On 30-Sep-2009, RockPyle > wrote:

> On Sep 30, 8:06*pm, "Brick" > wrote:
> > On 30-Sep-2009, RockPyle > wrote:

.. . .

> I agree. What struck me most about learning to smoke is how well it
> parallels homebrewing (which I have done for 17 years now). You have
> a physical set of equipment which you need to learn well. It has
> thermal behavior, you can find efficiencies as you play with it, etc.

The typical charcoal/lump/wood fired pit has it's own unique thermal
characteristics. It can be forced to deviate slightly from it's inherent
design, but not by all that much without a whole lot of fiddling. Yes I
can build a giant fire in my pit and make it glow cherry red. Alternatively
I can build a tiny fire in my pit and make it heat to barely higher then
the ambient air temperature. Neither of those options is desireable from
a labor standpoint. In the first case I would have to move the pit well
away from the house and buy a new pit every other year. In the second
case, I would have to tend the fire two or three times per hour.

> Then you have the recipes. Hard core style brewers will look to match
> a particular style guideline exactly, while taste brewers want to make
> a beer that appeals the them and their friends only, no matter what
> 'style' it does or does not match.

I can't really speak about recipies. I haven't developed a liking for
wet ribs and from what I have learned, rubs don't have a large
influence on pulled pork. The pulled variety can be seasoned to
your choice after being pulled. Mostly, I just leave mine alone
and leave it up to my guests as to what they want to do with it.
Mostly, they just eat it leaving little no leftovers.

>
> After a while, to formulate a recipe, you learn to read a bunch of
> recipes, understand what is common and what adds individualism and
> then put your best effort forward.

I do exactly the same thing. I seldom if ever use a recipe in it's original
form. I suppose that's often because I don't have the exact ingredients
on hand. But many times, I don't like the content of the original and
substitute on purpose to my own taste.

>
> After recognizing the similarities between smoking and brewing, I did
> a lot of reading to understand the equipment as well as the basics of
> rubs, marinades, etc. And KISS was certainly part of that initial
> education.

The variety of rubs and marinades are beyond my ken. I use a modified
version of Emeril's "Essence" or "Bayou Blast" for my 'house' rub. I like
Hound's brine for chicken, but I modify that to reduce the intense citrus.

>
> Looking at my logs, I certainly paid much more attention to the
> temperatures on the half hour, how the temparature drops and then
> recovers with the addition of cold meat, and now I am much more calm
> about temperature swings if I haven't monkeyed with anything. What I
> am now watching mostly is how long I can leave the fire without adding
> charcoal or wood, hoping to get to the point where smoking is truly a
> background event to whatever else i am doing on the weekend.

In the beginning my offset pit drove me nuts and I actually had to throw
out some meat due to creosote contamination. Now I set it and forget
it until the temp begins to drop due to low fuel. I add fuel changing
nothing in the way of airflow controls.

>
> I have a Brinkmann two-door rectangular cooker with a Home depot
> grilling wok as the charcoal tray and I am still using water in the
> tray, although that is probably the next equipment change I make (sand
> in the tray and a foiled pie pan to catch the drippings.
>
> My point about the book was that i would not have understood the art
> of smoking nearly as well as I (think I) do if I had followed
> Professor Wiviott's course to the letter. I would either be ****ed
> off at my equipment and that I didn't spend the additional $200 for a
> WSM, or I would have given up the sport because it took too much
> effort to keep a fire going.

I know Gary, but have never read his book. I seriously doubt that Gary
himself, follows his book explicitly. He is known to make good food

>
> Instead, my version of KISS was to work on short ribs and country ribs
> (4 hour smokes) until I was comfortable with adding coals and wood,
> making complete coal changes and keeping a fire going for 10+ hours.
> Then I jumped into brisket and pulled pork ant then most recently, I
> attacked spares.

Your last statement surprised me. Spares are easy. Heat 'em, leave 'em,
serve 'em, eat 'em.

>
> My goal going into smoking was to replicate pulled pork for my Memphis-
> born wife, and I got there about three months into my learning.

I wish I could say I made decent pulled pork in three months.

>
> Enough rambling. I have convinced myself to smoke some chicken this
> weekend using the recipe in step three of Low and Slow. I need to see
> if the marinade is available in the Ethnic section of my local snooty
> market, or if I need to go to an authentic mexican market.

You want to smoke a chicken, go with Hound's brine and at least 24
hours. I've done them 48 and liked it just fine. Figure out how you're
going to crisp up the skin if you care about that. I haven't done it, but
a 400F oven should get the job done. I'm talking about whole bird.
If you're going to part it out or spatchcock (Butterfly) it, the game
is different, but oven should still work. Fifteen or twenty minutes
should get the skin in order/

>
> Rock

You're quicker then I am/was. I started smoking in 2003. Didn't
get really confident with my pit until about 2007. Dont' know why
it took so long. Same pit, same fuel, same environment, but no
sweat. I fire it up, load it and watch TV or whatever until the heat
drops off. Refuel and continue watching TV. The only work is
the initial unpacking, washing and rubbing the meat and finally
the butchering and packing the finished product.

--
Brick (Youth is wasted on young people)