Brisket Start to Finish

               You have your smoker, your gauges are good, you have found any hotspots, you understand heat flow/control and you have successfully kept your smoker at 200 – 275 for longer than 10mins. You should now be ready to cook a larger cut of meat! Now I don’t eat pork but if you like pulled pork go get you a pork shoulder and make that your first attempt at a larger cut of meat. Pork shoulder CANNOT be messed up, there is just too much fat in them to get messed up. The following brisket steps will work fine on a shoulder. However if you are wiser beyond your years and don’t eat pork either I recommend cooking a brisket as your fist larger cut.

               First things first, what kind of brisket should you get? This is easy, look for a packer style brisket, or untrimmed brisket. If you are walking through the store these are those MONSTER size briskets (as long as your arm, and they have a huge section of fat on them). A packer style brisket is basically an untrimmed brisket that has both the point and the flat together; these two sections of meat are separated by a layer of fat. The main thing I look for is flexibility. Take the package and shake it around see which one has more flexibility to it. The more flexible the more marbling and fat within the tissue which will in turn create an even juicer more tender BBQ brisket. These briskets can be scary because of their price, but don’t worry if you follow this guide you don’t have to worry about $40 worth of meat going up in smoke.

               Step 1: Get your fire started.

I don’t know how many times I see people waste time getting food ready and then try and start a fire. As you know Charcoal and firewood takes a little while to get going, so why not kick the fire off first, it normally works prefect. You walk out to a smoker that is up to heat ready for food and your food is ready for the smoker.

               Step 2: Prepping the brisket.

Here again my goal is SIMPLE BBQ that is amazing. I don’t do anything to my brisket except COVER the entire brisket with Nate’s BBQ rub. I don’t trim, I don’t score, and I don’t do ANYTHING outside of rub. All the techniques I hear don’t make any difference or if they do it’s not enough for me to justify the time and the work to use them. BBQ is simple and brisket is one of the simplest. The key here is the flour that is in the rub. If you did not have the flour your meat would turn out to salty, spicy or sweet. With the flour you can COVER every inch of your brisket with rub; this rub caramelizes with the fat creating a perfect bark that keeps all that moisture in the meat, right where we want it.

               Step 3: Watch Duty.

Once the smoker is up the 200 – 275 degrees put the brisket in. At this point all you are concerned with is heat control you don’t want that smoker going above 275 and you really don’t want it going any lower than 200. Now obviously the lower the temperature the more tender the meat is going to be. I normally keep mine at 250ish that way if I miss a cycle or lose track I have more time to catch it and bring it back up to heat. If the heat gets too low you start exposing your meat to the danger zone of bacteria.

               Step 4: Did you burn it?

At this point you should be roughly 6 – 8 hours into the smoking process. You have been a champ keeping your smoker at temp for this long. This is the point that I normally check the internal temp of the meat. Your brisket should look almost burnt (it might scare you at first, but don’t be worried). With all hopes your internal temp is somewhere around 165 – 175ish. This is the point that I will wrap the brisket in foil. Now to clear up any confusion keeping the brisket open (not wrapped in foil) will do NOTHING but give you bragging rights in the BBQ community. Your brisket will not get anymore smoke flavor. I challenge anyone to be able to tell the difference between a brisket that was smoked open for 7 or 8 hours and then wrapped in foil vs. one that was open the entire cooking process. Also if you are just exhausted and tired of tending to the fire pre-heat that oven to 225 and finish the brisket off in the oven, it’s not going to get any more smoke on the smoker wrapped in foil. The reason I like to wrap in foil is it just makes the cooking process easier; it helps keep the moisture in and expedites the cooking process in general.

               Step 5: Monitor the internal temp.

Get yourself a good quality remote digital temperature, this way you can keep it probed in the meat while it is cooking. If you are planning to make just chopped brisket or pulled pork cook until the internal temperature reaches 200. If you plan to slice any of the brisket cook to an internal temperature of 190, the lower temperature will allow you to slice the brisket without it falling apart. Once the brisket has reached its finished temperature pull it out of the smoker and let it rest (still wrapped in foil) at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour. This will allow the meat to rest (another topic all together).

               Step 6: Slice/Chop the brisket.

