The Steak Plug

06/10/2026

06/10/2026

After all, why shouldn't I smoke burgers on my Weber?

Started with a pile of burger patties that probably made the neighbors wonder if I was feeding the whole block. Stacked them across every inch of grate space I had and let the Weber do its thing.

The goal was simple: get a little smoke flavor into a lot of burgers without standing over a hot grill flipping patties all afternoon. Turns out it worked better than I expected. Nice color, plenty of flavor, and way less work than cooking them one batch at a time.

The funniest part of this post is how many people have already asked how I pulled it off. I guess smoking burgers on a Weber isn't as common as I thought.

For everyone asking, I followed a tutorial that adds an extra grate to a Weber Smokey Mountain. That's where I got the idea, and it ended up being a great way to increase cooking space.

Anyone else smoke burgers, or am I just making life harder than it needs to be?

06/10/2026

4.5 hours later and these ribs are finally headed into their resting phase.

The family has always been on Team Dry Rib, so there’s no sauce anywhere near these racks. Just rub, smoke, and enough patience to keep me from opening the lid every 15 minutes. Wrapped them up in foil and letting them rest now while the house fills up with that smell that makes everyone suddenly ask, “How much longer?”

Pretty happy with how the bark turned out on these. Nice color, good texture, and plenty of moisture without needing to drown them in sauce. Sometimes simple is the way to go.

Now comes the hardest part of the whole cook: waiting to slice into them.

Anyone else have a house divided between dry ribs and sauced ribs, or is my family the only one keeping the sauce bottles on the bench?

06/10/2026

Steak safe to eat?
I bought this steak a few days ago, and it came in a pack of 2, I only just opened them yesterday and cooked one of them right after and it was fine, but I just opened the other one now to cook and it has a slight smell, some discolouration and is a bit slimy to the touch. Is this ok to cook still? I've had this before with numerous types of meat I've bought from big stores and put in a cold fridge and they've gone off before the sell by date which is extremely annoying. any help appreciated

06/10/2026

My first time smoking duck, and I’m wondering why I waited so long to try it. 🔥

I started by pricking the skin, rubbing it down with salt and Shaoxing wine, then letting it air dry in the fridge overnight. The next day I seasoned it with maple rub, stuffed the cavity with onion, garlic, clementine thyme, and rosemary, and let it ride with cherry wood smoke.

The skin came out beautifully colored the meat stayed juicy, and that combination of the citrus, herbs, and cherry smoke worked way better than I expected. I was honestly a little nervous going into this cook since I’d never smoked a duck before, but it turned out to be one of the better things I’ve pulled off the smoker lately. 😎🔥

Now I’m already thinking about what I’d change for round two. For those of you who smoke duck regularly, what’s your favorite wood and seasoning combination? 🦆💨

06/10/2026

Tried something different this weekend and I think I may have ruined regular ham for myself.

This was my first attempt at pulled ham. Scored it up, seasoned it, let it ride low and slow until it was tender enough to pull apart, then mixed all those juices back into the meat. The barky pieces on the outside and the juicy shredded ham in the middle were a combination I wasn't expecting to be this good.

I've had baked ham plenty of times, but pulling it like a pork butt takes it to a completely different level. The smoke, the texture, and all that rendered fat mixed back in made it disappear a lot faster than I planned.

Now I'm sitting here wondering why I've gone this many years without trying it.

Anyone else doing pulled ham instead of slicing it, or am I just late to the party?

06/10/2026

okay to eat?
just wondering if this is still good to cook and eat? it smells fine and everything just worried with the oxidation color

baseball cut

06/10/2026

I ran into an interesting debate after this weekend’s cook.

On the smoker was a 20 lb brisket and a pork butt. Both cooked great, had good bark, good color, and plenty of people went back for seconds. I ran them on my Traeger and even had a smoke tube going that was putting out enough smoke to qualify as a neighborhood air quality event.

One of my buddies said the meat was good, but he wished it had more smoke flavor. That got me thinking.

I know an offset is burning splits of wood and a pellet smoker is burning compressed pellets, so they’re never going to be exactly the same. But for those of you running pellet grills, what have you found actually increases smoke flavor in the finished product?

Lower temps early in the cook? Different pellet brands? More smoke tubes? Stronger woods like hickory or mesquite? Or is there simply a ceiling to how much smoke flavor a pellet smoker can produce compared to an offset?

Not trying to start a pellet vs. offset war here. Just curious what tricks you’ve found that make the biggest difference. What's the smokiest flavor you've been able to get out of a pellet grill?

06/10/2026

Finally found one!!

I've been checking every time I walked past the meat case hoping to stumble across one of these, and today it finally happened. A whole USDA Choice brisket sitting there waiting for me.

Not gonna lie, I grabbed it before someone else could even think about it. At this point, finding a decent full packer feels more exciting than finding most things at the grocery store.

Now comes the important part: keeping myself from trimming it tonight and firing up the smoker immediately.

Who's cooking this weekend? What are you putting on your briskets these days?

06/10/2026

I don't post much in here because I'm usually busy stealing ideas and learning from all the knowledge everyone shares, but figured I'd finally contribute something.

Picked up some lamb ribs and decided to keep it pretty simple. Let them ride in the smoker for about 4 hours, then finished them with a blast of high heat for around 20 minutes to tighten everything up and get that color. Every hour I brushed them with a garlic and onion sauce I cooked down in a skillet, and by the end they had a nice sticky glaze without being overly sweet.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, but the smell alone had me checking the smoker way more often than necessary. The bark set up nicely, the bones cleaned up well, and there wasn't much left on the cutting board by the end of the night.

Still learning every cook, but I'm pretty happy with how these came out. What do y'all think? Anything you'd do differently with lamb ribs?