Wings are my favorite to do, and I think I finally got my method down after piecing together from other peoples’ methods. The first batch I did turned out rubbery and I wound up tossing the whole batch. The wings pictured here are the best I’ve ever done in any appliance.

Pro Series 34. After living on my own for 20 years or so, I have my first grill. So as you can imagine I’ve learned a lot in the last few months. A lot of ups and downs and trial and error. I regularly do chicken-breasts/thighs/wings. Steaks have been hit and miss, but I almost always toss them in a cast iron after hitting temp on the grill—the reverse sear does give a nice flavor and texture though. Today, I’m doing my first butt. 8.95lbs, planning on smoking for 9 hours or when it achieves temp.

I had a Pit Boss vertical smoker (4 Series I think) for a couple of years. Sold it last year when I moved. I really liked it, but I'm in the market for another and I'd like to hear from you fellers on why you went with yours and what you like and dislike about it.

Weirdly enough I've mastered handling stalls. Only took me a year lol.

Stall, Plateau is explained in this article. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/physicist-cracks-bbq-mystery_b_987719

BuckBoard Bacon. Pork loin salt-cured for ten days and smoke to 160 degrees F. Sliced thin, it tastes like bacon. Slice thick, it tastes like ham. I used Morton's Tinder Quick, but you can find alternatives if you don't want to use nitrites. DeeJay is one of the best sources of recipes and just general cooking. I call her a friend. DeeJay used a Boston Butt for hers, but I much prefer loin, less fat. https://www.deejayssmokepit.net/BuckboardBacon.htm

Big Green Egg Exhibit #4 Cedar Planked Salmon:

Big Green Egg Exhibit #3:

Big Green Egg Exhibit #2:

I will say, this makes me jealous.

Big Green Egg Exhibit #1:

Change my mind.

Picked a couple up from Home Depot. Inexpensive, reusable, great for vegetables and fish. Had some great grilled tomato’s in New Orleans. Nothing but fresh sliced, little olive oil, salt and pepper. Mat works great with them. Trick is to make sure mat hot when putting them on. Heat my grill to 350 or 400 at least.

I think most folks never hot clean. Mine got to where it was flaming from build at times on hotter cooks. Hot clean works well but would notify any neighbors and local fire. Probably safe to have a hose close by with anything being that hot.

Got it! That's crazy that it smoked that much. I've never done that with mine and owned it for about 8 years. I clean out the charcoal regularly but never hot cleaned.

Put normal amount of charcoal in. Valve open and run Egg as hot as it will get until fire burns out. Cleans all old build up off. Recommended once a year if you care to keep grease accumulation off. I had been using the one i hot cleaned for six years. Inside looks close to new now. Will ruin gaskets so recommend waiting until they need replacing anyway. May want to take thermometer out. Left mine in but did not hurt it. Pegged out well above 850 degrees. Be ready for lots of smoke for a couple of hours if egg has a lot of grease and grime. After burn and cool down vacuum clean with shop vac

Wait, what did you do?

Burned off 6 years worth of use yesterday. Works well and very clean but gaskets will need replacing. In need regardless so no loss. Do not hot burn clean until neighbors and local fire department notified. Smoke amount is tremendous. Had the wife mad as a hornet with me and everyone in area assumed house on fire.

Learned the limits of this little vertical smoker the hard way. Bought a 3 pack of spares and opted to smoke them all once. Maintained a careful rotation but could not get the bark to set no matter what I did. They came out fine otherwise, which is a given, but even with careful rotation and a heavy hand they were far from what they could have been had I simply done 2 racks at a time. Lesson learned. Need to move to a large offset for that kind of volume.

Good point. Turkey I did not brine was a Butterball. The latter was not a Butterball. Hardest thing to me about fooling with Turkey is making sure it is thawed properly and carving it. Have the carving down but on holidays it is difficult to find enough space on the counters to work. Carving a turkey systematically and properly is an art like filleting a fish. To be honest not a huge turkey fan. After having once or twice I’m done with it for a quite a while. I do love the soup my wive makes with what I don’t carve off the carcass.

Brine mine every time. I always buy birds which haven’t been pre-brined, which Butterball turkeys are, IIRC.

Ended up smoking one yesterday morning, not brined. Cooked another late yesterday for sons in-laws, brined. Both great but have to give brined the edge.

I always brine turkey to cook on the BGE. At least in my hands it makes a big difference in keeping the bird more moist on the ceramic ( do not brine the oven cooked bird). It’s an extra step but very easy

Beautiful. Usually fry mine (see below), but I really want to master the smo-fry. Tried a few years ago and failed miserably. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I have not tried smoking a turkey without both brining and injecting, although I recently heard of a guy trying it both ways and said there wasn't a noticeable difference between the two as far as juiciness and taste. I don't think you'll go wrong either way. It'll be delicious.