The way I start is cut the brisket in half at the thickest point (this is the place where the point and the flat meat). This way you can clearly see the point, the flat, fat cap, etc. You will see where the point and the flat are separated by a layer of fat. Separate the point from the flat. Once completed on both halves you should end up with two pieces of flat, and two pieces of point. Cut off all excess fat and fat cap (keep the larger sections of the fat cap we will use them later). Now once the flat is cleaned off you will be able to see the grain of the meat. At this point you want to slice the brisket against the grain. The flat will be the part that has a really tight grain and runs almost parallel with the length of the brisket (when you cut the brisket in half it’s the part that was cut against the grain or close to). Now that the flat is sliced you can chop the point.

Note: See video for details on slicing and chopping.

               Step 7: Now that you have everything chopped and sliced if you have any leftover or are planning to heat this up for an upcoming party simply put the brisket in a cake pan and then cover with the slices of fat cap that you kept and cover pan with foil. To re-heat pre-heat oven to 350 and place pan in over for 15 – 20 minutes, the slices of fat cap will help keep the brisket moist while you re-heat as well as add flavor.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Rubs, mops and marinades

This is where the real secret is, in my opinion. My BBQ is all about the rub. I don’t marinade I don’t mop, I don’t let my meat sit for 12 hours with the rub on it, I just COVER the meat with my secret rub recipe and throw it on the smoker. Now I have tried mops marinades and letting my brisket or ribs sit with the rub on them for HOURS and HOURS before I smoked them and to be honest, I can’t tell a difference, the only difference I could MAYBE tell was leaving the rub on for 12 to 15 hours before putting it on the smoker, but it was soooo minuscule that its just not worth it to me. My thought has always been simplicity is king. I want my BBQ to be simple and amazing and quite honestly that is just what it is. I don’t waste time on techniques that don’t bring any value, and I hope to help those from falling for these worthless techniques. I am convinced that some of the books and articles I have read are people just trying to make BBQ sound more complicated than it really is. Good BBQ is so simple and so easy I was amazed that more people did not do it, but then I read all these techniques and theories that are utter Booshe that I now know why so many people get scared or get turned off by the amount of work. If you are on the fence let me just tell you, after reading this blog and following a few of my step-by-steps you will be surprised at how easy this stuff is. If you can keep your smoker at a set temp for extended periods of time you can cook BBQ.



        Why a rub? Like I said in my opinion a rub is easier and it works, so why change it. I use the same rub for everything, Ribs, Brisket, Chicken, etc most of the time your precious rub that people spend years perfecting turns into nothing more than a burnt crust that acts as a shield to help keep moisture in. Ribs and Chicken is about the only thing you will cook that your rub’s taste will really come through on. So with that being said I keep my rub like my BBQ simple. You have three elements to a rub salty, spicy, and sweet. The secret is the ability to COMPLETELY cover your meat with a rub yet your BBQ turn out not too salty, spicy, or sweet. So you need something to cut your rub with. The idea for my secret ingredient came to me as I was walking through the store, I was looking at spices and trying to come up with something to cut my rub with, then it hit me. Just like we covered in tip #1, when you smoke something you are baking, and what is a dry rub…a shake, and what is the number one ingredient in shake and bake….FLOUR! Now I use a whole wheat flour that gives my rub kind of a heartier taste and texture, but you could use whatever you want. I have yet to find ANY recipe online that calls for flour in the dry rub so I am convinced this is the BBQ communities best kept secret so don’t tell anyone I told you.


        Now I encourage you to use my rub as a baseline and tweak to your liking. If you like REALLY sweet BBQ add more brown sugar or if you like spicy cut some of the sugar out and add more heat, etc. As I stated before chicken and ribs is one of the few things the taste of your rub will REALLY come out in, so as you tweak the rub test it on chicken thighs or quarters or on ribs. Now keep in mind these items are some of the harder meats to cook so I would recommend if you are new to smoking just use the recipe as written and get a few smokes under your belt before you try tweaking the rub on chicken or ribs.

BBQ Rub

A BBQ Rub that works great on everything

Ingredients:

1cup	Brown sugar
1tbsp	Paprika
1tbsp	Black pepper
1tbsp	Seasoning salt
1tbsp	Garlic powder
1tbsp	Onion powder
1/4cup 3/4cup	White sugar Whole wheat flour

Directions:

1.  Mix all ingredients in large mixing box

2.  Cover meat with rub before cooking or smoking; add during cooking process as desired.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Gauges on?

           

We are just a few checks or steps away from firing up our first meal which will be covered step by step. So going do the check list (fire starting, temperature control, smoker, etc) one thing you need to make sure is accurate is your gauges and if your smoker does not have a gauge do yourself the favor and invest in a quality temperature gauge. So how do you make sure your gauge is not lying to you, first you need to calibrate it. You can do this by two methods; the ice method or the boil method. The ice method is when you put the gauge in a cup full of crushed ice and water and make sure it reads +/- 2 degrees of 32 degrees. The boiling method is just as simple you bring water to a rolling boil and make sure your gauge is reading =/- 2 degrees of 212 degrees. I prefer the boiling method because this is closer to the temperatures that you need accurate readings of.

