The Final Product

I’m preparing for my 8^th annual summer BBQ party, the “Carnivore’s Carnival.” I normally spend two full days barbequeing meat for this party  including three full pork shoulders for pulled pork and four racks of spare ribs. This involves sitting and tending a fire for over 18 hours on at least one day, followed by another six hours on the next day. So this year I figured, since I’d be sitting and tending smokers, I’d do some bacon at the same time in my electric smoker.

I went to my favorite market in Boston, Savenors on Charles St. and picked up five pounds of pork belly for bacon. When I saw the $4.99 per pound price though I thought something was wrong. I know I’m paying city prices in Boston and all, and I was getting locally raised (in Vermont) organic pork, but still, I thought that was expensive.

Then I found this article by Curt Thacker in the Wall Street Journal online:

Pork Bellies Rise, Bacon Lovers Pay

… Prices for fresh pork bellies, from which bacon is made, are at an all-time high of $1.35 a pound, 53% higher than they were a year ago.

… The decision by North American swine producers to cut their losses by trimming their herds back in 2008 and 2009 is now feeding into cost pressures …

So that explains it. Also, Savenors sells its belly with the skin already removed, so that means more meat for the dollar too. But still, $5 per pound for what used to be ultra-cheap meat. Oh well, such is the price of quality homemade food.

Anyway, I have two pieces of belly curing in the refrigerator now following my recipe from my Makin’ Bakin 2 post. Only on one of them I added ground black pepper to make pepper bacon. I’ll give them 14 days to cure and then smoke them up. I can’t wait.

Ham

This year for Easter I decided to make a ham and infuse it with some extra flavor by smoking it myself. So I searched my local supermarket for a ham that wasn’t already smoked, which is harder to find then you might imagine. Perhaps if I had thought about this more than one week in advance I could have found a true fresh ham, but I settled for a pre-cooked and spiral-sliced unsmoked ham.

Basically, I followed a simple recipe:

1. Dry ham for four hours at 120° F in smoker.
2. Smoke with maple smoke for four hours at 140°.
3. Let rest overnight so smoke flavor can mellow.
4. Apply maple syrup and mustard base with seasoned salt rub. Wrap in aluminum foil, add cider vinegar and brown sugar solution to foil pouch, seal,  and  and roast at 350° F in oven for four hours.
5. When temp reaches 145° F, remove from oven and glaze with a seasoned brown sugar glaze.
6. Place in hot 450° F oven for 10 minutes until glaze darkens and caramelizes.
7. Pour off drippings, reduce, and thicken with cornstarch slurry.

The ham had a decent flavor, but I was totally disappointed in the Bradley maple bisquettes and the flavor of the smoke they produced. From the first wisps escaping the cabinet, something smelled wrong. The smoke was acrid and, well, smelled a little like an ashtray. After a few minutes it seemed to get better, but when the ham came out the crust tasted like an ashtray too. I was pissed. Maple was supposed to be a more mellow flavor than hickory, but in this case it was harsh.

I tried to salvage the ham and wrapped it plastic with another splash of brown sugar and vinegar. I think that helped a little. The inside of the ham had a mellow smoky flavor, but the exterior crust was bitter.

After a day resting in the refrigerator things got a little better. And glazing the exterior helped even more.

In the end, I’d call this a mixed success. I think the idea was sound and smoking the ham clearly added flavor, but using maple was the wrong choice. So lesson learned. I’ve always used hickory for just about everything, with a little mesquite for chicken and some beef. And I think I’ll stick to those woods.

My bottom-line advice: avoid the maple bisquettes in the Bradley Smoker.

Springtime is just around the corner, and just as I am often asked about what equipment someone should buy for their grilling friend/spouse/neighbor, I am also asked by people about what kind of grill someone should get. Gas grill, charcoal grill, wood smoker, electric smoker, or some hybrid device? Believe it or not, this can be a complex question. Hopefully, I can help sort it out for you.

