My brother-in-law gave me a taste of some of his homemade beef jerky a couple weekends ago, and it was fantastic! Apparently it was also easy to make. Easy, delicious, I’m gonna try it! He used a dehydrator, but I plan to use a smoker to keep my wife’s dehydrator from getting strong flavors stuck in it.
I got a 2.5 lbs bottom round steak, sliced it thin, then started it in the marinade below at 2130. I plan to marinade for over 12 hours, then smoke the slices at 175℉ for 4 hours or so.
I ran out of brisket too quickly last time… It makes a fantastic sandwich with Philly Cream Cheese (strangely enough). Then I eat a bunch of salmon on bagels, with Philly Cream Cheese… The discovery that it’s the right cheese for both sandwiches has made shopping easier.
The brisket is 15.5 lbs, $2.99 per pound. Salmon is 6 lbs, didn’t get the price before tossing the package. We have to move in July and I hope I can keep up this hobby at the next stop in life.
Well, there’s the possibility that the brisket I did last weekend won’t be enough meat… And there’s the fact that I can get another one done in time… So I’m making another brisket! We’ll just try for a repeat performance…
14.1 lbs of brisket at $3.99 a pound…
1045, 21 Jul: Brisket went on, fat cap up, 225℉. I should check the temperature after 8 hours, at 0645.
0900, 22 Jul: The flat passed 166℉ a couple hours ago, but the point was only at 162℉. Now, the flat is at about 175℉, while the point is at 165℉… I wrapped it and increased the smoker temperature to 250℉. This step took a little longer than last time, but then I was doing to finish up further ahead of the party than I wanted anyway, so the timing should be ok. After wrapping I kept the fat cap on top.
It’s time to make the brisket for our Maryland wedding party! I’m pumped. Goals this time - turn up the temperature to 250℉ earlier, or put it in the oven for a long time. I don’t want to go more than 24 hours, I can’t go for nearly that long… Cut off less fat than last time. Keep the fat cap on top…
The slab of meat I got was a full brisket, point and flat, 14.6 lbs and $3.99 a pound. Brisket has gone up in price, maybe it’s the season. When I first did this last winter, it was at about $2 a pound, now it’s double that. I guess I can’t wait to smoke a brisket in winter again.
Time to try some ribs! I’ll use this recipe with the Memphis Dust dry rub I used on the pork butts. Also - we’re out of Salmon. I’m going to do a double batch of the usual. I’ll just do 6 pounds for four hours, then do 6 more for 4 more hours.
I bought what I thought were 3 racks of ribs - 3 large vacuum-packed things of ribs from Costco. About 30 lbs total. What I didn’t realize is that each vacuum packed bag contains 3 racks of ribs… So I’m going to do 9 racks of ribs. This is stupid and I almost certainly don’t have enough room in the smoker, but it’ll all work out :-)
It’s a Saturday and I don’t have a ton of stuff to do, and we’re out of Salmon! A terrible problem with one clear solution. It’s time to smoke more meat. We’ve eaten almost all of the chicken and pork now, so I can feel good doing another brisket.
Actually, I’ve been excited for the last two weeks to do another brisket. Ok, I’ve been excited since the last time I did one, but in the last two weeks the excitement has come to a head. It’s time to make more brisket sandwiches, more brisket dinners. More brisket snacks. Brisket in eggs.
Alright! Time to BBQ for some other people. We’re throwing a baby shower for some friends of ours, and one of the I’m going to bust out the pork butt recipe I used last time, and do it the same.
I got a 15 lbs butt from Costco again - it looks beautiful. There’s a bunch of dry rub from last time leftover in the cabinet.
24 Feb 2018, 1420: Began trimming the pork (took out chunks, left layers of fat about 1/8" thick - leaving a little more fat than last time), and then salting it. 1/2 tsp per pound meat, so 2.5 Tbsp. I cut the pork into three large pieces.
1. The recipe my mom sent me called Amway Grand Plaza Grilled Chicken Midwest - in my Google Docs Recipes folder
2. [https://ohsweetbasil.com/how-to-smoke-chicken/](https://ohsweetbasil.com/how-to-smoke-chicken/)
Other great info and ideas at these links - at some point I’d like to try the brine/minimal method:
Anyway - here’s the plan today. Make a marinade of the ingredients below, divide this among four butterflied (spatchcocked? silly name) chickens in plastic bags, marinade overnight. Then, smoke for four hours at 220℉, with the goal of getting internal temp on the breasts to 160℉-165℉. Let the chicken rest, then carve it up.
I began prep on Sunday night with 16 lbs of pork butt split into three parts, and 5.5 pounds of salmon. I used the typical salmon recipe, this time I did one quart of brine and still separated things into 4 bags. I used this pulled pork recipe, and this dry rub recipe per Ben’s recommendation. The pulled pork recipe looked to be a reasonable beginner’s complexity, too… I considered this pork butt set to be just three of the one used in the recipe, so I had 1 cup of dry rub that I used on the three.
