for that price they ought to come over to cook and serve it!
freebird5825 said:
Right next to it was flank steak, and to my eye, they looked identical in grain. But I will get the real stuff.
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Close, but not quite. Brisket comes from the chest area of the cow, skirt steak next back, followed by flank. Flank steak would be better marinated and then grilled for fajitas.
 
Leonidas said:
for that price they ought to come over to cook and serve it!
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Well, it might not be widely available up there and it might be a small chunk that will cost more per pound. Out here it's not unusual to find large hunks of brisket (10 pounds and up) for $1.99 a pound or less. On a couple of fairly recent occasions I've seen large hunks about to go past its "sell by" date for 99 cents a pound.
 
ziggy29 said:
Well, it might not be widely available up there and it might be a small chunk that will cost more per pound. Out here it's not unusual to find large hunks of brisket (10 pounds and up) for $1.99 a pound or less. On a couple of fairly recent occasions I've seen large hunks about to go past its "sell by" date for 99 cents a pound.
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HEB had them for 88 cents a pound for Memorial Day. I think the trimmed price was $1.95.

I thought brisket was Jewish soul food in the northeast. There was a Food Channel story on it a while back showing some restaurant in NYC processing it by the car load. Seems like the price would be more reasonable, unless this is just a function of that whole everything is more expensive in the northeast rule.

Edit: HEB is of course my grocer of choice and they usually have good prices and their specials have been very nice lately. Like the 35 pounds sack of crawfish I bought for $50 for a party we threw weekend before last. I didn't think it was such a great deal until after I had stuffed 12 people full to the gills at the party, and then wound up with enough leftovers for a huge pot of gumbo and etouffee for five people one night.
 
Leonidas said:
HEB had them for 88 cents a pound for Memorial Day. I think the trimmed price was $1.95.

I thought brisket was Jewish soul food in the northeast. There was a Food Channel story on it a while back showing some restaurant in NYC processing it by the car load. Seems like the price would be more reasonable, unless this is just a function of that whole everything is more expensive in the northeast rule.
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You got that right on both counts.
The $3.99/lb :( brisket was in the specialty meat counter at the chain grocery store versus the general open meat refrig areas. I'm still going to check with my mom-n-pop butcher place to see if they will do a brisket cut and what they want for it. They get half cows delivered to their store and do the cutting and packaging right on site. I wonder if they cut it up for beef stew or braciola. Braciola - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You guys are closer to the cattle ranches, so your costs are much lower. NY has mostly dairy cattle farms versus beef cattle.
I've seen steak on legs ;) in small numbers (less than a dozen) here and there at area farms.
I just might grab the phone book and hunt down the smaller butcher shops tucked away in the numerous small towns. I love a treasure hunt! :D
 
Leonidas said:
Edit: HEB is of course my grocer of choice and they usually have good prices and their specials have been very nice lately. Like the 35 pounds sack of crawfish I bought for $50 for a party we threw weekend before last. I didn't think it was such a great deal until after I had stuffed 12 people full to the gills at the party, and then wound up with enough leftovers for a huge pot of gumbo and etouffee for five people one night.
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We have a lousy, expensive grocery store in town here, so we usually do our major shopping about twice a month at one of the HEB stores about 30 minutes away. Even when gas was $4, we saved a lot of money because $100 of groceries at HEB would probably be about $150 or more at our local supermarket -- and the selection here is crummy, too. I really wish HEB would buy these guys out.
 
This is like the one we have...actually have two of them. One in JP and one in California.

Walmart.com: Brinkmann 40'' Charcoal Smoker: Grills & Outdoor Cooking

Allows you to keep the fire going, but not too hot for the meat to cook low and slow. I've also got the brinkmann Smoke n grill like the earlier one you posted. Loved it when we used it, but since I got this one above I rarely use it anymore. All together I have 3 gas grills, 3 smokers, a Weber kettle and an open charcoal grill. Can you tell I like to cook outdoors? (part of the reason is living JP and being back in the stated during peak BBQ season).

R
 
Rustic23 said:
Try this site.
Smokers

Acadamy is big here in Texas, and their prices look better than Wally World.
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Thanks!
Unfortunately, Academy does not offer online shopping except for gift cards. Argh!
Any volunteers to deliver one to me? I'll take you to see Niagara Falls in return. :flowers: Just kidding, guys...:D

My budget tells me to stay at around $100 including tax and S&H, or maybe $150 max if I fall in love with one with one of the medium priced smokers. :whistle:
I'm tossing around the traditional charcoal/wood vs electric question in my head.
My reasoning is this...I'm a total novice. I didn't grow up watching the real live smoking process. Greenhorn! :LOL:
However I am a fast learner and will do the research to learn smoking techniques, besides picking all of your brains. :greetings10:
If I go traditional, I can spend a lot of time (which I have :D) learning the technique of heat and proper ventilation and moisture and time. I like to putter with things, but that could get old.
If I go with electric, I can get to the desired result faster.

And to really confuse me, there are also LP gas models out there too. But I already have a gas grill, so that would be duplication on a certain level. So that option has been scratched off the list.

I have narrowed it down to following your suggestions and going with the Brinkman brand.

Square box with front doors or bullet shaped with top lid?

Traditional or electric ?

I need a nudge...
 
OK, here is how I use the bullet smoker.

