I have been on the fence for six months. I just could not pull the trigger. I went out to look at Amerique and the 055. I was blown away by the quality of the smoker. They looked like miny safes. I decided it was time and made the jump and acquired a 055 smoker from Cabela's. I could not wait to use it.

I seasoned the smoker right away for 4 hours. I was not ready for what it looked like after opening the door. Everything was covered with smoke. I immediately threw on some spare ribs that I prepped. I have never successfully made ribs or any form of a brisket. I was good at making steaks but slow cooking was a foreign concept.

I went to my local store that has some real good meat cuts and acquired 2 slabs and one 6lb brisket.


First cook was for 4 hours at 225. Ribs were moist but chewy. They had an awesome flavor but were too chewy. My second attempt was 6 hours @ 225 and the ribs were perfect for texture but lacked the good smoke seasoning.

I did the brisket at 12 hour @ 225. Cooked it until 190. The brisket turned out really nice. Good flavor and almost melted in your mouth. I had never cooked a brisket. Anyone that tells you that it is hard to cook needs to try the cookshack.

One thing I noticed is the smoke levels very from cook to cook. The first set of ribs were very smokey flavored. The second set could have used some more smoke. What causes more smoke to set into the ribs? Is chewy ribs a function of not cooking long enough? Will charcoal make a smoke ring on the brisket?

I have to give the cookshack props it delivered everything as advertised.

Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to Cookshack.

The one question I can answer for you is that the ribs will be chewy or tough because they had not cooked long enough. For full spares, you are looking at a minimum of five to six hours. Sounds like your second batch turned out much better.

As I cook on an FEC 100, I will let the Cookshack owners answer your other questions. they just have not woken up yet.

Cook ribs longer for texture. As for smoke I can't say because I've never had a problem with too little smoke. Did you use same wood both times? If you used a lightly flavored wood, apple for instance, maybe try hickory? But usually people get too much smoke on ribs with a CS, so just experiment to see what works best for you.

As for smoke ring, some people say to put a charcoal brickette in with the wood. Never seemed to work for me, but YMMV. You could also sprinkle(using salt shaker) lightly with Morton's Tender Quick about an hour before smoking, let sit for an hour then rinse and season how you normally would before cooking. TQ will give you a "smoke ring" for sure, but be careful as to the amount you use lest you turn the outside of your brisket into corned beef.

Also, sounds like you cooked a brisket flat. If you can find them(Wal-Mart) a packer will give better results IMO. They're big at about 15#'s usually, but they're goooood! Also, Wal-Mart usually has them for about $1.70 per pound, so they're not likely to cost much more overall than your flat. Plan on 12-20 hours @ 225* for 190* internal.

#1
a briquette of charcoal will give a smoke ring. It will also lend it's own brand of flavor. The smoke ring can't be tasted so I say why try?

#2
the chewy ribs were from to little cooking. Always go by feel and not time with ribs.

#3
factors for smoke differences.

mass- always weigh the chunk of wood. Cookshacks use so little wood that even just and ounce or two could be the difference between rave reviews and silence.

type of wood- different woods put out different flavors and vary in srength. Apple is light and fruity and hickory is strong and savory for example.

Moisture in the wood- the more moisture in the wood the stronger the smoke will be. Stay away from green or freshly cut wood as it WILL be bitter. Kiln dried wood gives a very light smoke flavor as it has even less water content than well seasoned wood.

One more thing. It wouldn't hurt to look up and read Smokin's 101s. They give you a good baseline.

http://www.cookshack.com/smokin-okies-guides

Just one caveat on the Wal-mart packers. Check for the quality of the meat. Select or Choice would be ok but most of Wal-marts' stuff is not graded at all. Or as one Wal-mart meat man was heard to say "It's just a little better than dog meat".

I cooked a few of Wally's packers and now my wife won't let me do another packer of any kind. Said the point was tough and too fatty.... and it was.

quote:

Originally posted by Qnorth:
Just one caveat on the Wal-mart packers. Check for the quality of the meat. Select or Choice would be ok but most of Wal-marts' stuff is not graded at all. Or as one Wal-mart meat man was heard to say "It's just a little better than dog meat".

I cooked a few of Wally's packers and now my wife won't let me do another packer of any kind. Said the point was tough and too fatty.... and it was.

Wal-Mart must have some type of strange food distribution process. I've never seen any packers lower than choice in my area, and maybe 30% of the time they have CAB packers for the same price. I've tried select grade a few times from other sources and got acceptable results, but I think I'd pass on the ungraded meat too if I ever saw it.

Walmart never has anything better than select here. I don't know what CAB is.

Congrats on your new smoker, xcon !

C-ertified A-ngus B-eef.



We don't see anything but choice around here as well.

10-4, thanks.

Choice is better than select, right ? Supposedly ?

Is CAB graded differently ?

I picked up about nine at Walmart about four months back that had both the CAB and choice on the label

Interesting. I would have bought them all ! Did you ?

They all say Excel Select here.

A local butcher can get Choice briskets, but man they are high.

I bought all they had under 18 lbs, and that was about all my freezer would hold.

quote:

Originally posted by ezgoin:
I picked up about nine at Walmart about four months back that had both the CAB and choice on the label

CAB is a brand. In essence they're choice packers or better. Think of it as quality control. CAB will be more consistent.

One reason you can get a "good" select is the grading. It's subjective for the most part by the graders but given the two, select or choice, go with choice.

Sam's/WM went to Select about 4 years ago around here and I don't buy from them. I now have a source that I like, I go through a food distributor, but I buy them by the case. From 4 to 6 in a case.

More brisket discussion, let's start a new thread?

Thanks for the input food turned out awesome