Five Smoking Mistakes I've Made And What I've Learned

hmm mmm Wow mmm Wow mmm Wow Wow Wow that's right everything is Wow oh man everything is always perfect No [Music] I've made mistakes along the way as I started smoking about 10 years ago to this day and I've learned from those mistakes and I still learned from them sometimes I still make the mistakes but I try and so today I'm gonna share the five mistakes that I've learned the most from number five not branching out sooner what do I mean by not branching out well for eight years this is what I used my electric smoker I've had two of them a masterbuilt electric smoker which is still in my garage and this Charbroil electric now I love these smokers they are great I still use them they're convenient they are like an outdoor oven I've done videos on why I think this is the best starter smoker for someone who wants to get into smoking first but for eight years this is all I used I never stretched I never expanded what I could make in a smoker if I could go back in a time machine after about two years of this where I sort of learned the basics of time and temperature and tenderness I would have moved up quicker to an offset and to indirect grilling and smoking on a charcoal grill this held me back for too long that's not to say it's a bad smoker it is not I love this thing and I still use it at least once a month but it became sort of my security blanket it was easy I never had to sort of push myself and because I didn't push myself I never got to those great smoke rings that you can get in the offset for eight years I never had that those deeper flavors that come from the bigger pieces of wood that you burn in the offset and that great bark you can get cooking indirect on the charcoal grill as well as the offset I accepted the limitations of this smoker for too long and was comfortable with them I wish I'd moved on sooner number four over seasoning that's right in my kitchen probably in your kitchen too you have a choice of I don't know three four dozen spices and that's not even counting the spice blends that are already made for different rubs that you use I mean I've got chili powder salt pepper smoked paprika curry chipotle chili powder garlic powder Cajun spice 21 seasonings salute spicy garlic fusion blend more 21 seasonings salute Italian seasoning pumpkin spice okay I probably wouldn't use that one the key here is I've made the mistake of trying to add too much to my season blend especially on rubs I've gone eight nine ten eleven twelve ingredients now could those eight nine ten eleven twelve ingredients work together maybe but one thing I've learned through my mistakes is start small salt and pepper if you start with salt and pepper you can work your way up you can add things to that if you're trying an unknown blend of your own making that no one else has tried before go slow add one more ingredient paprika garlic powder vary the amounts don't overload any one spice or seasoning over seasoning doesn't just mean the number of ingredients it can also mean the amount of any single ingredients you put in there you could completely overpower a rub with too much paprika or too much chili powder I've done that I like things spicy not everyone in my family does so there have been times when I've got a little heavy on the chipotle or the red chili powder and it hasn't been a great result for the other people eating when in doubt err on the side of fewer ingredients and smaller amounts you can always add more as you learn that's what I've learned number three overloading the cooking chamber now this is my Oklahoma Joe's Highland it's not a big smoker by any stretch there's much bigger smokers there are smaller ones but it's really a moderate to small size I have made the mistake on this smoker of putting way too much meat inside now for larger smokers a tractor ribs aren't a problem and this one it is one of the things that happens when you overload the cooking chamber is the temperature is harder to deal with you have more mass especially if cold meat if you're putting cold meat in there it takes longer to come up to temperature it takes more fuel to cook the amount of smoke you generate isn't always sufficient to get great smoke rings on all the pieces of meat in there the time that you expected it may take can be extended if you're planning on six hours for some ribs it can end up taking longer because you're having to burn more wood in this firebox in this size of cook chamber to cook that many pieces of meat what I've learned for this the Oklahoma Joe's Highland is that for maybe five racks of ribs are about maximum could I fit two briskets in here to cook them I could fit two briskets in here would I cook two briskets in here I would not cook two briskets in here and overloading your cooker doesn't just apply to something like the offset or charcoal grill my electric smoker about three years after I got it I decided I'm gonna cook eight tri-tips and I put eight tri-tips in there tri-tips normally take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half