Photo Tour of a Backwoods Smoker

If you've been following along here, you know that I've been in a continuous upgrade pattern for the past couple of years.  I still enjoy cooking on my Big Green Egg & the Bubba Keg, but I first purchased a Backwoods Fatboy for more capacity.  Then, I upgraded to a Backwoods Pro Jr. for even more capacity.  This cooker seems to be big enough and still take up a reasonable amount of space in my garage since it's a cabinet/vertical style unit.

I thought I'd take a minute to breakdown how this vertical smoker is put together.  First, the units are all configured with a firebox below the cooking chamber.  The firebox is seperated by a water pan at the bottom of the cooking chamber.

Optionally, a heat deflector is available to act as a further barrier between the hot coals and the bottom of the water pan.

The commercial fire grate (on the Fatboy & larger models and optional on the smaller cookers), is suspended above the bottom of the cooker.  An ash pan sits on the floor to collect the ashes for disposal.  This grate is made of expanded metal to allow the ash to drop through onto the ash pan.

The stainless cooking racks are evenly spaced and mounted on rails that allow you to slide them out for easy access to the items that you're cooking.

The back wall of the cooker is hollow and seperated into 3 chambers.  The 2 outside chambers allow smoke & heat to travel from the fire box, up the back of the cooker, and into the top of the cooking chamber.  The heat & smoke are then drawn down through the cooking chamber (and over and around the meat) to the bottom of the cooker where the exhaust port is located just above the water pan.  The exhaust then runs up the middle of the rear wall of the cooker to the vent on the top of the cooker.

Here's a shot of the top vents or point of entry for heat & smoke into the cooking chamber. And this is a shot of the exhaust port at the bottom of the cooker. The air flow is controlled by two vents at the bottom of the cooker. The vents have slider openings and one is located on the right front side, the other is on the left rear. The exhaust stack on the top of the cooker is very simple and has a door to swing over the opening. On the Fatboy, I always cooked with the exhaust wide open. The Pro Jr. works a little differently and I run with it about half open. Finally, when you're done cooking on a Backwoods you will have to drain & dispose of the greasy water in the water pan. There's a large drain valve on the side of the cooker to help with that task since the water pans aren't removable unless custom ordered. That's a quick (and picture heavy) overview of how a Backwoods Smoker is put together. There are variations and you an customize your cooker. However, for the mid-sized cookers this is pretty accurate.

Questions about a Backwoods Smoker? I'd be happy to help. Drop me a note or leave a comment below.

Cheers,

Braddog

Tip: Holding Meat Until Mealtime

If you spend any time at all reading the numerous BBQ forums on the interwebs, you'll see a question asked quite often. "The meat's done too early, how do I keep it warm until dinner?"  When cooking low 'n' slow over an extended period of time, you can run into this situation quite often. 

Photo from the Naked Whiz
Here's how to deal with it:

• When the meat hits the desired internal temperature (you are checking internal temps and not cooking by the clock, right?), pull if off the cooker and double wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil.
• Poke your thermometer through the foil so you can continue to monitor internal temperature of the meat.
• Then wrap the meat in an old towel or blanket for extra insulation, leaving the thermometer or lead from your thermometer probe accessible.
• Place the wrapped meat into a dry cooler.  Some folks like to preheat the cooler with warm water, but that's a personal preference.
• Periodically check the meat's temperature.  As long as it stays above ~150* or so you should be okay.  Remember the danger zone for meat is between 45*-140* or so.  If the meat spends more then a couple of hours in the danger zone, be safe and don't eat it.
• When it's time to serve, unwrap the meat and serve it as you normally would.

Using this method, I've personally been able to hold ~65lbs. of pork butt for 5+ hours.  However, if the meat drops below the saftey threshold I'd recommend you move to plan B.  Pull the pork, refrigerate, and reheat at mealtime.  I'll cover reheating another time.

Check out a much more detailed description at http://www.nakedwhiz.com/coolerholding.htm

I usually try to error on the side of being too early and pad my start time a little.  Given my choice of having meat done too soon or too late, I'll take too soon any time.  I'd much prefer to hold the meat than to try to hurry it up.

Cheers,
Braddog

Doing the Triple!

Like most holiday weekends, I find myself cooking for almost the entire weekend.  But that's okay, I love doing it.  This Memorial Day weekend was no different.  And for large meals, there's nothing better than pulled pork.  It's pretty simple and goes a long way.  (Here's my method for pork butt/pulled pork on the Big Green Egg).
Hi-temp & Lo-temp cookin
It's sort of a tradition for me to feed the guys at work on the Friday before a holiday weekend.  So, Thursday night I fired up the Big Green Egg and cooked two pork butts totaling ~13lbs.  They went on the cooker at 5:45pm on Thursday night and came off around 8:15am on Friday.  That's one all-nighter in the books.

