Smoking by Computer? No Way!

Smoker Computers and Controllers

BILL:
Robin, let me digress here for a few minutes and talk to our audience about griller/smoker computers. Anyone would agree that a hot pit cooks quicker than a cold pit. The old truism of "If you're lookin', you ain't cooking" is a dilemma for every cook who strives for outdoor perfection in their cooking. The problem with grilling on a hot pit is that when the internal meat temperature over-shoots or goes too high, which can happen really easily a the end of a cook, the meat becomes dry, tough or both. To prevent this, I advocate the use of a spike meat thermometer to monitor the temperature of the meat as it cooks, so that you can remove the meat when the desired temperature is reached. Simple, right? So how do we monitor the meat without frequently opening and closing the lid of the smoker/griller and dropping the pit temperature below our set temperature for cooking repeatedly? First and most basic, we put a thermometer in the meat that we can monitor remotely. The simplest of these would be a probe shoved into the meat, with a long enough wire to reach a reader on the outside so we don't have to pop the lid every time we need to read it. Here is a website that addresses this excellently - http://www.amazingribs.com/BBQ_buyers_guide/thermometer_buying_guide.html. I will not try to comment further - this website is extraordinarily comprehensive and self - explanatory. We have two Mavericks, by the way.

Okay, next step. Until the advent of the computerized controller, keeping a stable and even temp on a smoker was a boringly long, repetative and frequently fiddly task. With the introduction of the BBQ Guru in 2004, outdoor cooking entered the 21st century thermostatically controlled cooker era. Simply put, these gadgets consist of computerized variants on a blower, a meat thermometer and a pit thermometer. The goal of these systems is to automatically regulate the temperature on the BBQ/smoker by constantly reading the internal pit temperature and/or the meat temperature. By automatically making the necessary adjustments to airflow and the damper, automatically increasing or reducing the inflow of air to fuel the charcoal/wood mix, the computer can keep the meat temperature and the pit temperature rock solid stable, ensuring a perfect cook and a great product. Regardless of the weather outside, "set it and forget it" has now arrived in my back yard, just like in my kitchen.

ROBIN:
Originally expensive and often bafflingly complex, more modestly priced and user-friendly computerized smoker controllers are only now beginning to appear. They all are designed for charcoal and wood fired grills and smokers, but thermostats for gas fires cannot be too far in the future, especially given the ingenuity of engineers and the advancement of technology. Look at how many competitive outdoor chefs now use their smart phones to control their barbecue pits! Every pellet smoker/grill seems to have one, and after years of frustrating fiddling with damper and air intake, this technology suddenly makes smokers a joy to use. All of them work on a simple feedback principle - the thermometer in the cooking chamber tells a blower to turn on and feed more air to the fire when the temp drops below a set target. It then tells the fan to turn off when the temp gets above the set point. For maximum efficiency, though, you need a tight cooker so air doesn't leak in or out. Weber Kettles and Weber Smokey Mountains seem to work well, as do most ceramic and kamado grills. There are many variants of computer systems out there – the Stoker, BBQ Guru and Pitmaster seem to be the faves. There are numerous other iterations on the Web as well. Let’s look at some of the more popular ones.

Traeger Wood Pellet Smoker

BILL:

While not a “computer” in the true sense we defined above, the Traeger is a pellet smoker that has two variations to control the pit temperature – the simple manual system (which we do not recommend simply because it is too simple) and the digital thermostat control system (which we love, and use daily). The Manual Control has three settings: smoke, medium, and high. Upgrade this to the digital if you can, as we found the three set system overly simplistic and frustrating. A Traeger with the upgraded digital control is almost idiot proof. The start-up process and operating temperature are controlled by Traeger's electronic control board, which regulates the heat and smoke in the Traeger by stopping and starting the auger motor. You plug it in, you turn it on, you open the hatch and wait for the smoke to clear, and ther it is. The Digital Thermostat Control allows you to select a specific cooking temperature, automatically feeding pellets as needed to maintain the desired temperature, keeping it rock steady and producing lots of lovely smoke. The operating temperature inside the Traeger is monitored by a built-in RTD (resistance temperature detector) probe and is displayed on a bright red LED display on the pellet hopper.


When the Traeger is turned on, the igniter rod becomes heated to red hot, the auger begins to feed pellets, and the draft induction fan feeds air into the firepot. The igniter rod glows red hot just long enough to ignite the pellets in the firepot. From this point on, the combination of selective feeding and forced air keeps the Traeger as close to it's selected temperature as possible. Traegers require standard household electric current (110 VAC), which powers the igniter rod, auger motor and draft induction fan. Using a remote meat thermometer and watching the internal temperature of the meat, you can produce outstanding smoked food in a short space of time every time. The hotter the pit temperature, though, the fast you'll burn through a bag of pellets, and a $22 or so a bag, that can be expensive. Regardless, the Traeger is my most reliable and much loved standby smoker, and we will always have one. Downside – initially expensive, and the pellets are costly likewise, but upside - the smoking system is incredibly simple and satisfying, the Traeger is pretty much idiot-proof, is simple and safe to operate, and the pelletized wood choices are excellent.

The BBQ Guru DigiQ DX

First, I must state right out, I felt that using one of these gadgets was cheating, so for years, we have struggled and fought our smokers, and we have done okay. My large Big Green Egg, a Kamado type cooker, bought for me by my family as a birthday gift some 10 years ago, has been the bane of my life. It was cranky, either hard to light or burned too hot, couldn't keep a steady temp and would die after about 2 hours. I was constantly cleaning it out thinking it was my airflow that was the issue, and every time I cooked on it was a misery of constant fiddling with the damper and the DFMT (Dual Function Metal Top). After about 3 years of gradually declining interest, my BGE was now not being used at all, and I had begun to regard it as a storage bin rather than a cooking unit. A year ago, while at a competition, I realized, watching one guy with FIVE BGE's, all spouting huge plumes of thick smoke and seemingly being completely ignored. He was very kind as I badgered him to death on his setup, He showed me that there were things I could do to mine to make life simpler. When I got home, I replaced the stock charcoal rack with a steel version (more air for the coals), changed the top vent to a new, stainless steel fully adjustable vented cap that wouldn't swing open every time I cracked the oven to do something, and lastly, I bought a barbecue computer control system. We chose the BBQ Guru’s DigiQ DX2 simply because that was what the guy was using on his systems. The results were nothing short of miraculous. This means anything we write about the unit is now a tad biased. Having said that, we have not had an ounce of trouble with the DigiQ, and while we can only control one smoker with each unit (unlike other systems out there), the product itself is excellent.

When it arrived, we cleaned out the BGE from top to bottom. We replaced the stock charcoal grid with the steel grid, replaced the daisy chimney top with the steel vent, and slid the adapter into the draft door. That was the most difficult part - my coordination isn't as good as it used to be, so getting the slide to lock in proved more than a bit fiddly, but after several minutes of struggling and profanity, I closed the draft door on the adapter and inserted the fan. I filled the BGE with charcoal, put in some apple chunks for smoke, added a fire starter, and lit it. I placed the plate setter and the grilling rack in it, connected the pit probe to the thermometer clip on the inside (I have since learned to clip it to the cooking grid), and closed the BGE. After a quick 2 minute setup, the fan was whirring away quiety, and there was smoke. SMOKE! TONS of smoke! Almost in minutes, the BGE temp was ready for the butts. I put the meat probe into the larger one, connected it to the DigiQ, and put the meat into the Egg, and walked away. NOT! For the first hour, I was checking the thing every 10 minutes, until I had myself convinced it would work. Then, while I was awake, every hour, occasionally adding some chunks of apple to keep the smoke going. By the time Robin and the family arrived, the DigiQ had kept the BGE heat rock solid at 225°F for the whole time, and the meat temp came up slowly and steadily. 11 hours after it was started, the alarm sounded with the meat at 190°F, and the butts were done. I have never had a smoke that easy or simple - or perfect.

