Cindy asked if farm raised salmon tastes different from wild caught. I did not know the answer so when I saw both in the fish case at Sam's I bought some of each to try. Some will be grilled while the rest will be smoked on a mini using cherry wood for smoke.

Weather at the start of the cook is about 78° and wind has picked up a bit to 9 mph. The sky is a little cloudy.

The salmon prep was simple to avoid coloring the results. I wanted to see what the difference was. I  seasoned with salt and pepper.

The meat was divided between smoker and grill. Smoking was done with briquettes and some cherry for flavor. Grilling was similar.

time	temp	comment
4:44PM		Salmon on the smoker!
5:12	325°	Salmon beginning to firm up. Will give it a few more minutes.
5:20	325°	Salmon off!

The color of the wild caught salmon was deeper in spite of the coloring added to the farm raised. There is a distinct difference in flavor as well. The wild caught fish had a more robust salmon flavor. Both were good and I have a hard time deciding whether to pay more for wild caught or not.

What to do differently next time: My only disappointment was that I slightly overcooked the grilled salmon. I prefer it a little on the rare side and it was cooked through. It goes so fast!

Butts for a birthday

Our first grandson turned two this week and we celebrate tomorrow. I have been honored by being asked to provide pulled pork for 25. I was hoping to find a pack at Sam's in the 20-22 pound range but was disappointed to find the largest pack was about 17 pounds. I got two of the smallest packs that were about 14 pounds. I'll have a little extra. I'll also do a couple naked fatties for the birthday boy.

Weather is very pleasant at about 70° and sunny with wind light at about 4 mph. We should climb to near 80° by afternoon.

I used a rub recipe similar to the previous cook with the addition of a couple tablespoons of oregano as follows:

• 2 Tbsp black Pepper (whole)
• 2 Tbsp Rosemary (dry, whole)
• 1 Tbsp Coriander (whole)
• 1 Tbsp mustard seed
• 2 Tbsp Hungarian Paprika.
• 1 Tbsp Adobo seasoning
• 1 Tbsp powdered onion
• 2 Tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp Cumin
• 2 Tbsp powdered garlic
• 2 Tbsp Kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp Oregano

These somewhat smaller butts are going on the 18.5 WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain.) The water pan is foiled and for the first time ever, I am using Kingsford Competition briquettes. For smoking wood I'm going with chunks of hickory, black walnut and apple.

time	temp	comment
9:00 am		propane on the mini-chimney about half full
9:10		partially lit chimney set on cooker.
9:20		lit chimney emptied on the fire lay and cooker closed up. Closed two bottom vents to about half and the third is fully closed.
9:45		Temps in the cooker around 260° and stable so meat on!
10:15	217°/48°/112°/230° (grate/pork/fatty/lid)
10:50	214°/68°/152°/220°	Opened one closed bottom vent to about 1/2.
11:13	252°/81°/163°/255°	Time to take the fatties off the cooker.
11:58	279°/108°/x/270°	Closed one bottom vent. (two remain half open.)
2:17 pm	275°/160°/x/250°	Moving right along!
3:40	262°/171°/x/250°
4:13	243°/171°/x/235°	Time to fiddle with the fire. Found lots of ash on the coals so I stirred them a bit and tapped on the grate so it wold fall through. Left lower vents as is (2x 1/2 open.) Boy that sure smells good!
5:05	264°/172°/x/???
5:20	248°/172°/x/225°	Added a couple handfuls of charcoal (left overs including some lump.) Need to get this show moving! Will open the third vent 1/2 also.
6:05	255°/174°/x/220°	Just added a couple more handfuls of new briquettes and opened two bottom vents full.
7:05	280°/181°/X/275°	Now we're cooking!
8:02	302°/196°/x/???	cooker closed up, meat on.
8:37	158°/198°/x/175°	meat off!

The butts were great! Some parts were a little harder to pull and others pulled very easy. Maybe they could have gone a little longer, but the result was very tasty.

Not sure I would do anything differently next time.

New Braunfels Black Diamond

The Smoker

From time to time I add a post that is equipment related rather than documenting a cook. This entry deals with refurbishing a New Braunfels Black Diamond which I have recently acquired for the princely sum of $40. It is in usable shape but will benefit from some cleanup and paint. While I'm at it, I will replace the wood parts, some of which are painted bright green and others black. This article will be published when work is started and updated as it progresses.

