The Official Smoker Thread!

Mirac said:
I think I need to get a new controller for this trager. It running temps up all over the place.
Set it down to 180 and it will roll 175- 195

Bump it to 225 and the thing shoots to 300 then down to 230 then back up 250/260/240/230


@Chdamn I do love the Meater though !

View attachment 753635
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I'm going to have to get one of those
 
Mirac said:
I think I need to get a new controller for this trager. It running temps up all over the place.
Set it down to 180 and it will roll 175- 195

Bump it to 225 and the thing shoots to 300 then down to 230 then back up 250/260/240/230


@Chdamn I do love the Meater though !

View attachment 753635
Click to expand...
heavydoc said:
I'm going to have to get one of those
Click to expand...
Get one. They’re great even for the wife to use on oven cooks.
 
Alright. I think I have figured out how to make smoked burgers. @Pauly and @thrillhill can testify one way or the other.

If you're not crazy about cleaning your smoker and want to keep things tidy, get one of those USA pans with the wire grates in them. This thing here:

1710280565043.png

Get some 80/20 meat and patty out the burgers. Don't be afraid to make them real thick.

IMG_1938.jpeg

Then smoke them at 180 degrees for an hour and a half. Then finish them on the gas grill or crank up the smoker. The idea is to sear them off and get the internal temp up to 165.
How you accomplish that is less important. Could even use a cast iron pan on the stove, so long as you get the temp up to where it needs to be. The smoke flavor will be on there.
The way I do that in such as short time is by using a pellet smoker and one of those smoke tubes with a 70/30 mix of apple wood chips and pellets. Hit that thing with a blowtorch to get it going and you'll have plenty of smoke for flavoring those burgers.

Only thing I season them with is Hard Core Carnivore.

1710281097251.png

IMG_1795.jpeg

The finished product is so good…the less you put on it the better it is. Duke’s mayo and a slice of pepper jack cheese is all one needs.

IMG_1799.jpeg
 
Burt Gummer said:
I wish I could still get my hands on that ground chuck/brisket blend burger.
Click to expand...


I got a blend of chuck and flatiron and made burgers out of it - so tasty!!
The flatiron adds a bit of mineral meaty taste.

Any butcher shop should be able to grind you whatever custom blend you want.
 
amyracecar said:
I got a blend of chuck and flatiron and made burgers out of it - so tasty!!
The flatiron adds a bit of mineral meaty taste.

Any butcher shop should be able to grind you whatever custom blend you want.
Click to expand...
I love it when you talk meat! 😉
 
amyracecar said:
I got a blend of chuck and flatiron and made burgers out of it - so tasty!!
The flatiron adds a bit of mineral meaty taste.
Click to expand...
I’ve been wanting to make my own burger blend to try some different cuts. The flatiron is good suggestion. We have a meat grinder that works well, it’s just a matter of doing it.

Edit to add: what’s your bun recipe / secret? I’ve gotten pretty good at bread, but not buns / rolls.
Studentofthegun said:
Then smoke them at 180 degrees for an hour and a half. Then finish them on the gas grill or crank up the smoker. The idea is to sear them off and get the internal temp up to 165.
Click to expand...
Think I’m going to have to try this too.
 
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noway2 said:
I’ve been wanting to make my own burger blend to try some different cuts. The flatiron is good suggestion. We have a meat grinder that works well, it’s just a matter of doing it.

Edit to add: what’s your bun recipe / secret? I’ve gotten pretty good at bread, but not buns / rolls.

Think I’m going to have to try this too.
Click to expand...

Make sure all the metal pieces of your meat grinder are frozen when you start grinding and cube the beef up and toss those in the freezer too for like 45 minutes so they get real firm; the key is everything needs to be chilled AF to get a good grind; you gotta work quickly!

At work, the grinder lives in the walk/in at 38 degrees - I found it easier and cheaper to just have it done for me at work; we use great trim so I wasn't cutting up a chuck roast and I had them just do it 80% beef trim and 20% flatiron.


Brioche Buns - this is what I use 90% of the time:
www.allrecipes.com

Homemade Hamburger Buns

These soft hamburger buns are perfect for burgers, pulled pork, or your favorite sandwich fillings. They taste way better than anything that you'll get from a plastic bag.
www.allrecipes.com www.allrecipes.com

Follow the process in that recipe.
I have converted it all to weights though and added in some malt powder [just malt barley ground down] because I find it makes the dough easier to handle.

Here is the spreadsheet with the weights for the ingredients; it is an ugly spreadsheet, I know! I need to tidy it up some.




I also make Potato Buns sometimes using the following, tho I gotta coax them to rise . . . .
eg. turn the oven on for 2 min @ 200F, shut it off and put the sheet tray with the buns on it in there to rise for like an hour on the 2nd rise.