On Friday, I offered to bring pulled pork to a family gathering on Saturday for lunch.  So once again I fired up the cooker and went with a single pork butt.  (I also fired up the Bubba Keg for some bratwurst for dinner.)  This time, a six-pounder went on the BGE at 5:30pm on Friday night and I took it off at 6:30am on Saturday.  That's two all-nighters.

My neighbor had planned a backyard party for Sunday and asked me to cook pork butt, so ~15lbs. of pork butt went on the cooker at 9:30 on Saturday night and came off at ~2:00pm on Sunday.  That's three all-nighters in a row.

Even though the BGE does a great job and doesn't require much tending, I have stayed up late and gotten up early for the past 3 nights.  I'm sure glad it's raining today, I could use a nap!

Cheers,
Braddog

What fuels your fire?

If you're shopping for a bbq pit, part of your decision making process will be to determine what type of fuel you'll use to fire the pit.  You basically have 3 options to consider and each have pros & cons.

1. Hardwood - Many folks believe that it's not really BBQ if it isn't cooked over wood coals.  I don't personally subscribe to that line of thinking, but maybe that's because my experience with a stick burner was really awful.  I had an offset cooker that I tried to burn wood in and I just never could get it right.  One of the things to consider about using hardwood is whether you have a consistent source for fuel and do you have a place to burn it to coals prior to shoveling it into your cooker.


2. Propane - Sometimes called Lazy-Q, many gas powered cookers are pretty close to "set it and forget it".  I've cooked on a propane smoker with great results.  However, one of the things that alwasy concerns me a little bit is leaving a roaring burner of propane overnight.  Propane, like everything else has gotten a little more expensive as well.


3. Charcoal - This fuel type could be divided into a couple of categories;  briquettes & lump.  Either way, this fuel is readily availble and still surprisingly affordable.  I won't get into the debate of briquettes vs. lump here, but suffice to say that I'm a lump charcoal guy.

So leave me a comment and tell me, what fuels your fire?

Cheers,
Braddog

Braddog's BBQ Journey

Growing up in the southern half of the US, I’ve always loved good BBQ.  Now BBQ in the south has lots of variations (we’ll cover that in a later post), but I grew up with a taste for Memphis style BBQ.  For the uninitiated, Memphis style BBQ is slow smoked with a dry rub.  BBQ Sauce is strictly a condiment and pulled pork sandwiches are served with a sweet slaw.

 But I digress.  My uncle was the family BBQ’er and he became a pretty fair hand at smoking turkey, beef etc.  But I don’t think he ever pulled off really good pork butt.  It was after I got married that I decided to try my hand at BBQ.

I started, like a lot of people do, with a Brinkmann bullet-type, water smoker.  I tried both the charcoal & electric varieties.  I turned out some decent chicken, but really good pork butt & ribs eluded me.  I decided that I must need a better cooker, so I moved up to an off-set New Braunfels.  This was an impressive looking unit compared to the bullet smoker and much more involved.  I could make the entire neighborhood crave BBQ with the smell of hickory smoke, but still good pork butt & ribs eluded me.  In fact, I sold the pit and gave up the quest for a couple of years.

About 5 years ago, I decided that I would try to do pulled pork for the family reunion.  My dad had a brand new gas smoker that he’d never used and offered it up for my use.  I had spent my BBQ exile reading a lot of information on the internet about BBQ and knew that I probably hadn’t approached the elusive pork butt & ribs the right way.  So when this presented with this opportunity, I was prepared.  In fact, that day was a defining moment for my BBQ career.  When I put a huge tray of pulled pork on that buffet table and saw the reaction of my extended family, I was hooked.

That year, my bride presented me with a gas smoker of my own and we enjoyed some really nice BBQ over the next couple of summers.  But with my interest growing, I couldn’t enjoy this hobby in the winter using the cooker that I had due to the winter weather we have in the mid-west.  It was about this time that a co-worker introduced me to the Japanese Kamado style cooker.  Cold weather, rain, wind, none of these were a problem with the ceramic cookers.  After 6 months of yearning for a ceramic cooker, I acquired my large Big Green Egg.  This is what I cook on today and it affords me year round enjoyment of my favorite past time and favorite food.       

The journey has been a lot of fun.  Like many folks, I’ve always got my eye on my next cooker.  When I know what the next destination is on my BBQ journey, you’ll be the first to know.

Cheers,
Braddog