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Baby Backs - To smoke or Not to Smoke?

HD333

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Maybe we do need a BBQ board.

Baby Backs.

I cook mine in the oven with my special blend rub (whatever I have on hand but it is getting pretty consistent) for at least 5 hrs at low temp then throw then on the grill to finish with some Sweey Baby Rays. Everyone says they are great. That said I am intrigued by these Orion things I keep seeing pop up here. How much better will they be if I get one of these and smoke em rather than low and slow in the oven?

Is it really worth it? If it is then I may need to hope on board and give it a shot.

HD
 
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Maybe we do need a BBQ board.

Baby Backs.

I cook mine in the oven with my special blend rub (whatever I have on hand but it is getting pretty consistent) for at least 5 hrs at low temp then throw then on the grill to finish with some Sweey Baby Rays. Everyone says they are great. That said I am intrigued by these Orion things I keep seeing pop up here. How much better will they be if I get one of these and smoke em rather than low and slow in the oven?

Is it really worth it? If it is then I may need to hope on board and give it a shot.

HD
Come into the light of the Orion.
 

ctenidae

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For what it's worth, the Orion is NOT low and slow. It approximates it, and turns out some damn fine product, but it's not the same as low temps in the oven or indirect low temps on a grill. It's just not.

That being said, Orions ain't lacking much- they're just different. Sauce production is a hurdle I haven't conquered yet (I prefer to make my own from resident juices), but that's in no way insurmountable. It does come down to a question of taste on smok,e I think- if you like smoke, the Orion will do you just fine, if you don't like smoke, the Orion will do you just fine. But quicker. Orions are a different method of cooking- while the Orion can't replicate other methods, other methods can't replicate the Orion. Just the way it is.

For me, the Orion ethos fits very well with my style- I'm a low and slow in the oven, then finish on the grill type, and the Orion does the low and slow hot and fast- turning a 4-5 hour process into a 2 hour one, and that fits my hectic always-on-the-go lifestyle just fine. Some silliness intended.

Seems to me, if you're not utilizing the lucious liquids produced in the oven anyway, then the Orion is perfect for you. Especially if you can find a Home Depot with one in stock. In any case, if you're accustomed to tending to and burning a lot of charcoal and wood chips, then the Orion will probably save you boat loads of time and make you very happy.
 

RootDKJ

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HD333

You're not getting the full flavor cooking your ribs in the oven, because you're not adding the flavor of any wood smoke. By adding some hickory, apple, cherry or maple smoke, you're going to have a totally different flavor. Plus 5 hours is crazy. I personally don't have that kind of free time in my life. I'd rather be skiing

The Orion is a convection oven/smoker. Because of the convection process, the cooking time is only 1.5 hours for 3 racks of ribs (and then maybe 10 mins on the grill to sear the sauce in). The sealed cooking chamber keeps almost all the moisture generated by the cooking process in, so your end result is very juicy and tender.

I'm sure you're ribs are good, but if there ain't smoke, it's not Real BBQ.

My 1st BBQ Ribs
09-BBQSaucedonthegrill.jpg


Chicken
9a835491.jpg


Brisket
100_3063.jpg


Pulled Pork
PP07.jpg

PP08.jpg


Smoked Corned Beef (not a pastrami)
685a6665.jpg


Another brisket
HPIM0382.jpg


Smoked turket
Orion-Turkey020.jpg


Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin
100_3177.jpg


Wings
100_3183.jpg


Ribs
IMG_0115.jpg

IMG_0123.jpg

IMG_0106.jpg


I hope this helped. I can talk about this all day

Later
Root
DOCTOR of RIBOLOGY
 

ctenidae

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Root, you're a bastard. After posting stuff like that at near midnight, I can tell my wife that my extra 20 pounds is your fault. Well, your's, and beer's.

Gotta say, smoke is a weird thing. Some people like it, others just don't. I like it to a point (too much of a good thing is too much, right?), but my wife has decided she doesn't like it. With a gas grill and a little bin for chips, it's hard to control the smoke amount, but I think with an Orion, you can really temper the amount of smoke impact. I did buy a bag of apple wood chips (on Root's advice- thanks), and my wife didn't say anything at all (praise be to the "under $5 rule"), so the spareribs I bought will get a few chips added, and we'll work our way up to real smoking.

