www.sausagemaking.org

Greetings! A while since I've been active, but I've been busy smoking lots of meat. I've had to put my sausage empire on hold for a while due to far too many issues trying to get it off the ground, so this has been a very enjoyable way of passing the time.

My wife bought me a Brinkmann Gourmet smoker a couple of years ago, and it was a brilliant introduction to the world of low and slow cooking. I smoked many a brisket on it, with wildly varying results. All I had was the Brinkmann, and a simple temp probe for the smoker / meat.

This year I received my first proper wireless temp monitor with two probes - one for the smoker, and one for the meat, and it drastically improved my results. The Brinkmann wasn't up to the tasks I had planned, so I bought myself a Webber 57cm Smokey Mountain, and a Webber 57cm Mastertouch Kettle. I couldn't believe what a difference they made! So much easier to regulate the temperature, and the results are outstanding every time.

Since they got delivered, barring the unrelenting period of torrential rain we had in the UK, they've been used 2-5 times / week

Here's a few images:

The first time the sun came out I removed the spare pieces of meat I had in the freezer, and got cracking with some beef short ribs and a couple of small pieces of brisket on the Brinkmann




The short ribs were incredible; like brisket on the bone. First time I've cooked them, and an instant favorite




That brisket didn't last long, so the next weekend I had to do another!




Incredible the next day with some melted cheese on top




It soon became clear that it was time to upgrade the Brinkmann, so I ordered some new toys




First up was a lamb shoulder with the neck attached. Damn shame I didn't get a photo before I pulled it. Absolutely sublime! I used a homemade rub consisting of demerara sugar, cumin, cracked black pepper, garlic salt and a few herbs




Another brisket [no finished photo], and a burger from the previous nights BBQ being warmed up for breakfast




I tried my hand at a full rack of spare ribs [including the belly] next. I've always struggled perfecting ribs, but the WSM didn't let me down!








Next up was Beer Can Chicken. Again, I'd struggled to keep it moist whilst getting really crispy skin, but this one was perfect




Plenty of space on the 57cm Kettle




And always time for standard BBQ fare




I then heard the Bunch of Swines BBQ team were running low and slow smoking courses, and decided I had to attend. Ed and Emma were fantastic, and I'd highly recommend the course to anyone who's interested in this sort of thing. Even though I'd self taught myself a lot by experimenting, the course really opened my eyes to things I could improve on, different equipment and techniques, and things I hadn't even considered. I took my Dad along, who has always been a sausage & burger BBQ chap, and within half an hour he was at the front for every demonstration!

Here's a few images from the course [and yes - we did get to eat everything that was cooked!]

Beef short ribs and pork belly on their Yoder smoker. Awesome bit of kit, but way out of my price range




Epic brisket!!!




And this Drum Smoker is next on my "need to buy" list. I just have to convince the wife first

chicken should be done at higher temp..more like 300 that will crisp the skin and cook it faster which will leave you with more juicy chicken, water pan has no use when doing chicken just stops the skin crisping and holds the temps down to low

Those short ribs look fantastic!

Phil

wheels wrote:Those short ribs look fantastic!

Phil

Tasted even better than they look!

homer wrote:chicken should be done at higher temp..more like 300 that will crisp the skin and cook it faster which will leave you with more juicy chicken, water pan has no use when doing chicken just stops the skin crisping and holds the temps down to low

Absolutely - lesson learned on that one! Next time I'll just foil it to catch the drips, or cook it on the kettle instead. I've recently started experimenting with Cocoshell briquettes, which really help when going for indirect heat on the kettle, and leave a lot less waste.

tried a few different types of fuel including the premium brands but found good old charcoal comes tops every time, makro do a 12 kilo bag of restaurant charcoal and some of the pieces are huge, not like the dust and rubble you get with normal bags, can get a good 15 hour smoke with about a third of a bag and still chuck a few last minute treets on after the main meat is done, at £12 inc vat a bag its good value

Oh yes - make some more kil2k and I'll bring the beers - thanks for making us all salivate - Philip