Your basic choices are:

Grills

• Charcoal
• Gas
  - Traditional
  - Infrared

Smokers

• Vertical/water
• Horizontal / dedicated pit
• Electric

Hybrid

• Ceramic
• Grill/smoker Combinations

As always, there are myriad factors effecting this decision. Each of the devices listed above is better at one aspect of cooking than another. Rarely can a single device prove competent at the wide range of tasks from cold-smoking salmon and sausage to hot-smoking ribs and pulled pork to grilling vegetables and fish at low heat to searing a steak. So the first question to be answered is this:

What kinds of food will you cook and how often?

The main division is between grilling and smoking, because these techniques are done at such divergent temperatures – grilling typically above 350°F (and searing meat above 700°F) while smoking is done at or just below 250°F. With few exceptions, a grill with the burner capacity to heat to 700°F will not easily maintain a low temperature of 225°F. And of course, having multiple specialized devices is best, but other considerations will affect this.

Next, you need to answer the one question that affects everything:

How much money are you willing to spend?

The simplest small charcoal grill can cost as little as $20 and make a decent steak once and a while. Yet you can also drop $20,000 or more on a large custom BBQ Pit. The amount you spend is limited only by how much you have.

Finally, there are some logistics that come into play:

How much room do you have?

Most people are limited by the space available to store their toys. Either the size of their deck or patio or the space in the garage is going to limit the number of pieces of equipment you’re going to buy.

The Pros & Cons

So, factoring in all the information above, what’s the recommendation? That’s still a tough decision. I’ll start with what I own and why, and then make some recommendations.

My Stable of Grilling and Smoking Devices

1. A Char-Broil RED 4-burner infrared gas grill. I bought this grill three years ago when the 2008 models first came out and I have been absolutely thrilled with the results. This is the first grill I have ever personally used that can get to 800° F and sear a steak, and also hold a steady 250° F temperature and turn out competent bar-b-que. I have written extensively about this grill in the Char-Broil forum on my favorite message board, the BBQ Source. Since this is such a versatile grill, it’s a good foundation to build from.One word of caution: after the initial debut of this grill in 2008, several quality problems have been reported, particularly with the similar but smaller 3-burner model of this grill. The issues are well documented in the Char-Broil forum mentioned above, but please check into the issues before buying!
2. 

   Modified NBBD Smoker

   New Braunfels Black Diamond smoker. I bought this in 2002 when I moved into my current house. It has taken some modification, but it’s now a competent bar-b-que pit. Every year I break it out in the summer to smoke for my Carnivore’s Carnival. The first five years I did four racks of pork ribs at a time. Last year I added pulled pork to the menu and did two shoulders and four racks of ribs. The smoker performed flawlessly for two days straight (14 hours for the shoulder and 6 hours for the ribs). This smoker is now sold as the Char-Broil Silver Smoker mentioned above.

3. Brinkmann Smoke-n-Pit vertical water smoker. I’ve had this for about 10 years now. The Smoke-n-Pit was the first real wood smoker I ever had the gave me the first confidence that I could produce real bar-b-que ribs by myself. Unfortunately, I haven’t used it since I bought my Black Diamond. But this was the device that got me and my friends hooked on bar-b-que, so I make sure it stays sheltered in my garage. At one point in my life, this was also the grill that let me eat good food when I had, literally, no money to my name. My first one was a gift from a friend and was well used. But an hour with an electric drill and wire brush and one can of high-temp paint and it was back in working order. When the food budget was low, I cooked hamburger and cheap pork cuts over a fire built from branches from the trees in my yard. I had several apple trees and the apple-smoked pork loin was amazing.
4. Bradley Digital Smoker. This is my newest purchase, and it’s only a month old. But I already love it. The Bradley is, IMHO, better than the Mastrbuilt because the smoke generator is a separate unit and this facilitates cold smoking better. It makes a decent hot smoker, but is really the only choice (other than a custom built device) for cold smoking. In fact, I have a nice salmon fillet that cured in salt and sugar for 12 hours waiting to go into my Bradley as I write this.

Great, So What do I buy?

OK – here are my recommendations.

If You Want to Cook and Hot Smoke

If your budget is unlimited, you can have the best of everything. Of course I recommend the equipment I have – a good quality gas grill, a dedicated smoker, and a nice electric smoker for convenience.

But if you have a medium budget — like $400 to $600, I recommend starting with a good gas grill with at least an infrared searing burner. Many people have luck with Chinese produced grills from the big-box stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot. Just read the imported grill message board at the BBQ Source forums and you’ll get an idea about what’s working in any given year.

