OBS on order - new member

[pensrock]

With store bought smoked cheese for example you are stuck with the amount of smoke they put on it which is designed for "Mr Average" and may even be liquid smoke........ doing it yourself means you can smoke the cheese you like to the smoke taste you want!   

Correct, also most stores do not carry the variety you can make yourself.

[jeff_smoke]

Good info;thanks guys.
My unit is scheduled to arrive tomorrow from Amazon. I'm kind of in shock
because I ordered it online on Sunday and got their free shipping option.
     I'm all excited to get started with my new man toy. I know I have to burn
it in first. That will be some good practice.
     I also found out that my Dad gave the thumbs down to having another
turkey for Christmas dinner just after having one for Thanksgiving. So, I'm
offering up the smoked prime rib. If anyone has a really good PR recipe, I'd love to
try it.
Thanks.

[FLBentRider]

W E L C O M E  to the Forum jeff_smoke!

The best smoked food I have ever had, I made myself in my OBS. That includes smoked nuts, pork butts, Beef brisket, Turkey, chicken, jerky, etc....

An unfortunate side effect is that I don't enjoy going "out" for BBQ anymore...

[jeff_smoke]

I'm with you on that.
With my old smoker I've smoked some pork butt that
I just couldn't believe how much better it was than most
or maybe all the store que I've had.
    But, stokin and tendin that thing for sixteen hours or
so especially throughout the night, is just a thing of the past for me.
My unit should arrive today. I'm pretty excited.
Thanks.

[Smoking Duck]

Standing Rib Roast sounds like a really good Christmas Eve project. I'm researching recipes. Thanks.
      Pens, it's interesting how many people use smokers for cold smoking
cheese and nuts. I was surprised about that. I'm thinking there must be something special about
doing it yourself vs buying store bought smoked cheese or nuts.
Do they come out fresher tasting or something?

Not only does it come out better tasting, IMO, there is the satisfaction of doing it yourself which only adds to the overall project. That's just my opinion but I'm sure it's shared by quite a few here.

SD

[manderso]

For the prime rib, try a dry rub using salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and Lipton onion soup mix.  Throw in a little paprika and/or cayenne pepper for color and heat.  I personally like mesquite smoke on beef, but you can use what ever you like.  1 hour 40 minutes of smoke (5 pucks).  Cook on max heat setting until IT reaches ~130* (med-M/R), let rest for 20-30 minutes before carving (it will continue to cook while resting, so don't think it's too early to pull).  The beef rib ribeye I get from BJ's is usually about 12-14 lbs.  I cut it into 2 pieces so that it fits on 2 racks.  The last one I did took about 4 hours.  My mouth is watering just typing this!  It is without a doubt, the best prime rib you'll ever have!!!!!!

[jeff_smoke]

Smoking Duck,
    I totally agree. I really got that sense when completing one of my pork butts
after sixteen hours of smoking. I'm going to try smoking some nuts pretty quickly.
    btw; I'm burning in the smoker tonight. I've run about six pucks through it. I'll
shut it down in about twenty minutes. Really cool watching the puck mechanism work.
I will say that the seasoning instructions were off though. It says to set the temp to
between low and medium and in 5 minutes it should be at 150 degrees. It took about
25 minutes to get there and after I turned up the heat to almost high for awhile.
Thereafter, I lowered the setting to between medium and low and it stayed steady
at 150. It's very warm tonight too here in Savannah, so cold was not a factor.
No big deal, but for awhile there I wondered if I had a defective unit.
      And, manderso shares his recipe. Thanks so much ! If your mouth is watering
just talking about it, then I'm going to try it out verbatim. I'll update probably
after New Years since I'll be away after Christmas. Thanks again; I really appreciate it.
      This smoker is so cool. Can't wait to get started.
      Great forum too. Thanks everybody for the welcome.
-- Jeff

[jeff_smoke]

Hi,
    I was eager to test out the smoker but didn't have a whole
lot of time since we're in the middle of the work week.
So, I decided to try smoked ground beef and see what it would
taste like in spaghetti. I figured it would either be pretty good
or horrible. The only bisquettes I received in the mail so far
are the Jim Beam, so that's what I went with.
    Anyway, I smoked the beef for about an hour at around 125 degrees
using six bisquettes. Then finished off the cooking in a skillet, added some jar sauce and
spices including some ground red pepper for a kick.
    It came out pretty good. I only cooked the sauce with the beef
for about 25 minutes because I was starving by then. It had a nice
subtle Jim Beam flavor. If I do it again, I'll let it simmer for at least an
hour. Both my brother and wife said it was really good too.
    This weekend I'm planning on a trial small rib roast.

