are you going to smoke the chuck roast?

 

I did in fact do just that. I’d load a picture but it’s being dumb. I messed up the cook though. I poked it at 160* and it was like butter but a 3lb roast had been cooking for 6hrs and the fam was getting hungry so I wrapped it and cranked the pit to 400* to push it to 200* and it got a little tough. Great flavor and bark and smoke ring but not as tender as it should have been. Should have pulled it at 160* and stuffed it in a cooler. Oh well. That’s smoking for ya.

 

nice! I’ve been wanting to do one for an awhile.

I plan on smoking a brisket this weekend. I added a SmokeAI smoke generator to my pit boss so I can run it at 225-250 and still get a good bark and ring. Last brisket came out good, very similar to a stick burner.

I do alot of pork butts. I took the meat church “Mexican” pork butt cooking method but i season just like I would a brisket. Heavy pepper, garlic etc. When I’m done i shred and put the meat back into its pan of drippings and juice.

 

I've cooked on several different style cookers. More smoke isn't always better. on a pellet grill it can produce a bark that is sticky to the touch and bitter. The trick that works best for me just takes more time. I throw it on at 200* and let it ride for the first 6-8 hours before bumping the temps up 25* at a time. I also throw the brisket on the smoker straight from the refrigerator while the smoker is coming up to temp. I get a great bark (picture above) without the sticky residue and bitter taste. I wrap at the bark color that I want without paying much attn to the temp and usually chunk it in the oven to finish since it won't take on any more smoke and it saves pellets. great bark, nice ring and excellent taste. I can do better on a stick burner but the convenience of a pellet smoker out weighs feeding a fire for that long. it just takes more time to build bark on a pellet grill than a stick burner. plastering it with more smoke to speed up the bark isnt ideal IMO. Just let it ride. It will get there.

 

That looks good. I agree about too much smoke. I was real disappointed in my pit boss 850 pro series, its “smoke” setting runs about 180-190 (no P settings) and it looks like it was cooked on a gas grill with a little bit of wood chips. I tried different brands of pellets etc. It’s a learning curve with it and the smoke generator. This one turned out ok, it didn’t suck but could have been better.

 

We're not a big fan of overly smoky meat either.

I've had $hit that tastes literally like freaking charcoal! And it's like spicy/bitter. LoL I don't don't understand that at all.

My opinion is when cooking, you want nice, clean fire. Burn out/off all the nasty, sooty, black stuff, them you are left with the clean embers. Use that to cook your food. Sticking a bare piece of wood in the fire you are cooking will get all that nasty stuff into your meat. I don't like that idea at all. Besides probably not being healthy.

I like my meat to taste like meat. Not sooty and no sweet BBQ sauce either, which is loaded with ketchup, brown sugar, regular sugar, molasses and stuff. All this stuff masks the meat flavor. It's not freaking dessert. 🙊

Sorry for the rant...

 

My Camp Chef does ok but I don’t use it much bc my wife hates smoked food. It doesn’t smoke the food to death just gives it a nice smoke ring and light flavor.

 

There should be nothing but a light blue smoke if you are doing it right. Thick clouds make for cool pictures but crappy meat.

 

Yea, I’m not into eating ashes.

 

Speaking of this. Any of y’all ever seen those folks that put fajitas and steaks directly on the coals? I get it’s a great sear but how do you avoid not getting ashes on the meat at that point?