I am still trying to get a good seasoning in the WSM and have cooked a few items. Recently I watched the video (couldn't edit out the technical difficulties and dead air time?), and was going through the fridge and freezer to find items I could throw in to get a few more "cooks" in to help get a nice coat on the inside. I found some chicken legs/thighs, and bacon and other odds and ends meats in the freezer, that look to be freezer burned. Since I was not planning on eating them would it be unwise to to throw them in the smoker or would it affect the taste of future cooks?
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Freezer burned meat is ok. The burned part winds up drier and less tender. Cook it up, eat what you want! If there's only small areas, just slice them off the surface before cooking and let the cooker work it's magic. -
We weren't planning on eating it, but instead of just throwing it out I wanted to put it to good use. My wife thinks it may not taste good and was a little scarred of cooking it and getting sick. I thought it might be good to throw on the smoker and get additional practice in with only the expense of the charcoal.Comment
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Well, the question remains of how long it's been in the freezer. I assumed it wasn't very long. Nothing stays good forever. If in doubt, throw it out. If you do plan to eat it, be sure it gets to a safe internal temperature.Comment
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No it won't hurt to use the freezer burnt meat to season the WSM further.Comment
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The meat has been in the freezer for 3-4 months at least. and it wasn't preserved well. thank you all for the help!Comment
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Cook it. If it doesn't taste as tender or moist as you like cube it up and make chili or something. Certainly no need to just trash it.Comment
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The day started good, got the chicken defrosted overnight, pulled the skins of and dry brined for 2 hours, then dusted with S&G, let them set for another 2 hours. I found 2 t-bone steaks and had those defrosting overnight as well so I had those dry-brining for about 4 hours. after I got all the basic prep out of the way I went to get the smoker prepped... I almost lost it then. Open it up and wondered when I painted the inside of the smoker green. (face palm) the water pan got left in the smoker from the last cook about a month ago. So I spent the next hour and a half cranking up the grill and letting her rip while pulling off the grates and water bowl and putting them in the gas grill. I had both grills reading temps around 500, and watched as the green turned brown, then to black, and then I brushed it all off and cleaned them. Smoker finally ready to go, I through on the chicken for an hour till the it got up to around 140, then added the bacon on the top rack. Once the chicken got up to 165 i took them off along with the bacon and put the steaks on. they took about 20 minutes till IT got up to 130 then took the barrel off the smoker, but the grates right on top of the coal ring, and seared the steaks. I didnt get pics of the bacon or steaks, but here is the chicken...
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Looking real nice! I had to do the power flame clean myself on the BGE over the weekend. But now I'm ready for November festivities.Comment
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Is it really necessary to season a WSM? I have two, never seasoned them.Comment
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All I ever did for my WSM was to burn one chimney of Kingsford Pro as hot as I could get it to burn out all the packing oil. Then I cooked a chuck roast for chili. That gave me a layer of smoke in the WSM plus let me get a handle on how it cooks and how to manage the temps. After that, I was off to the races.Comment
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As far as "freezer burned" meat goes .... like someone else mentioned, I generally use that for chili. If it's got some freezer burn, been in the freezer a long time, then I throw it on the WSM or Hasty-Bake with some heavy smoke and get it to 160, or so, internal. Chop it up and make chili. I've done that with beef, pork, chicken .... doesn't really matter. Makes great chili.Comment
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