ROBIN:
The BBQ Guru, like all computerized smoker controllers, uses a microprocessor chip to control the pit temperature and monitors the internal meat temperature in tandem with the custom designed draft fan, so that the selected meat temperature is never exceeded. Simply put, as the meat temperature naturally increases during a cook, the BBQ Guru maintains the pit temperature by "puffing" the little blower fan periodically throughout the cook, keeping a consistent and effective pit temperature. When we used the "Ramp Mode" (as Dad did for the butts), as we approached the final temperature for the butts' removal, the DigiQ began decreasing or “ramped down” the pit temperature at a proportional rate using controlled power drafting, slowing down the pit temperature curve and leveling out the meat cooking time to maintain maximum tenderness and juiciness. Holy Moley, Dad, what a cook that was! The butts were so moist we didn't have to pull them, they fell apart! I have never, ever had such a good result, and for it to have come out of our old enemy, the BGE, was unbelievable. We would suggest to the DigiQ makers that ramp mode on should be the default state, not the opposite, but that was the only issue we have had with it. Once you use the BBQ Guru, or ANY computer control smoker system for that matter, you simply will NOT want to cook without it.

One added benefit with this thing has been our warm-up time. 48 or so smokes later, Dad and I find that we can get the BGE lit, put in the plate setter, then let the blower bring it up to temp pretty fast. It makes lighting and cooking with an Egg really easy. The ability to control the fire so accurately adds to the ease of use, and has vastly increased the fun factor to our BGE back yard cook outs. Producing succulent food and almost perfect meals every time is also a benefit. Similar to the Stoker system, the DigiQ has four main parts – a blower, a computer, and two probes – one for the meat, one for the pit. Instructions are very simple and straight forward, and the initial installation and setup took us less than three minutes, Dad's fumbling included. The quality of the product and parts is outstanding, and customer service was (at least for us) excellent. Setting it up was simplicity itself – the adapter plate for the BGE slid in to the damper rails easily, even with Dad's difficulties sliding the upper clip, the set up for the probes was idiot-proof, and the connection was done in less time than it took to start the fire. We smoked the butts for 11 hours while the temp in the oven remained rock steady at 225°F. We only opened the egg to pop another knob or two of apple wood in at 3 hours, 7 hours and 9 hours into the smoke. The rest of the time, we watched the fan puff air into the unit periodically, and wondered why we had been such fools for so long. We will never cook or smoke on an outdoor cooker without a barbecue cooker temperature controller again.

The Pitmaster

BILL:
I personally have had no experience with this often highly praised system, but many of the competitors I have spoken to rave about it. Like the BBQ Guru, it features a set-it-and-forget-it design to give your charcoal cooker kitchen-oven-like temperature control and stability. We are amazed at how easy it has become to cook smokey, succulent, melt-in-your-mouth ribs, brisket, tenderloin, even burgers with any computer controls, and obviously, as popular as it has become, the Pitmaster must live up to it's name. All ad claims aside, the Pitmaster works best with Weber Kettle and Weber Smoky Mountain grills, but the manufacturer offers adapters designed to fit into the lower draft door of kamado style cookers as well. Like the DigiQ, kits come with a stainless steel adapter plate, stainless steel adjustment clip, reusable hose clamp and kill plug. The blower adapter slides in the kamado vent door rail from the side. The temperature probe cables are 72" long.  These should be long enough to reach the appropriate place in the pit to regulate temperature and to measure internal temp of the meat, so 6 feet is pretty generous.

ROBIN:
The 15 CFM air blower included in the standard kit is powerful enough for almost all cookers. The manufacturer has tested these devices on pits from little 25lb. Weber Kettles to 600lb. Superiors (I think this was a Stumps clone). The systems are cheap to buy (around $140 for the basic unit) and relatively robust. Those that have them and use them, love them, but there are a few complaints about the adapter plate, which usually turns out to be a faulty install by the would-be handyperson. (Remember Dad and hia installation trouble? Same complaint.) A good product and a good company.

The Stoker

BILL:
Again, I confess, I have no experience with the Stoker, but those that have them rave about them. Like the other barbecue temperature controllers, the Stoker monitors the pit temperature by a pit temperature probe and internal meat doneness by a meat temperature probe, while it controls the airflow through the pit to keep the set temperature stable using a blower fan attached to an adapter plate to the pit. Like the others, by turning the blower on and off as required, the Stoker keeps the pit within a few degrees of your set temperature as long as there is fuel to keep the fire going. The biggest advantage of the Stoker for the serious competitor is that one unit can control several pits in unison, and allows the cook to concentrate on cooking rather than – well, stoking. The standard setup uses a 5 cubic-foot-per-minute blower, attached to the lower vent of ceramic cookers, and in appropriate locations on other cookers. The manufacturer may recommend a bigger blower unit if you let them know what you're trying to cook on, and as with all of these units, customer service is very knowledgeable and helpful.

The Stoker is unique in that the blower power cable has a plug which contains a small chip, a unique identifier for the controller. When grouped to a food and a pit cable pair, the Stoker can control each blower individually, providing the ability to control several different cookers at the same time. Each blower also contains a built-in gravity damper which automatically opens when the blower is on and closes when the blower is off. This stops the natural flow of air through the cooker which could cause the fire to get hotter than desired, and prevents the cooker from over-temping. Because the damper works by gravity, it must be installed right side up with the cable on top. I have seen four different pits controlled from one Stoker console, but I am sure there are models that can accomodate more. Obviously, with more than one pit, setting up the Stoker to run on your system may take a little longer, but this is still pretty simple, and the results are truly amazing. Remember, controlling multiple cookers requires multiple blowers and multiple temperature probes, which allows you to group designated blowers with the temperature probes that control them. You just tell the Stoker which probes are controlling which pit and which probes are monitoring that pit's food temperatures. The small price you pay for all this functionality and flexibility is that you have to set it all up, and for competitions, this may take up to an hour, depending on the number of pits you're running. Lastly, you can configure the Stoker via the key pad and display on the unit itself (by navigating through the menus and setting all the values), or by hooking it up to your LAN and using your PC to set all the values. Unlike the single port systems, the Stoker has a web server built into the control unit, so you can use a web browser on your PC to access the setup information on the Stoker. For the techie, this is a great idea, especially if you need to control multiple smokers. Biggest downside is that the cost is around $360 for a kamado type oven, with the probe sets and extra blowers costing around $150 or so a set. If you have several smokers, this can get expensive, but the stability and control these systems give mean that a competitor can concentrate on the creative side of his work, presentation, saucing and so on. The Stoker is very well loved by those who have one.

