Smoking Salt With The WSM

Shopping at Trader Joe’s is a bit like shopping at Costco, except you’re not buying mass quantities of everything. There are constantly new items being stocked on the shelves, and I think that’s a big reason why there are so many TJ die-hard fans and loyalists. Several weeks ago while shopping at TJ’s, I came across “Naturally Smoked Sea Salt” with Umami flavor for $1.99. Needless to say, I was intrigued. I didn’t buy it at the time, but it got me thinking about smoking my own salt at home.

$1.99 for smoked sea salt AND with umami flavor? TJ's, you're legit.

During my relatively short journey of BBQ smoking at home, about 80% of the time, there is plenty of hot charcoal leftover in the WSM — up to an hour left. I always look around my fridge to see what else I can smoke. There’s nothing really. The meat is all gone. If there’s fish, I’m not going to smoke that. I don’t want a fishy smell to taint my illustrious meaty coating I’ve built up within the WSM.

So what’s left to smoke? Salt. Simply lay some sea salt (or kosher salt, just none of that crappy Morton iodized salt) on a flat aluminum pan and place it on the grill for about 1 hour. Depending on how much charcoal and wood is leftover in your WSM, you may need to put a little more — just enough to impart flavor onto the salt. The temperature depends — I usually smoke the salt around 250-300 degrees F. The longer you smoke the salt, the stronger the smoke flavor.

Kosher salt smoked in apple wood

When done, just let the salt cool off before putting it a container. The result is pretty satisfying. I’ve used the smoked salt on my brisket, ribs, and chicken. It gives it that extra little hint of smoke in the background. Since I only have apple wood chips, that’s what I’ve been using. But in the future, I’ll definitely try out other types of wood like alderwood or hickery. The best part is you won’t have to spend any additional money from any of those fancy smoked salt brands.

July 4th BBQ: Say NO to Bad Hot Dogs & Burgers!

Ah, the 4th of July. Chances are, you’ll be chowing down on some hot dogs and burgers. Let’s hope you’re not eating some shriveled up and dry hot dog or some overcooked hockey-puck sized burger. I go to an annual homeowner’s association community BBQ, and they have the EXACT same food every single year… for the last, oh decade or so. What do they have? Yep, you guessed it. Shriveled up hot dogs and overcooked burgers.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the usual hot dogs and burgers. That’s why I’m so happy using the Weber Smoky Mountain where I can smoke meats for TRUE BBQ. Sure, it’s more expensive and takes longer, but there is such a huge satisfaction and self accomplishment when you take that first juicy, tender bite of a smoked brisket. Speaking of, I’ll definitely be smoking some BBQ during the July 4th weekend. I’m already salivating.

Check out some July 4th stats:

Number of hotdogs to be consumed on July 4th: 150 million
Amount of chicken purchased in the week leading up to July 4th: 700 million pounds
Amount of red meat/pork purchased in the week leading up to July 4th: 190 million pounds
Percentage of American households with outdoor grills: 87
Percentage of American households with Weber Smoky Mountains: WAY TOO LOW!

My First Time Smokin’ Brisket

Shhh… BBQ R2D2 (my nickname for the WSM) is sleeping. Smoking away, undisturbed, at a steady 225 degrees F. My first attempt at smoking brisket is now underway. But it’s only been a couple of hours, and the anticipation is already killing me. How do all the seasoned BBQ veterans do it? Especially, when you’re hungry, and the smell of smoked meat permeates through the air?

Since I’m using this blog to document/log my BBQ smoking experiences, I’ll simply be posting my thoughts and pictures with every experience — even the mess-ups. For my first time using the WSM, I’m using 6-lb brisket and 3 large bone-in half chicken breasts. Read more >>

• 6-lb USDA choice brisket – about $21 at Costco. There was about 4 or 5 other ones, ranging from $18-26. I tried to pick one that wasn’t too big, even shaped with a little layer of fat, and just felt “right” squeezing it. It’s like picking fruit or vegetables… call it a hunch.
• 6 bone-in half chicken breasts – about $11 at Costco. I just picked the cheapest one.

