Sluggy

My tubes and discs arrived yesterday, stitched them together with some stainless wire.

Looking forward to trying them out with my pecan and hickory pellets.

No clue on the science bit, I’ll leave that to the smart guys ?

I often defrost meat in brine as I’m convinced it does a better job than a plain soak, maybe a really long would work better but I’m too lazy for that and usually only make a decision on what I’m cooking the day before.

Another favourite is to rub the meat up before freezing and when it defrosts in the standard way it definitely pulls in more flavour, to my reckoning anyway.

For cold fermenting on fruit you probably don’t need it but using a steamer adds heat which can cause problems if you don’t add it.

Thanks muchly for your answers.

With the help of your specifications and pictures  I have just ordered 2 exhaust tubes of e-bay for £14, much cheaper than the commercial ones, a big thanks for that ?

Hoping they’ll also be useful on the kettle with my vortex for chicken pieces.

I keep seeing this fancy perforated wood pellet tubes that you fill and put on the grill grate. Particularly useful for gas grills I assume.

Just wondering if they can be used on the coals of a wsm instead of wood chunks. Seen some interesting pellets to try but not sure if it will work. Any ideas??

I use a big steamer to extract juice rather than a pulp ferment, I find it’s much cleaner.

Just don’t forget the pectolase

Bought it ready cut from e-bay 3mm thick for £45. 

 I think it depends on what’s being cooked, this is not a permanent replacement just another option.

As for moisture, I’ll have to see how it goes for various meats. I often freeze joints to defrost in a brine solution as I believe the defrosting actually pulls in the brine much better than a plain soak or injecting. 

With that done I probably don’t need extra water for the cook just maybe a spray bottle for the odd spritz.

Gonna do ribs today so shall be interesting to how they go. Bear in mind they will be wrapped at some point so why the water pan.

Keeps things interesting

Today I got around to using my planned water pan replacement, as promised I have preliminary results.

Today I cooked a £15 supermarket brisket and my version of bacon bombs on my wsm using a stainless plate instead of the standard water pan.

I chose stainless tread plate as I thought the extra ridges would ensure against warping... so far so good.

This is a foil lined cake tin nearly the same size as the metal plate which I sat this directly on top of.

This is the brisket I cooked using the above setup. Not the best picture, sorry. This was heavily rubbed in a balance of salt, pepper, garlic, onion and paprika. Sliced up but literally pulled apart and as far as I’m concerned it was the best brisket I have ever done.

These are my version of bacon bombs consisting of beef and pork mince and a blend of spices and ghee along with a lump of cheese for the centre, wrapped up in streaky bacon.

The foil package is black pudding. 

All in all, no regrets on the plate whatsoever, if anything it was much easier to hold temps and cleanup was a doddle.

The only real difference I noticed today was I needed to close the vents a little more but seeing as I got a 10 hour cook at 120c at the rack from a 4kg bag of heat beads with heat left over I’m not complaining.

Considering the weather in Peterborough today has been wet and windy I’m happy with my decision. 8 Racks of ribs tomorrow nomnomnom.

Could have got better pics and whatnot but me, beer, bbq and F1 limits my functionality somewhat. 

No worries, not looking for admiration, just putting my tips forward to help a chap out with his brisket problems and maybe get a few tips for mine

It’s on the beef post, not the best pic, blame iPhone 

Tell me about the rain, I’m not far from there and I fired up at 9pm Friday, typical, nothing for weeks then everything at once. Normal English bbq weather as usual. Spent the whole night nursing the smoker until 4pm next day. Tired but worth it. Did a rolled brisket to perfection at the same time, but not for the same length of time.

All jokes aside, watching that has got me tempted. Nice to see top people fail with easy to do noob errors. Looks serious fun regardless of results.

Maybe I should form a team called “Rebellious Q” . Watch some git Knick that name now ?

Dang, that’s twice now I’ve got in trouble on these forums lol.

My bad, just been watching pit masters on Netflix, got carried away, sorry. 

Wish I had the confidence to participate . My excuse this time was that the weekend coincided with my giant pork shoulder party mentioned elsewhere on this forum.