Of course, we haven't seen every one of the available options out there. Wood, charcoal, briquettes, gas or electricity is dictated by budget and taste, and there is no right answer. As long as the meat is tasty, tender and cooked with loving care, the product served will be worth all the agony to prepare and serve it. The only real answer is - what do you want?

Happy picnicing,
Robin and Bill

The Art and Science of Fire, Smoke and Flame

So, how do I set up a charcoal grill for cooking?

BILL:

The first step in good grilling and smoking is to understand the differences between direct grilling, indirect grilling, and smoking. I know, this seems pretty obvious, but it makes all the difference in the final outcome, because this adds another level of control to the smoking environment.

Direct grilling:

This is what most of us know about grilling: we cook directly over the fire. The food is brown to black on the surface, and (hopefully) not raw or semi-raw on the inside. Bone conducts heat, fat slows it down. Direct grilling is a high heat method that Robin and I use to cook small or thin pieces of food quickly. Typical material we might direct grill includes steaks, chops, chicken breasts, fish fillets, vegetables, and bread. Remember - direct grilling is hot, fast and small bites. Setting up your grill for easy, controlled direct grilling is two fold - single zone cooking or three zone (sometimes two zone). In the first method, your coals are spread in an even layer to make a single zone fire over which the food will be grilled. On a gas grill, you simply light the appropriate burners. This is the ONLY method an electric element will allow. This is the perfect method for cooking a small amount of food such as a steak or chicken breasts for one or two people.

Second method is the two or three - zone cook. I get better heat control if I can build a three zone fire, consisting of a hot zone, a medium zone and cool or "safety" zone. On a charcoal grill, like the Weber kettle, after the coals have formed and there is no more smoke, I will rake half the coals into a double layer over one third of the fire box or the bottom of the grill. I then rake the remainder into a single layer in the center, leaving the remaining third of the firebox/grill bottom bare, without coals. I now have my three zones. I'll use the very hot double coal zone for searing, the medium single coal zone for my main cooking, and the cool zone for warming or as a safety zone to drag stuff to if the food starts to burn or there is a lot of flare-up happening. On my kamado (Large BGE) I drop a modified plate setter in after my fire is settled and divide my zones using the exposed fire as my hot zone, keeping my shielded area as my medium zone. I don't use a cool or safety zone with this method.

To set up a gas grill for three zone grilling, since I have a really cheap Craftsman two burner gas grill, I'll set one burner on high and one burner on medium, and this means I can use the warming rack as my safety zone. On a three or four burner gas grill, like my Wolf, I'll set one burner on high, one or two burners on medium, and leave the last burner off. Get the picture?

Indirect grilling:

ROBIN:
Indirect grilling is the method Dad and I use to cook much larger or tougher foods that would likely burn if they were direct grilled. As the name suggests, we position the food next to, not directly over, the fire so that it cooks slowly and thoroughly at a lower temperature for longer than just searing the meat. In this way, we ensure that the food is cooked all the way through. Indirect cooking makes food more juicy, have a better flavor and does not need to be as labor intensive as direct. Remember the phrase "if you're looking, you aren't cooking"? Here is where it becomes important. To hold in the heat, we close the grill lid during cooking, trapping heated air around the food and lowering the direct exposure of food to the flame. Unlike direct heat cooking, we deliberately turn the grill into a sort of outdoor oven. Dad and I use indirect to cook large pieces of meat, such as pork shoulders and whole chickens, as well as cooking and tenderizing tougher cuts of meat, like brisket and ribs, that need long, slow cooking at a low to moderate heat. We can work at a more moderate temperature (275 to 350 degrees) and control the internal meat temperature better, forcing a slower equilibrium with the heated atmosphere in the cooker. This in turn fosters the breakdown proteins and fat slower and more thoroughly, releasing more juice and tenderness, and lastly, this method makes it easy to introduce that characteristic wood smoke flavor. This is the best method we know of to cook ribs, pork shoulders, briskets, whole chickens and turkeys, and other large pieces of food. Yum!

To indirect grill on the Weber kettle or similar drum type charcoal grill, we light our charcoal in a chimney starter (see previous blog entry), or with an electric starter, or (hopefully never) with a specially formulated lighter block. Try not to ever use lighter fluid or another petroleum based accelerant - the food just tastes oily and bitter, IMHO. When the coals are glowing red, we then dump or rake them in two piles at opposite sides of the grill. Some grills come with special side baskets for this purpose. If it does, use them - the results are worth it. We then place an aluminum baking dish or (for easier clean up) a foil drip pan (the roasting dishes from Reynolds are best, being thicker and more sturdy than the look-alikes) in the center of the grill, between the mounds of embers. We then place the grate on the grill and cook our chicken or meat in the center of the grate, directly over the drip pan. Other grills will require some modification of this idea, but the basis remains the same - keep the coals away from the food (side burner box, plate setter, pizza stone) or divert the heat around it. If you're using wood chips for smoking and don't have a chip box or similar idea, toss a cup or three of presoaked and drained wood chips on each pile of coals to generate your smoke. Remember to keep the grill covered as much as possible, controlling the temperature in the dome by adjusting the top and bottom vents to obtain the desired temperature (usually medium, 275 - 350 degrees). Add  three or four handfuls of fresh charcoal briquettes or a corresponding amount of lump charcoal after about an hour, leaving the grill uncovered for a few minutes until the coals ignite. If you can afford it, fit the grill with one of the new grilling control computers - the difference in effort is astounding, and the results far outweigh the cost of the computer. More about this later.

Always open the lid before lighting any gas grill, even if it has that neat little red button to ignite the flame. We watched one young man blow the lid off his very expensive Holland - scared most of our audience half to death, and rendered him a singed and much more safety conscious participant from then on! The ball of flame from the explosion set fire to the top of his tent, adding to the consternation. But, I digress - just be safe. Make sure you have at least 1/3 of a tank of gas before you start grilling. It's a good idea to have an extra full tank as a spare as well, since there is nothing more frustrating than to run out of gas during a cook - especially where everyone is relying on you to produce the main course. Some higher end grills have insets that cover the center part of the wire cooking surface. Use them if you have them, because these provide a flame shield and convert the direct cooking area to a more indirect, and without fussing about burning the meat. If not, or you have a gas barbecue that still burns despite setting the burners as we suggest, you can buy a perfectly good pizza stone from Walmart, and just put this in the center of the barbecue instead to keep flame away from your poultry. To indirect grill on your gas grill with or without a stone or diverter, if you have an old two burner gas grill like our Craftsman, light it on one side only, using a long reach barbecue lighter. Set the lit element side on high and cook your food on the other side (cooler, unlit). If you have a three burner like my Charbroil, light it at the front and rear (or the left and right) outside burners and cook the food in the center. If you have a four burner gas grill (or bigger, like Dad's Wolf), light the outside burners and, again, cook food in the center. Adjust your burner knobs to obtain the desired heat, and use a meat thermometer to test for doneness before you serve.

