Melissaredhead
is Blowin Smoke!
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2015
- Location
- Keyport...
Frustrated after wasting $45 on beef brisket on a OKJ Highland... Trade it in for a WSM 18?
- Thread starter magbarn
- Start date
Welcome bro, take a breath and relax, its supposed to be fun to bbq. Smitty has some good tips for your cooker. If you don't feel like messing around with that right now look on craigslist for a weber kettle 22.5. Learn how to cook on that first then work up to a uds or wsm. You can pick them up cheap and you can grill or do low and slow. I have 2 of them and love them. Once you get comfortable then maybe you can step up to the stick burner. Hope this helps.
SmittyJonz
somebody shut me the fark up.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2013
- Location
- Burleson Tx
Bludawg
somebody shut me the fark up.
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2009
- Location
- Jonesbor...
Highland is a good pit and most of the crap you read about this Mod and that Mod are for the most part attempts to make up for lack of Knowlege.
1st of you bought a stick burner not a charcoal smoker. Yes you need to add a chimney of unlit charcoal and a 1/2 a lit chimney at the very start then feed it a split of wood when the temp drops 25 deg repeat as necessary.
The installed thermometer is to high up to be of use MY Trailmaster longhorn LE's installed thermometer is 75 deg hotter than the grate temp. It is the grate temp you need to know, a cheap 5.00 oven thermo on the grate will tell you the difference once you know it then you can subtract the difference from the installed thermo and know you temp without opening the pit to look.
You don't need a charcoal basket and door latches & gaskets or fiddle with the stack to extend it to grate level.
You can make your own heat plate for a few bucks and 30 min of your time. I built mine from a Cookie sheet and it works perfectly just look at the pic of the one on the horizon site mkae a bend to cover the opening lay out the hole pattern and get busy with a step bit.
Brisket takes time and PATIENCE if you pull it off to soon well you know you done it.
BBQ RULES FOR SUCCESS
"YOU CAN NOT COOK GREAT BBQ ON A CONSISTENT BASIS COOKING TO AN INTERNAL TEMP OR BY TIME(XXX MIN PER LB) YOU MUST COOK BY FEEL!"For a Brisket that is probe tender in the thickest part of the Flat, Pork Butts when the Bone wiggles lose, Ribs pass the Bend Test. These are the only reliable methods to indicate the proper time to declare the cook completed with success.
BluDawgs Brisket
K.I S.S. some of the best brisket you will ever eat! Total cook time including the rest 8 hrs or less. I promise it will be as moist as mornin dew on the lilly, tender as a mothers love, pure beefy smoky goodness.
1 packer 12-15 lb
Trim off the hard fat on each side of the flat thin the fat cap to 1/4"
Mix your Rub
1 part kosher salt 4 parts Med grind Black peppa by volume( this is a true 50/50 BY weight)
apply a coat of rub you need to be able to see the meat through the rub clearly.
Pre heat the pit to 300 deg
place brisket on the pit Fat Cap Down and point to the firebox unless it is a RF cooker then point to away from FB
Maintain pit between 275-325 if cookin on a stick burner
cook Brisket 4 hrs
remove from pit wrap in a single layer of Butcher paper Return to pit Fat cap up.
after 1 hr probe the thicket part of the Flat only! If it isn't *probe tender it should be within 1 hr.
once it is probe tender remove from the pit keep it wrapped in the paper you cooked it in and allow it to rest on your counter until the Internal temp reaches 150 this will take about two hrs.
Don't ever slice more than you can eat big pieces retain moisture and won't dry up on you like slices will.
*PROBE TENDER>This is the feel that is mimicked by cutting room temperature butter with a hot knife, there should be no drag
1st of you bought a stick burner not a charcoal smoker. Yes you need to add a chimney of unlit charcoal and a 1/2 a lit chimney at the very start then feed it a split of wood when the temp drops 25 deg repeat as necessary.
The installed thermometer is to high up to be of use MY Trailmaster longhorn LE's installed thermometer is 75 deg hotter than the grate temp. It is the grate temp you need to know, a cheap 5.00 oven thermo on the grate will tell you the difference once you know it then you can subtract the difference from the installed thermo and know you temp without opening the pit to look.
You don't need a charcoal basket and door latches & gaskets or fiddle with the stack to extend it to grate level.