This is an offset smoker and I believe it mirrors the design that has it's roots in oil field pipe. Pipe sections were cut and welded to make a fire box and smoke chamber. The Black Diamond (AKA NBBD) is made from 1/8" steel bent into shape with end pieces and hinges welded in place and legs, handles and so on bolted to the shell. New Braunfels has been purchased by Char-Broil which specializes in rather flimsy equipment has apparently retired the name. (They do sell a smoker branded as Oklahoma Joe which may match the quality of these older units.)

This is how the smoker arrived home:

It has been painted on the outside but the inside of both firebox and smoke chamber show considerable rust. The firebox has a false floor - a piece of curved sheet metal covering the floor of the box - which has nearly rusted away.

All other parts appeared sound. Based on the rust in the smoking chamber and presence of charcoal grates, I think the previous owner was grilling in the smoking chamber which burned the seasoning off the bottom and led to rust. It also burned the finish off the outside of the smoking chamber on the bottom.

Refurbishing (2013-08-07)

The primary goal is to stop further rust in both firebox and smoke chamber. Secondarily, the appearance will be brought back up to something close to 'as new.' Since I will only be using this as a smoker, I can protect the smoking chamber with a good seasoning of cooking oil. It should not get hot enough to burn off. The firebox will get a coat of high temperature paint. (Rustoleum High Heat Ultra Grill Paint which should be good to 1200°F) To make it look good, the wood handles and shelf will be replaced with stained oak and the rest of the exterior will get a coat of the grill paint.

First step was to hit it with the pressure washer at the highest pressure setting. That cleaned out quite a bit of the interior deposits and removed some loose rust. After doing that I separated the firebox from the smoking chamber and started at it with a wire brush on a 4 1/2" angle grinder. That gets more stuff off but also kept running afoul of the other attachments. I also saw that the exterior finish was rather durable, being generally resistant to the wire brush! I started removing parts and kept working at cleaning things up. The worst exterior rust was on the underside of the smoking chamber.

There was also a grease spot that resulted from my first cook. I took a scrub brush to it with some Dawn and soon saw that water was beading up on other parts of the exterior. I removed the rest of the exterior pieces and continued scrubbing to no avail. Next step is to hit the exterior with some oven cleaner which should remove any grease film that could interfere with paint adhesion. Before I gotten too far on this, I had removed the legs and disassembled the cooker the rest of the way. Tomorrow work should proceed with a thorough degreasing of the exterior parts.

After degreasing, I painted the firebox  inside and out with the paint described above. The smoking box got paint on the outside only as I planned to spray the inside with Pam to prevent further rust. Before I was done, I had used three cans of paint for multiple coats. This left it with a fairly shiny appearance and preserved the rough texture of the original finish (where it still existed.) With days climbing into the 90s, I found that the smoker would reach a temperature of 150°F in the sun so I did that for several days to begin the burn in process for the paint. (The directions for this paint do not specify a burn in but I expect it will help with durability.)

I used the same stain on the new wood parts that purchased for the Weber Sequoia I am also
restoring. Why not? It cost enough and only came in gallon or bigger sizes.

The resulting appearance is rather orange looking.

The last thing I needed to do was replace the fire shield in the fire box. I bought a piece of 18 gauge metal that was 12" x 18" and cut it to 17" (the length of the fire box.) I bent it to approximately fit the firebox and painted it with 2000°F high heat paint. This one does require a baking process and I did the first two steps in the oven (250°F and 400°F) and the last will be done in the cooker itself, if it ever gets to 600°F.

Had to spruce up the logo as well.

Burn In (2013-09-04)

Here is the cooker fully assembled.

Starting with a small fire.

To the coals I added chunks of oak and maple to bring the fire up. I'm learning more fire management as I go. Below is a table of various temperature readings I took during the burn in process. I presume the grate temperature was hotter than what I read on an outside surface.

time	fb door	fb floor	fb back	sc door	sc end	sc back	sc bottom
3:00	320	294	330	205-170	165	180-210	140
3:50	247	234	252	187-160	158	195-170	140
4:30	385	417	415	260-215	220	265-230	181
6:00	445	385	457	290-230	230	280-230	191

I'll also need to clean up the patio after this is done as some Pam is leaking out and dripping on the pavement. (I sprayed Pam in both cooking and smoking chambers as well as lubing the hinges with a shot.) During the burn-in I also discovered that Pam softened the paint. Where I tried to wipe pam drips off the outside of the cooker, it took the paint off too. I guess it would have been a good idea to burn-in one cycle w/out Pam to set the paint and then a second burn-in to set the Pam. As it is, the Pam on the inside surfaces seems to have set reasonably well after I stopped adding fuel and the cooker cooled off. Now I need to figure out how to make a cover for it so it need not remain stored in the garage.