If you are really limited in budget, I recommend a good charcoal grill, like a Weber kettle. A One Touch Silver starts at $89.99 retail, and as long as you are willing to put in the work, you can learn good fire control techniques and sear steaks and make passable bar-b-que all on the same grill.

The Only Thing I Smoke are Marlboros … What Grill Should I Buy?

If you want to improve your grilling technique the single best thing you can do is invest in something that allows you to really control the heat. Most cheap gas grills don’t allow this: even turning their knobs through a full range only changes the burners from really hot to very hot. So, if you have the budget, I’d recommend a good quality gas grill. And note that good quality doesn’t mean stainless steel. Stainless is a convenience feature — it does nothing to aid cooking. Weber gas grills have a great following. Jenn-Air used to have a loyal following, but I’ve read that their grills have declined in quality over the last couple of years. A company called Nexgrill makes a few models under different brands (sold at Costco and Sam’s Club for instance) and while a lot of their stuff seems like junk, a number of the people on the BBQ Source seem happy with them. Realize though, that a decent grill these days starts at ~ $600 and goes to $2000. If your budget is more modest, I recommend looking for a used deal on Craigslist and putting a little elbow grease into cleaning it up.

I Have the Grill … I Want to Smoke.

If you just want the end product and have the budget, an electric smoker can allow you to experiment with everything from sausage to ribs to shoulder to fish. For versatility and convenience, an electric smoker can’t be beat.

But, electric smokers aren’t the best for real, large cuts of bar-b-que like ribs and shoulder. For this you need something that burns wood (or charcoal). A cheap offset horizontal smoker is usually the way to start, but you can buy a pit that stretches any budget. Running a wood pit requires a commitment … smoking shoulder can mean 14 to 18 hours of tending a fire every 30 minutes to keep a constant temperature. But the reward is worth it. Nothing makes the great tasting bark on a shoulder like a long slow smoke over real hardwood.

Now that the weather has turned colder and the Christmas lights are hung, my mind is wandering to some real bar-b-que ribs. It’s a royal pain to haul out my Black Diamond smoker for just one rack – and tending the fire is no fun when you can’t sit outside and pay attention to it for five or six hours. So I’m looking for something that will hold it’s own temperature better than the Black Diamond.

I know that in my bar-b-que core dump post I said that grills could work in a pinch to make real bar-b-que, but they wouldn’t work as well as a dedicated smoker. Well, I’m making an exception for my grill because it is able to both hold a low temperature and generate enough smoke to do a passable job as a smoker.

Back in early 2008 I bought a new grill. A Char-Broil RED four-burner grill. One of the things I like about this grill is its ability to hold a wide temperature range. When heated on high the grates will get to almost 800°F and can sear a steak as well as any restaurant. But it can also hold a low temperature, down to 225°F which is right in the range needed for bar-b-que. The grill also has a unique design that allows the addition of wood chips so real smoke can be added to the food and no silly smoker boxes or foil pouches are needed like on other grills.

So, here’s what I do for making ribs on my grill. [NOTE: I originally posted this on my favorite message board for bar-b-que and grilling: the BBQ-source board.]

Lessons Learned:

1. The In-hood Thermometer is pretty accurate — I added my remote grill thermometer on several occasions and they seem to agree. (Note that I cook the ribs on an ELEVATED rack so this is probably not true if you cook at grill level.)
2. Extra thermal mass is a huge help in controlling the temperature. I built my elevated rack using 4 6″x6″ concrete pavers and that reduced temperature fluctuations significantly.
3. Temperature control requires a combination of burners (the two outside burners in my case) and venting of the hood.
4. Raising the ribs is critical to get them into the smoke, but even so, the grill isn’t sealed well, so more smoke may be required than in a dedicated smoker.

Method:
I typically use a variation of the 3-2-1 method where ribs are smoked for 3 hours in the open, followed by 2 hours wrapped in foil to tenderize them, followed by 1 hour in the open again to finish them. All of this is done at 225 degrees. This method results in extremely tender ribs; too tender for many people, including me. So I adjust the timing to a 3-1-.5 method.