You can make your own heat plate for a few bucks and 30 min of your time. I built mine from a Cookie sheet and it works perfectly just look at the pic of the one on the horizon site mkae a bend to cover the opening lay out the hole pattern and get busy with a step bit.
Brisket takes time and PATIENCE if you pull it off to soon well you know you done it.
BBQ RULES FOR SUCCESS
"YOU CAN NOT COOK GREAT BBQ ON A CONSISTENT BASIS COOKING TO AN INTERNAL TEMP OR BY TIME(XXX MIN PER LB) YOU MUST COOK BY FEEL!"For a Brisket that is probe tender in the thickest part of the Flat, Pork Butts when the Bone wiggles lose, Ribs pass the Bend Test. These are the only reliable methods to indicate the proper time to declare the cook completed with success.
BluDawgs Brisket
K.I S.S. some of the best brisket you will ever eat! Total cook time including the rest 8 hrs or less. I promise it will be as moist as mornin dew on the lilly, tender as a mothers love, pure beefy smoky goodness.
1 packer 12-15 lb
Trim off the hard fat on each side of the flat thin the fat cap to 1/4"
Mix your Rub
1 part kosher salt 4 parts Med grind Black peppa by volume( this is a true 50/50 BY weight)
apply a coat of rub you need to be able to see the meat through the rub clearly.
Pre heat the pit to 300 deg
place brisket on the pit Fat Cap Down and point to the firebox unless it is a RF cooker then point to away from FB
Maintain pit between 275-325 if cookin on a stick burner
cook Brisket 4 hrs
remove from pit wrap in a single layer of Butcher paper Return to pit Fat cap up.
after 1 hr probe the thicket part of the Flat only! If it isn't *probe tender it should be within 1 hr.
once it is probe tender remove from the pit keep it wrapped in the paper you cooked it in and allow it to rest on your counter until the Internal temp reaches 150 this will take about two hrs.
Don't ever slice more than you can eat big pieces retain moisture and won't dry up on you like slices will.
*PROBE TENDER>This is the feel that is mimicked by cutting room temperature butter with a hot knife, there should be no drag
SmittyJonz
somebody shut me the fark up.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2013
- Location
- Burleson Tx
Bludawg post that pic of your stove parts convection plate.
Bludawg
somebody shut me the fark up.
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2009
- Location
- Jonesbor...
I'll take one & post it tomorow
magbarn
Found some matches.
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2015
- Location
- Riversid...
Wow you guys are the best. So many high value responses in such a short time. Unfortunately wood is pretty hard to come by here in large quantities. I'll mess with the grill plates a bit to raise the charcoal or get some bolts. I realize now I picked a super hard cut of beef as my first Bbq. Should've been a warning sign when I had to call multiple places to find a full cut of brisket that didn't weigh <10 lbs. I saw some good posts here about reverse searing tri tip. I may try that as the smoke time is much shorter and I'm pretty good at searing steaks on the the weber. I'm kinda loath to return the ok joe as it was a gift from a brother in law. I'll take your guys suggestions and try an easier cut. I'll also take pics haha. Maybe I'll get a WSM 18 to cut my teeth on...
Shadowdog500
is One Chatty Farker
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2012
- Location
- Down...
It would have taken about one 20 lb bag of KBB (Kingsford Blue Bag) to smoke that brisket on a 22" WSM. I don't know much about the smoker you bought(and it could be a piece of junk like you said), but there is a learning curve to controlling temperatures on any smoker. To be quite honest I've chased the temps all over the place with my first WSM a couple times when I was first getting used to it, and a WSM is probably about as easy to control as it gets.
How far were your chasing those temps? I used to have fairly large 20°- 30°F temp swings when I had a $29 brinkman and my ribs never really suffered. I was happy to have it near the right temp, and the ribs were fine.
As other pointed out brisket is an extremely difficult piece of meat to smoke properly, and probably is not where you want to start. You may want to start out with someting a lot easier like ribs or chicken, and focus more on learning how to run your smoker at first. "Low & slow" is a book has a series of easy to follow cooking lessons that are specifically targeted at learning to operate your smoker You may want to read it.[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Low-Slow-Master-Barbecue-Lessons-ebook/dp/B004WOPHN0/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1"]Low & Slow: Master the Art of Barbecue in 5 Easy Lessons - Kindle edition by Gary Wiviott, Colleen Rush. Cookbooks, Food & Wine Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IUbMMktGL.@@AMEPARAM@@51IUbMMktGL[/ame]
I actually eyed that smoker you have this year because have Multiple water smokers but never even ran an horizontal offset. One of these years I'm going to get an offset, just to see what it is all about. From what I read it is a lot more work to run any horizontal offset compared to a WSM.