            So now you got your gauges on the up and up, next thing I like to do is give the smoker just a good old fashion break-in test run. So fire up the smoker and the goal here is to get the temp up to 225 degrees and then keep it between 200 and 250. This will give you an idea how often you are going to be checking the fire, adding wood, dialing the dampers, etc. This is also a good time to try and find any of those pesky hotspots. There are two easy ways to do this, one go out and get you some general oven temperature gauges (you know the ones that go inside the oven, they normally are made to hang off the oven racks) and place one or two in different spots. This will give you an idea if you have any spots in your cooking chamber that are extremely hotter than others. Another more enjoyable way is get you a few packages of beef brats and throw them throughout the smoker. You will quickly see which ones are getting the heat more than others thus giving you an idea where your warmer spots are. Now like I posted before you want to try and alleviate as many hotspots as you can but you will ALWAYS have a few spots that just cook hotter than others and it’s always good to know where they are.

            You should now be on your way to your first real BBQ low and slow session. You want to make sure you are able to keep that temperature in the range you want for long periods of time. Depending on what you’re cooking you may be trying to hold that temperature for 18+ hours. You now also know the gauge on your smoker is telling you the correct temperature. Pretty sure I will start wrapping up all these tips and walk you through your first low and slow smoke.

NOTE: If you like to kick up your BBQ with a little spicy goodness and you are testing for hot spots with those beef brats here is a great quick and easy recipe that is always fun to do whenever your cooking anything on the smoker, they do well at high and low temperatures.

HOT Brats (easy)

An easy anytime the smokers cooking item to throw on. Enjoy these spicy treats while you are cooking other items.

Ingredients:

1 package	Beef Brats
1 Bottle	Favorite BBQ Sauce
1 Bottle	Bottle of sriracha hot chili sauce (rooster sauce, you know the hot Chinese sauce that comes in the clear bottle with the green twist cap)

Directions:

Cook beef brats on the smoker between 200 – 300 degrees (these things cook great at just about any temp so you can cook them easily while you are cooking other items). When they are just about fully cooked slice them open and put one line of sriracha sauce and then on top of that put a line of BBQ sauce. Let them cook 4 to 5 more minutes just long enough for the sauce to caramelize. Enjoy this spicy BBQ treat!

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Nate’s Simple Offset Smoker Mods

            So you got your smoker, and chances are you already fired it up. Now you know there are ways to make this smoker of yours a little better you just don’t know how yet. Well let me walk you through Nate’s simple offset smoker mods. These were very simple mods that I have preformed on numerous smokers to make them more efficient.

            First and foremost is air flow, or really what would be heat flow. The heat comes from the side firebox through the cooking chamber (where the food is) and out the smoke stack. So here is the deal most smoke stacks don’t stick down in the cooking chamber very deep (inch or two tops), this causes the heat to flow straight up from the point it enters the cooking chamber and out. Heat rises so the hottest part of your smoking chamber is the top, so when you are smoking your food it is not even exposed to the hottest part of the smoking chamber. So what I do is extend the smoke stack deeper into the smoking chamber (just a few inches off the cooking grate) this causes the heat to flow right over the food. Now your heat is flowing right where you want it. You can do this with any kind of stove type pipe.

            Next I add mass to the chamber and not just any kind of mass a heat holding mass (ie lava rock or ceramic briskets). This does two things, one it adds a heat holding factor and it also acts as a tuning plate (will help evenly distribute the heat over the entire cooking chamber). I basically fill the bottom of my cooking chamber with ceramic briskets (I just like the ceramic briskets better than lava rock, no real reason why, I have not tested against lava rock or anything like that its just a personal preference).

            Adding water pans will also help even your heat disruption because water distributes heat much more evenly even if the pan is getting its heat off of hotspots. I don’t believe in the theory of water adding any kind of moisture to your meat, etc I merely use it as a way to distribute heat evenly. There are a lot of people that swear up and down that it makes a difference, I can’t tell a difference some even put fruit juices and other thing in the water pans and believe they can test it in the meat. ??? That is your call if you want to believe these theories. I have tried them all and I can’t tell a difference and seems like a waist of energy and good juice for something I can’t even tell a difference on.