I start with a dry rub, roughly 3 parts brown sugar, 2 parts salt, 1 part paprika, and 1 part a mixture of various things including garlic powder, onion powder, and other spices. I usually let this set on the ribs for several hours to overnight. For this smoke I used an 8 lb rack of St. Louis cut ribs that the local supermarket had on sale. I removed the membrane from the back.

I set up the grill by stacking the middle 2 grates on top of the outside grates. On this I set 4 concrete pavers (6″ x 6″), 2 on each side. I placed an old leftover rack from an old grill on top of the two paver stacks. I also added small aluminum drip pans under the grate. See the picture below:

My Grill Setup and the Finished Product

I would have wrapped them in foil, but I was running low and I wanted to leave enough to wrap the ribs. So I put a small square of clean foil between the pavers and the rack (you can’t see it in this pic taken after the whole process was done and I had disturbed everything.)

I let the whole system heat up and found that I could hold 225 degrees by using the 2 outside burners on their lowest setting and propping the hood open about 2 inches.

I followed the 3-2-1 method and the results are delicious. And the best part is that I don’t have to tend the fire every 30 minutes. Here’s a close-up of the finished product.

Finished Ribs

I grew up in New Jersey. I now live in Massachusetts. Many readers will stop right there asking themselves, “What can growing up in New Jersey teach someone about real bar-b-que?” Absolutely nothing. New Jersey in the 1970s and 1980 was utterly devoid of anything resembling real, slow-smoked bar-b-que. And modern-day Massachusetts isn’t much better. But this is the internet age and with the help and advice of many small-time pit masters on the web, I’ve managed to turn myself into a pretty decent pit jockey, if I do say so myself. For the last 15 years I’ve been perfecting my own backyard style, showcased each year for the last seven in my annual, end of summer, “Carnivore’s Carnival” where 40 or 50 friends gather in mid August to sample my specialties.

Over the years I’ve worked my way through several pieces of equipment, various recipes, and many changes in technique. This post will serve as my collected wisdom for others trying to work their way through all the issues that beginners encounter.

The Basics

Real American bar-b-que (also BBQ, barbeque) is, at its essence, simply the application of low heat to meat over a long period of time, and in the presence of wood smoke. Flavors are enhanced by applying various spices as dry rubs and wet sauces. All of the components are necessary: with high heat instead of low it’s grilling and without smoke it’s just roasting. As a cooking form native to many parts of the country, there are many regional bar-b-que variations which use different cuts of meat and different spice rubs. The most common and popular of these regional variations include:

There are, of course, hundreds of additional regional sub-variations and probably millions, maybe even tens or hundreds of millions of family recipes. But these are the main themes which run through the American bar-b-que landscape.

If there was an advantage to perfecting my style in New Jersey and Massachusetts, it’s that there are no preconceived notions of what bar-b-que is. So I was able to experiment with many different styles and my friends and neighbors ate it all. Try making a pork shoulder in Texas and calling it bar-b-que or doing a beef brisket over mesquite in North Carolina and having anyone show up. I’ve been able to play with it all and no one complains that “it isn’t real bar-b-que.”

But if I had to choose a style, I’d say that I tend to like the Memphis style the best, and that’s primarily the kind of bar-b-que I’ll be discussing here. I make my ribs and pulled pork with a dry spice rub on the outside and a minimum of “mopping” (basting) while on the grill. And when finished, I use a bare minimum of a tomato-based bar-b-que sauce to finish them.

OK you ask, so how do you get started? Here’s the collected wisdom of what I do, what I did, and what I’d do differently if I started over.

The Equipment

The Meat

I would love to say that good bar-b-que requires good meat, but it doesn’t. And that’s the beauty of bar-b-que and one of the reasons it remains popular. Bar-b-que usually uses the cheapest, toughest cuts of meat available. Pulled pork, for example, uses a pork shoulder (called a “picnic ham” when the lower part is used and a “Boston butt” when the upper part is used) in the form of a Boston butt. That’s one of the cheapest cuts you can buy. Pork spare ribs (though not baby backs) are also an inexpensive cut. So is beef brisket. That’s the good news: you can feed a lot of people cheaply with bar-b-que.

