We're the Meatmen and you suck!

I finally got it somewhat right on my second try after a badly failed first attempt to do an okay pork butt for pulled pork. Did it in the oven for 9 hours switching a bit between 275 and 300. I think I enjoyed it so I want to get a little more serious going forward.

I'm eye balling a big green egg, good for doing a pork shoulder? Full chicken? Other options besides the BGE to consider?
Back to the pork shoulder, bone in or bone out?
Wood to use? Green egg yaps on about their charcoal, good idea?
On to the rub, I did a brown sugar rub this time and I didn't hate it. For you doing your own rubs, what are you doing?

This is a bit additive.

 

Lord, this is gonna explode....
In!

 

I do the BGE and like it a lot. Other's will say Komodo brand is as good as/better than BGE for the $.

Many threads on here about this and similar topics you forget how the search function works?

 

All sorts of options for all sorts of preferences. BGE/Komodo for egg style smokers/grills. All sorts of options for pellet grills. Weber Genesis grills. It’s a can of worms, man. Giant can of worms.

 

I'm a noob to the BGE too. I have a large one and wouldn't recommend buying anything smaller if you plan on doing full racks of ribs. I did some dry rub ribs a few weeks ago that turned out great. So far, I find it a bit difficult to keep a steady temp level over the course of a long, low slow type grill such as ribs. I plan on doing a pork shoulder next too and that will be a longer grill. Any advice on that and I'm all ears. Recipes to share?
I have only used the BGE charcoal so far. I will likely try other stuff when this bag runs out. It's definitely fun. Looking forward to Spring here in the NE and cooking some meats.

 

I'm probably the worst grill man on this forum. I bought a Weber Genesis and I'm probably just in the bottom 25th percentile now. It's that good of a grill, and I love the iGrill feature that lets me track everything from my phone.

 

I have a weber genesis propane for normal grilling and it's awesome (going to get another one when this one shits out).
I think I want to try a "real" smoker.

and Kelly, I did search but decided I didn't like those other threads.

 

Do you want easy, like set it and forget it? Slightly hands on, like once an hour? Or babysit every 20 mins or so? Lots of choices to be made.

 

I did have one of these at one time. For someone as bad as me at cooking, it did a damn good job. I'm sure there's better stuff but this is a set and forget and it's not very expensive.

 

Ya' know, I don't know. I don't mind putting the work in but I don't think I want to hover over it for 6, 7 or 9 hours.
The end results would dictate the effort level if that makes sense?

 

Masterbuilt 2 door propane smoker. $250ish bucks fairly hands free.

 

In on p1...

And look up the Walton brown budget ceramic smoker. If you want to save $$$ for lacrosse netting

 

I have a BGE and love it. It's expensive but the grill's preformance, lifetime warranty, and customer service make up for the cost. I do wish I had gotten the XL because I do run out of room when I have people over. As for the pork shoulder, the grill is prefect for it. I normally cook mine for 16ish at 225 degrees or so. I like the butt more than picnic cut of the shoulder with the bone-in. I also use apple wood because it generally goes well with pork. For charcoal I use Cowboy that I find at Lowe's. It's cheaper than the BGE branded stuff and it burns just as well. For rubs, I use Dizzy Pig Swamp Venom on the outside but first inject it with Smoke On Wheels pork marinade and injection.

The grill is great for most things. It was 15 degrees out and windy last night. I got the grill to about 650 degrees in 10 minutes and seared some steaks. I just it year round, despite the weather, and it does well each time. I did receive it with a cracked dome and they sent me another within 2 days. With how heavy the thing was, it must've cost them a fortune. That was 7 years ago and not a problem since.

 

From easiest to most intensive:
Electric smoker/Propane smoker
Pellet smoker
Wood smoker (BGE, Kamado ETC)
Offset wood smoker
Dig a pit, put in coals and cover with palm fronds

I had a BGE and wanted less maintenance. I went to a pellet smoker and will never go back. I got tired of my cooks running out of charcoal and being limited in space. I chose to go with Yoder and couldn't be happier. Yes, it was expensive, but it's built like a tank and can be used as an oven and as a direct fire grill. The one thing that is missing is WIFI access but there are aftermarket solutions for that. There are tons of options so do your research. If you are just starting out I would go with something cheap and make sure you are going to use it before making an investment.

 

This is what I will be buying next month.


https://www.pitbarrelcooker.com/

 

I can tell you that bbq takes time, lots of it. Any bullshit about "produces great results with no effort" is just that! Prep the meat, prep the grill, stabilize temps, put meat on, monitor meat and cook temps (nothing is worse than prepping a good piece of meat and overcooking it), pulling the meat and resting, clean the smoker/grill. It's definitely a process. Even a simple pork butt probably takes 3-4 hours in prep and clean up. Wood smokers take longer due to more time to prep, stabilize and clean. There is a reason it costs you $12-15 per pound for good pulled pork when the raw product only runs $2-4.00 a pound.

The end results would dictate the effort level if that makes sense?

Never have truer words been spoken than the above.

 

Why didn’t you just call me? Dobr’s list of effort is accurate. For easy you can’t beat an electric or gas cabinet smoker. If you want multi purpose then do the Egg. There are knockoffs that are probably as good, but I know BGE will be there in 10 years. A large is fine for you guys. You can go with one of the multi level rack things if you need more cooking space.

For charcoal I use the Royal Oak red bags from Home Depot. They make the BGE charcoal, and are less than half the price. You will want to use chips or chinks for smoke when doing barbecue. I use the chunks for long cooks.

Just nut up and buy the damned thing already. It will do everything you want, from smoke to flash grilling. I even use mine with a wok for stir fry and Asian cooking.

 

Yeah, you almost got the call on Monday but I wanted to just give it one more try without a net. I got about 80 ~ 85% of what I wanted. Now it's time to go a bit bigger.

You're still going to get the call, E-money. Just doing my research now.

Your chicken is what I'm shooting to make in the long term.

 

I think the reason that I suck at barbeque is that first off I don't go to the effort Chris listed above and the reason is that I think all BBQ tastes exactly the same. I'm personally not a huge fan for that reason. People are always telling me "oh, go to this BBQ place or that one, it's so good!" No, it all tastes exactly the same. And I've been to the Kansas City joints and Texas places that are world famous and it tastes no different than BBQ I get anywhere here. It's all just smoked meat, and to me all smoked meat tastes exactly the same.

 

Give https://rockwoodcharcoal.com/ a try. This stuff lasted much longer than Royal Oak and had about half the ash when finished. I used enough less that it more than justified the additional cost so the not having to refill as often part was just a bonus.