Introducing

astrid1st · May 28, 2011, 03:05:19 PM

Hello,

My name is Astrid and I am originally from Europe. I moved 20 years ago to South Texas and love it. I love to grill outside and now wanted to move on to smoking and I just bought my first smoker...a Bradley Digital Smoker! I was very excited about getting started and bought some meat to make Beef Jerky and a Brisket this weekend. I ordered two recipe books, checked recipes on line and now am very confused about the cooking times. They vary for the Jerky in an electric smoker from 4 hours to 10 hours and the same pretty much for the Brisket. I am now getting nervous that I might mess things up. Also, one book mentioned Botulism is in every meat and a smoker is a good environment to create Botulism...yikes, I had Botulism 15 years ago. Something I was really excited about and looking forward to now leaves me a bit nervous and confused.
I would appreciate any advice and help :-)

beefmann · May 28, 2011, 03:40:06 PM

welcome aboard Astrid and some will chime in for jerkey

Quarlow · May 28, 2011, 03:42:51 PM

Hello Astrid and welcome to the forum. First off just get that botulism thing out of your head. You always want to be safe with your foods but the smoker is not going turn everything you make into a breeding ground for bad food bugs. One thing is that smoke itself helps to fight bacteria but the main thing is that you are usually above the danger temps or well below it. If you are cold smoking something then you are not heating enough to grow things and anything else is well above in the safe zone temps. I can't quote the temps cause I have a 0ty memory but someone will be along to give you the temps that are safe. But rest asured you are not at risk by smoking foods. If you handle it proper and stay in the safe zone all will be well.

Quarlow · May 28, 2011, 03:48:48 PM

The jerky depends on how thick you slice. Of course if it is thicker it will take longer, but I have never made jerky in 4 hours myself. 6 to 8 hrs is about right for mine. Brisket, I have never done brisket but I will say it is done when it is done. It is not a time thing when you cook/smoke low and slow. You need to go by Internal temperature (IT). I think they take them off at about 190f but I will leave that to the pros of brisket. They will be along soon.

ghost9mm · May 28, 2011, 05:55:15 PM

Welcome Astrid...to a really great forum, there is a very knowledgeable group here that will help you any way they can, ask all the questions you want, and would advise you to read as much as you can there is volumes of imformation here...
I try to slice my jerky 1/4 in thick and run it at 155 degrees for up to 5 to 6 hours.in the dehydrator...

Hopefull Romantic · May 29, 2011, 05:07:17 AM

Hi Astrid and welcome to the world of smoking.

He is a link for you where you would find all wat you may need to help you out and in case it was not in this link, just ask

http://www.susanminor.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?180-Our-Time-Tested-and-Proven-Recipes

http://www.susanminor.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?180-Our-Time-Tested-and-Proven-Recipes

HR

astrid1st · May 29, 2011, 07:57:45 AM

Thank you everyone for the nice welcome and suggestions. I will put Botulism out of my head and just have fun... 8) I just loaded the smoker with the Beef and set the smoker for 4 hours and the oven for 6 hours and then check things out. If needed I will cook a little longer. I am a total newbie so I probably will have lots of questions....Tomorrow I will play with the brisket!!!
Quarlow, thank you for the links...I really appreciate it.

I will let you know how this goes today and thank you again!
Astrid

Quarlow · May 29, 2011, 09:39:21 AM

Well you are welcome but that was Hopeful Romantic (Hady) who gave you the links, but I don't mind taking credit for it. ;D

astrid1st · May 29, 2011, 12:22:19 PM

I am sorry about the confusion in regards to the links; thank you HR for posting them :D

Hopefull Romantic · May 29, 2011, 12:37:48 PM

Now that the record is set straight, you are very welcome. Here is a cheers to you Q.

HR

astrid1st · May 29, 2011, 12:42:05 PM

HR, thank you for the cheers...I just read about about the Beef Brisket recipes in the links you provided. There is a lot of great information and I really do appreciate the links. I came across one abbreviation that I did not understand....the "FTC" technique after the meat is taken out of the smoker and put in foil. I tried to enter the abbreviation in the search but could not get any explanation. This might be a very naive questions, but I am a total beginner.... ;D

Quarlow · May 29, 2011, 06:10:31 PM

FTC = Foil,Towel, Cooler. Wrap the meat in tinfoil, then wrap that in towels and stuff the whole thing in a cooler just big enough to to hold it or add extra towels. You can hold it like this for hours and it will stay hot. I have done pork butts and held them for 4 hours and it was still too hot to pull by hand.

cinrds · May 30, 2011, 05:49:36 AM

Welcome looks like you got some good advice. Enjoy it.

astrid1st · May 30, 2011, 08:27:02 AM

Thank you Quarlow for the explanation; I would have never guessed it. I am getting ready to put my 5 lbs brisket in the smoker and beans are in the slow cooker. I hope the brisket turns out as good as the jerky did yesterday.
Thank you everyone and have a nice Memorial Day!

SouthernSmoked · May 31, 2011, 06:24:36 AM

Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the forum...Enjoy!

http://www.susanminor.org

Remember we like pic's!!

Introducing

beefmann