those tri-tips were still not done after three hour and I had planned to take those to a party so the key to this is to learn what your cook chambers are capable of don't immediately go out and try and shove a whole bunch of meat in them work your way up until you find what works and what the limits are number two impatience one of the first big cooks I did after I got my offset was a brisket and I did a video on it called the brisket overnighter that's good turned out good it was tasty but it wasn't tender enough at the end of that video I even put in a little thing where I described what I thought my mistake was it needed more time so much of the great results that you can get smoking meat are due to letting things happen letting time pass it's not just about the clock meaning at six hours it's done that's very rarely the case it's more to do with temperature and tenderness and always tenderness so if you tell yourself I've got to have it done by five o'clock and at five o'clock you probe that means and it's not tender you're gonna be serving an underdone piece of meat not underdone that's not safe to eat it's not gonna have that tenderness and flavor the fat one of rendered all the way to give it that extra juiciness and this is one of the biggest lessons I've learned when I started smoking especially once I moved past the electric smoker to the offset and doing more indirect smoking on the charcoal grill is you got to have patience you just got to let things happen and you can't force things to be done quicker most of the time sometimes you can help them along by foiling increasing the heat but that only goes so far the best pieces of meat I've ever cooked have come out that way because I've had the patience to let the flavor and the tenderness develop and the pieces of meat which haven't reached that standard have been almost exclusively because I hurried things along they say patience is a virtue well in smoking if you want great results most of the time it's a necessity number one taking it too seriously that's right you can take this all too seriously you can be focused on I've got to have it done at this time I've got to use these ingredients I've got to use this type of wood I have to follow what this recipe was this YouTube video said I got to do this this should be fun this should be enjoyable it's also one of the reasons I make these videos I enjoy making these videos especially about smoking I used the term in one of my videos I can't remember which one smoker therapy there's something about sitting out by the smoker with a drink you're just waiting for the meat to get done you're smelling that smoke it's rolling out of the smokestack you've got good clean smoke maybe it's not perfect but it's relaxing it's fun I don't think I could ever do competition barbecue or smoking because I'm not focused on that you know I'm not focused on only the result I really enjoy doing this now if you've been smoking for any amount of time you know that there's a lot of work involved a lot in the process of getting the wood starting fire maintaining the fire all those things it isn't always the most relaxing thing but it can be if you understand at the end of the day you're doing it for a good time so that the food you make pleases people and that the process itself is enjoyable to you I enjoy building a fire in the fire box and seeing if I can get it going just right and get that smoke going just right to my liking but I'm not so focused on it that if something's not going 100% right and I can't get that fire to go clean and the smoke isn't just perfect that I beat myself up about it you know I want to enjoy this you know it's an outdoor activity I can joy which makes me almost forget the traffic noise which is always blazing by my backyard but I don't care when I'm out here and I'm cooking whether it's only electric or the offset or the gas grill or the weber kettle I just enjoy it I like being outside and smelling that Hickory or that Mesquite or that pecan and that meat and smell that when it starts hitting the grill and you know it's starting to cook and that fat is sizzling it's a wonderful thing and it should be fun it should be enjoyable so early on I would focus too much on the technicalities and that this person's doing it this way or that person's doing it that way after a while I learned that I wanted to do it my way and a lot of that way is to enjoy it by being able to relax as I do it I hope you enjoyed this video feel free to check out the other videos on my channel and consider subscribing and if you do click that bell for notifications thank you all for watching hope you have a great day I'll see you again soon

Channel: Cooking With Ry

Views: 867,824

Keywords: cooking, cooking channel, cooking with ry, ryne pearson, ryne douglas pearson, smoking meat, grilling, bbq, barbecue, top five, top five list, oklahoma joe's highland, electric smoker, charcoal grill, indirect cooking

Id: 6kSzOidmwWM

Length: 11min 21sec (681 seconds)

Published: Thu May 17 2018