Using Charcoal

BILL:
For charcoal grilling we prefer natural lump charcoal, made from pure wood and recognizable by its irregular shaped chunks, to any briquettes, simply because charcoal is a natural product, containing no additives or fillers. It burns hot, relatively ash free and the coals last a long time, so this is a very effective, stable and efficient wood fuel. Of course, the vast majority of Americans use the ubiquitous charcoal briquettes, which, in addition to raw wood, often contain other burnables, such as furniture scraps, coal dust, borax, and (especially those 'easy light' products) petroleum binders. This information may sound a tad disturbing - it IS disturbing, especially to foodies like Robin and I - and those partially lit briquettes can give off a strong acrid smoke flavor, which, if you close the oven too soon, can permeate your food and send your onlookers and admirers coughing and gagging away from your soon-to-be-culinary effort. If you just have patience and let the briquettes completely burn down to glowing coals before you close up the grill and add your food, these impurities are allowed to burn off and the food will taste pretty much the same as if cooked over lump charcoal. Again, I prefer lump charcoal and use it whenever I can, but I also am aware that most of the competition barbecue champs use briquettes, simply because they are easier to store and load during a cook.

Minion Method

I use this method of setting up the charcoal so it will burn for hours unattended. It is simply a pan full of unlit charcoal with a few lit coals placed on top of it. The lit coals maintain the temperature of the smoker and slowly light the remaining charcoal in succession over the course of six or more hours allowing you to sleep or do other things while the smoker cooks your food at the correct temperatures. Wood chips/chunks dispersed throughout the charcoal give off smoke as the charcoal burns, so mix chunks and chips of smoking wood liberally through the load. This works best using specialized baskets that allow a precise amount of fuel to be poured in with plenty of airflow through the sides and bottom of the basket. The basket can be used in different types of smokers but the size and amount needed to maintain heat will need to be adjusted for your particular unit. The baskets we use are usually made from something like expanded metal and can be eight to twenty-four inches square and twelve inches or so deep.

The Water Pan

Ever wonder what the water pan is really for? Well, depending on the science source, it serves a couple of purposes, one of which is provoking of much debate - wetting the air, and adding flavor. The first purpose is not controversial. Adding a water pan will help control the temperature inside the smoker. The science involves a principle of thermodynamics, in particular a law of equilibrium of temperatures and water vapor. Water boils at 212°F, so as the water gets hot it begins to steam.  The steam, which mixes with the air in the smoker, naturally lowers the temperature in the kettle to a point where steam and air coexist at around the 212°F mark. So, adding the pan will thermodynamically regulate the ambient temperature in the smoker to a constant but stable temperature of around 212°F, just as ice in a warm glass of tea affects its surroundings and brings the temperature of the liquid down to a much colder state, in equilibrium with the melting property of the ice. Really. The second purpose is something that is argued about quite a bit - there are experts who believe that the steam creates a more flavored environment, and that having flavored steam serves to flavor the meat as well as keep it moist in the smoker. While we believe that the water pan does not add a lot of flavoring and moisture to the meat, it must obviously create a more humid environment inside the smoker, which should reduce the natural drying effect of the charcoal or gas heat, and may even help the meat to end up moister than it would otherwise. I don't see it affecting the taste of the meat, myself, and Robin and I have not seen any strong empiric evidence cited by others, so here the food physics is a little less supportive. We will let you decide this for yourself. Some cooks like to put various ingredients and liquids in the water pan such as apple juice, wine, seasonings, etc. which they believe influences the taste of the meat. We have no solid proof either for or against this, but we suggest that you try it for yourself and make your own decision based on your experience. Personally, if it adds more complication, I'd do without. Our general message is that by adding extra moisture by injecting, brining or marinating, then paying attention to the fire temperature, the meat should be fall-off-the-bone moist every time.

How Often and How Long to Add Smoke

ROBIN:
The whole purpose of cooking meat outdoors in a smoker is to add smoke flavor - otherwise you could just cook it in the oven and be done with it. For those of you using wood for heat in your grillers, the smoke flavor is there by default but for those who are using charcoal smokers (or even gas and electric), you will want to know not only how often to add wood but how long to add wood. The general rule for me is to keep a light wood smoke flowing for at least half of the cook time. For ribs this would be about three hours. For chicken, we suggest about two hours or so. If you are using a strong wood like hickory or mesquite then this will give you good smoke flavoring. If you are using a milder wood such as apple or pecan, then you might want to continue to add smoke throughout the entire process. Watch the smoke. Once it begins to dissipate, you will want to throw in more wood chunks or chips to keep the smoke going. This can be anywhere between every twenty minutes to every hour, depending on your smoker and what type of wood you are using. It also matter whether you just place the wood on the coals or if you place the wood in a smoking box and set the box on top of the coals or heat source. These guidelines will get you started, but practice will be your best teacher.

What Kind of Wood to Use
We cannot, nor are we going to, list every single type of wood that works well for smoking. As a general rule, anything that bears a nut or a fruit and is a hardwood can be used for smoking meat. There is one exception that we know of and that is black walnut. There are many folks who do professional BBQ who feel it imparts too bitter of a taste and should not be used or should be used very sparingly. My favorite smoking wood these days is pecan. It gives a wonderful flavor to  almost everything that we cook. We also love apple, hickory, mesquite and oak which give great flavor to almost any type of meat. You should never use woods that are from a coniferous plant, evergreens, pine, spruce, cedar, etc. Okay, yes, we know what you're thinking. Many chefs grill food on cedar planks, that is true, but, in our opinion, placing a soaked cedar plank on a grill is just not going to produce the same type of reaction as actually burning the cedar as fuel. From our research, we don't burn cedar for cooking, because it is full of oil, burns too hot and tastes bitter, and we personally choose to not use it.

We found many lists of woods people say are suitable for grilling and smoking. This compilation is not complete, but it's the best we have found as far as listing the tastes and flavors:

Acacia - in the same family as mesquite. When burned in a grill, acacia has a flavor similar to mesquite but not quite as heavy. A very hot burning wood.
Alder - very delicate with a hint of sweetness. Good with fish, pork, poultry, and light-meat game birds.
Almond - a sweet smoke flavor, light ash. Good with all meats.
Apple - very mild with a subtle fruity flavor, slightly sweet. Good with poultry (turns skin dark brown) and pork.
Ash - fast burner, light but distinctive flavor. Good with fish and red meats.
Birch - medium-hard wood with a flavor similar to maple. Good with pork and poultry.
Cherry - mild and fruity. Good with poultry, pork and beef. Some list members say the cherry wood is the best wood for smoking. Wood from chokecherry trees may produce a bitter flavor.
Cottonwood - it is a softer wood than alder and very subtle in flavor. Use it for fuel but use some chunks of other woods (hickory, oak, pecan) for more flavor. Don't use green cottonwood for smoking.
Crabapple - similar to apple wood.
Grapevines - tart. Provides a lot of smoke. Rich and fruity. Good with poultry, red meats, game and lamb.
Hickory - most commonly used wood for smoking--the king of smoking woods. Sweet to strong, heavy bacon flavor. Good with pork, ham and beef.
Lilac - very light, subtle with a hint of floral. Good with seafood and lamb.
Maple - smoky, mellow and slightly sweet. Good with pork, poultry, cheese, and small game birds.
Mesquite - strong earthy flavor. Good with beef, fish, chicken, and game. One of the hottest burning.
Mulberry - the smell is sweet and reminds one of apple.
Oak - heavy smoke flavor--the queen of smoking wood. Red oak is good on ribs, white oak makes the best coals for longer burning. All oak varieties reported as suitable for smoking. Good with red meat, pork, fish and heavy game.
Orange, lemon and grapefruit - produces a nice mild smoky flavor. Excellent with beef, pork, fish and poultry.
Pear - a nice subtle smoke flavor. Much like apple. Excellent with chicken and pork.
Pecan - sweet and mild with a flavor similar to hickory. Tasty with a subtle character. Good with poultry, beef, pork and cheese. Pecan is an all-around superior smoking wood.
Sweet fruit woods - apricot, plum, peach, nectarine - great on most white or pink meats, including chicken, turkey, pork and fish. The flavor is milder and sweeter than hickory.
Walnut - english and black - very heavy smoke flavor, should be mixed with lighter woods like almond, pear or apple. Can be bitter if used alone. Good with red meats and game. Use the black with caution.

