Sluggy

I smoke whole turkeys all the time on my Smokey mountain. The biggest improvement you can make is charcoal. Use rubbish and you’ll turn out rubbish. I exclusively use heat beads on my smoker, olive wood briquettes and Weber in that order are the only charcoal briquettes I’ll use on my smoker if I can’t get heat beads.

Anything else in my experience just isn’t worth the time. Cheaper briquettes are ok on a standard bbq if you get them fully alight but don’t last long.

 I don’t have much experience with lump wood as I always get bags of shrapnel and and don’t find lump wood as manageable myself.

With my briquettes I at least know that any smoke I add is from my choice of wood and not weird fillers 

Foil deflectors on the baskets and dump the water. Spray bottle of cider vinegar or whatever you prefer for moisture.

I didn’t put holes in mine as I had the disc cut just big enough to sit on the lugs built in the smoker. No direct heat but plenty of side space for smoke and indirect heat.

I started with a uds and had a lot of fun messing with configurations, built my charcoal holder out of an old washing machine drum. Hermes deliverer found it very amusing bringing an unwrapped drum with nothing but a label stuck to it 😁 

Still miss using it to be honest, took all sorts of abuse and still produced top notch grub!! 

Prolly said it before but I replaced my water bowl with a 3mm thick disc of stainless steel.

Done countless cooks with it and can confirm I’ll never change back.

Comes in handy when spraying the cider vinegar, gets a quick steam which prolly does more for my nose than the meat 🤷‍♂️
 

Useful for standing the bowl of pit beans on too.

With the current lockdown and nice weather I’ve been getting through a small fortune in heat beads. So have invested in another cooker to help spread the cost a bit.

load up the smoker with 2 or 3 joints to get the most out of a bag of coal and then keep in the fridge to use on my new toy through the week.

Wish I’d bought one years ago, brilliant!!!

BeefEater clubman 

Anyone else got one or similar? Any good recipes?

Today I are will be mostly eating Ham Hocks!!

Building up the fire with Weber charcoal and oak chunks

Like my charcoal ring ? Got fed up building snake, now I can just pour the charcoal in.

Baffle in place instead of water pan. Leaves loads of room to mess with fire if need be.

3 fat Ham Hocks that have been marinating in a bucket of cola all night and and then rubbed over with a little spice mix.

Thats it for around 5 hours.

Gonna do some pot beans too.

Few hours in and the beans are in.

job done, took a little longer, but you can’t rush perfection.

No crackling, as expected due to the cola soak, another few hours then, maybe.

Youngest (19) is on an Asian food fetish at the moment and is up for the soft skin thing 🤷‍♂️

Got a short while to bake the glaze in and to cook the sausages for my oldest (23) who doesn’t like proper food, only bbq he’ll eat is supermarket sausage chicken or burgers 😩🤷‍♂️

Beans, nom 

Scoff time 

Until next time. 

final edit... Rodent approval 

What time do you want us over? 

I’m currently using one called Anysharp  suction sticks to the table. Best one I’ve used so far, cheap too.

Prolly not the best if you have fancy shmancy expensive knives, but for general purpose they are spot on.

The ol’ Brew in a bag eh? 😎 Got a nice IPA going myself.

Currently dabbling in wheat beer using dme  at the moment.

 I was wondering if Marigolds would be ok as in food safe. 

Could still do with a pair of them for the fish tank.

👍

I’ve got gloves for handling the bbq itself, I’m looking for something for the actual meat tearing part.

Gotta be tough and waterproof. The standard nitrile gloves seem a bit flimsy for the job.

Just wondering what gloves you people use to handle hot food. 

I’m currently using a pair of cheap cotton gloves and nitrile gloves over them. Not the best for heat protection  when pulling pork apart and I keep puncturing them, especially with chicken bones and crackling which then let’s in hot fat/water.

For anything else they are fine.

 I have bear claws but the can’t get on with them.

2 kilo leg of Lamb rubbed up in freshly ground coriander and fennel seeds along with Basil seeds and the obligatory salt and pepper.

