Was hoping you'd post here, I've got no experience with the larger cuts yet, only the relatively shorter cooks - ribs are done in around 6 hours, chicken in around 90 mins, wings in an hour or so.
Chicken tip: You need higher heat for the skin to get crispy while the meat stays moist. I do mine at +- 300F or a bit higher.
Ribs: I use the 3-2-1 method, 3 hours with rub, 2 hours in foil, 1 hour out of foil. Always juicy.
I'm having a difficult time finding the cuts I see online from the US regarding brisket. Care to share your techniques for the longer cooks, ie the brisket and shoulders? Do you use the minion and/or snake method for those?
I use the minion method, not the snake method.
I won't say that my results are perfect - I don't think the Weber was really designed to smoke food for 14 hours at a time, so temperature control is tricky sometimes. Especially on windy days.
Remind me to upload photos!
What I do is that I divide the weber using a charcoal rail into one volume that is two thirds the area of the kettle, and another volume that is one third the area of the kettle. I also use tinfoil folded double as a heat barrier. I fold a large piece of tinfoil in half, then fold the bottom section so that it will stand up. I put that new tab in the charcoal area. Be careful not to make the tab too large, otherwise you will block air from reaching your fuel. This barrier prevents too much heat radiating from the fire into the food.
Into the smaller area, I put a mixture of briquettes and smoking chips. I use different wood depending on the meat. You can also use regular hardwood from Checkers instead of special wood chips, again it depends on what you want to do. I do one layer of briquettes, and then put wood chips on top of that. This is because the small wood chips usually fall straight though otherwise. Then another layer of briquettes and sometimes more wood chips. I always leave the space at the right hand side of the charcoal area free of wood and briquettes. That is where the firelighters go.
Before lighting the fire, pour some water into a tinfoil roasting pan and put that roasting pan in the larger section of the weber. Now, you can light the fire. Keep all of the vents open and the lid off. After 15 minutes or so, dump some wood chips on the fire and you can now start your cook.
When you put the lid on, make sure that the vent on the top is on the opposite to the fire. Make sure that vent is fully open. Also, make sure that the vents at the bottom are nearly closed. There should be a small gap for air. This is how you control the temperature of the fire. Every so often, maybe every 2 hours or so, you need to hit the side of your weber because ashes will clog the vents otherwise.
I'm sure I could get better quality meat at a speciality butcher, but at the moment, I get my meat from the large Pick n Pay on William Nicol, or the Food Lovers Market on William Nicol. I've only ever done brisket once, I did get that from a butchery. I have more experience with pork shoulder.
Make sure you remove the skin (crackling) and most of the fat cap from the shoulder. If you want to make crackling, don't try to do it in a smoker, it doesnt work. Trust me, I've tried. I don't think it makes a massive difference whether you put your rub on the night before or just before cooking - I've done both and never noticed much difference. I don't baste or mop and all of mine have been very juicy.
The largest pork shoulder I have ever done was 4kgs, and I think I put it on at about 5 in the morning. It came off at 6 or so that evening, and we could pull it apart.
What I'm going to try do in future is maybe be more careful with the amount of wood chips I use on long cooks like that - it can make the meat bitter tasting.
Oh I've also smoked lamb rib once or twice. I think that needs higher heat though.
boiled then stuck under a broiler to finish them off before serving. The stuff I make with an initial, relatively low expense is far superior to anything I've tasted in restaurants here. Try it at home, you'll be amazed.