            So now that we have the heat flowing right over our food and heating as evenly as humanly possible, lets keep that heat in the smoker. If your smoker is thinner and you are smoking on a colder windy day you might notice that you are losing a lot of heat due to the outside temp and wind. If this is the case simply invest in a good welding blanket (you can find them at just about any hardware store). Once you have your welding blanket merely wrap your cooking chamber with it, this will help keep your heat in the smoker. I have seen some people cut them to size and they end up looking quite nice, it's like a smoking jacket for your smoker.

            These simple mods will kick your backyard offset into a whole new class of smoker; you will see your food getting the heat it deserves as well as you hotspots disappear.


DISCLAIMER: All the examples that will be used on this forum are from the perspective of using an offset horizontal smoker. If you plan to follow this guide to a “T” I would recommend purchasing this type of a smoker. I highly recommend the Char-griller line of smokers they are nicely made and are available at a very reasonable price.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Offsets, Trailers, Green Eggs ohh my!

            So today I am going to hopefully clear up some confusion on the best smoker for the beginner. Should I go buy a huge oversized trailer smoker, one of them fancy green eggs or a gas smoker? Too many choices I know. Keep in mind ANYONE that tells you that xyz is the BEST choice is giving purely an opinion. There are just far too many choices when it comes to smokers. They all have one function and that is to create an indirect heat and every smoker I have seen on the market does just that. You could pull a Walter Jetton and just dig a hole in your backyard if you don’t feel like investing the money yet, that hole still serves the same function of creating an indirect heat.

            The first smoker I used was a BDS (Big Drum Smoker) an old 55gal drum my father and I cut up and made a smoker out of. This thing was nothing fancy and was a typical vertical smoker. We used it till the bottom burnt out, patched it and used it some more. When my wife and I first moved into our house I got my first offset horizontal smoker. I wanted this smoker because in my mind a real smoker is a horizontal offset, that is just what I see in my head, always have always will. So my best advice is getting the style you see yourself using. If you don’t like the looks or the style of an offset get whatever style you see in your minds eye, because you will then be more likely to use it.

            As for things to look for, that is kind of a hard question. You want one that is soundly made. Areas I look at are weld points (is it just spot welded or is it welded inside and out), how thick is the metal (the thinner it is the more you will have to baby it in windy/cold conditions), how big is the firebox (is it big enough to accommodate full size logs? Trust me the cost savings in the ability to burn full size logs is worth it), etc. Now keep in mind all these things are truly not REQUIRED to create amazing BBQ, I have made brisket that was just as good as the brisket I make on a $600 smoker, on a tiny 426 sq. in. $70 Char-Broil Wal-Mart special. So if you are not sure go on the cheap follow this guide and before long you can upgrade to a nicer made smoker that will last your entire life. My current smoker is 5/8” wall and I plan to pass it down to my son.

            In the short there is no huge winner in style of smoker. If you don’t like the idea of playing with fire all day long, get a gas or electric smoker, the deal is get what you see yourself using. Don’t worry too much about any major short comings because as we will discuss in my next tip most any short comings can be fixed with a few mods. Just make sure if you plan to keep the smoker for a long time that it is soundly built and if you plan to get a fire box that will take full size logs make sure the hinges, handles, etc are strong and will withstand the extra heat.

Stop the Sote!

            In my last tip I talked briefly about air flow, the reason why you want your smoke stack damper wide open most of the time is because of a little thing called creosote. Creosote is a byproduct of the fire and without good air flow this will cover your food. Why is this bad? Chances are you have experienced this and never even knew what exactly it was. I don’t know how many times someone has invited me to eat something they have smoked and it gives what we call in my house “Dragon Breath”. It’s that BBQ, smoked jerky, smoked whatever that has a very burnt/bitter taste and literally will numb the tip of your tongue.

            So now that you know how bad creosote is and know what it is (like I said chances are you have made BBQ that was covered in it or have had some that was), let’s make sure you never have that issue again. The easiest way to identify a smoker that is creating creosote is by looking at the smoke. If you have a thick dark or heavy white (what I call stale smoke, smoke that has been trapped in the smoking chamber too long due to lack of air flow) you are heading down the road of dragon breath. The smoke that comes out of you smoke stack should be almost a blueish color and thin, this is where the term “blue thin smoke” comes from. Trust me it don’t take much smoke to get smoked BBQ and a PERFECT smoke ring, you DON’T need to have your smoker barreling with smoke.