I bought the meats the day before, so I had time to trim the fat from the brisket, put the dry rub seasonings, and put it in the fridge overnight. One thing’s for sure, trimming fat is a good test to see how sharp your knife is. Mine wasn’t quite as sharp, so I had a tougher time cutting away some of the fat. So you can see it wasn’t the cleanest butchering job.

BEFORE: Brisket right out of the packaging, pat dry

AFTER: trimming some of the fat off, albeit unevenly

Not much fat on the other side, leave as is

With dry-rub seasoning massaged in

The dry rub was nothing fancy, I just used whatever I had in my pantry:

• Seasoned salt
• Ground black pepper
• Garlic powder
• Mustard powder
• Onion powder
• Cayenne pepper
• Old Bay seasoning

I just sprinkled a little bit of each on the meat and gave it a good rub-down. It gave a nice, dark red coating and smelled pretty good already. I know Old Bay is more commonly used for seafood, but I thought, hey why not sprinkle a little for BBQ and see how it turns out.

The next day, I was ready to put the WSM to work. I fired up the chimney starter filled with briquets directly on the bottom grate of the charcoal bowl and waited about 15 minutes for the flames to start showing up on the top layer of the briquets with a little bit of white ash color. Then I dumped everything on the grate, and placed 5 small chunks of apple wood directly on the flaming charcoal.

Almost ready to be dumped out

I probably put in the wood a bit too early

From there, I quickly assembled the WSM by putting the middle section, then the water pan. I lagged just enough, that when I poured water into the water pan, it “flashed” and steamed water just a bit, but I managed to carefully pour all of the water without spilling it onto the charcoal below. I placed the first grate, slapped the brisket on it, then the second grate with the 3 chicken breasts.

Brisket on the grill, fat side up

Chicken breasts

I put the lid on, and voila, I was done. The only thing left to do is monitor the temperature. It quickly rose to about 300 degrees F, but has now settled to around 225 degrees F. I couldn’t help but fiddle around with the bottom vents. For now, I settled on this — bottom 3 vents are halfway closed, and the top vent is open. For about a 6-lb brisket, I plan on smoking it for about 8-9 hours (following the 1.5 hour per pound guideline), so we’ll see how it turns out. Obviously, I won’t be smoking the chicken that long. Stay tuned for the after pictures and taste tasting. For now, it’s just waiting…

Charcoal Smoky Heaven

Since I’m a newbie on BBQ smoking, I’m trying to soak up as much information as possible. There are some websites out there that go into so much detail, it’s mind boggling. I came across this post today on the OC Weekly blog, talking about some of the differences between various types of wood and charcoal. It nicely summarizes most of what I’ve read in a nutshell:

• Charcoal briquettes: the way to go for low & slow smoking, consistent burn times
• Lump charcoal: burns very hot, inconsistent burn times, perfect for searing/grilling at high temps
• Natural charcoal briquettes: burns hotter and quicker than normal briquettes
• Pre-treated “match light” charcoal: yucky, has nasty chemicals, do not use for low & slow smoking (ok I admit it, I still have some of this stuff in storage)

For my WSM, the original Kingsford charcoal briquettes is the way to go. It’s relatively cheap, easy to find, and is perfect for low & slow smoking. Regarding types of wood, there’s so much info out there — everyone seems to have their opinion on what works best. That’s the fun part of BBQ, everyone does it differently, and it’s good to experiment. Here are some common BBQ wood types and flavors:

• Apple: slightly sweet but denser, fruity smoke flavor
• Oak: versatile, mild smoke with no aftertaste
• Hickory: pungent, smoky, bacon-like flavor
• Mesquite: sweeter, more delicate flavor than hickory
• Cherry: slightly sweet, denser, fruity smoke flavor

For now, I bought a package of apple wood chunks to start things off. It seems like it’s one of the more popular and versatile woods, and people like to combine it with stronger flavored wood like oak, hickory, or mesquite. One thing I’ve always read is, do not over-smoke. The smoke flavor should be a subtle flavor in the background while eating the meat, not overpowering.