Other internet sources report that wood from the following trees is suitable for smoking: avocado, bay, carrotwood, kiawe, madrone, manzanita, guava, olive, beech, butternut, fig, gum, chestnut, hackberry, pimiento, persimmon, and willow. The ornamental varieties of fruit trees (i.e. Pear, cherry, apple, etc.) are all very suitable for smoking.

Most of what we have discussed should be common sense, but we feel that it bears repeating. Be aware that there are many woods that are unsuitable and may even be poisonous when used for grilling -  Dad and I have already stated that you shouldn't use any wood from conifer trees, such as pine, fir, spruce, redwood, cedar, cypress, oleander, etc, because the sap contains substances which will taint and sometimes poison the food. There are many trees and shrubs which contain chemicals toxic to humans, some of which can survive the burning process. Remember, you are going to eat the meat that you grill. The smoke particles and chemicals that may be on or in your fuel wood will get on and in the meat. Use only wood that you are sure is chemical free. If you don't know what wood it is, don't use it for grilling food. Burn it in your fireplace, but not your smoker. Elm and some eucalyptus wood is also listed on the Web as unsuitable for smoking and grilling, as is sassafras, sycamore and liquid amber trees, mostly because of bitter taste. Never use lumber scraps, either new or used - you don't know what kind of wood it is; the wood may have been chemically treated; and you have no idea where the wood may have been or how it was used. Don't use any wood that has been painted or stained. Paint products impart a bitter taste to meat and old paint may contain lead. Don't use wood scraps from a furniture manufacturer because their wood is often chemically treated. Never use wood from old pallets - they are treated with chemicals that can be hazardous, or the pallet itself may have been used for chemicals or poison. Avoid old wood that is covered with mold and fungus. Many fungi can impart a bad taste to meat. If you have good old cherry wood (or other good smoking wood) which has fungus, and you really must use it, pre-burn it down to coals to get rid of the taste before you put it into your smoker or grill. This is just common sense, and will help you be a better outdoor cook.

Happy picnicking!
Bill and Robin

Heat, Firebuilding and Smoking Science

BILL:

One of the important aspects of smoking meat is to maintain a stable heat in the smoker at a low but narrow range for hours at a time, thereby keeping the heat stable, the smoke controlled and the cooking process on time and appropriately tenderizing the meat. This is challenging for the seasoned expert and often just downright frustrating for the beginner. Robin and I have produced some dry horrors because of our inability to stabilize the fire - indeed, who hasn't chewed on a hard, dry rib produced by a sweaty, sooty, smiling, anxious relative who is trying out his or her new cooker? My, that brings back some horrible memories... As a defense, we would like to give you some tips that will make a fire perfect for cooking meat very slowly. We will also go over some basic combustive science as it applies to cooking. A large portion of this is obviously geared toward wood and/or charcoal and doesn't apply to the electric or propane smokers. Unless you have a large smoker such as a BGE, or similar Kamado type oven, or a Lang, or similar horizontal offset smoker, you probably won't use plain or chunk charcoaled wood as a fuel source. Most backyard cooks use charcoal briquettes for heat and add wood sticks, chunks or chips for smoke flavoring. Please, PLEASE do not use lighter fluid or other gasoline based accelerant, because the residual taste in the smoke is disgusting and doesn't go away despite the time you leave the fire open. Robin and I will often use vegetable oil sprayed onto newspaper if we need an accelerant. Why vege oil? We found out from several BBQ competitors that if the paper does not want to stay lit, spraying it with a little vege oil helps heat the coals better, adds fuel and temperature, and doesn’t make the charcoal taste of petroleum or lighter fluid. We just feel that using vege oil is healthier, it works and tastes much better. We will also touch on some technology which makes cooking and smoking meat much less painful.

Building and Maintaining the Fire The Way Boy Scouts Do It
ROBIN:

Dad has a really large stick burner in his collection, so we build our fire in it using the tried and true Boy Scout pyramid method. We start by building a small loose pile of kindling, paper, twigs and even dry leaves making sure that air can flow through easily. We continue to build a pyramid of twigs and small sticks around and over the top of this small loose pile of kindling. Then, we light the fire. Once the fire is started and begins to burn pretty well, we start adding larger and larger sticks and logs in a pyramidal manner until we have the size of fire that we want. We let it burn until there is a good ember base before we add our charcoal and wood chunks.

Modified Boy Scout Method
Also known as a flat fire or hunter’s fire, this method doesn’t need a large center base of dry matter to light. We use this in our trench fireplace - an open pit - when we are cooking over open flame. We construct a shallow pit, usually in the direction o f the wind so it draws easily. after the griddle supports are in place, we lay two or three medium sticks parallel with a few inches of space between them. We place another layer the same way on top of them but perpendicular. Two or three layers is probably enough to start with. Dad will place some old newspaper sprayed with vegetable oil (this is a trick we learned from other competition cooks, and works well. We use canola, but any vegetable oil is good - spray it, don't drown it) with some kindling down under/inside the stack and light it. Be sure to add small twigs and sticks to keep the fire burning until the larger pieces catch. Once the smoker is up to temperature, we continue adding wood as needed to keep the fire going and the heat at the level that we want.

Upside Down Fire Building Method
In essence, this method is completely backwards from the Boy Scout method. We use this method in the offset smoker when we need a large amount of heat and smoke on the bypass. Three large splits or logs of about four inches in diameter are placed side by side, and butted together on the floor of the firebox. Three more slightly smaller logs of about two to three inches in diameter are placed perpendicular on top of the larger ones and butted together, like the hunter's fire method, but no air flow. Another layer of even smaller sticks are placed on top of the second layer perpendicular and butted together. About one inch diameter of DRY sticks at this stage is perfect. We rough these up with a penknife to increase surface area and expose the drier inside wood. They should look like well chewed toothpicks, but bigger. Lay a section of newspaper folded in half across the third layer of wood then pile kindling on top of the paper. Light the paper, which in turn lights the kindling. The kindling burns and slowly starts the smaller sticks below it. The fire will continue to burn, and, as the coals from the upper layers fall to the layers below, they will catch on fire as well. We are still experimenting with this method, but I like what I have seen so far, because a side box smoker like the Lang takes a lot of wood to do a good smoke, and this method gets our ember bed stable early and easily. Sadly, Dad sold the Lang several years ago before we discovered smoking computers... and more on that later!

