I like to think it appreciates it, though.
How did you do that asparagus? It looks perfect.
Thanks, I usually roast in the oven at about 425F. “Paint” the asparagus with olive oil, then heavily salt & pepper, using a cooling rack to hold them above a cookie sheet while they roast and turning after about 5-6 min. Sometimes I blow it, especially when they are too thick or too thin. However, looks like I nailed it last 4th :)
My wife gets much more consistent results pan steaming (water, salt, pepper, covered till done).
Awesome. I’m doing it your way :)
Let’s talk about fanning. Right now I’m using a table tennis paddle which is the traditional tool where I come from, but it’s really hard on the wrist. At some point in my life I had a cheap air dryer blower which was awesome so I might go with that.
Looking around I also found this:
What do other people use?
A lot of the pitmaster videos I’ve seen involve using a leaf blower on a low-ish setting. There are a lot of good battery-powered leafblowers nowadays.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ONE-18V-Cordless-Compact-Workshop-Blower-Tool-Only-P755/301289973
I love this little guy. I got it as a free tool selection when I bought a battery a few years back and they didn’t have the thing I had originally wanted. Super useful, and works great getting a fire going in my kamado
That looks nice, thanks guys.
What’s the word on smokers these days? I’m in the market and digging the vertical locker-style units. How do we feel about the various fuel types - pellet smokers seems to be all the rage these days but I can’t deny a propane smoker would be convenient paired with my existing gas grill. Electrics sound like they don’t impart nearly the flavor as other fuel types.
A couple that have caught my eye are the Masterbuilt propane and the Pit Boss pellet… but I’m happy to be told I’m crazy, or that some other options is way better by someone who knows :)
What are you planning to smoke? If you’re just doing ribs or fish, I think you’re good with almost any of those options. I find propane and electric to essentially be the same—that’s just the heat source, the smoke comes from the wood chips that you throw in.
If you’re doing brisket or pulled pork and other things that take 10+ hours of smoking, nothing beats the convenience of pellet grills. Smoke flavor tends to be weaker, which you can try to address with smoke tubes and such, but man, it makes long cooks so much easier. The hardcore folks will always prefer the true wood offset smokers, but you got to be sitting next that thing all day, tending the fire.
Honestly, I’m willing to give everything a shot though I imagine less seafood than other types of meats - there are local farms where I can buy just about everything else in bulk so it’s more a matter of cost and availability than preference.
Heh, that’s admittedly why I haven’t strongly looked into a pure wood smoker. The convenience of the other fuel sources where I can pop in every so often to make sure everything is fine is… appealing.
I LOVE my pellet smoker. Don’t know why you’d consider anything else, tbh.
Man there are a TON of things that go into the decision here. And, like anything else these days you can spend a little or a fortune. And you can remain fairly hands off or micromanage it all.
I’d lay it out like this based on how much you want to fiddle with it while you’re doing it.
Electric and Pellet smokers are both almost set and forget
Gas based smokers are in the middle of difficulty
Wood/charcoal smokers take the most active management to cook
Costs vary widely, if you want recommendations, pick a type above and go from there. Wood chunks/charcoal vs chips vs pellets is also a discussion point. You’re going to want to store a few different types based on what you’re smoking. Chips/pellets are easy to store, wood not so much.
Tracking and alarms are also a big thing, with a nod here to the pellet smokers as -most- of the popular ones have a probe and an app and will alert you for things. However you can add that same capability to any smoker with a selection of a few third party wireless or bluetooth probes/alarms.
Competition, looks are another thing people chase. If you MUST have a big smoke ring and MUST be able to do a couple of briskets or multiple rib racks, etc you’re going to eventually land in big smoker territory, usually with an offset style full wood smoker. If you’re okay with just smoking your food for the taste and don’t care about a smoke ring, an electric smoker isn’t a bad option and it’s easy as shit to wheel out, plug in and go.
If you’re wanting to cold smoke (some seafood, sausages, cheese, etc) then you’ll want a system that can handle producing smoke at low heat within the smoke chamber. That is a real differentiator among offerings and I’d honestly suggest looking at an add-on for that only if it is a must have.
Pellet smokers are hot right now because they use wood as the heat and smoke source, they produce some decent looking smoke results, and they are very easy to use/operate since a lot incorporate apps/probes/monitoring as part of them. But because they are popular, be wary they can be expensive.