[westexasmoker]

Congrats on your first smoke Jeff!

Smoked getti is favorite in this house also!  You'll find that a bit of smoke in all of your dishes is a great thing!  Hey and weekend is almost here, time to do some serious smoking!

C

[Smoking Duck]

Might be hard to do in your neck of the woods, but if it gets cold there at all, smoke some mozzarella and then shred it and use it on a pizza.  Mama Mia!

SD

[jeff_smoke]

Thanks WestTexasmoker and Smokin Duck.
Lots of stuff I have to try including the mozzeralla.
I went to the store after work and had intended to buy the thickest steak
I could find and first quick sear it on my infrared grill, then finish smoking
it with mesquite. But, I ended up buying a 4 rib, standing roast that I'll smoke tomorrow.
It's not prime, but it's probably pretty good. They've been aging it since Thanksgiving,
so I'm hoping it will be pretty tender.
     I'm going to try manderso's recipe/method that he was gracious enough to share.
I picked up the Lipton onion soup mix along with the roast.
I had mentioned to him that I was going to follow his recipe to the letter, but I am
going to do a couple things slightly differently. I think I'll go with a milder wood to
start out. I'm sure any wood including mesquite will be tasty, but the majority of folks
say to choose a milder flavored wood like oak, cherry or apple for rib roast. It's just that
for $80 bucks I want to be careful. The other thing I plan to do is take the roast out of the smoker at
about 110 degrees, then put in the oven at 400 to get a bit of that nice rib
roast coating on it. I'll take it out at 125 and let it sit in foil, towels and cooler
were it should reach about 135.
I like prime rib kind of rare. I can always throw a slice into the oven for a few minutes
if my wife would like it a little more done.
So, I'll let you all know how it turns out.
Thanks again for your feedback.

[FLBentRider]

I would put the (cold) smoke on the steak first, then finish on the grill.

[jeff_smoke]

You know, I almost asked that question since that seems to be
the most popular method. I was thinking it would be easier to
get to the right meat temperature if slow smoking til completed.
At some point, I'll try it both ways. Thanks for the tip.

[jeff_smoke]

     I'm reading up on and installing the ET-73. I had a pretty hard time
getting the back cover off of the transmitter. First, the instructions
didn't say how to get the clip out of the way in order to get to the
thumbscrew. For all I knew, the clip could have been part of the cover
since there is a hole in the clip to stick a screwdriver (which doesn't work
well anyway as the slot is designed for a thumbnail or penny.)
    Once I figured out how to get the clip off, I turned the thumbscrew
clockwise as suggested, but it didn't open. I was afraid I'd break the
cover by prying open. After messing with it for awhile, it just popped open.
Turns out that if I turn it clockwise all the way to the right, that is actually
too far. I had to turn almost all the way to the right to get it to come free.
     I read some of the posts about why the on/off switch is inconveniently inside the
battery compartment....weather being the reason. You can see the thin
rubber seal that the cover border sits on top of. So, I can see why the
switch is inside, but boy did they make this overly difficult. I think the
typical snap on cover would have been the way to go. A snap piece would
hold the cover on at least as tightly as this plastic screw. I was also surprised that
the plastic screw detaches from the cover itself. It just falls out.
I hope the operation of the unit is better than this cover design.

[jeff_smoke]

Well, last night I put together the rub using  manderso's recipe.
Since there's onion pieces in the lipton mix, I put the mix, sea salt, whole peppercorns
and the other spices in a grinder and mixed it all up into a nice powder and rubbed it
on.
     I forgot to take the roast out of the frige to bring the temp up some, so that's my
first mistake. My schedule calls for this being done at lunchtime today, so onward...
     Despite my issues with the battery cover of the ET-73, it set up easily and it's just
the coolest thing to be able to sit in the comfort of the sun porch (man cave) and wait
to be paged. I guess the novelty will wear off, but it's just fun watching the internal
smoker temperature go up in real time. The meat temp has gone up one degree so far.
I suppose I can live with the on/off switch of the transmitter being inside the battery
cover. It wasn't really that big a deal once I was able to get the cover off.
     I'll take a couple of photos when done. I took one of the roast before the rub too.