For example, I just finished buying the meat for my 7th annual Carnivore’s Carnival. The bar-b-que consisted of 24.5 lbs. of Boston butt (3 shoulders) and 12 lbs. (4 racks) of spare ribs. That’s 36.5 lbs of meat with little waste or trimming, which could conservatively feed 40 people — maybe 60 if they weren’t pigs — and the total retail bill came to $98.72. Where else can you order meat for 50 people for under $100?

Pulled Pork

American Pork Cuts (adapted from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Pork_Cuts.svg)

Pulled pork is made from a pork shoulder (the “Blade shoulder” in the diagram here). In pork terminology, the top of the rear leg is called a ham. The top of the front leg is called a shoulder. The top of each of these pieces is the butt or rump portion; the bottom near the leg or foot is the shank portion. The shoulder and ham differ primarily in the amount of connective tissue present — the ham is leaner with much less collagen and other connective bits. The shoulder is much tougher with more fat.

To confuse the issue (and certainly the consumer and their wallet), butchers began marketing the lower part of bone-in shoulders (near the “elbow” — marked as the orange “Arm shoulder” in the picture to the right) as “picnic hams,” an inexpensive cut with the “ham” name. But make no mistake: picnic ham is not a substitute for real ham. Most bar-b-que uses the “Boston Butt” or upper part of the shoulder, though a whole shoulder or even a picnic ham can be used. Whether bone-in or boneless is up to you; some people believe that the bone-in cuts have more flavor. And I find the bone a useful way to gauge doneness — when it begins to move freely or even slides out you’re done!

Spare Ribs

Spare ribs are shown in blue in the diagram above. From that big rib portion, there are actually three cuts — the Baby Back Ribs, the Spare Ribs, and the rib tips. Baby Backs come from closer to the loin (spine) of the pig. As such, they are more tender with less fat and connective tissue. They’re also more expensive. The spare ribs come from closer to the belly of the pig. The bones are larger and they are tougher with more connective tissue. On a full rack of ribs, there is a flap of meat that comes from near the belly (the rib tips), where cartilage joins the rib bones near the sternum. Cut this flap off leaving just the rib bones, and you have a St. Louis style rib (see this YouTube video for a good demo:

Ribs have one extra optional step: removing the membrane. On the back of every slab of spare ribs is a tough membrane which, although it doesn’t affect the taste, is tough to chew. Removing it prior to smoking makes your ribs that much more tender. Here’s another YouTube video of someone taking the membrane off of a slab of baby back ribs.

You can find shoulder and ribs in most large supermarkets these days, but since you’ll rarely be cooking one rack of ribs or one shoulder at a time, you’ll probably need to look at local warehouse clubs (Sam’s BJ’s, Costco, etc.) or local meat markets, if you can find one.

Fairway Beef, Worcester, MA

Large primal cuts like these are typically shipped from the processor to the market in cryo-vac (plastic) packs, with two shoulders and three ribs per pack. When I shop, I get most of my meat from an old meat market in Worcester, MA called Fairway Beef. At a place like this you can actually talk to a butcher who knows what he or she is doing. And if you need something special, they are happy to cut it for you. Need 3 shoulders when they come 2 to a pack? No problem. They’ll open a pack and wrap one separate for you. As a backup, I sometimes shop at my local BJ’s Wholesale club. But I consider myself fortunate to have Fairway Beef so close.

If you buy spare ribs in the large packs, you will have to cut them St. Louis style yourself. The video above is a pretty good guide.

The Rub

So you have your meat … now what? Well, between 12 and 24 hours prior to hitting the heat you want to flavor it with your rub.

There is so much argument about what and how to rub the meat that a lifetime of bar-b-que experimentation could be spent just varying the your rub recipe. I’m not going to discuss all the possibilities, but give just a few recommendations.

One thing you will discover in the bar-b-que world is that many people have competitive aspirations, and competitive bar-b-quers will never divulge their rub recipe. I’m not that competitive, so I will.

Here’s my first major tip:

In the beginning, concentrate on the heat and smoking technique. Use a simple rub.