Which leads me to wonder, with a judicious lack of charcoal heat, how about doing such niceties as smoked salmon or other fish in the Orion? Or even keeping the temp low enough but the smoke high enough to do something like beef jerky? I wonder if leaving the lid off would produce smoke plus the drying convection.

Okay, this weekend's agenda is now set...
 

snoseek

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Smoke can easily be overdone and harsh. I cook with natural charcoal-not briquettes but simple per-burnt wood. It puts out a real mellow flavor without overpowering. I also prefer bbq sauce on the side as a condiment. Those pics above look outstanding however and i would kill to dig in to some of that right now.
 

snoseek

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Which leads me to wonder, with a judicious lack of charcoal heat, how about doing such niceties as smoked salmon or other fish in the Orion? Or even keeping the temp low enough but the smoke high enough to do something like beef jerky? I wonder if leaving the lid off would produce smoke plus the drying convection.

Okay, this weekend's agenda is now set...

You can do a hot smoked salmon-you will still need to cure the fish however. The way I've always smoked salmon is to make common gravlax -1 day and smoke with really no heat at all. A good cure would be packing it with curing salt, sugar, dill, lemon zest and juniper. You can look it up but I'm pretty sure jerky is made from brining and dehydrating meat but maybe you could put a twist on classic dehydrating method with a grill-I don't know, it could be neat-post results if you try
 

o3jeff

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I've only cooked ribs on it so far and they were delicious. Planning to do a chicken this weekend, I can't wait to taste it!

Best $35 I've spent in a while.
 

Paul

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*Disclaimer - I'm not one of the Orion Lemmings, ECB Propane user here*


That being said, I've done lobster, trout, asparagus, ribs, turkey, chicken, corned beef, pork loin, corn on the cob, vidalia onion...

Lots of things. Bottom-line, there are very few things that I would not try to smoke, and I'm sure they all would work equally well on the Orion.
 

deadheadskier

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Depending on what you really want to accomplish, I'd recommend the Orion to anyone. It is a 'hot smoker', which for most applications works perfectly fine. Only situation I could see where a hot smoke wouldn't be what I'd want is if I was making my own bacon where you really want the smoke to penetrate to the interior of the meat over time. Hot smoking pretty much just cuts the outside, which is great for something you're eating fairly soon after cooking.

It's a great product and for $35, it's an absolute steal. To be able to produce meat so tender in such a short period of time is pretty fantastic. My only thought is that I wish the unit was set up horizontally. You have the three cooking surfaces, but unless you're cooking three of the same thing that requires the same cook time, it would be somewhat difficult to utilize all sections. If the unit was oriented horizontally with a hinged lid more like a traditional smoker, you could do more things at once. Perhaps there isn't a way to design it that way and still create the convection needed to cook so fast.
 

RootDKJ

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Root, you're a bastard. After posting stuff like that at near midnight, I can tell my wife that my extra 20 pounds is your fault. Well, your's, and beer's.

Gotta say, smoke is a weird thing. Some people like it, others just don't. I like it to a point (too much of a good thing is too much, right?), but my wife has decided she doesn't like it. With a gas grill and a little bin for chips, it's hard to control the smoke amount, but I think with an Orion, you can really temper the amount of smoke impact. I did buy a bag of apple wood chips (on Root's advice- thanks), and my wife didn't say anything at all (praise be to the "under $5 rule"), so the spareribs I bought will get a few chips added, and we'll work our way up to real smoking.

Which leads me to wonder, with a judicious lack of charcoal heat, how about doing such niceties as smoked salmon or other fish in the Orion? Or even keeping the temp low enough but the smoke high enough to do something like beef jerky? I wonder if leaving the lid off would produce smoke plus the drying convection.

Okay, this weekend's agenda is now set...
Apple is a great gateway woodchip to get warmed up to before moving on to other hard core drugs...ah wood like hickory or cherry. I'd also consider apple the "universal" wood chip, as you could really use it with any meat.

I saw this on the site that Grassi linked to in the running Orion thread. Check the link for more pics.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=258743&postcount=1

Orionnewpot.jpg


I'm not skilled enough in metal working to do that, but it would seem to me that would be enough to break the convection process (as desired) to try to do some other products. The Orion manual has cooking suggestions for Salmon...I've just never tried it yet.

root, the Rib Doctor ...
I called the doctor and woke him up..
he said put the ribs in orion and smoke them all up..
I lol'd.

