# Brines, Rubs, and Smoking?



## 88luneke (Jan 13, 2009)

I recently got a charcoal grill and am going to am going to set it up for smoking. The set up will be:

Charcoal on the right side near the vent set to the lowest height possible. 
Soaked wood chips in a box in the center. 
A drip pan under the meat on the left. 
And the meat above the drip pan and below the chimney. 

I plan on using cherry woodchips in the box. If I'm off base on that or if there's a better way to do this please critique!

The rub I have down pretty well (which I'll mention in a moment), but is there a purpose of doing a rub AND a brine? 

I'll be experimenting with chicken thighs and legs before venturing to a whole chicken and other meats. The brine is new to me, but I know the base is generally salt and water. After looking up various brine recipes I'm looking at a brine consisting of:

Summer Shandy
Water
Sea salt
Sugar
Whole peppercorns

Not sure what else I can or should add to it. For the above brine I would bring the mixture to a boil to allow all the seasonings to dissolve, and then let cool before putting the meat in to soak.

The rub that I would possibly be putting on is a sweet with a kick of hot at the end: 

Brown sugar
Sugar
Crushed red pepper
Sea salt
Black pepper
Chili powder
Basil

Once I get to cooking a whole bird, a 1/4 full can of Summer Shandy will be shoved in its rear. 

Hoping I can get the smokey, spicy, sweet bird I'm envisioning.

Any pointers or ideas?


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## William H Bonney (Jan 14, 2003)

First off, don't be disappointed if it anything doesn't turn out "just right"... It takes years of practice with charcoal, she can be fickle. I quit practicing with charcoal a few years back,, I was literally going broke "practicing", needless to say, I'm strictly a gas man now...:lol:

One thing to remember with chicken is that you can't go wrong with lemon and rosemary. I'll season the bird and then stuff it with squeezed lemon halves and whole springs of rosemary.


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## 88luneke (Jan 13, 2009)

William H Bonney said:


> First off, don't be disappointed if it anything doesn't turn out "just right"... It takes years of practice with charcoal, she can be fickle. I quit practicing with charcoal a few years back,, I was literally going broke "practicing", needless to say, I'm strictly a gas man now...:lol:
> 
> One thing to remember with chicken is that you can't go wrong with lemon and rosemary. I'll season the bird and then stuff it with squeezed lemon halves and whole springs of rosemary.


I'm going in with a positive, yet realistic mindset. Realistic in that controlling the temp will be a fight lol which is why I'm hesitant to say I'm "smoking" it. If I stay around 250, fantastic, if not then it'll get done quicker and probably still taste good.

Thanks for the reminder on rosemary. I've used it in the past but must have slipped my mind when coming up with this concoction. 


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## 88luneke (Jan 13, 2009)

Alright well I was gonna post a photo but it apparently won't let me...again. Keeps coming up that it's not a valid image file. Oh well. 

Came out AMAZING. Wasn't able to use the crushed red pepper as we didn't have any but oh well. Incorporated the rosemary to the brine and the rub, my mouth is still watering :lol:

Couple things I did learn. 

1) Allow time for the wood chips to start smoldering before putting the meat on. Silly me thought it was magic and they'd just start right up haha

2) Temp control. I was able to keep it around 325...not my target of under 300. Next time I'll use less fuel to start with. 

3) Stop opening the lid so damn much! 

4) Have more meat ready to cook. All I wanna do now is smoke more meat...


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## bowhuntordie (Mar 24, 2007)

Just a few suggestions as far as setup and other things

If it is a kettle style grill I would put the top vent on the opposite side of your coals and wood. This way the smoke can travel across the meat and the whole grill.

Also keep in mind that it is a very subtle change that you have to make in both top and bottom, mainly bottom, vents to adjust the temperature. But with a standard charcoal grill temperature control can be pretty tough. I would suggest buying a digital thermometer, this will give you the most accurate reading. The thermometer on my weber can be anywhere from 20-60 degrees off from what the temp really is. That is a huge difference when you are trying to cook at 250 and it is only at 200.

Another thing is if you have a weber take a look at the Smokenator 2000 that they make to fit the weber. It is what I used in my weber before I got my Egg. They are fairly cheap and surprisingly work really well. I have done many briskets, pork shoulders, ribs etc with great results. 
http://www.smokenator.com/

Hope this helps and have fun. At times it can be frustrating but it really isn't that hard once you get a hang of it and the rewards at the end are worth it!


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## Rat City Hooker (Jan 30, 2003)

Larry


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## 88luneke (Jan 13, 2009)

Ordie thank you for the suggestions. I have a barrel style grill so for set up I put the coals on the side with the vent and have them as far down as they can go in the grill. The meat is on the opposite side and under the chimney. 

Last night I did the same recipe as above, minus the bay leaves. This time I was able to control the temp better, but with the rain it still made it a headache and extended the cooking time much long than anticipated. I think I went a little overboard on the salt in the rub this round as well. Still tasted great and am looking forward to the next session!


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## William H Bonney (Jan 14, 2003)

88luneke said:


> Alright well I was gonna post a photo but it apparently won't let me...again. Keeps coming up that it's not a valid image file. Oh well.
> 
> Came out AMAZING. Wasn't able to use the crushed red pepper as we didn't have any but oh well. Incorporated the rosemary to the brine and the rub, my mouth is still watering :lol:
> 
> ...


I haven't bought red pepper flakes in years,, I load up on the little packets at Little Caesars every time I'm in there,,,, god I'm a cheap bastarrd...:lol:

Oh,, and yeah, I shoulda warned ya about #4... As soon as you pull whatever you were originally cooking,,, your smoker will immediately self-regulate to 225 degrees and remain at that temp for the next 6 hours, without you doing a thing to it... :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Nodakhtr (Jan 15, 2013)

Put a probe in the biggest pc of meat to monitor the temp. Not hot enough and the meat will rot.


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## Big Kahuna59 (Jan 28, 2013)

88luneke said:


> Ordie thank you for the suggestions. I have a barrel style grill so for set up I put the coals on the side with the vent and have them as far down as they can go in the grill. The meat is on the opposite side and under the chimney.
> 
> Last night I did the same recipe as above, minus the bay leaves. This time I was able to control the temp better, but with the rain it still made it a headache and extended the cooking time much long than anticipated. I think I went a little overboard on the salt in the rub this round as well. Still tasted great and am looking forward to the next session!


last weekend I did a beef brisket on a gas smoker about 3 hours of smoke at 225 and finished it off at 225-250 total 7 hrs in the smoker dusted the brisket with black pepper,garlic powder, salt and corriander, delish.


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