Recent content by damnfingers

Quick question - when vacuum sealing cooked meat how cool/cold should it be before trying to pull a vacuum?  Some of the info I've read is ambiguous and I trust the members here.

Finally found my picnic shoulder this morning and have a couple of questions.  Before I got my #2 I used to use a charcoal smoker with these shoulders...I'd leave them in until the meat started pulling back from the bone, take them out, cut slices off and enjoy them.  Not a lot of smoky flavor...

There's no smoky taste when the meat comes out of my #2!  When the meat is cooking (Boston butt) there's a delicious smoky smell, when the door to the #2 is opened there's a delicious smoky smell, when I'm pulling the pork there's a delicious smoky smell but when we sit down to eat there's...

I know it's normal to inject before smoking/cooking but has anyone ever tried injecting during the "rest" period?  It seems to me the meat is more amenable to absorbing liquid at that time...when I inject a raw slab of Boston Butt the injection doesn't seem to do much except ooze out the...

And cut some of the smaller branches into chunks that will fit into the wood pan on the smoker.  How long do I need to let it dry out before I can use it?  The tree was alive, just leaning dangerously towards my neighbor's mobile home.

I just read Limey's post about "Beer Can Chicken" and have to admit that I just tried the same thing with not so good results. First I have to admit I did not brine the bird.  If that's all I did wrong then "next time" I'll get it right but I have some questions that I need answered before...

Normally I like salt but I've tried two rubs (not from this site) and both were far too salty for my taste.  I don't know if it's because they've called for Kosher salt (1/2 cup ea) which my wife says is saltier than regular salt or if I'm just becoming a little less salt tolerant.  In any case...

There's a custom cabinet maker right down the street from me - I ran down this morning and picked up some scrap cherry from him.  Obviously I know nothing about the "wood" but assume that other than being free it's no different than the cherry I'd buy from a wood smoke dealer.  Any thoughts?

When we typically buy pork to roast we'll buy what I think is called a pork shoulder.  It has a thick layer of skin around a fatty sub-layer and when we roast it (or slow cook it on the grill) I've always left the skin on. I'd like to do one in my new #2 and wonder what the general opinion is...

As the title says, I just received the #2 from my kids for Christmas.  I went out yesterday to season it and after cleaning the inside and adding the wood chips, plugged it in and set the temperature to 250.  There was no "power" indication, i.e., the power light didn't illuminate, so I checked...