Using a Charcoal Chimney
BILL:
The easiest way to start charcoal, whether briquettes or chunks, is in a charcoal chimney. Robin and I have one made by Weber I bought from Walmart - it holds at least six pounds of charcoal, and looks like a large metal cylinder with a handle. It's pretty much idiot-proof. The charcoal sits on a wire cage, and there is room at the bottom of the chimney to stuff some newspaper into it. We usually lightly spray the paper with a little vegetable oil to get the process really started (as we mentioned before). Once the chimney base is stuffed with paper and you have charcoal on the top, it should be placed on a stable, hard surface such as sidewalk, dry dirt or a paver stone. Light the paper from the bottom side. As the paper burns it catches the coals on fire. Within ten minutes or so, the coals will be bright orange and ready to be poured into the firebox of our smoker.

Tip: Alternatively, instead of using paper in the bottom, you can set the filled chimney on the side burner of your gas grill for a few minutes to light the charcoal. This works like a charm and is my usual way of doing it.

Electric Start method
I’m biased. These work, but there are some downsides. Most obvious is you need an electrical source. Kamado ovens especially tout the benefits of placing a yellow-hot unshielded bare element in the middle of a pile of charcoal in the firebox, and leaving it in the coals until the fire is well set. I don’t approve. After watching in horror as one contestant whipped this apparatus out of his burner and seared a circular mark on the forearm of one of his assistants, we have come to the conclusion that the safety of these items is very user dependent. On several occasions Robin and I had to chase our wives and the kids/grandkids away from the cooling element after using it to start my BGE, so we stopped using it, and I have not used mine for several years after discovering that simpler methods work best. Again, just my bias. Use it if you own one, but be VERY careful.

Weed Burner Method
Talking about safety issues, here’s another method we most definitely will not recommend, but have seen at some local competitions – essentially, it’s a real treat for some of you pyromaniacs out there. Get a weed burner, which is basically a special wand at the end of a three to four foot hose attached to a small propane tank. This unit was designed to kill weeds along fence lines and such, but works really well at starting charcoal or even wood. Place the charcoal or wood as you want it in the smoker and let this flame thrower light it up in a matter of minutes. Oh, and Robin adds, don’t forget the redneck last words – “Hold my beer, and watch this…”

Making Your Own Firestarters
ROBIN:
There are lots of recipes for firestarters on the Web. All of them consist of compressed sawdust and a burnable agent like food grade parrafin melted into the sawdust. The paper egg cartons make great molds. Be careful, though, the wax you use can flavor the food quite unattratively if you're recycling old candles, so be selective. My favorite is bees wax and appledust from when we trim apple wood into chunks. We save the fruit wood sawdust and mix it with beeswax and paraffin until it is just moist, and use the appleand honey starters when we need to set a fire quickly. They smell great, and work great too.

Keep the Home Fires Burning
Building the fire like Dad describes may be the first step, but keeping the fire going and maintaining a specific temperature is the second half of the equation. This is further complicated by the fact that every smoker (of course) is different. The metal/ceramic thickness, size of the firebox and the smoke chamber, location of the chimney, size and number of dampers, etc. all play a part in maintaining the temperature of your smoker. Unfortunately a large part of this must be learned by experience, trial and terror (yes, I meant that). You will have to practice a lot to find out what works best for your smoker. This allows you an excuse to cook lots of meat, and learn all about why men do this. Especially, you’ll get compliments for the great dishes you serve, and adoration and worship from the dog when it doesn't turn out well.

Best advice we can give you is don't leave the smoker alone for exteded periods while you are learning what is required to keep it going. Dad's BGE smoker does great as long as we throw a stick in it about every thirty to forty-five minutes, but Dad and I have other cookers and smokers that are a little greedier and need to be fed more often. Education and reading are no substitute for experience and hard work. Some smokers require constant adjustments to the damper settings while others seem to know what they are supposed to do and just do it. We recommend not getting too worked up over small temperature fluctuations - the ideal temperature for most hot smoking is around 225°F, but while you're learning, accept some slack and shoot for between 210° to 250°F. One other point - you must get the heat up off the floor of the fire box and into the cooking chamber or you'll burn tons of fuel without reaping the benefit of the heat and smoke. This usually means opening the top wider than recommended, and using the draft damper more to control the fire.

If you are not having fun, then all the experimenting in the world is just busy work, and with outdoor cooking, that is not a good thing. Instead of getting frustrated over it, if you are halfway through a cook and the temperatures just start going haywire, no one will fault you for taking your project out of the smoker and completing your cooking in a 195°F oven - believe me, we have done it. At that point, you will probably have some good smoke flavor and it can finish with just heat. You can try to do it full time in the smoker next time.

Tip:  When using charcoal, we recommend the 100% lump hardwood charcoal if possible. It burns slower, hotter and cleaner than most briquettes, and leaves much less ash. It is also a little more expensive in most cases so that is a call you will have to make. We just think it tastes better.

Fuel costs
BILL:
Grilling can be an expensive sport, if you let it, what with all the neat gadgets out there to buy. Even so, there are inexpensive ways to indulge. Basic equipment ranges from a $50 kettle up to a top of the line chef's system coming in at over $5000 or more. Fuel ranges from a few cents an hour up to $10 or more a cook. Then there are the toys - the thermometers, the tools, the apron, the beer fridge... bottom line, if you can afford it, there is a product to meet that income! So, let's talk fuel costs, just for something to discuss.

Electricity is far and away the cheapest fuel for cooking barbecue, cost about 35 to 80 cents for a cookout. There are a huge variety of units available, with varying purchase prices, but for our purposes we will define the electric barbecue as an enclosure to a plate with ridges, heated by an electric element. One example of a great electric barbecue is Weber's Q series - they are well made, cheap and very efficient. The quality of manufacturing of any barbecue is often somewhat variable, but an electric model is a really good starter for people who live in areas where gas and charcoal barbecues are forbidden or discouraged. The advantages of instant on, quick heat, all season cooking at a decent price is very tempting. Electricity is cheap, but you are tied to an outlet. Cleanup is usually easy - most electric cookers simply wipe off or can be sluiced in the sink. The temperature control is very stable, and the heat production is highly effective for grilling. The smokiness you get from wood, however, is absent unless you get creative with additional gadgets such as wood boxes and smoker packs (a rolled up foil pack of wet chips which provides smoke during a covered cook). There are also gadgets which add smoke by means of a generator such as the Smoke Gun from Williams-Sonoma, or similar technology. Best for grilling, but you can buy electric smokers too, and they do work well.

Gas is usually what we see on the backyard systems across the country, simply because it has the benefit of being very portable, simple to operate, has great temperature control, the fuel source (propane) is quite safe, and the model availability of gas cookers is enormous. They are quick and easy to set up, they turn on instantly and produce heat immediately, temperature control is precise, consistent and stable, and there is no ash residue to clean up afterward. They are, however, quite large and bulky compared to electric systems, and prices range from as cheap as $300 up to specialty units which can cost in the $3000 - 4000 range. Cost of propane for a usual backyard cook is around $3, depending on the number of burners used and the gas flow demanded. Note - gas barbecues are listed in BTU's (British Thermal Units) - this is NOT the amount of heat a system produces, but actually refers to the amount of gas consumed. The higher the BTU, the more gas burned. Indirectly, this should mean a hotter or colder element, but a standard propane barbecue is only about 70% efficient. Downside to the gas barbecues is the cylinder - refilling can be quite daunting, if you can find a refiller, while swapping for a full cylinder is more expensive than refilling. The cylinders can be heavy and awkward to move about, so bear this in mind as well. Again, you miss out on the smoke of wood fire and charcoal unless you use something to artificially add it. See the electric systems above. Gas smokers are available just like their electric cousins.

