I recently tried my hand at smoking meat on a Weber kettle. What follows is a small write up on the process I followed. Note that this is the first time I've smoked meat so I'm definitely no expert on the matter. Hoping to get some tips from the pros on this forum and perhaps inspire a few to try out smoking.
I started out by washing and patting dry a 1.7kg rack of beef short ribs. I then prepared a dry rub for the meat by mashing together salt, pepper, cumin powder, coriander powder and paprika. This was rubbed onto the meat with just a bit of Worcestershire sauce and left overnight in my fridge.
Next up are the wood chips that will add the smokey flavour/aroma to the meat. I used Weber's pecan woodchips because they were the only ones I could find. I would have liked to have used hickory though. I threw them into a bucket of water and left them to soak overnight. Some say it's unnecessary to wet your wood chips but it doesn't hurt to try.
The next morning I setup my Weber for indirect heating: coals to one side and a pan of water on the other. Ribs were placed above the water pan and the wood chips thrown directly onto the hot briquettes. Note: I placed unlit coal at the very bottom and a few ashed over briquettes on top of them.
Lots of smoke!
My aim was to smoke at 110-120 degrees for ~8 hours. I thought it would be a mission to keep the temps in the kettle stable but it turned out to be a painless exercise. Minor adjustments to the top and bottom vents were occasionally required and I only added coal once during the entire smoke. The picture below was taken after 5 hours - on the initial batch of coal!
After 5 hours, I opened the lid to refresh the coal and rotate the meat. Nice browning but I expected a darker bark/crust at this point. Perhaps I needed more dry rub and/or smoke? Not much shrinkage.
Closed the lid and smoked it for another 3 hours. No basting. After this I took it off the grill and wrapped it in foil to rest for 30 minutes.
15 minutes later I couldn't wait any longer so I opened the foil and carved it up :drool:
Next time I'd like to use hickory wood chips, try basting the meat towards the end (perhaps with Clark's Sticky Plum sauce?) and use a meat thermometer instead of winging it (I suspect I smoked it for longer than needed).
I started out by washing and patting dry a 1.7kg rack of beef short ribs. I then prepared a dry rub for the meat by mashing together salt, pepper, cumin powder, coriander powder and paprika. This was rubbed onto the meat with just a bit of Worcestershire sauce and left overnight in my fridge.
Next up are the wood chips that will add the smokey flavour/aroma to the meat. I used Weber's pecan woodchips because they were the only ones I could find. I would have liked to have used hickory though. I threw them into a bucket of water and left them to soak overnight. Some say it's unnecessary to wet your wood chips but it doesn't hurt to try.
The next morning I setup my Weber for indirect heating: coals to one side and a pan of water on the other. Ribs were placed above the water pan and the wood chips thrown directly onto the hot briquettes. Note: I placed unlit coal at the very bottom and a few ashed over briquettes on top of them.
Lots of smoke!
My aim was to smoke at 110-120 degrees for ~8 hours. I thought it would be a mission to keep the temps in the kettle stable but it turned out to be a painless exercise. Minor adjustments to the top and bottom vents were occasionally required and I only added coal once during the entire smoke. The picture below was taken after 5 hours - on the initial batch of coal!
After 5 hours, I opened the lid to refresh the coal and rotate the meat. Nice browning but I expected a darker bark/crust at this point. Perhaps I needed more dry rub and/or smoke? Not much shrinkage.
Closed the lid and smoked it for another 3 hours. No basting. After this I took it off the grill and wrapped it in foil to rest for 30 minutes.
15 minutes later I couldn't wait any longer so I opened the foil and carved it up :drool:
Next time I'd like to use hickory wood chips, try basting the meat towards the end (perhaps with Clark's Sticky Plum sauce?) and use a meat thermometer instead of winging it (I suspect I smoked it for longer than needed).
