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It depends on how strong your brine is. BDL

I garbled some of the information in my previous post. Instead of "conventional oven," I should have written conventional pit. I expect you'll be cooking in the 250F - 275F range, rather than the posted 350F. Finally the hot/slow stuff really doesn't apply unless there's a gas or electric...

The general rule with roasting in a convection oven compared to a conventional is to drop your temps around 25* and expect a cooking time which is 10% shorter. There's no real need to start hot and finish slow, or vice versa -- a steady, moderate temp like 350F will be fine. Nothing against...

Not really no. But in any case, better than the pinche guey you are. BDL

Mexican food in the greater San Diego area: There's certainly no shortage of great Mexican food there. Is there anything in particular you're looking for? Have you been to Oaxacan places? Mariscos places? There are plenty of choices which don't involve a pound of melted cheese on the...

Dear Larry, As it happens, I spent a year living in Spain and attended the Universidad de Salamanca. Also, I get plenty of practice here in Southern California and actually do speak Spanish quite fluently. Nevertheless, since you mentioned Google translator, I'm going to continue in English...

They "have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not." BDL

Carne asada translates into English as, grilled meat. Just sayin'. BDL

New Hampshire? Hmm. Don't know where to get a Santa Maria type on the east coast without paying shipping. "Go to the source and ask the horse." That is, call Santa Maria Grills. WSM's are pretty good grills. You should get on the WSM forum, http://virtualweberbullet.com, nose around and...

Re the wood: Use it. If you've got the square footage, make an open pit from brick or cinderblock, and some expanded metal for a cooking grate. If you're willing to devote a few hundred on something better looking and more flexible, get an inexpensive "Santa Maria" style grill like the ones I...

Cheapest way is a home made "open pit." You can go from grill to smoking by raising the grate blocking it up with bricks or other blocks. Everyone's already told you that. You want to cook over coals, not freshly lit wood. Good idea to make your pit big enough to have one area for burning...

Bigwheel is very, very right. The most difficult and least beginner friendly way to smoke is with a cheap bullet like an ECB. Second is an inexpensive, small offset -- at least until you've made "the basic mods," added a couple of accessories, and learned the basic techniques. Using a...

Pork isn't chicken. Soaking chicken in simmering, hot brine is making soup; not the road to high scores. Soaking chicken for several hours in warm brine is incredibly wrong. I'm sure everyone has raised generation after generation of healthy, wealthy Harvard graduates by serving food which...

Oh yeah, right. I forgot shellfish doesn't smoke well. Neither does any sweet seafood. Smoke obscures the flavors of delicate white fishes like halibut, sturgeon and trout. We all know how lousy they smoke. And never cook fish on a live wood fire either. Charcoal only, or it might get too...

It's a good idea to brine chicken, period. There are lots of good brines. If you find one which works for you now in terms of time, taste and convenience -- fine. Just don't close yourself off to fooling around with lots of others. In terms of bringing flavors to the party, brines tend to be...

No. If the tails are still in their shells, trim the membrane and discard it so the meat is exposed to the smoke. Cooking in the shell is better than cooking the meat bare, it will help preserve moisture AND help keep the meat sweet by preventing over-smoking. Like all seafood, whether...

You write humor well. But for those who don't get the joke... About the same as a fifty buck Royal Oak electric, yes. Good call. All but the smallest BWS still have a fixed water pan with a drain off to one side, draining through an exterior, side-mounted valve, to clean the liquid and gunk...

If you want to grill over a real wood fire, and can afford it... you want it. I've still have an issue with Klose regarding a small, $5 mod I ordered -- a nipple which would let me run a remote smoke box to use the pit as a cold smoker -- which they forgot to install. It's been almost two...

Bitching, Whining, Pissing, Moaning, Kvetching and Schrying: Coulda shoulda been a couple of inches bigger every which -- big enough to get a full sized steam table pan in, and enough clearance to get something big in on one rack and still use the other three. Because why not? Construction...

Yo Jimbo, Been a long time. What the hell's going on with you these days? You listenin' to me, boy? BDL

Oh yes. BDL

Bill, you're saying meat "steams" when wrapped and resting in a cooler? With no water or heat source to make steam? I don't get it. Please explain. The process which takes brisket from beyond well done to tender and juicy involves protein denaturing. Protein molecules are long strands...

The problem is the word "grill." A lot of barbecue terms can be very regional, and "grill" is one of them. In most of the country, a grill is an open grate directly over a heat source and is primarily used for direct, high-heat cooking. When we talk about grilling, we tend to mean food cooked...

Wrap and refrigerate. Plastic cling wrap is better than aluminum or loose in a plastic bag. Cling wrapped and in a plastic bag is good, vacuum packed is better. After they're cooked, you can portion before reheating. Reheat covered in a slow oven; in sauce over low heat on a pan on the...

Drunk or not, the Maillard is NOT smoke dependent. Neither, for that matter, is a smoke ring, which is why judges supposedly aren't supposed to use one as a criterion. Your list of woods is pretty good. I was using a mix of peach and oak for the last smoke. Oak, peach, maple, pecan and...