Charcoal has to be the epitome of flavoring outdoor cooking, in my opinion. The cost of charcoal (briquettes or lump) is around $2 for a cook - perhaps as high as $10 if you're cooking on a Lang for 14 hours, slow and smoky. Usually charcoal briquette grills are cheap, and they are regarded by most barbecue afficionados as being the only way to cook. The smoky flavor they add to foods is distinctively barbecue, there is the pleasure of the Ritual for Making Fire (stop giggling, girls - it's a Man thing), and most models aren't expensive or large and bulky items. I confess, I started out on a very cheap 8 inch by 14 inch hibachi grill from Target. I loved that thing, and my family will agree that we made some of the best meals on it.

The choice between lump charcoal and briquettes is also a personal preference, with briquettes being popular and less messy to clean up. They also tend to last longer, produce a steady heat and don't go out as quickly, due in part to the manufacturing process. Lump charcoal, on the other hand, is cheaper, burns hotter, creates a more smoky and aromatic flavor and is probably the best method of cooking I know of. However, charcoal and briquette barbecues are messy, irritating, often frustrating to keep alight, and it does take time and patience to set up for cooking. Adjusting coals to maintain the cooking heat requires attention and experience the gas and electric systems don't require. Charcoal and briquette burning produces ash which is messy, the grillers need constant cleaning out to remain efficient, and the grilling surface may require cleaning with a wire brush rather than simply heaving it into the nearest sink. Nonetheless, they teach the outdoor cook the art of mastering the grill.

ROBIN:
My turn. Wood is the most expensive but most elemental of cooking ingredients known to man. There is something about an aromatic hardwood fire producing heat and smoke for cooking which calls to the blood in all of us. From a simple pit in the ground to a carefully crafted oven of brick and ceramic, wood has been the basis of cooking for thousands of years. Being able to open an offset smoker's firebox and pitch in a slab of dried hickory appeals to me, which is why Dad and I have a bypass smoker for those meats that respond to slow, low heat for hours and hours.... mmmmm! Any cooking over a wood fire is more instinctive than cooking with a gas grill, it's more nuanced than cooking with charcoal, and infinitely more satisfying, and not just when a platter of grilled lamb or a slab of crispy glazed pork ribs is brought to the table still smelling of the oak and applewood it was cooked over (or bathed in, if it is a true offset smoker). There is also the satisfying ritual of building the fire out of split logs, preparing the bed of embers and smoke, and then, using simple items such as a wire grill, salt, pepper, spices and some tongs, cooking with it. Grilling or smoking, wood is as basic as it gets. The flavors are neither bold nor subtle, they are elemental, and the satisfaction gained from producing the perfect steak from a fire and eating it is indescribable. Add a beer, and suddenly all is right with the world.

Granted, grilling over hardwood can be sweaty, smoky, eye-stinging work, but it’s so much fun! That being said, grilling with a wood fire is a lot more challenging than grilling with charcoal, simply because wood burns hotter than charcoal and burns through to ash faster. It also forms hot coals for a shorter period of time than charcoal does, because of wood's more open and wetter density, so the fire must be monitored more often than with a charcoal fire, and appropriately fed when needed. However, most professional grillers and chefs in specialty grill restaurants use dried (seasoned) wood preferentially to charcoal as their fuel of choice, because although it is a lot easier to manage a charcoal fire, and charcoal is a bit cheaper than wood, the distinct tang that comes with grilling with a flavorful hardwood, like Mesquite, cannot be obtained with charcoal alone.

Happy Picnicing!

Bill and Robin

The Pagan Picnic - an outdoor cooking blog

BILL:

My son-in-law, Robin, in my humble opinion, is a grilling god. He knows how to cook on fires, coals, gas and even (sadly) electric grillers. He has taught me how to make and use brines, injections and rubs that bring salivation to an art form, and has a deep experience toolkit for outdoor cooking and an encyclopedic knowledge of recipes that beggar me. To talk about cooking on any outdoor system with anyone else becomes pale, shallow and dull. I, on the other hand, am a collector of cooking systems, an expert in fire, coal and smoke temperatures and times; an experimenter and self-confessed foodie, with strange appetites for smoking large slabs of unusual meats and experimenting with various flavor enhancements, such as the six pack of Tecate beer and an exotic mixture of curry powder, South African spices and Walmart applewood rub. Between us, we have probably cooked it, eaten it, done it, attempted it or (most likely) burned it beyond recognition during our formative years. As a result, we believe we have developed the expertise that will allow you to learn from our mistakes, and get to a level of competence on the smoker and grill that we lacked growing up. So here goes…

Welcome to our “Bill and Robin Outdoor Cooking/Smoking Basics” blog. This is where Robin and I will attempt to teach you, the backyard cooking novice guy or gal, what you will need to know about seriously impressing that hot chick or hot guy in the other apartment by knowing all about how to smoke meat and cook outdoors successfully. We will talk cooking, recipes, brines, injections, rubs, wines and beers, as we travel this Pagan Picnic. Something about a hot day, a pool flickering light on the balcony, the sight of smoke lazily drifting from a well-controlled charcoal fire and the scent of seasoned roasting beast wafting on the air… add the clink of ice-cold beer bottles, the slosh of a delicate wine and voila! Romance is in the air, dudes! This first blog will deal with one of the most important aspects of outdoor cooking- selecting your meat. And, before Robin chimes in, we are NOT referring to the before-mentioned chick (or guy). We’re talking a hunk of beast for smoking. Mmmm!

Like anything else, there are different types and grades of meat and, while you may be tempted to purchase that half price brisket or pork shoulder, make sure it passes Robin’s selection tests before you take it home:

•  Make your meat selections last when you are in the supermarket to ensure that it stays cold until you get home,
•  Select only cuts of beef that are bright red away from the red case lights for best flavor - meat should have no splotches of gray or brown,
•  Make sure the packages are tightly wrapped with no tears or punctures in the package so that air doesn't spoil the taste,
•  Meat should be firm to the touch, not soft and soggy - it's muscle, not pudding,
•  Meat should not have an unpleasant odor - it should smell slightly sweet and flinty.

You need to know that American Beef is graded for sale in two ways: quality grades for tenderness, juiciness and flavor; and yield grades for the amount of usable lean meat on the carcass. For instance, beef is quality graded into USDA Prime, USDA Choice and USDA Select respectively. From a consumer standpoint, these quality beef grades mean the marbling level, and varies from cut to cut. It's all about the fat, and it's not just the grade that matters, its the technique you use to make the magic of cooking happen.

Prime beef is produced from young, well-fed beef cattle. It has abundant marbling (the amount of fat interspersed with lean meat), and is preferentially sold to restaurants and hotels. Prime roasts and steaks are excellent for dry-heat cooking such as broiling, roasting or grilling.  Unless you’re in the trade (or have a good friend who is), this grade of meat will usually be unavailable, but sometimes we get lucky – we have found that butchers, for a pretty decent price, will often get you some of the specialty prime cuts not sold in supermarkets, so it never hurts to ask.

