Displaced Texan

Nice!!! I’m doing a bbq brisket for Christmas dinner!

I’ve used them for years. Great hack to help zero.

We have tried several of the meal kit delivery services, Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and Home Chef. Mrs Tex and I have found we prefer Home Chef. We liked the ingredients better, as well as the recipe selections. They fit our calorie and palate preferences the best. We schedule a delivery once a month, just as a break from our regular cooking. It’s fun to try new dishes, a little outside the box from what we normally cook. I encourage anyone to try them. Lots of fun and good cooking!!!

I prefer single stage triggers, like the ALG ACT, but if you’re into 2 stage triggers, the LaRue is hard to beat.

Wing skin got pretty crispy, but the meat was nice and tender. The wings belong to the tactical weiner dog...she didn’t seem to mind!

Lol! The next DT’s smoked meat thread will be Christmas. I’ll really get y’all drooling then. We are smoking a brisket. Once you put my meat in yo mouf, you gonna want to swallow!!

My last ‘usetafish’ (submariner jargon for ‘my last boat’), we were deployed about 300 days/year for my 4 year tour aboard her (this included local ops, and certification ops). Extremely stressful. When we were in port, maintenance was fast and furious. I imagine the surface fleet is doing much the same right now. There was little room for error.

Voyager hit it right on the nose. Op tempo is high, training and maintenance are low. I understand that morale is pretty low too. These things combine to make a very dangerous mix. Unfortunately, I don’t see it changing any time soon, with the volatile situations in NK. I think we will start to see the same things happen in the Atlantic/Med, with the Middle East being what it is.

Pain motivates!

Most of my AR’s have a flip down front sight (Colt 6944 uppers), but I keep them up. With a magnified optic (4x32 ACOG), I never see them. With my red dot equipped AR, I use a lower 1/3 co-witness. HE is right, it is the way to go. Still easy to acquire the irons if your red dot fails.

Thanks Tony. It was very tasty. In fact, I’m snacking on a roll and turkey now It didn’t make a good presentation, but that didn’t really matter to me. I carve the bird in the kitchen and plate the meat on a serving tray. We don’t make a show of carving the bird at the table, like my folks used to.

I can’t believe how good this turkey tasted. Moist, tender, and an amazing flavor. The bread turned out fantastic too! Mrs Tex and I (and the tactical weiner dawg, too!) are on the couch, rubbing our bellies, we’re all done for the night! Thanks for hanging around with us! Tex

It’s really hard to tell by this pic, but holy smokes, this turkey is moist, and tender!!! Not too much smoke...totally amazing! Winner winner, turkey dinner! Chalking this one up as a success. Lessons learned. Next time I’ll use butchers twine to secure the legs. The skin flap didn’t hold them to the poultry hook as well as I would have liked. I used a rub I never used before...one of the PBC brand rubs. It’s a little spicy, I’d probably use my own tried and true rub next time. Other than that, this turkey turned out delicious!! Guests will be here soon, time to get our grub on!

Bird reached 165*, (a little quicker than I had expected) so I pulled it off the smoker. Holy hell, it’s tender. Gonna let it rest, then we’ll have a sample....

With the PBC you don’t so much worry about temp of the smoker. That’s one of the reasons this thing is so easy, no futzing around with the fire, dampers, or anything. Set the vent at the bottom according to your altitude, and forget it. I would estimate it’s about 225*. May break out my infrared thermometer just for kicks.

Yeehaw!

Coals are ready. I added some applewood chips that I have been soaking in water. Brid is on, and will cook to a temperature of 165* with my probe stuck in the thickest part of the breast. Mom’s bread (actually, according to my sister, it’s my great grandmothers bread recipe) is rising nicely. Time to tidy up a bit and drink some good bourbon while the bird cooks.

Things are happening fast and furious at DT’s household this morning. I’ve started my mothers homemade bread. Pulled the turkey from the brine and rinsed it, and patted it dry. Rubbed it down with canola oil, and then a liberal coating of rub. Stuffed the cavity with a cut up apple, red onion, and some fresh herbs. Put the poultry hook into the bird. Set up the fire box for the PBC and lit the chimney. Once we get a nice set of coals going, I’ll put it in the smoker.

Pretty good advice. Oversmoking is a crime, IMHO. I want to taste the meat, not be overwhelmed by the smoke. Mesquite is a pretty strong smoke, I only use it for brisket/beef short ribs, and even then, only a little. Less is more!!

Tex’s ‘famous’ cornbread and sausage dressing....

Checked the bird this morning, and topped off the ice. Nothing exciting is going to happen until tomorrow morning, when we prep the bird and pop it into the smoker.

We are going to smoke a brisket for Christmas dinner. I’ll post the process for that too. Ya’ll will see how really easy it is to turn out decent bbq. It ain’t redneck rocket science!

Here I am! I’ve used several types of smokers/cookers over the years, but the one I get the best and most consistent results from is the Pit Barrel Cooker. https://www.pitbarrelcooker.com/ It’s easy to use...set it and forget it, no fooling with temperature. Almost idiot proof (which is why I use it). Be sure to get the poultry hangars if you plan on doing chicken/turkey on it. We are cooking our thanksgiving turkey tomorrow, so if you’ll tune into the ‘Displaced Texan’s smoked meat’ thread, I’ll walk you through what I do.

Happy thanksgiving to y’all!

Me either!! Now that the brine has cooled a bit, I put the turkey into a food safe 5 gallon bucket (available at your local Lowe’s store), along with the brine, 10lbs of ice, and cold water. Snap the lid on, and let it soak in the brine solution for at least 1 hour per pound of bird. We have a 23lb turkey, but we’ll let it soak for about 36 hours. I check the ice every 6-8 hours and refill as required. Now, we drink more wine, and we wait. Because I’m a Star Wars geek...