Full disclosure, I love my Masterbuilt electric system (uses wood chips) but I truly covet upgrading to a pellet system. Having room for that latter is my holdup, currently.
EDIT: I almost forgot, when I first dipped my toes in someone recommended I go do some reading by Meathead and honestly he still reviews and provides a ton of things to learn about smoking. If you like it enough to pay for a membership, that also gives additional knowledge articles and access to the forum there which (for a time) I found very valuable.
I highly suspect that 90% of the home cooks who buy offsets don’t end up using them as intended. A single, large brisket feeds A LOT of people. If you’re in multi-brisket land, you’re either running some sort of catering business or homeless shelter or you’re throwing away a lot of meat. Yes, there tends to be a marked difference in the look and smoke level of an offset versus a pellet, but for me, getting to 85%-90% of the way there with a pellet when you consider the size, cost, and time involved with an offset is fine.
When I do a brisket (which I do maybe 4 times a year, max) I follow this overnight recipe that works like a charm and is only possible with a pellet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxkU-I7e63E. Literally as easy as cooking a steak, in terms of the effort once it is all trimmed.
For trimming and seasoning, I follow the approach from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbMzJ-qUfRw. https://youtu.be/l7nXTYbufkM. Jirby is one of the owner/pitmasters at Goldee’s BBQ, one of the current top BBQ spots in Texas. He also has videos on seasoning and cutting the brisket.
I agree 1000%. Hell, I’m happy with just a taint of a smoke ring but still fabulous taste from my wee little electric smoker. And yet, I have three neighbors on my street with offset full wood smokers. I have NO clue why. I feel like people get the biggest and largest smokers for some sort of smoking street cred around here. Meanwhile, I see them smoking maybe 10 times a year, if that.
The smoke ring and smoke flavor are not necessarily proportional. The overnight brisket I linked above always gets a serious smoke ring on a pellet smoker, but I’ll admit the actual smoke flavor is lower than an offset. To me, a good brisket is made up of many parts: texture (both the meat/fat render and the bark), the visual appeal (smoke ring and bark), and the taste, of course. Those three things don’t directly correlate and you can end up hitting 2 out of the park while whiffing the third some times.
What I need to do is stop being such a cheap-ass and try higher quality pellets. I’ve heard it can make a big difference in the flavor profile. I really want to try this stuff out, but man, it is pricey: https://youtu.be/Q9EsF7wfEhM
One thing weak on electric besides smoke ring is good bark. And along other reasons as well, it’s why I’d like to upgrade to a pellet grill/smoker. That being said, for around ~$60 I can add a cold smoking side attachment which is pretty highly rated for that purpose, allowing very low heat but great smoking results. Akin to an offset in a way except it takes chips, not pellets or full wood.
Before we moved, a couple of years ago, I went full charcoal for our grill. Sold the gas Weber, bought a very nice charcoal grill with all the adjustable everything, got a nice charcoal starter thing and used high quality wood chips for the charcoal, etc. It worked great, food tasted great.
Problem was, when I would get home from work in the middle of the week during the summer, I just didn’t have the desire to go through the entire process to grill some chicken or steaks or whatever. Part of it was, even with all the flexibiity of the grill, I had a hard time getting the grill to the temperature I wanted and keeping it there. Lazy, yeah.
We moved down here to Birmingham, AL (we used to live in both KC and the Houston, TX area and I swear there are more BBQ places down here per square mile than anywhere we’ve lived. Good stuff, too. Anyway sold the charcoal grill and just bought a good Weber gas grill. We use a wood chip box in the grill. Not the same, but we use the grill several times a week, and it is SO easy and fast.
However, we have a real desire for smoked meat. Yeah, we can buy all the smoked brisket, chickens, etc. we want from around here, but I want a smoker, LOL! And knowing us, a pellet will be in our future for the same reason we left the charcoal grill behind - ease of use = use it more often.
A guy at work brought in some smoked turkey he smoked on his pellet grill and O M G it was amazing. Just the tender texture and overall flavor.
We have a weber gas grill as our main grill and just this week alone have used it 3 times, and it’s only Wednesday. I love that thing. I too have a smoke box for it but have never used it because I have the electric smoker. One thing I’d worry about with it though is even indirect smoking off that weber would still go through some propane on a long multi-hour cook. Then again, maybe I should try that for comparison.
Can a pellet smoker grill chicken as fast as a grill?