I couldn't find another thread and the last one is at 50 pages

The Dude wrote:can someone give me step by step instructions on this in the cooknig thread?

Smoking/BBQ'ing on regular grills is surprisingly easy. You can even use gas grills if you want to!

My go to resource is http://www.AmazingRibs.com
yea, the URL is pretty hokey but its fairly legit with advice.

I guess the first question is what kind of grill you have and then either Mick, TCC or myself can help you out.

I LOVE cooking!

Oh, wait, no, my bad- it's EATING I love! same thing, right??

jamiethekiller wrote:I guess the first question is what kind of grill you have and then either Mick, TCC or myself can help you out.

I have this guy

http://www.stokgrills.com/grills/drum.php

you can probably do something like this with that grill: http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_techniq ... setup.html
go to Long Cooks section. Its basically what i do for anything longer than 2 hours.

take the top grate off and put an aluminum pan in the middle. You don't want a pan so big that you can't get a ring of 3 or 4 charcoals around it but you definitely want the charcoals kinda smushed together and the pan helps with that. make a ring but don't connect it all the way. You want to create a 'fuse.' You'll lay out the pan and all of the charcoal you need. Take like 15 or so of the charcoal from one end and put it in a charcoal starter. Get it hot and ashy and then put it back into the grill. This is starting your 'fuse.' I use wood chips. You don't need to soak them. Throw them on top and make a nice layer across all of the charcoals. I'll usually not put them right on top of the coals i just started. I don't want to waste chips at the beginning because i need to get the temp correct. I'll have the intake at the bottom and the exhaust(on the lid) all the way open when i put the hunk of meat on there. Once the meat is on i'l put the lid back on and set the intake to only be about 1/8" open. My Weber has 3 intake valves and all will be set at 1/8" open. This will take the grill from about 350 all the way down to 225 in no time and will usually hold it there as long as enough briquettes are caught. If i have a zone that doesn't have enough briquettes i can tell by the temp dropping. I'll open the intakes up to half way probably to get my oxygen and get the fire hotter. once its set though you can disappear for a few hours and it'll maintain temperature pretty well all on its own.

I use Kingsford briquettes for smoking with whatever wood chips on top. The briquettes are better for smoking because they're more uniform in size and will burn more evenly. if you use lump you're gonna struggle because of all the size difference.

It might take a few whacks to understand what youre grill needs to maintain temperature but this is the gist of it.

this is great, thanks j

Really nice writeup, Jamie.

With the Big Green Egg I just fill up the bottom (up to the "fire ring") with a mix of lump charcoal and wood chunks (yesterday I used hickory), add a couple of fire starters and light them up, then let everything burn for about 5-10 minutes with the lid open and the bottom vent fully open. Once it starts smoking really good I close the lid but keep the top and bottom vents wide open. After 30-45 minutes or so it should be really hot and the smoke changes to a clearer, blue-ish tint. At that point I'll add the placesetter (for indirect cooking) and grate, then start fiddling with the vents until my desired temp is locked in. The egg does an incredible job of holding the temp once you have the vents right. I also bought a nice Maverick thermometer that has two probes (one for the meat and one for the grill) and it also has a remote display thingy so I can just sit on the couch or walk around the house during the cook. You can set upper and lower values for the grill temp and an alarm will go off if you pass either of them. After about three hours of cooking I started opening the lid every 30 minutes or so to spray a mixture of apple juice and cider vinegar on the shoulders. I took them off the grill after about six hours when the internal temp was 195, then let them rest for about 30 minutes before pulling. Served them with Martin's potato rolls, Mr. Ron's coleslaw, and Stubb's spicy bbq sauce. Came out really good!

Can't say enough good things about the Big Green Egg. Mine is in pretty shitty condition because it was a hand-me-down from my aunt and uncle and they had it sitting on the deck at the shore house without a cover or anything for about five years, but it's still fucking great.

Yeah. Big Green Egg. The kewlest.

maybe one day i'll own a ceramic charcoal grill

I highly recommend using a South Carolina-style mustard-vinegar barbecue sauce for smoked pulled pork.

yeah, i came close to making a mustard sauce for it but didn't wanna put in the effort. maybe tonight i'll throw some together for some sandwiches

made a cola bbq sauce on smoked ribs yesterday, holy jeebus that was good

I prefer Eastern Carolina-style: http://www.meatwave.com/blog/barbecue-sauce-recipe-north-carolina-vinegar-sauce

Yesterday I went with store-bought sauce because I was also making wings on the gas grill and other sides so there was just a lot going on.

but forreal. any of the BBQ sauces are pretty awesome an all do the trick

I mix it up

so far my favorites have been corn cob smoked ribs and the cola ribs

I'm grilling some ribs tomorrow. Going to mix Sweet Baby Rays with soy sauce and balsamic and then add orange juice/zest. Probably some cayenne and garlic in there, too.

took some of the leftovers and put it on a skillet on high with some butter. made a mustard sauce to go with it. mustard sauce was a mix of whatever i had on hand but it still came out fairly solid.

for the side i went out back and grabbed some green tomatoes and made fried green tomatoes. used polenta instead of fine cornmeal as the breading. came out pretty good! added some louisiana hot sauce to the buttermilk dredge. used up the rest of an onion i had laying around from a veggie side i made and made some onion rings with the dredge as well.

tomorrow night is carnitas tacos

would you cook at my house for beers

The Dude wrote:would you cook at my house for beers

I'll bring an unrealistic amount of top shelf beer