Smokesgiving

So a few months ago, on a whim, and after watching season one and two of TLC's Pit Masters, I decided to build my very own meat smoker. Seriously, try watching that show when your belly is barking; it's damn near impossible not to want your own smoker to sup on all kinds of meat.  It's been a while since I made it, and I've gotten a lot of use out of it but this is the first time I actually documented the process, so I am only just making a blog entry now unfortunately.

PART 1 - 'Griz' The Smoker

Being semi-employed at the time gave me quite a bit of time for a project like this, but also posed a problem in the area of money.  Mostly in the area where building a smoker was going to cost it and in the area where I didn't have much of it at the time.  Needless to say, Belly > Bank.
I 'Surfed' the 'Web' on how to tackle this shit and hit a few good resources, namely THIS ONE. I probably followed that guy's guide for the most part, so kudos to that guy. If you don't wanna look at that other page, to make a budget smoker all you need is a 55 gallon barrel, a grill, some nuts and bolts, a belly, chicken wire, a pot.  All that stuff is pretty cheap.

Here's a few photos of mine. Decided to keep with the budget theme and use some dirty ol' beer cans to regulate the air intake and call it 'Griz' after a local transient.

Including a digital temperature gauge (ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY)  it cost about $70 to build, and with a little practice, makes some of the best goddamned meat you'll ever eat. Which brings us to what I call "Part #2" of this post.

PART 2 - 'The Best Part'

This past thanksgiving I wanted to do something a little different than just eat a stupid bird. Seriously, turkeys are pretty dumb and are probably related to the Dodo. (Ok I just Googled that and they aren't, but they are still pretty stupid.) I figured it would be a good idea to get a butt-load of meat (pun definitely intended) from the local butcher and do a smokehouse style thanksgiving. Here's what I settled on getting:

An 8 lb brisket, a 9 lb bone in pork butt and some mild and hot turkey sausages for good measure.

The meats were then seasoned with a basic homemade rub:
3:1 Paprika
1:1 Black Pepper
1:1 Kosher Salt
1:1 Raw Sugar
1:2 Chili Powder
1:2 Garlic Powder
1:2 Onion Powder
1:6 Ground Cayenne

I smoked the buggers at 225F-250F using a mix of mesquite and cherry wood until internal temperature was ~170F then foiled em with some organic apple cider and put em in the oven at 250F til the brisket was 190F and the butt was 200F.  Oh and after the other meats were off the smoker I smoked the turkey sausages with maple wood. Let's just say that was a good idea. 

The brisket could have stayed on just a little longer to get a bit more juicy, but the pulled pork was spot on as usual. Took about 13 hours to go from butcher to belly. Then another 12 to...well... you know.

I'll kind of let the pictures speak for themselves from here on out, so I quit yammering on. Got any questions? Leave em in the comment section, duh. 

Your Belly Buddy,

Kuzma