Brisket on a stick burner

I've been inspired by Aaron Franklin's videos on brisket and have glommed on to a halfway decent (not too expensive) stick burner. (Whereas Franklin's smoker goes for $900, I found a New Braunfels Black Diamond for $40 on Craigslist.)

I picked up a 14 pound brisket at Sam's today and will get it on the smoker as early as possible tomorrow morning. (Tonight I have some butts to finish.)

Weather was about 70°F and cloudy with light wind at the start of the cook. Temps hit 80° mid day.

The brisket received a simple rub of salt and pepper which was applied before the fire was lit. As much fat as possible was trimmed from the brisket as well, though a healthy fat cap was left on the meat.

Equipment prep started the night before. First I split some old oak and box elder to provide some wood. Will this be enough?

The smoker itself could really stand to be refurbished but for this first cook I'll simply perform a couple simple modifications. I removed the cooking grate from the fire box. It won't be needed for this cook. There are charcoal grates in the smoke chamber that I won't need for this cook but they seem to be good size to wrap in foil and make tuning plates.

The purpose of tuning plates is to help convey the heat and smoke along the smoke chamber to even out the heat a bit. However I don't want it completely even as I want a little more heat for the thicker point end of the brisket. After the picture was taken, I opened the gap between the grates. I could easily tear some of the foil during the cook if needed.

The other mod is to extend the stack down to grate level with a collar of foil. The purpose is to bring the smoke and heat back down to grate level before it exits.

I couldn't fire it up from last night's cook because the coals had gone out. I relit some and transferred then to the offset's fire box.

Rubbed with S&P and ready to go on.

time	temp	comment
7:25 AM		Fire in the hole!
7:50		Threw more sticks on and put Thermometer probes on either side of the smoke chamber.
8:20		More wood. The oak was not lit and the box elder had mostly burned off.
8:40	430°/383°
8:52	352°/358°	Looking good! Brisket will go on in a bit.
9:00	~320°	Meat on! And a couple more sticks in the fire.
9:14	217°/277°
9:28	180°/221°	More wood!
9:39	239°/343°	Fewer splits next time...
10:15	194°/244°	Added water pan and couple more splits.
10:29	207°/246°
10:35	190°/221°	More fuel, closed intake to half.
10:46	176°/212°	Fire almost out! Added more box elder and blew til lit.
10:55	193°/234°	A little smokey so I opened the inlet a little and threw in another piece of oak.
11:11	165°/196°	Fire trying to go out again! More box elder and open the inlet.
11:28	284°/313°
11:43	268°/298°	After throwing in a couple more splits.
11:56	257°/295°	After hitting 300+. Time to check again. Moved one stick from side to fire. Added one stick with end in the fire. Maybe progressive burning will even out the swings.
12:11	208°/241°	Time to tend.
12:32	205°/235°	Added meat probe.
12:43	261°/293°/167° (lo/hi/meat)*
12:55	331°/300°/173°
1:20	212°/237°/178°	Time to stoke.
1:33	288°/300°/180°
1:54	419°/302°/185°	Temp spiked when wood preheating in the fire box caught fire.
2:16	221°/246°/189°	Couple more sticks on.
2:21	241°/268°/189°
2:30	230°/259°/189°	Stall?
2:39	264°/284°/190°	Just threw in a couple more sticks. 327° in the middle.
3:01	208°/232°/195°	Threw in a big oak chunk and box elder split.
3:22	205°/223°/195°	Temp came up and is drifting back down - did the big piece light?
3:39	219°/246°/195°	Add a couple more sticks to overcome difficulty with lighting the big chunk.
3:51	212°/239°/195°	Where are we going? Nowhere! Threw another stick on. I should probe the meat. The brisket probes tender at the point end and firm (and about 180°) at the far end. I closed the tuning plate gap to see if I could direct more heat toward the stack end.
4:04	248°/279°/196°	Moving again.
4:14		Got a picture, swapped the brisket end for end and threw on another big oak chunk. Threw in a piece of cherry a little later.
4:38	225°/286°/178°	WTF? Add more wood. Split some big chunks of maple.
4:54	304°/289°/177°
5:13	230°/244°/189°	Moving!
5:42	262°/268°/198°	Probes tender in some spots and not in others. Coming off to rest!

* lo/hi are measured with probes on an ET-732 laying on the grate. meat is using an ET-73 in the point end of the meat.

