Good luck Bryan and take pics!
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marinated some chicken breasts in jerk sauce over night. stuck them on the smoker about an hour ago. going to baste them every hour or so with some scotch bonnet sauce to give them a little zing.
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Nice!.....loved jerked chicken!
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:-) :-)
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Brent, I can see myself taking you up on that offer. What kind of fool would I be not to?
:-)
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Suprised you did not use half chickens instead.
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A Bama fan:-):-)
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PEPPERS!! and soon. My jalapeno plant is finally starting to fruit and I'm gonna go nuts smoking the little suckers. This plant looks like it's going to produce 60-75 peppers this go round alone. His little brother is right by his side :-) Fresh chipotles anyone?? :-)
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Chicken turned out ok. I went out for awhile yesterday and forgot about it so it stayed on an hour longer than it should have.... Flavor was great and the scotch bonnet sauce just made my lips tingle and my a$$ burn like fire today. :-)
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Okay boys need a little input.
So I picked up the smoker for 20.00. Not a bad starter especially for the price
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I modified the chimney as I read its an issue. My question is how shold I set up the bricks or should I use bricks. I did some ribs the other night. Going to do a tritip tonight and want to nail it.
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Well, it's not in the smoker yet, but I've got a couple big shoulders curing in the fridge for some Buckboard Bacon. I'll be smoking it next week. Here's a shot of the last batch I did. I processed over 40 lbs on that smoke. It was awesome. ImageImage
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Can't tell for certain from the photo, but that looks like one of the older ones that was built out of heavier metal than they use nowadays. Good score.

Few things...

There are a few potential problems with red clay bricks... Sometimes the clay used in the construction of the brick has compounds in it that you don't want venting into the firebox as you would end up eating them, at best, they taste off, at worst, they're toxic. Red bricks also trap moisture and can shatter when heated. Finally, they aren't anywhere near as good a heat sink & buffer as refractory firebricks. You should be able to find firebrick at ACE hardware or OSH or any rockyard. Two firebricks should cost you less than $4. If you must use red brick, I recommend wrapping them in a few layers of heavy duty aluminum foil.

Just place the bricks across the drum to form a barrier, it's not really critical if they are overlapping or butted up together. All you are looking for is to restrict the charcoal to a small area at the end of the chamber opposite the exhaust. How much area? Fill a chimney with briquettes, and dump them in, then mound them up into a tight pile, then put the firebricks a little bit further out than that, allowing room for a bit more charcoal and smoke wood. If you have an angle grinder and a dust mask, grinding them to match the contour of the drum is a snap, firebrick is very soft.

Any major air leaks should really be sealed. This means the bolt holes on the back side and the airgap around the firebox door. These things aren't a big deal to a grill, but can be a very big deal to a smoker/bbq.

I'm not sure what the chimney issue is that you are referring to, but what I see that extension doing is causing smoke to bottle up inside the pit. This could lead to a layer of carbon and creosote on the food. If you are going to use the extension that you have in place now, since it's galvanized tin, I would build a hot fire, grab a can of PAM cooking spray and spray it down inside and out a few times during the burn to bake a layer of oil onto it, to prevent the chance of any metallic off flavors.


As for tri-tip, I wouldn't smoke it. Indirect cook at medium-high heat (350-375) until about 130 internal (30-45 minutes depending on the thickness of the cut). Use oak or grape vines for smoke, or get a bag of Lazzari mesquite lump and cook with that. Either make your own rub or pick up a 2lb jar of Pappy's seasoning rub at costco or sam's and a 2lb container of granulated garlic and mix them together 1:1. Rub meat down with that a few hours before cooking. You could also dump some Lea & Perrin's worcestershire sauce (all other brands pale in comparison) over the meat, then coat with rub, wrap tightly in saran wrap, and put back into the refrigerator for a few hours. After it hits about 130F internal, pull the meat off, allow to rest for 10 minutes, slice very thin, pile it high on fresh sourdough or french rolls and top with fresh salsa.
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Here's a bit of info on that chimney extension. A link below will take you to SMF where you can read up on other mods to do as well as find a ton of info and help for your new smoker!

Chimney Extension

Most of the entry level models have the chimney hole cut in the top of the smoker and the chimney does not protrude into the smoke chamber at all.. Heat and smoke rise so what happens is the heat from the firebox rises, runs along the top of the lid on the way to the chimney, and exits the smoker without doing much at grate level. Since the meat is on the grates, we would like to encourage the heat and smoke to travel across the meat on their way to the chimney. This helps to even out the temperature across the grate and makes the smoker more efficient. To accommodate this, it is a good idea to extend the chimney down to close to grate level. There are several different ways to do this. One is to use dryer vent ducting.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...et-smoker-mods
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If you're extending the chimney a few inches into the chamber, sure.

The way the photo looked to me, and maybe it's just the angle, my eyes and this crappy monitor, but it looked like the extension went all the way down to the grate level, which is something that could be potentially disastrous.
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Forrest thanks for the link I read about the chimney extension somewhere else, but will be reading up on the site to get more info on mods. The chimney does hang down a little but only like an inch. Guess I will look into getting a muffler shop to make a down pipe. Unitl then I will use what I got .

Adam it is defiently the old one with very thick metal. Its a friggin tank I almost lost it unloading it from the truck . There is a gap between the chimney and grill. Thought it was a few inches will double check.

There is an ACE down the street will get a few bricks there today. Got an angle grinder and water tile saw so I am pretty sure I can shape them.

I noticed the air gap on the fire door box. Will seal that up today. Didnt even notice those holes in the back LOL. Fail on my part.

Will cook the meat using the method you said. Picked up a meath thermometer yesterday As for prep I did it last night. garlic and salt rub. Tri tip to me just does not need a lot of seasoning if it is cooked right to taste awesome. its one of my favorite cuts of meat. Funny its such a west coast thing.
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Don't use a wet saw on firebrick, only dry saws or a cold chisel. Then just hit it with the angle grinder to shape it. Refractory firebrick is super soft, that 10k RPM angle grinder will make very quick work of it. If you can't find firebricks, LMK, I'll bring you a few next time I'm down that way.

I agree, not much seasoning is needed for Tri-tip. I've done them with as little as just Lawry's garlic salt (which has parsley in it) and mesquite wood, although I prefer a little bit more spices in there - normally for tri-tip, I only season a few hours before cooking.

Oh, crap, forgot to mention a couple of obvious things (just in case) on the cooking: 125-135 is going to be about medium rare in the thicker parts leaning towards more done in the thinner parts. A little bit over halfway though the cook (about 20 minutes) you would want to rotate and flip the meat because you are cooking in an indirect offset. And I can't believe I forgot to mention that once the meat is at done temp, open all your vents up 100%, get the fire nice and hot and then move the tri-tip to the grate directly over the coals and just stand there, don't even close the lid, and just sear the meat for a few minutes per side.
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???
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If the exhaust is that low, basically at the same level as the coals, you'll fire will probably smolder too much due to the trapped carbon monoxide and in turn, you'll end up coating your food with soot and creosote, assuming you can even maintain a temp to cook it.
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Got her fired up, going to get the tritip on there in about 20 min after its going good. Wife is even a little geeked as I will be cooking more.
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:-) My wife can always count on me to grill or smoke dinner. Problem is that she gets tired of only eating meat and no vegetables. :-)

Btw- Corn on the cob turns out really good in the smoker.
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