Depending on what you really want to accomplish, I'd recommend the Orion to anyone. It is a 'hot smoker', which for most applications works perfectly fine. Only situation I could see where a hot smoke wouldn't be what I'd want is if I was making my own bacon where you really want the smoke to penetrate to the interior of the meat over time. Hot smoking pretty much just cuts the outside, which is great for something you're eating fairly soon after cooking.

It's a great product and for $35, it's an absolute steal. To be able to produce meat so tender in such a short period of time is pretty fantastic. My only thought is that I wish the unit was set up horizontally. You have the three cooking surfaces, but unless you're cooking three of the same thing that requires the same cook time, it would be somewhat difficult to utilize all sections. If the unit was oriented horizontally with a hinged lid more like a traditional smoker, you could do more things at once. Perhaps there isn't a way to design it that way and still create the convection needed to cook so fast.

I've been wanting to do some smoked cheese, but with the I don't the the Orion is the right "weapon of choice" Maybe with a smokestack added and with the cheese on the top rack, it would be do-able.

You can do layering. Say for you wanted to cook up a brisket that is going to take 3+ hours...I'd put the brisket on the bottom and maybe put some wings on the top rack. After 45 minutes or so, I'd take the wings out and let the brisket finish. The convection "resets" very quickly.
 

Grassi21

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Apple is a great gateway woodchip to get warmed up to before moving on to other hard core drugs...ah wood like hickory or cherry. I'd also consider apple the "universal" wood chip, as you could really use it with any meat.

I saw this on the site that Grassi linked to in the running Orion thread. Check the link for more pics.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=258743&postcount=1

Orionnewpot.jpg


I'm not skilled enough in metal working to do that, but it would seem to me that would be enough to break the convection process (as desired) to try to do some other products. The Orion manual has cooking suggestions for Salmon...I've just never tried it yet.

That's a killer mod right? The oven is good in a pinch but the Orion or a smoker add that extra flavor everyone is talking about. I used to do it all on the smoker. But I am following suite and finishing them on the Weber propane grill with my sauce. I do a vinegar, ketchup, honey based sauce that kicks ass. There is a shot of Jack Daniels in there as well.
 

RootDKJ

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That's a killer mod right? The oven is good in a pinch but the Orion or a smoker add that extra flavor everyone is talking about. I used to do it all on the smoker. But I am following suite and finishing them on the Weber propane grill with my sauce. I do a vinegar, ketchup, honey based sauce that kicks ass. There is a shot of Jack Daniels in there as well.
Yeah, I'd seriously consider doing that. If you add another one of them mounted horizontally towards the bottom, you could turn that sucker on to one ass-kicking bong
bongin.gif
 

Grassi21

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Yeah, I'd seriously consider doing that. If you add another one of them mounted horizontally towards the bottom, you could turn that sucker on to one ass-kicking bong
bongin.gif

8) All you need is a soda bottle with the bottom cut off and a vat of water....
 

Geoff

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Smoke can easily be overdone and harsh. I cook with natural charcoal-not briquettes but simple per-burnt wood. It puts out a real mellow flavor without overpowering. I also prefer bbq sauce on the side as a condiment. Those pics above look outstanding however and i would kill to dig in to some of that right now.

After a lot of friggin' around, I've concluded that briquettes provide better thermal control in a cold smoker. I always know exactly how many to use and I know exactly when I'll need to add more. The flavor is from the soaked hardwood, not the charcoal. I use the real charcoal in my charcoal grill. I have a temperature probe and try to keep the vents and fuel balanced so I'm between 225F and 250F. If I use natural charcoal, the temperature bounces around much more.

I usually do Memphis-style dry ribs in the smoker with thin-vinegar and thick-tomato side sauces. I've tried basting them with a water/dry rub mix but that doesn't seem to make any difference.

When I'm in a hurry, I just rub, steam them in beer for an hour+ until they're tender, sauce 'em, and carmelize the BBQ sauce on the gas grill. It's a different flavor from smoked but it's equally tasty.

I need to get some bluefish to make pate. That's really easy to make. smoked bluefish, cream cheese, some kind of onion like chives or shallot or red onion.
 
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