Summer means smokers!

[Eric]

Thanks for sharing! I really need to clean up my smoker and grill. I know we didn't cook out any last year and I don't think I did any the year before. I'm afraid this might be in store when I got out to the patio.

http://bit.ly/oGwdi

I has a sad for teh beez .

Yeah, it would have been nice if he'd gotten a beekeper to remove them, but it sounds like an honest mistake. People calling him names seems a bit over-the-top, though.

[AdmiralDigby]

Thanks for sharing! I really need to clean up my smoker and grill. I know we didn't cook out any last year and I don't think I did any the year before. I'm afraid this might be in store when I got out to the patio.

http://bit.ly/oGwdi

I has a sad for teh beez .

Yeah, it would have been nice if he'd gotten a beekeper to remove them, but it sounds like an honest mistake. People calling him names seems a bit over-the-top, though.

Never read any comments , but I can imagine .

[Eric]

I've spent hours looking at recipes and accessories this morning.  I'm so hungry right now that I'd be game for smoking horse meat just to see how it turns out.

Decided to buy the new ET-732 thermometer for $59, since I'm unsure of spending $270 on the DigiQ II -- just not sure if we'd use it enough to justify spending more on that than our indoor gas oven cost. Got an extra smoker probe for the old one as a backup.  Also ordered a bunch of wood chunks, and going to try a combo grill roaster rack for some beer-can chicken and sliced-up veggies.  Pearl loved the smoked chicken wings, so it's worth a try. Yes, I'll turn in my Southern card now (smoked vs fried?).

Also just ordered the eyelets from BBQGuru.  If they save even one probe wire from being crimped, it's worth the $10 price.

I see leftover pulled pork in my immediate future. Also feeling the need to do another beef brisket rubbed heavily in Weber Burgundy Beef Dry Rub (also found at the local grocery). *drool*

[Spooky]

I've spent hours looking at recipes and accessories this morning.  I'm so hungry right now that I'd be game for smoking horse meat just to see how it turns out.

This guy could give you tips on how to cook the horse.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Horse-meat-diet-is-the-secret-to-Overeem-rsquo-s?urn=mma-158278

[Eric]

Just got a delivery of 10lbs Mesquite chunks, 10lbs Hickory chunks, 4lbs Wild Apple chunks and 4lbs Maple chips.

I think I'm becoming a little obsessed with this smoker thing.  How do I know this?  When I saw the bag of mesquite chunks was open I was first disappointed, and then second grabbed a piece to smell it.  Ahhh ...

[TinkTanker]

I love smoking chicken with mesquite. So very good.

We used to have a couple of peach trees in the back. They never produced, so we cut them down and saved the wood for smoking. Mixed it in with the hickory and pecan for Boston Butts. Good stuff.

[Eric]

I installed one of the Weber Smokey Mountain Eyelets. It's funny what we men (people?) get excited about, because I was ecstatic.  It was a five-minute installation, and both probes from my Maverick thermometer do indeed fit through one at a time. No need to install the second one at all, though could be nice if I end up running two separate thermometers for different meats.

I thought we'd try some beer can chicken on the smoker.  Suggestions online ranged from the "low and slow" of 225°F to closer to 300.  Apparently though chicken doesn't need to be low-and-slow to be juicy.  I wanted to try 275°F, but it seems my smoker wanted to level at about 245-250 and nuthin' I did would raise or lower it. 

Rubbed the chicken about an hour before using low-sodium Old Bay only (trying something lower-sodium since her mom is coming out in a few weeks and needs to wary of her sodium intake).  Pearl stuffed some fresh oregano under the skin of the chicken's breast as well as a little Old Bay. 
The beer recipe was 1/2 a beer, some minced garlic and about a quarter of a sweet onion (more or less).  Instead of a beer can, we used a roaster pan like the one in the attached picture.

She quartered some red potatoes and lathered them in butter and minced garlic. I originally was going to put the rest of the veggies on about an hour before estimated time it would be done, but on the spur-of-the-moment decided to chunk-up a yellow pepper and half of the onion and put them in there. Because I was getting lazy, I put some olive oil on them instead of the butter.

Put the chicken on its rest, and the veggies all around the bottom. When the smoker was close to 300, I put the whole thing in, and threw three chunks of apple wood on the coals. That was almost three hours ago, and I'm about to take it off the smoker and let it rest about fifteen minutes before chowing down.  Breast temp will be about 170 and will rise in the resting period, hopefully to 175. 

Pearl has pics of the before, and will take some of the after. This is a new experiment for both of us.

On edit:

The bird looks great, but I probably should have waited on the onions and peppers.  The potatoes seem to be a bit undercooked.
My Maverick thermometer read 175 and a separate meat thermometer said close to the same range, but when I brought it in and tried a little shallower, it read lower... so I've got it in the oven to finish 'er off just to be certain.  Taters may be in even longer.

Edit #2: 

The chicken was really good, but the potatoes needed more time or just smaller slices.  The onions were surprisingly tasty.  The yellow peppers were "okay".
Next time, I'll probably only do the chicken in the smoker.

[Spooky]

My mouth is watery after reading that.

[Eric]

Pictures.  I had added whole mushroom caps in the tin foil, sauted with Robesto Italian dressing about halfway through the cook.  Sara couldn't get enough of those last night.  If I do veggies (other than 'taters) again, I'll go back to putting them on later and definitely after the smoke wood is burned-up. 

[TinkTanker]

Do y'all get Vidalia onions up in your neck of the woods? Sooooo good grilled with a little butter or olive oil. Once they start caramelizing they taste so sweet. You really have to grill them though to get the caramelizing going.