Next time you are smoking anything do yourself the favor keep it thin and keep it blue, if it does get out of hand open the main chamber for a quick clear out, this will add to your cooking time but will keep the dragon at bay.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Tame the Flame

            Another basic idea here, but one you really need to understand, and that is your fire. Sounds simple enough but I see two VERY common mistakes among newbie’s. First charcoal, now if you have a wood burning smoker that can burn full size logs that is great however most people don’t like to spend three hours getting the fire hot enough to start burning full size logs, so they start with a bed of charcoal. So the word of advice, READ THE BAG! I don’t know how many times I see people grilling and they put WAY too much lighter fluid on the coals and then immediately light it. It creates this HUGE whoosh of flame, they feel like a man and beat their chest then they throw their burgers on (which end up under cooked and taste like lighter fluid), one minute in, the flame is gone and they repeat the same process.

            Charcoal is simple, read the bag, simply cover the briquettes in lighter fluid and then…LET THEM SIT!!! This is the point I normally go back inside and start prepping my food, after about 10 to 12 minutes I come back out and light the briquettes. You won’t get a huge flame, in fact you will have to light the briquettes from all four corners and there will be a small steady flame. At this point go back inside because if you watch the charcoal you will start doubting the fact that it is lit, but trust me once you give it some time you will come back to a prefect bed of red hot coals, at this point you can start loading your wood and getting the smoker up to temp.

            Next is controlling the heat of a fire. Fire needs oxygen to burn that is why your smoker has dampers (those fancy vents that open and close). For some reason another misconception is people think you close them to get the smoker hotter because it holds the heat in. No that is not the case you open the vents to give the fire more oxygen which in turn makes the fire i.e. smoker hotter and you close the vents to cool down the fire.

            Now when it comes to dampers I ALWAYS leave the smoke stack damper (the one at the top of the smoker (the one that smoke comes out of) WIDE OPEN. Especially in smaller backyard smokers because one of the most important things is air flow (which I cover "Stop the Sote"), and I control all my heat from the vent on the firebox. Once you get this process down you will be able to know exactly how far you need the vent open for whatever degree of heat you want. That is when you really start to know your smoker inside and out.

           

Bake or Broil Smoke or Grill

            So as I was sitting here thinking what is one of the most important items to cover when someone first starts wanting to BBQ and it hit me. It was one of the first concepts that I learned that makes so much sense now I almost forgot all about it (keep in mind you BBQ masters that are reading this, this blog is for the noob walking them to master).

            Smoked BBQ is completely different then cooking burgers on your grill, and here is how. Smoked meat (brisket, ribs, etc) is cooked using what is known as indirect heat, where grilling (burgers steaks, etc) is cooked with direct heat. Now I know all of you that have read this before are thinking “Tell me something new”. Well here it is, smoking is baking, and grilling is broiling. Why is this a revolutionary concept? Well once you figure that out, you have a HUGE library of recipes some of which are probably sitting in your wife’s baker’s rack. Any recipe that calls for you to bake, you can do it on your smoker. Once this clicked I was easily able to take existing recipes and do them on my smoker. Now keep in mind your aunt’s tuna tatter tot casserole may not be a family hit on the smoker…or could it ???

            The idea with this tip is to think in terms of baking and broiling. This will save you the head ache of throwing things on the smoker that don’t belong or throwing them in wrong. For example have you ever read a recipe that calls for boneless skinless chicken breast to be baked at 350 degrees on the middle grate (not in a pan, covered or in broth)? NO! Everyone knows if you did that you would end up with DRY tasteless chicken, yet I know SOOOO many people that go out buy a smoker and do just that! They waste time and money and they get discouraged because their chicken is dry as a bone and taste like ash. Now take the same example and think baking, you look up baked chicken breast recipes, you want to find one that does not require the pan to be covered because you want the smoked flavor. Low and behold place breast in a shallow pan and lightly cover with chicken broth or water bake at 350, etc. Now you are thinking in the right terms.

This is a SIMPLE variation of this exact example and an easy first recipe. This won’t win any awards but makes a very tender chicken breast and will boost your confidence if this is your first attempt at baking anything on your smoker.

            Nate’s BBQ Chicken Breast

            1 - Package of boneless skinless chicken breast

            1 – Disposable foil cake pan

            1 – Bottle of your favorite bbq sauce

Directions – Take your package of thawed chicken breast and place them in the disposable cake pan. Fill pan with water so the chick is almost completely covered. Lightly drizzle BBQ sauce over the chicken place in smoker at 300 – 350 degrees. Cook until chicken can be broken apart with a fork (turning chicken occasionally).

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/