Thanks,
Chris
How far were your chasing those temps? I used to have fairly large 20°- 30°F temp swings when I had a $29 brinkman and my ribs never really suffered. I was happy to have it near the right temp, and the ribs were fine.
As other pointed out brisket is an extremely difficult piece of meat to smoke properly, and probably is not where you want to start. You may want to start out with someting a lot easier like ribs or chicken, and focus more on learning how to run your smoker at first. "Low & slow" is a book has a series of easy to follow cooking lessons that are specifically targeted at learning to operate your smoker You may want to read it.[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Low-Slow-Master-Barbecue-Lessons-ebook/dp/B004WOPHN0/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1"]Low & Slow: Master the Art of Barbecue in 5 Easy Lessons - Kindle edition by Gary Wiviott, Colleen Rush. Cookbooks, Food & Wine Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IUbMMktGL.@@AMEPARAM@@51IUbMMktGL[/ame]
I actually eyed that smoker you have this year because have Multiple water smokers but never even ran an horizontal offset. One of these years I'm going to get an offset, just to see what it is all about. From what I read it is a lot more work to run any horizontal offset compared to a WSM.
Thanks,
Chris
Last edited:
Good ideas.
SmittyJonz
somebody shut me the fark up.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2013
- Location
- Burleson Tx
PNW Smoker
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- May 28, 2012
- Location
- Vancouve...
Lot of good info here from people that know way more than me.
From one newb to another, I just wanted to reiterate what a few have said...
Don't expect perfection right out of the gate. This stuff takes practice.
Get to know your smoker and how to control temps properly. Every smoker is different.
Start out with cheaper and easier cuts. Makes note number two a bit easier to deal with
Have fun and don't be so hard on yourself.
From one newb to another, I just wanted to reiterate what a few have said...
Don't expect perfection right out of the gate. This stuff takes practice.
Get to know your smoker and how to control temps properly. Every smoker is different.
Start out with cheaper and easier cuts. Makes note number two a bit easier to deal with
Have fun and don't be so hard on yourself.
Wesman61
is Blowin Smoke!
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2008
- Location
- Caldwell...
When I had a New Braunfels offset I did all the mods including a charcoal basket. I learned that charcoal just had a hard time getting my smoker hot enough and keeping it that way. Lump and splits is what works me. I now have an OK Joe, a Treager and a UDS. I wouldn't want to get rid of any of them. Learning what to use for fuel and when to add it is the key. As others have said, learn your cooker on cheap and easy cuts before trying to master brisket. Good luck.
Pretty much what Bludawg posted. He cooks on a similar one.
And I agree, you were nowhere near done cooking that brisket. You can learn to cook by temperature, but, you are going to burn up a lot more meat. Cooking by feel of a probe is the easiest way to learn.
And I agree, you were nowhere near done cooking that brisket. You can learn to cook by temperature, but, you are going to burn up a lot more meat. Cooking by feel of a probe is the easiest way to learn.
Rusty Kettle
Babbling Farker
Less charcoal consumption. Less refueling. Plus let's say I am doing a competition. I cook 4 racks of spare ribs and 20 chicken legs on a 14.5" WSM.
Now that sounds like to much it is not too much at all. It cooks best when it is full.
First I smoke my ribs and then I foil all 4 racks. They are cooked in a brinkmann rib rack and then the rack is removed when they are foiled. I run it at 275 average grate temp.
When I foil my ribs I stack them one right on top the other on the top grate. The chicken is all in the middle. The foiled ribs help keep the heat in and raise the temp on the middle grate which gives me bite through skin. It causes the temp to jump to 325 on the middle grate. Since the heat is reflected it cooks the ribs at the lower temp necessary for good ribs. This gives me really good ribs and really nice chicken.
The problem is that when I transfer this to the 22.5" WSM I have to cook a lot more meat to maybe have it work but I still don't think it will work. I would have to learn new methods.
