Recent content by Eric Simon

Greetings! Although I've never done it, I can see the advantages of prepping your KCBS meats (trimming brisket and pork butt, in particular) at home before leaving for the competition. I've been told by a KCBS rep that it's okay to do this and wrap it in plastic wrap beforehand. But I'd prefer...

IMPORTANT: Please read and reply to this post ***WITHOUT READING ANY OF THE OTHER REPLIES***. I received a really good piece of advice lately about how to improve my competition BBQ: ask a bunch of interested people what they are looking for in good BBQ, then look for the commonalities in the...

Greetings! I like to use a disposable aluminum pan when cooking competition brisket and butts in my 18.5" WSM (to retain the juices when foiling). But the standard catering chafing dish size is a bit too big; it won't quite fit on the rack. Do you use a foil pan? If so, what size? I'm...

Looks great, CJ! I really like those plastic utensils you used for pullers. Do you think those work better than your hands? What kind of wood?

I thought some of you might find this interesting. I gathered this data with my Stoker and Stoker log during a pork butt smoke. I had on two butts, each about 8.5-9 lbs. (after trimming), on at 230F.

Here's how it turned out. Injected/rubbed butts in the morning: Here is one pulled, one about to be pulled: The final product: And the ribs that I did at the same time: Out of 2 butts (totaling 20 pre-trimmed pounds) and 4 racks of spares, I was able to take home one pulled pork...

Greetings! As part of my run-up to competitions this summer, I am practicing butts tomorrow. And 4 racks of ribs. I thought I would post pics as I go along. I purchased two bone-in 10 lb. pork butts from a very reliable local butcher. I thought the meat looked great. Here it is out of the...

Great job, Chris! It looks awesome. Thanks for posting. A few questions: 1. Do you find that the kitchen twine really helps? 2. I'm not sure what you meant by: "I filled the water pan with one gallon of warm water, then foiled the top of the pan." Are you saying that you put tin foil over the...

Thanks, Bradley. That's what I've been looking for! I use a long lighter to start them, but they always seem to require many starts. I think this might do the trick.

Definitely overkill! I just want to start the newspaper in the chimney, not light the coals directly.

Greetings. I use one of those long Zippo lighters to start my chimney before a smoke. But it's pretty lame and frustrating. <click> <click> <click> Darn it! Can someone recommend a good, reliable works-even-in-the-wind fire starting lighter/torch? Thanks!

Thanks, Larry. I identified the problem: I associated the blower with the smoker probe *after* I had started StokerLog. I quite StokerLog and restarted it, and then the Temp Panel worked.

Greetings! I am using StokerLog 6. For the probe listings in the upper left, the top one says "Control" in bold. Then under probe it says "No Control" and so under Temps/Current it say "N/A". When I show the Temp Panel, it shows "000.0" in orange. My probes are there, in yellow: Monitor smoker...

Very helpful! Thank you very much!

I love the recipes right on the shirt! That is very cool. Don't forget: we BBQ guys tend to be pretty big. XXL for me! :-) Good job!