I throw some charcoal in the bottom and light it. (couple of inches) I throw the wood chunks on and let everything burn till the starter fluid has burned off. I place the water pan in, fill it, put two briskets on the two racks. Then I put the lid on. Every hour I open the door and put more wood in. I use chunks that are about 6 inches long and put about 4 logs in. The thing cooks at what ever temp it cooks at. Seldom does it ever reach ideal on the gauge. After 4 hours of smoking, I finish it off in the oven (secret process) for another 4 hours. I have found that I get better smoke rings when it is warmer out. I don't recommend using this smoker if it is cold out. Nice warm 85+ day works well.

As noted I use the $40 smoker from Academy. I have stuck with this because it (I'm) cheap, people rave about the brisket, and I can't justify the $200 for a bigger better cooker.
 
Rustic23 said:
OK, here is how I use the bullet smoker.

I throw some charcoal in the bottom and light it. (couple of inches) I throw the wood chunks on and let everything burn till the starter fluid has burned off. I place the water pan in, fill it, put two briskets on the two racks. Then I put the lid on. Every hour I open the door and put more wood in. I use chunks that are about 6 inches long and put about 4 logs in. The thing cooks at what ever temp it cooks at. Seldom does it ever reach ideal on the gauge. After 4 hours of smoking, I finish it off in the oven (secret process) for another 4 hours. I have found that I get better smoke rings when it is warmer out. I don't recommend using this smoker if it is cold out. Nice warm 85+ day works well.

As noted I use the $40 smoker from Academy. I have stuck with this because it (I'm) cheap, people rave about the brisket, and I can't justify the $200 for a bigger better cooker.
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Um....logs? How big are your logs ?
Maybe I don't understand just how big the bullet shaped traditional Brinkman is. Is it waist or chest high when sitting on the ground? I'm picturing something the size of a deep frying turkey cooker, only without legs.

BINGO!!!!
The tie-breaking factor just emerged. COLD. We get an awful lot of that up here.
Then of course there is the matter of the snow. :(
I have a back porch with an open walkway around the outside.
I sometimes brave the slightly cold (45-60F) weather and grill out there, any time of year. I have been known to play Nanook of the North and go outside to grill steaks in 30F weather, no wind.
Our outside temps range in the 70s to 80s during the one week of summer ;) we get around the 4th of July. August will bring some 90s, here and there for a spell.
Electric is the obvious choice for my latitude.
 
I've always used a gas grill. Thought about getting a real BBQ, but never got around to it.

Then, reading this thread, a thought occurs to me. How about using the kitchen oven, set on low for slow cooking? The flavor can be supplied via "liquid smoke". :cool:



Arghhh... :hide:



Someone, please call 911!! They are coming to tar and feather me. :dead:
 
freebird5825 said:
Electric is the obvious choice for my latitude.
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There ya go. I chose electric because I'm lazy and don't want to keep screwing with the fire any more than occasionally tossing a couple of wood chips in. Considering that at 220 degrees you have an hour of cooking time per pound of meat, and the average untrimmed brisket is going to weigh about ten pounds or so, that's a lot of time spent keeping a wood (or charcoal) fire going. Plus, on the electric smoker I can set the desired temperature and I know how long it will take to cook something and I can slow down or speed up the process as desired.

I can toss in some wood chips and go do whatever for 2-3 hours and know it will still be smoking. And even if the wood chips burn off, the smoker is still keeping the heat constant.
 
NW-Bound said:
I've always used a gas grill. Thought about getting a real BBQ, but never got around to it.
Then, reading this thread, a thought occurs to me. How about using the kitchen oven, set on low for slow cooking? The flavor can be supplied via "liquid smoke". :cool:
Arghhh... :hide:
Someone calls 911!! They are coming to tar and feather me. :dead:
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Hey, I've just been broken of using a cr*ckpot for BBQ.
Let me not regress. :LOL:
I've actually wanted to get a smoker for quite a while. I was too busy w*rking and sailing and gardening and volunteering and...<pant pant pant>
I have guy friends who go freshwater salmon fishing on the Salmon River (real name, no kidding) and just might be able to wrangle a free fish or two out of them if I offer to smoke a bunch up for them.
But for now, I'm sticking with brisket attempts. I'm getting some serious advice here from the folks "in the know". :D
Next will be kielbasa, ribs, bacon, sausage, chicken, fish, onions, eggplant...the possibilities are endless.
 
freebird5825 said:
I'm shopping for a smoker. :LOL:
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You may be in luck. A couple weeks ago while out and about, I saw three smokers sitting in front yards with big "for sale" signs on them. This is in a fairly modest, middle to low income area. I guess folks are liquidating their assets to pay their month to month bills... Asking prices were 20-40% of new prices apparently.
 
FUEGO said:
You may be in luck. A couple weeks ago while out and about, I saw three smokers sitting in front yards with big "for sale" signs on them. This is in a fairly modest, middle to low income area. I guess folks are liquidating their assets to pay their month to month bills... Asking prices were 20-40% of new prices apparently.
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I have considered looking at garage sales. We are just entering summer here.
A lot of folks convert their garages into screened refuges and there's that darn smoker/cooker, impulse bought on credit, which was never used but once 5 years ago for Cousin Mary's graduation party, right in the way of where the outdoor TV stand needs to go. :LOL: <I'm gonna burn>
I have a Jeep with fold down seats and plenty of time to kill.
Mwah ha ha...
 
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