And there is no simpler rub than one you buy. Honestly – for the first few times you smoke, when you’ll be worried about monitoring the temperature of the pit and the meat and all the other factors, you don’t need to worry about whether the rub will enhance or detract from the flavor. So by all means, buy one from your favorite bar-b-que website, or even use McCormick Barbeque seasoning in the giant wholesale club size. Nearly any mix of sugar, salt, and other spices will taste good after smoking for a few hours.

But, if you really want to make your own, Alton Brown’s 8-3-1+1 ratio system works well. Use whatever measure you want: tablespoons, cups, soda cans — doesn’t matter. This is a very good starting point.

Lately, I have been using a two part system.

My Rub

First, pat the meat dry and then cover with a rub made of:

• 2 parts salt
• 1 part (combined) garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper

Wrap in plastic wrap and allow to rest in refrigerator for at least couple of hours, maybe even over night, until the rub begins to moisten and dissolve on the surface. Then apply the final rub of:

• 6 parts brown sugar
• 1 part salt

Re-wrap and allow to sit for 12 hours (shoulder) or at least 4 (ribs).

If you want to try wet rubs, you can — many people use yellow mustard as a base on shoulder. Here in New England, maple syrup or molasses is a regional flavor that works well.

The Sauce

This is another area with as many variations as there are people who bar-b-que. And once again, I recommend that beginners start with something simple before taking on the challenge of making their own sauce from scratch. In fact, because I tend towards a Memphis style where the dry rub is the major flavor component, I usually put out a bottled sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s) and let those who really want it use it. If I use a mop sauce at all (basting while smoking) I use cider vinegar or Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce diluted 1:1 with cider vinegar.

The Pit

This is where the magic happens. And unfortunately, there is usually no cheap way to get an effective pit unless you have both an abundance of metalworking tools and talent AND access to a source of scrap metal suitable for pit construction. If you do have metal talent and materials, then there are dozens of plans on the internet for barrel smokers and other styles. If not, then you’re going to need to buy your pit. There are several styles and options.

The secret to good bar-b-que is low, indirect, heat with the right amount of smoke. A good pit enables you to reach and hold the correct (200 – 250 °F) temperature without a lot of fuss. It also helps generate smoke and expose the meat to sufficient smoke to generate flavor.

Grills

In a pinch, a grill, either charcoal or gas, can serve as a bar-b-que pit. But I’ve found that they are often more trouble than they’re worth, though some new generation gas grills are able to hold the required low temperature. (See my post on the BBQ-Source message boards about making ribs on my CharBroil RED gas grill.) But I’ve found that grills suffer from rapid temperature changes of it’s even the slightest bit breezy outside (which is why I added 4 concrete patio pavers to my grill to support the racks — increased thermal mass equals more steady temperature). And most charcoal grills don’t hold enough coals to keep the fire burning very long so you need to keep disturbing the food all the time.

If you absolutely need to use a grill, you’ll need to search the web for instructions; I’m not going to cover them here.

Electric Smoker

Image taken from http://www.masterbuilt.com/prod_smokers.html

Electric smokers, especially ones from Masterbuilt (abbreviated MES – Masterbuilt Electric Smoker on many bar-b-que message boards) are very popular. If you need to make small batches of bar-b-que for fun and for a few people, a simple smoker like this may be the ticket. Especially if you intend to actually interact with your guests during the cooking. Although not quite “set it and forget it” in the Ronco rotisserie oven sense, an electric smoker requires little tending, certainly in comparison to a wood-fired pit where the fire needs to be tended hourly or even more often.

One area where these smokers excel is in being able to hold a really low temperature (down to 100°F), just on the high end but still good enough for cold smoking other meats like bacon or salmon. If you intend to experiment with smoking other foods, this may be the pit for you.

Bullet Smoker

The bullet smoker form was made popular by the inexpensive Weber Smoky Mountain series of smokers. I’ve owned two of these myself (still have a 10 year-old one) and I can say that a Smoky Mountain was my first wood-fired bar-b-que pit. Probably the best source of information about these smokers can be found at the Virtual Weber Bullet site. Again, for small batches, these are very well proven, reliable pits with mountains of information and support on the web.

Dedicated Pit

This is where the fun starts. A dedicated smoker usually has an offset fire box of some sort (off to the side or behind the smoking surface, as opposed to a grill where the fire is below the cooking surface). There is a path created for the smoke and a series of dampers to control the size of the fire and the amount of smoke in the pit.