Maybe next year, or at least a visit, only down the road after all.

Pork turned out fantastic by the way with no wrapping. 

Never had much luck with rolled brisket. I think the lack of fat was causing my problems, that was until I discovered a magic ingredient.

Ghee.

I now smoke them with no problems at all. Leave it rolled cover in rub and smoke for an hour or 3 depending on size. Once that’s done I remove and slather it in ghee and wrap well in foil, bung back on until it hits temps.

One I have just been cooking overnight for a family party tonight.

9kg pork shoulder still trundling along

White block is Halloumi 

You may well be right but my tinkering nature still thinks it’s worth a gamble, so far so that I have ordered a 3mm thick disc of stainless steel from everyone’s favourite auction site.

At worst I’ll get no improved heat management, at best it will give me more room to access charcoal basket to add more fuel/wood and hopefully improved cleanup time. 

Quite like the possibility of adding fresh herbs and spices to the plate to maybe infuse another layer of flavour.

I’ll update how things progress.

No I’m not gonna form a bowl, just use it as a baffle instead of the usual water bowl.

A pretty standard mod is to fill the bowl with sand to act as a heat sink or a terracotta saucer over the top instead of water.

It’s been said that you can achieve better heat control without water in the pan that can help with things like chicken and pork to achieve crispier skin.

 I’m thinking a flat steel disc in it’s place would be better than foil or saucer with a disposable foil tray on top to catch the drippings to make cleaning up easier.

Just something I wanna play around with and see for myself.

Gonna go with stainless though to eliminate the mineral oil/rust issue.

Hi all,

I’m thinking of replacing my wsm water pan with a sheet of 3mm thick mild steel, just wondered if anyone has tried this without problems. 

I’m aware it will need proper seasoning as such due being coated in mineral oil to prevent rust.

Anyone have a better alternative besides tinfoiling the water pan. 

cheers

So happy these worked out for you.

Apple is a bit hit and miss, I often grate them to mix with the sausage meat, but they have given you something to build on, which is part of the fun.

Top Tip:-  Cook indirect on a lid on bbq @ 200°c Couple of 1” by 1” by 3” ish wood chunks and roughly 1 - 1.1/2 hours.

Not so melty but pretty good. When time is a factor.

Point taken good sir.

 I don’t use any social media except the odd forum or two so I may well be out of date.

So sorry sotv.

Only just seen your post. I had nearly given up this forum as dead, my bad. Also been very busy brewing beer and wine before weather gets too hot.

The long strip in this case is Lincolnshire sausage meat. But I usually use whatever takes my fancy for the day. A favourite is beef and pork mince spiced up to the hilt.

I never use anything as it comes, I can’t help messing with stuff ? this particular one was re-jigged with chilli and all manner of herbs and spices, as wade pointed out experimentation is key and fun.

All the ingredients you see except the sausage meat came from Morrison’s except the sausage meat  so you’re good there. Make sure you get the cheap middle bacon with the rind on, yeah I know right! Rind on bacon, it really helps to tie things together, top notch for bacon bombs  

You will also need a tenderiser to hammer the fillets flat, good time to let out aggression of a bad week.

Do you have an ABC butchers near by? They are brilliant for meat but you do have to order anything that’s not regular stock.

These were smoked with beech and apple wood to about 72c and wrapped and rested before face diving. Be aware to check the centre of the fillet meat, top and bottom and not necessarily the centre as in my experience some pre-made sausage meat will dry out giving you a false reading leading to over cooked meat.

Hope you try and have fun ?

Thanks for the compliments ?

These have become a bit of a trademark in my house ?

Turned this:-

into this:-

into this:-

And very nice it was too ?

I’m thinking it might be best to give it good smoke for a few hours and then oven, seeing as it’s suggested that smoke only lasts 3 hours or so before you’re just burning charcoal for the sake of it. Don’t want people turning up and it ain’t ready.

Not afraid of an all nighter if it’s worthwhile.

In truth I’ll probably bung it on at midnight and see how far it gets.