Recent content by Dennis Lubertozzi

@LMichaels - Apologies for reviving an old thread, but you seem like the resident expert around here. I'm thinking of getting a NG grill as I've recently moved and the previous owner had a gas line installed out to the deck. I was reviewing the manual for the grill I'm looking to get and that...

I have my son's 1st birthday party coming up this weekend and we have a pretty big crowd coming and I am planning on smoking 4 pork shoulders in my 22" WSM and I had been planning on smoking two briskets at high heat in my 18" WSM. With everything else I have to do to get ready for the party I...

I also prefer butts over the brisket. I do the brisket fat cap side down - my theory is that the fat rendered off of the butts will "baste" the top of the brisket. Who knows if it really works, but it always tastes good at the end!

I'll be doing 2 butts and a big brisket overnight Friday so that it will be ready for the festivities Saturday. For appetizers I'm making my now famous (with my friends anyway) pulled pork egg rolls, a batch of ABTs, and I'm toying with the idea of making a batch of pulled pork tamales.

I'm also on 10.7 now. Dennis

Hi Joe, See this thread's been dormant for a while, but thought I'd bring it back to life with a question. I just ordered and received a stoker, and I'm a Mac user, so I was happy to see that you created something for us to use to monitor temperatures, etc... I was wondering if you had any...

Hi Justin - I agree w/ Dave. The only thing that sounds "weird" to me there is using a full chimney full of lit coals along w/ the minion method. I typically start w/ between 15 and 20 lit coals and haven't had trouble with getting the temps I want (usually around 240-ish). I also always use...

Ah - Mine looked pretty similar before last weekend. I hadn't used it since Memorial Day weekend and had also been too lazy to clean it out in a timely manner after that weekend's cook. I took the same approach to cleaning it out - a whole bag of Kingsford and quite a few big chunks of smoke...

Also, just to clarify, my temperature difficulties came more from not being able to get the cooker to settle at any temperature in the 340-375 range. The cooker was either constantly climbing or nose diving, so a lot of adjustments were needed. I'm not someone who constantly fusses with the WSM...

Well - I'm another high-heat convert. The brisket turned out more moist than any brisket I've cooked using a traditional method. It was a huge hit at the tailgate, and being able to knock out a brisket in 5 hours is pretty amazing. I did find that my coals were pretty spent by the 4th hour or...

Got the temperatures under controller and about 45 min after my last post the cooker settled in at 360 or so. I just hit an internal temperature in the brisket of 168 and decided it was time to foil it up. It looked and smelled pretty great, so I'm anxious to give this thing a try in a few short...

Well, I'm giving it a shot. I fired up the WSM about an hour ago for my first high heat brisket that (hopefully) my friends and I will be eating tomorrow morning as we're tailgating for the Bears vs. Lions game. So far it's been nothing short of a temperature roller coaster. For the most part...

Well - I'm not sure if it's the lump or the great weather we've got going (virtually no wind going here in Chicago today), but the smoker is cruising. I've had to make no adjustments to the vents once the cooker initially got up to temperature. I love these low-effort smokes! Hopefully this...

What to do with a week off between the end of an old job and the beginning of a new job with Smoke Day looming on the horizon? Smoke 16 lbs of pork butt as a Smoke Day warm-up, that's what! The butts went on about 25 minutes ago and the smoker is still getting up to temperature. This is my...

I'm firing up the smoker this Sunday for a few friends. I have a brisket and two pork shoulders I'm planning on smoking. Not sure what all we'll be eating with those yet, but I'm letting my friends worry about side dishes. My last pork shoulder and brisket combination cook went really well, so...