Dedicated pits range in price from $200 to $20,000 or more. Even the cheaper ones will gove you better bar-b-que than a grill or even a dedicated electric smoker, but when buying on the cheap end you will really need to make some modifications to make the pits really work well.

CharBroil Silver Smoker (formerly New Braunfels Black Diamond)

The first dedicated charcoal pit I bought 10 years ago, and the one I still use today, was the legendary Black Diamond smoker by New Braunfels (the NBBD – New Braunfels Black Diamond – as abbreviated on the web). I paid $199 for one at Home Depot. New Braunfels was sold a few years ago to CharBroil, but the Black Diamond lives on, essentially unchanged, as the CharBroil Silver Smoker.

The NBBD is reasonably competent out of the box, but has a noticeable temperature difference between the end near the firebox and the end near the chimney. Most owners install a baffle plate between the firebox opening and the cooking chamber (see this for just one example). In addition, the stock chimney sits near the top of the cooking chamber, allowing some very hot air to fill the chamber, making it hard to keep the temperature low. The fastest way to fix that is just to extend the tube downwards (I used a rolled up piece of aluminum flashing to do this originally), but the best way is to enhance the chimney by cutting an opening low on the bottom of the cooking chamber to enhance the smoke flow. Here’s a picture of my smoker with the new chimney attached.

Modified NBBD Smoker

All it took was a few dollars in hardware store chimney pipe and an hour with my MIG welder and I have a really good pit with even, stable temperatures. Nice.

The Wood

Just like every other aspect of bar-b-que, people argue over what kind of wood yields the best flavor. There is some regionality to wood selection with hickory the predominant wood over much of the south, while mesquite is popular in Texas, and some other woods like pecan in parts of Georgia. Fruitwoods (apple, cherry, etc.) also have their followers. Frankly, I think choice of wood makes little difference (I know that’s going to generate all kinds of controversy) with the exception of mesquite, which has such a strong and unique flavor, you can tell anything which has been smoked in it and it’s usually reserved for beef only.

First, if you are smoking with a small pit or a grill, you’ll be using charcoal as your main heat source. And therefore, you probably won’t burn enough wood to make a difference in flavor. Second, the relatively short smoking time for ribs (4 to 6 hours) probably isn’t enough time for flavor differences to come out either. Finally, if you over-smoke your meat, it tastes like bitter smoke no matter what wood you use.

Since most of us working in smaller pits are going to use charcoal as the main fuel source, the choice if wood isn’t really as important as some people would make it out to be. I typically use hardwood charcoal (usually Cowboy charcoal) as a base with hickory chunks or split maple (a local New England wood) as the smoke. I don’t soak my wood first – it seems like a waste of time to me.

The Technique

This is where the skill and experience of the pitmaster comes into play. The recipe for shoulder or ribs is pretty simple. But the art is in the execution.

For good bar-b-que, stoke your pit with charcoal and get it to about 225 °F. Add the meat and some hardwood chunks or logs to the fire.

3 Beautiful Shoulders

For shoulder, smoke it for around 1.5 hours per pound. An 8 pound shoulder will take around 12 hours. You should get yourself a remote thermometer and work to keep the pit as close to 225 °F for the duration. This is the art … to keep the temperature, you’ll need to balance the air intake and outlet and the size of the fire to keep the pit at the right temperature. Smoke the shoulder until the internal temperature reaches 190 °F. Then pull it off, wrap it in foil, and let it finish cooking for an hour. The result should look like this.

Ribs can be done a couple of ways. The safest way to start is to use a method called 3-2-1. For fall-off-the-bone tender ribs, they are placed in the smoker (at the same 225 °F) for 3 hours, then wrapped in foil with a little wet mop for 2 hours, then placed back in the smoke for the final hour. Ribs are done when the bones can be twisted and start to move around in the ribs. As you gain experience, you can vary this recipe and work on your own style, but the 3-2-1 method is nearly foolproof if you can keep the pit at the right temperature.

Conclusion

This was my bar-b-que core dump. I’m sure I will refine it over the coming weeks. I hope it helps someone just starting out and contributes something useful to the body of bar-b-que knowledge on the web.