The recipe from this video:


He has a great and simple process to make the dough using a stand mixer.

And here is the much nicer spreadsheet of ingredients + basic process.
 
amyracecar said:
Make sure all the metal pieces of your meat grinder are frozen when you start grinding and cube the beef up and toss those in the freezer too for like 45 minutes so they get real firm; the key is everything needs to be chilled AF to get a good grind; you gotta work quickly!
Click to expand...
Bingo. Agree, this is a key part. We made some sausage and deer burger a few months back. Froze the implements, good and cold, and the meat till it was firm. Worked well, but had diminishing returns with repeat freezings before it would gum up.
 
amyracecar said:
Make sure all the metal pieces of your meat grinder are frozen when you start grinding and cube the beef up and toss those in the freezer too for like 45 minutes so they get real firm; the key is everything needs to be chilled AF to get a good grind; you gotta work quickly!

At work, the grinder lives in the walk/in at 38 degrees - I found it easier and cheaper to just have it done for me at work; we use great trim so I wasn't cutting up a chuck roast and I had them just do it 80% beef trim and 20% flatiron.


Brioche Buns - this is what I use 90% of the time:
www.allrecipes.com

Homemade Hamburger Buns

These soft hamburger buns are perfect for burgers, pulled pork, or your favorite sandwich fillings. They taste way better than anything that you'll get from a plastic bag.
www.allrecipes.com www.allrecipes.com

Follow the process in that recipe.
I have converted it all to weights though and added in some malt powder [just malt barley ground down] because I find it makes the dough easier to handle.

Here is the spreadsheet with the weights for the ingredients; it is an ugly spreadsheet, I know! I need to tidy it up some.




I also make Potato Buns sometimes using the following, tho I gotta coax them to rise . . . .
eg. turn the oven on for 2 min @ 200F, shut it off and put the sheet tray with the buns on it in there to rise for like an hour on the 2nd rise.

The recipe from this video:


He has a great and simple process to make the dough using a stand mixer.

And here is the much nicer spreadsheet of ingredients + basic process.
Click to expand...

Ha Ha You said GRIND... Ha Ha

tenor-2943216945.gif
 
amyracecar said:
Grind
Meat
Sausage
Pork
Buns
Click to expand...
In Spanish, especially Mexican and Latin American there is a whole category of innuendo regarding food items and sexual references, e.g. chorizo and papaya representing male and female genitalia. There is even a form of interpersonal comedy where you try to unwittingly goad someone into using the terms, but I forget the name of it.

Edit to add, I think this is it, it’s called albur: https://springlanguages.com/learn-spanish/sexual-mistakes-in-spanish-2/
 
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noway2 said:
In Spanish, especially Mexican and Latin American there is a whole category of innuendo regarding food items and sexual references, e.g. chorizo and papaya representing male and female genitalia. There is even a form of interpersonal comedy where you try to unwittingly goad someone into using the terms, but I forget the name of it.

Edit to add, I think this is it, it’s called albur: https://springlanguages.com/learn-spanish/sexual-mistakes-in-spanish-2/
Click to expand...

That's pretty interesting.
My Spanish is a tad rusty and of course my mom never taught me that stuff.

Seems basically the same as English or emoji [eggplant and peaches] - I bet every language has this to some degree or the other.
 
Studentofthegun said:
Alright. I think I have figured out how to make smoked burgers. @Pauly and @thrillhill can testify one way or the other.

If you're not crazy about cleaning your smoker and want to keep things tidy, get one of those USA pans with the wire grates in them. This thing here:

View attachment 755055

Get some 80/20 meat and patty out the burgers. Don't be afraid to make them real thick.

View attachment 755056

Then smoke them at 180 degrees for an hour and a half. Then finish them on the gas grill or crank up the smoker. The idea is to sear them off and get the internal temp up to 165.
How you accomplish that is less important. Could even use a cast iron pan on the stove, so long as you get the temp up to where it needs to be. The smoke flavor will be on there.
The way I do that in such as short time is by using a pellet smoker and one of those smoke tubes with a 70/30 mix of apple wood chips and pellets. Hit that thing with a blowtorch to get it going and you'll have plenty of smoke for flavoring those burgers.

Only thing I season them with is Hard Core Carnivore.

View attachment 755065

View attachment 755059

The finished product is so good…the less you put on it the better it is. Duke’s mayo and a slice of pepper jack cheese is all one needs.

View attachment 755061
Click to expand...
I've been inspired...

20240316_160829.jpg

Here they are after 1.5 hours at 180 degrees.

20240316_171849.jpg
 
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