The most widely sold grade to consumers is USDA Select. This is excellent meat, however, with consumers being more health conscious and thinking lean meats may be the healthier option, USDA Choice has become a widely sold and popular grade as well. Select beef is very uniform in quality, and tends to be a bit leaner than Prime. It is fairly tender, but, because it has less marbling, it lacks some of the juiciness and flavor of the higher grade. We think that only tender cuts of Choice should be cooked with dry heat. Other cuts need to be injected or marinated before cooking or braised to obtain maximum tenderness and flavor. Choice beef is still high quality, but has less marbling than Select. Choice roasts and steaks from the loin and rib are very tender, juicy, and flavorful and are quite suited for dry-heat cooking. Many less tender cuts can also be cooked with dry heat if not overcooked. Those cuts are most tender if they are braised, roasted or simmered with a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pan, or marinated and/or injected before cooking.

Standard and Commercial grades of beef are frequently sold as ungraded or as store brand meat or stew meat. they make great dishes if marinated and injected. Utility, Cutter, and Canner grades of beef are seldom, if ever, sold at retail but are used to make ground beef and processed products such as hamburger patties. Robin sneers at the boxed patties - he makes his own, and we will share that recipe with you as well. It is exquisite.

Let us now discuss a few of the most popular smoking meats as well as brisket and ribs since those are the ones we think you will most likely need to know best. Remember, start simple and build your expertise one dish at a time.

Brisket

ROBIN:
Briskets for smoking are supposed to be pretty straight forward, but there are a few things that Bill and I want to share to help you insure that it turns out the best that it can possibly be. A well-cooked brisket is a semi-religious experience. It falls off the slab, it melts in the mouth, and it adds a little heat to the meal. To start with, you can buy brisket as an untrimmed packer cut, or, more commonly, as a flat. Your best bet when you're intending to smoke a brisket is to buy the packer cut. This is the flat and point together, unmodified by the butcher, and should have plenty of fat on top. To end up with a tender brisket, you need to start out with a tender brisket. This is relative, since briskets are NEVER tender when you buy them. However, there is a trick we learned from one of the pros - if you lay the brisket flat across the side of your hand so that it can bend on both sides, you will notice some of the cuts have more bend than others. The one with the most bend is most likely a tender piece of meat.

BILL:
This is not fool proof, we agree, but it is about the only indicator we know that has worked. If your store is one of those that loads the cuts on a Styrofoam plate then this will obviously not be possible. You can ask the meat salesperson to unpack and wrap it again if you dare – as far as that is concerned, we don’t bother. Robin and I usually go to a store where we can choose the meat before it’s packaged. If you don’t have that luxury, go for a brisket that has at least a 1/4 inch fat cap for best results. Finally, buy a brisket that is at or below ten pounds. Robin and I have used briskets larger than this for large gatherings and competitions, and had them turn out well, but we found that the best cut for flavor and tenderness is always one in the lower weight range.

Pork Shoulder

ROBIN:
Pork shoulder is usually separated into two halves at the store . The best half in my opinion is the butt, sometimes labeled the "Boston butt". The other half is the picnic roast, which is a good cut, but a little less intense in tenderness and flavor when compared to the butt, in my opinion. Frankly, it is very difficult to go wrong with a Boston butt. It almost always has lots of fat marbling throughout the meat, which gives it great flavor and absorbs seasonings rapidly and well, and a good cut should weigh between six and nine pounds. The picnic cut may have a thick skin on one side which needs to be removed. Like the butt, it has lots of marbling and will work fine for pulled pork if you cannot find a butt. The difference, though, is the picnic requires a lot more prep to get there – marinade, injection, rubbing and a slower and cooler cook, for example.

Pork Ribs

When outdoor cooks say pork ribs, we are either referring to spare ribs or baby back ribs. I will mention pork country style ribs as well, just because everyone calls them "ribs", but since they are cut from the loin and may or may not contain a bone, they are actually not ribs at all. The spare rack is the meatier strip which comes from down around the front of the rib cage. This cut is a pro favorite in competition for smoking, because of the superior flavor they develop. The rack is quite a bit larger than baby backs, and tends to have a more fat as well. The spare usually weighs in at around five pounds, and is best when there is lots of marbling of fat between the bones. Baby backs have become more of a favorite of many of our more health conscious friends due to the lower fat content and slightly shorter cook time. This cut originates closer to the back bone, so it tends to be less meaty than the spares, with considerably less fat as well. This is not a bad thing, but as with most things smoked, fat is wonderful for keeping the meat moist during the cooking process. Look for baby backs with lots of marbling of fat in the meat between the bones for best results. Both spares and baby backs have a thick membrane or skin on the bone side which must be removed prior to smoking. We'll talk that subject in depth later - there is a trick to it, which makes this easier than you think.

Chicken

BILL:
Robin says that chicken is a great meat choice for a beginner, simply because it can handle a wide range of temperatures, and if you mess one up, you are out much less money than you would be with most other cuts of meat. I agree with that, but would add that a chicken takes flavor easily, making it the best meat to learn techniques for rubs and injections on as well. We like to use chickens that are around three to four pounds, but we have noticed lately that it is not uncommon to see chickens weighing in at five pounds or more. In our experience, the smaller ones tend to be best for flavor and tenderness, but the larger ones work well for smoking and injecting, especially if that is all that you have available. Look for chickens that are labeled "MINIMALLY PROCESSED", if possible. These usually have more meat and fewer additives. If you can't find that label, find chickens that have the least amount of solution added during processing, and if at all possible, buy your bird from a butcher, not a supermarket, since it will usually not be stuffed in a shrink-wrapped plastic bag and stewing in preservatives. If you can afford it, go for the organic or free range variety as these tend to be tastier in my opinion.

Turkey

Turkeys are pretty straightforward and most of the time you don't have a lot to pick from. You also cannot see the birds as they are generally wrapped in the afore-mentioned shrink-wrapped white plastic wrapper. They are almost always injected with solutions of salt, water and other tenderizing ingredients, which is frustrating for those of us who like purchase a natural bird and use our own brines and rubs. Again, our advice is to look for the label "MINIMALLY PROCESSED". If you find one, buy it. These birds are usually very scarce, since the prep work by the chef preparing the turkey is part of the pleasure of serving up a moist, tender and flavorful bird.  It is SO much easier without trying to wash out the rubbish packing plants squirt in to these birds to make the thing roast well. In the meantime, look for birds with the least amount of solution added during processing – again, it reduces the time you will need to prep the bird. I try to purchase turkeys that have never been frozen if I can - my butcher is very accommodating, in this regard. Unless you have a really good butcher, or it is within a few days of Thanksgiving or Christmas, I understand that it is not likely that you will find such a gift. The difference in taste, though, is vast. However, even the shrink-wrapped ice block turkey can be incredible, done right. Purchase birds that are twelve pounds or less, for safest cooking. Birds larger than this will stay in the danger zone between 40° and 140° F for longer than is considered safe, especially if you are slow and cool smoking, which may put you and your family at real risk of a food borne illness. If you think you need a bigger bird for more meat, then consider purchasing two smaller birds instead of one large one. There is always leftovers.

To sum up, buy the freshest, most tender and least processed meat you can find.  Make sure that it goes from cold to cold in as short a time as possible. Make sure the packaging stays intact. And lastly, WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP AND WATER BEFORE AND AFTER HANDLING FOOD.

Happy picnicking!
Robin and Bill