Last weekend I cleaned out the smoker and spent
nearly $100 on fresh meat. Specifically, brisket and ribs. My two
favorite food groups: Pork and Beef. After trudging to the corner
gas station to fill two propane tanks I've been avoiding for months, I was
ready to start the smoker and already dreaming of the deliciousness that would
send my taste buds into bliss later that night.
My smoker of choice for the last few years has
been the Smoke
Hollow. It is wide enough to fit a full rack of ribs
without cutting them in half and has about five shelves. It's perfect for
smoking chicken, ribs, and attempting to cook brisket. I'll admit I'm
still in the attempting stage as far as brisket goes. And probably will
ALWAYS be in that stage. But I digress...
It was cold outside, but shouldn't have been
cold enough it disrupted the smoker's abilities. But it did. It
took forever for the temperature to get up to even 150 degrees. I put the
brisket on around 3 a.m. and for many agonizing hours, viewed the temperature
gage hovering around 200. Nothing worked to get it up. Eventually,
I gave up the fight and moved the meat to the oven.
As you can imagine, both the ribs and the
brisket were not even in the category of "good." Bummer.
Instead of troubleshooting, I decided I'd gotten
all the love out of the Smoke Hollow I'd purchased years previously and went
through the agonizing decision making process of replacing it.
Having four BBQ's on my back patio made me
hesitant to rush into anything. I didn't need a duplicate of what I
had...and if per chance I got the Smoke Hollow working, I didn't need two of
the same brand. How do you decide what to buy? That's the million-dollar
question.
I'll run you through that process in my next
post.
(Nothing like a blog teaser, eah?)
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