After 6 hours on olive wood and repeated spraying with diluted apple juice.

Garden fresh Rosemary in the heat pan ( I don’t use water) also fresh rosemary sprigs on the coals intermittently.

Cooked to 70c, would prefer lower but the wife’s a burn it or else fan and this was as low as I could comfortably get away with.

Ready for scoffing 

Not a big believer in beer can chicken personally, seems to be more of an internet novelty to add moisture in an attempt to prevent over cooked chicken in my experience.

Saying that, ever thought of laying the chicken down as in a normal roast but stabbing a can of beer in the side before shoving it up its butt ( hole in can facing up).

If you want a beer taste then you’re prolly better off marinating in a beer soak or spray. Not the greatest thing I’ve eaten to be honest.

Save your beer for steak, nom. 

Definitely no dry turkey here. 

Prefer to brine them myself but could only get hold of ready basted, turned out excellent so no complaints here.

Think it helped being a smaller bird with regards to cooking. No time for the breast to dry out before the thighs are cooked through.

Missed the pic of dried out skin with salt washed off.

I mentioned in the “pork” section that I would be slapping a Turkey on the wsm and would post a picture if I remembered.

 I remembered 😎

8ish kilo turkey spatchcocked and covered in salt to dry the skin out.

half cooked at 125c on hickory wood 

Cooked to 74c internal

Shredded 

some french bread rolls I freshly made for the occasion.

The two combined with added cranberry sauce.

Turned out great. The bones are currently roasting in the oven ready to be boiled for stock to be used on my pulled pork tomorrow.

jacqui1treetops on eBay is my go to supplier, I feel it’s good value for money. 

I’ve used smokewoodshack too, both pretty good.

🍻 Should post more but never seem to remember. 

Gonna slap a spatchcock turkey on the wsm today, shall post a pick, if I remember 🙄

Been a while since posting but still q’ing as mad as ever.

2 flattened out spiced up pork loins wrapped around spiced up pork mince wrapped around a good strip of cheddar cheese and all encased in bacon.

smoked over apple wood for 3 hours and then glazed in my own apricot and bbq sauce for another hour.

served up with Apple coleslaw 

I use a large aluminium cake tin wrapped in foil sat on a 5mm stainless steel disc in my wsm and never noticed any problems. Tins not even discoloured so probably doesn’t get hot enough to cause concern.

Van Hage garden centre in Peterborough has started stocking Traeger pellets if anyone’s interested. 

Not been here for a while and only just seen this.

A couple of years ago I was told I was pre diabetic and to fix it now or face medication.

Needless to say I fixed it. Found a thing on Reddit regarding the ketogenic diet which is basically a low carb hi fat diet.

Thought at that point I had nothing to lose by giving it a shot.

Best thing I ever did. Lost 7.5 stone so far no sign of diabetes and feel a hell of a lot better than I have for years.

Look it up, well worth the effort if you can stick to it. 

The best thing about it is meat and fat is your friend.

I had a few issues with rubs to start with but after a few weeks of abstinence from sugar you’ll be surprised how much you’ve been desensitised by sugar and how little you actually need to use.

 I personally don’t use it at all in rubs anymore, if I use anything sweet it’ll be a watered down wash of maple syrup on the meat before the rub.

Ok you might not get the fabled bark you’re used to but once desensitised you probably won’t want it.

For me the choice was either carry on with the sugar and live with type 2, or quit it not have to worry about it.

Gout has got to be the worst pain I’ve ever felt ?

Got put on Allopurinol and not suffered since ?

Very true Wade ?

I do use Weber briquettes a lot because a garden centre near me insists on sending me a £5 off voucher every week, be stupid not to ?

My favourite is the heat beads though, they seem to burn better with an even consistency.

I use their briquettes for hot and fast using my vortex, I’m lucky to have a stockist down the road 5 minutes away. They really do burn hot and fast, as in crazy hot but they don’t last long.

Don’t think I would trust them for low and slow burning to be honest, not sure about the fillers, that is unless another user can vouch for them.

Unfortunatly they don’t stock any of their wood products so can’t help there.