The 22.5" WSM is nice but the 14.5" is better at least for me.
Not saying the 22.5" isn't nice it is that my methods are kind of tailored to the 14.5" WSM.
They are not even close to being the same smoker. They look the same but they are two completely different animals.
I think while the 14.5" WSM has a learning curve once you got the hang of it it easily is the best WSM that is on the market. I think it is under rated.
I compete with it and as crazy as it sounds I want to go pro on one down the road. Mind it was a backyard contest but we just got a 172.5944 and first place in ribs in the backyard event in Buckhannon.
I got told by a pro team after that to keep doing what I am doing and not to change anything. It was Chris from Dizzy Pig we talked to. They happened to sit by us at awards.
My point is when what your doing works and even when it goes against the grain and comes across as insane you stick with it until it doesn't work anymore.
I tried the 22.5" and I just don't think it is a good competition smoker for me and to make myself clear for me it does not work yet. Plenty of guys do very well on them.
If we get pulled for the Shade Tree at the Jack Daniels invititational, which is the backyard contest, we will be using one 14.5" WSM as I think it should work very well for us.
Sorry about the long winded post but I figured a full explanation was in order. If not oh well I just like to talk sometimes.
Mikhail
Babbling Farker
That is very true. I've only cooked two briskets, one highly successful at 7 hours, the other nowhere near done at 12. Go figure. That is not the cut to gauge your smoking skills.
magbarn
Found some matches.
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2015
- Location
- Riversid...
Some of those are near me, but isn't Eucalyptus toxic for cooking? Could I use Avocado wood or just go full oak. Also, I'm not familiar with wood sizes and would 2 'wheelbarrow' full last me through a 8-12 hour smoke? Do I need to buy a 1/2 cord?
Can a 14.5 fit a 14 lbs or so brisket? I guess I can get a 14.5 WSM to cut my teeth on first...
Oh geez, I feel better now lol. That's an epic waste of meat lol.
Not to sound too blunt but the issue here is the pit master, not the pit. Others have said, its a stickburner and is meant to be used as such. I have the same model and its an excellent pit for the money with very little mods required to perform really well. All I did to mine was add tuning plates to even out the heat a bit and a few other touches. My advice is either sell it and get something that's meant to burn charcoal, or, (and I strongly suggest) that you learn how to build and manage a good clean fire in that thing, read about "cooking by feel" and you'll be making some great Q.
Use oak, most prefer oak with brisket, do not use eucalyptus. There are some varieties that can be used, but, almost all varieties in the USA have strong menthol profiles, unless you like menthol tasting meat. Go with oak.
And no, not all briskets will fit on a 14.5" WSM. Personally, on my 22" kettle, the largest brisket I can get regularly to fit is a fully trimmed 14 pound packer.
And no, not all briskets will fit on a 14.5" WSM. Personally, on my 22" kettle, the largest brisket I can get regularly to fit is a fully trimmed 14 pound packer.
You might want to hang on to that OK Joe and give it a few more shots before flinging it - BUT - if you ever decide to get rid of it, put out the word here and I'll bet someone nearby would be more than happy to help with that. That said, I think a good rule of thumb is to never get rid of any cooker - only get additional ones. If you ever see my backyard you'll see that I mean it!
I'm not sure what wood places there are in Riverside, but I'll bet you'll find some if you do a search for cooking wood in your area.
And welocme to the forum - you will find the answers to any questions you have here - and you'll find some questions you never knew to ask!
I'm not sure what wood places there are in Riverside, but I'll bet you'll find some if you do a search for cooking wood in your area.
And welocme to the forum - you will find the answers to any questions you have here - and you'll find some questions you never knew to ask!
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2014
- Location
- Detroit...
If you want a wsm i suggest the 18 if you dont cook for large groups and are concerned with fuel usage. 22 can handle alot but from what i hear they can chew up a bit more fuel. Rusty may have better luck with his 14 but i think most would suggest the bigger ones as your first/only smoker. Both are great smokers out of the box. I dont really use mine anymore since i got the longhorn (same as the Highland only longer) and mastered smoking on a kettle. I use the stickburner when i want to play with fire and larger cooks and the kettle when im busier. The kettle just uses way less fuel and im usually only cooking small amounts.
