Meat smoker build along

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The propane burner arrived. It’s a heavy and durable piece of equipment. The only mod I made was cutting 2 inches off of the legs to lower it. Then I got some iron pipe and fittings so I don’t have to have any rubber regulator line inside the heat of the smoker.



Then a notch in a tile and a hole drilled through the side wall.



I’ve got gas.



I lit the smallest burner ring and let it burn to see how hot I could get it at its max setting. I brought the inside temp to 270F which is way hotter that anything I will be needing but I wanted to test out the door seal gasket and see if the whole thing would take the heat. Each burner is adjustable so I will be able to tweak the heat as I like and have extra to spare for when it below zero outside.

Time to put some meat in this thing.

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It was 39 degrees this afternoon so I took advantage and cold smoked some cheese, olives and salt.

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Finally did a hot smoke in the new smoker. My oldest was home from college and wanted ribs. I used the 3-2-1 method. 3 hours over hickory smoke between 230 and 250F with Famous Dave’s rib rub. 2 hours wrapped in foil with apple juice at the same temp and then 1 hour smoked unwrapped with some Famous Dave’s BBQ sauce.

This was the first propane smoking using chunks of Hickory and cast iron. They lasted a good long time and produced a great smelling smoke.





They came out falling off the bone. Next weekend it will be whole chickens, ribs and sausage for out of town guests visiting for Easter.

[bobow]

Thanks a lot....now I am hungry[&:]

The setup & food is lookin' good!

[Sailfish]

Goes right on top of the burner?

ORIGINAL: retch sweeny

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Yes.

[Sailfish]

The cheese is this w/e right???

Have you sampled a smidgen yet?

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Nope. Tomorrow is the big day. I have guests coming to town.

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Things quieted down enough and I have a free weekend so I ordered a 60 pound case of boneless pork picnic shoulders. (What the hell happened to meat prices?? What I used to buy at .88 cents a pound was $1.60 a pound >:( ) anyway, I took 30 pounds of venison out of the freezer so I could make a 60 pound batch of breakfast sausage. Then I cut up a few of the pork shoulders into small pieces for grinding.



Then ground them together.



Our family likes the Hi Mountain brand of breakfast sausage seasoning so I got a few boxes. I mixed it with a quart of cold water and 4 tablespoons of crushed red pepper flakes for some heat.

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Then I grind it again through a smaller plate.



Then I convert the grinder into a stuffer and bulk pack it.



In order to continue pork-a-palooza, I saved 15 pounds of butts for the smoker tomorrow. It will spend the day in the new smoker.

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