What have you smoked lately? Q-view...
Built a smoker with a friend using a vintage Kelvinator and a cheapo pellet grill I got on clearance at Wal-mart for $150. Been drinking beer out of it at a friend’s cabin for over 20 years, so I had to find a use for it. The grill took a ride in a big wind storm, but the auger/burner/hopper assembly still worked fine. The two items are decades apart in technology, but paired well with each other for this.
I’ve done bacon and hams out of two hogs we home butchered, a couple of chickens, and some other things. So far the results have been good.
Last week I did 80 lbs of pork shoulder for sandwiches at our son’s graduation party. It was a crowd pleaser.
@Shellfish. I used the probe that came with the grill. I don't have a hand held so it's possible it may not be accurate as you mention. I had the probe in the meat at about the average thickness, half way between the small and large end. These pieces were off the larger end and in the pic they do look more rare than they were. The small end was more done which is to be expected. Stuff seems to get done faster than I would expect on it that's for sure.
It was delicious and didn't last long.
Last week I smoked pieces of white bass. Yesterday I smoked the whole thing - head cut off and gutted, of course. I also removed the scales, soaked them in the brine for 48 hours and smoked them for about 6 hours at a temperature that ranged from 150 to 180 degrees. They turned out good - better than the pieces did, which I know I overcooked.
Dsinwi...your picture of moose loin looks great. My thoughts are, you mentioned it kind of got away from you and the internal temp was 165 degrees. If the picture you showed was of the meat you smoked 165 degrees would not have that much red/pink meat. I would estimate that meat at 130 to 135 degrees. I use 2 different temp guages at same time to make sure of internal temp. Then i use an instant temp device to verify those temps. It is possible your temp guage is not accurate or it might have been near the surface of the meat and registered that temp which would have been hotter. That is the reason i use multiple temp guages to help me reduce the chance of missing the temp i am shooting for. Either way, that was a fine piece of moose you smoked!! Smoke on
Tried something new to me the other day bought a bag of plain almonds at fleet. Tossed them in a little bit of butter and garlic/salt then split the batch in half and covered the other half in some powdered hot pepper mix I have. Then put in the pellet grill at 200 for a couple hours. It was great the wife loved the tame batch and the spicy for me was awesome especially with a beer. Didn't last long that's for sure.