The brisket tasted great! Parts in the middle were still a bit firm and some of the bottom edges were hard. Heat distribution seems to be an issue.

Brisket in the stick burner would probably benefit from fat cap down. That should help prevent the hardened edges. Heat distribution also needs to be improved. Tuning plates? I also need to work with wood size and supply. I literally burned through the supply I had. I also need to work with larger pieces of wood. One recommendation from BBQ-Brethren is chunks rather than sticks. I'll experiment with that the next time I fire the stick burner.

I like big butts and I cannot lie

With apologies to Sir Mix-A-Lot. (Can I be Sir Smoke-A-Lot?) I need to thank someone for letting me leave my motorcycle on their premises until I can come up back with a trailer to fetch it. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is BBQ! I hastened to my local Sams and bought four butts totalling about 42 lb.

Weather is hot at 83°F and sunny with winds light at about 5 mph.

I used my standard rub recipe as follows:

• 2 Tbsp black Pepper (whole)
• 2 Tbsp Rosemary (dry, whole)
• 1 Tbsp Coriander (whole)
• 1 Tbsp mustard seed
• 2 Tbsp Hungarian Paprika.
• 1 Tbsp Adobo seasoning
• 1 Tbsp powdered onion
• 2 Tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp Cumin
• 2 Tbsp powdered garlic
• 2 Tbsp Kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp sugar

Butts have been rubbed and are sitting in the kitchen while I set up the cooker.

This cook will be done on the 22.5 Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) using Royal Oak Briquettes. Additional smoke provided by hickory, oak and box elder. The water pan is foiled. I've embedded the smoking wood chunks in the bed of briquettes and lit a fill mini-chimney of briquettes, While they were still starting, I set the chimney on the charcoal bet which ignites some of the fuel under the chimney while the rest of the charcoal in the chimney gets started.  I'll be using the ET-732 to measure temperature at the top grate of the cooker.

time	temp	comment
1:15 PM		A fully lit mini-chimney of charcoal was dumped on the bed and the smoker has been closed up. Three bottom vents are left about 1/3 open. (Top vent is fully open as it always is until the cook is complete.)
1:35		Meat on! Dome temp is about 275° and smoke looks good! Oops, meat probe is sitting on the SS table of my Performer and reads 122°!
2:05	61°/246°/240° (meat/grate/lid)	Good start! Well... late start. I'll be up late tonight or very early in the morning.
2:43	81°/259°/255°
3:53	115°/275°/?
4:34	133°/262°/275°	Three hours and no adjustments or fiddling needed!
5:22	151°/253°/270°
6:26	163°/237°/?
7:05	167°/221°/200	5:30 w/out touching the cooker - not bad! I just stirred the coals to knock the ash off. They're a bit more than half consumed.  Minutes later the temperature is already starting to recover.
7:32	169°/230°/?
7:44	169°/228°/?	Cooker not really going where I want so I'll add some fuel - threw in some left over lump and briquettes from the other cookers and a little more smoking wood. Opened one bottom vent full.
8:27	171°/239°/220°	Seems to be back on track.
9:56	183°/264°/240°	Really smells good!
10:45	190°/259°/235°	Opened the cover and the bones still feel pretty firm as I try to wiggle the bone. I picked one up and a small piece stuck to the grill (for some cook's treat - really good!) They still need a little more time.
11:24	194°/252°/225°	The bone did not wiggle but I declare them done. While trying to pick them up, they were falling apart! The little bites that stick to the grill are particularly good. Now they need to rest. I closed the fire up mostly, hoping to bank it to save some coals to start tomorrow's fire in the stick burner. May not work as it looks like heavy rain is just moving in.

Results: Flavor excellent. Texture a bit firm. It could have been easier to pull. Perhaps I should have allowed it to cook a little longer.

What to do differently next time: Give the bone wiggle test another try.

Two racks for Sister Sarah.

No, not really. No Sister Sarah involved. We have no more ribs left in the freezer and we're doing stuff around the house so I broke two racks of spares out of the freezer to smoke today. I'll be giving them a try using the hanging method. I did back loin ribs this way before. One will be using my previous rub and one using Harry Soo's Slap Yo' Daddy rub. Both got a little oil as well.

At about 10:30 when I'm firing up the cooker, it is a gorgeous 72°F with some clouds and wind light at 10 mph.

I had some rub left from this cook and used that on one rack. On the other one I'm trying Harry Soo's Slap Yo' Daddy rub. (Note: Commercial link) As noted, I am hanging these and this time I've added some support string to prevent the phenomena of the rack falling apart and falling into the fire. <roll eyes> I also squirted some oil on both racks because I think that helps to keep them moist. I started to remove the membrane and then decided to leave it on to help support the ribs. And it was not coming off very easy.

This is going on the 18.5 WSM with the hanging supports in place. I'm using a charcoal ring mostly full of Royal Oak briquettes with some hickory, black walnut, maple (box elder), and some apple for smoking wood. I had a few small pieces of cherry left over from a previous cook and threw them in as well. I lit the fire with a mini-chimney full of briquettes. It's perfect size for lighting enough charcoal for a Minion method fire. After the fire was starting to spread I closed up the cooker and left two vents about half way open.

time	temp	comment
10:50 AM	°	Meat on!
11:00	221°/220° (remote/lid)
11:35	250°/240°
12:30 PM	286°/285°
1:21	279°/?°	It is surprising how consistent the two temperature measurements are.
1:30	268°/263°	Temps are running surprisingly steady with no adjustment on the bottom vents. I just opened the cooker for a bend test. Meat is not pulling back on the bones too much and the racks don;t bend much. More time!
2:25	268°/260°	Done (by bend test) - meat off!

(remote/lid) => (ET-732 cooker probe stuck in the grommet near the top grate supports/lid thermometer.)

Here they are at two hours.

And done.

They were good but not great. The end towards the fire was sort of like jerky. They seemed like they were a little overdone and didn't have as much meat as I have come to expect with spares. Both rubs tasted good, the chief difference is that my rub had a little heat to it. Could be a little oversmoked as well.

What to do differently next time? Little less smoke, little shorter cook? Maybe do spares on the racks but w/out the water pan.

Beef Ribs (and some veggies.)

Pulled a four bone rack of beef ribs from the freezer. Just over 2 lb. Not an excess of meat on them, but should be good enough for dinner. They'll go on the mini-WSM for a nominal four hours.

Weather is warm and windy. Temperature is reported at 82°F and wind is about 20 mph and gusty. The sky is mostly cloudy. We may get some rain/thunderstorms before the cook is done.

Beef will be simple with salt (coarse sea salt) and coarse ground black pepper. I drizzled a little canola oil on the upper surface of the beef as well to promote moistness.

Cook is on the mini-WSM using mostly left over charcoal from previous cooks. A couple chunks of mesquite were added for smoke. I may throw some apple, oak and mesquite chips in later. With the smoker closed up, the top vent is full open (as always) and the two bottom vents are open about 1/4" each. I'd like to see temps around 275-300°F. On the 18 kettle, I've started some lump and plan to roast some red peppers. When they're done, I'll put some foiled spuds on the coals. Eventually I'll roast some broccoli and green onions as well.

A few new coals and the potatoes go right on them.

When the meat came off the mini-WSM, I dumped the remaining coals in the kettle to replenish that fire for grilling vegetables.

time	temp	comment
2:25 PM		Ribs on!
2:49	243° grate	I'd like to see a little more heat so I opened the second bottom vent a little.
3:01	248°	Light rain starting and I can hear the rumble of distant thunder.
3:08	246°	Raining harder now. :( Hopefully will pass by momentarily.
3:20	244°	Sun is out and smoker temp is recovering - Yay! Foil wrapped spuds on the kettle in the coals.
3:51	264°	Sun is back out, thunder in the distance and it is hot and muggy!
4:10	264°	Threw some oak chips on the fire. Spuds may be done. Need to squeeze them with some oven mitts to see.
4:22	240°	Temperature inexplicably dropping following application of oak chips so I stirred the fire a bit. Spuds off the coals and onto the safe zone.
4:53	273°
5:21	261	Meat off. OK, done in three hours.

grate => ET-732 cooker probe sticking in the grommet in the mid-section.

This picture is about half way through the cook.

And the closest I came to a plated picture.

The beef was good - these are probably the best beef ribs I've made and the difference was cooking them a little longer. That renders off more of the fat. Though these had little meat on them, the meat was tender and juicy. The food cooked on the other cooker came out well too. Most of the peppers were reserved for making a spread but I put a little in the salad. Potatoes, broccoli and onions were good. The onions are actually a little stringy but flavor is mild and sweet. I guess we get more fiber from them. ;)

There is nothing I need to do differently next time. I could have used a second Smokey Joe instead of the 18" kettle, but I'm not sure I have a cast iron grate that will fit a Smokey Joe.