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Currently on a suicide mission at the in laws working with inferior ribs that were not properly defrosted, and cooking them in an oven. God help me.

so I headed up to Meatstock in melbourne today. It's a 2 day low and slow festival with a few breweries chucked in.
Every vendor was selling beef ribs, brisket, and pulled pork, with the odd one doing a hotdog and some chicken wings. The food was good but it was all the same from every stall. The highlight was some short ribs from Cape Grim here in Aus, which are known to have some of the best beef in the country. The fat that was rendered through the cut was absolutely beautiful. Not much smoke flavour, and the rub was quite weak, but the meat itself was amazing. It's pictured below.
There were a lot of great smokers on show, including the largest one in Australia. Thing is an absolute beast. Had some good chats with a few of the pitmasters and picked up a Tel-Tru gauge for my offset.

American style bbq is definitely taking off here. The place was packed, and some of the food (ribs particularly) were starting to sell out around 2pm (place opened at 11am). The price of the food was a bit ridiculous, even for a festival, but it didnt really hinder anyone. One short rib was going for $25 on average, and a plate with a bit of brisket, some slaw and pickles was about $35. Definitely some money to be made.

bryndavies wrote:Currently on a suicide mission at the in laws working with inferior ribs that were not properly defrosted, and cooking them in an oven. God help me.

ABORT! Get the hell outta there!

Meatstock sounds like the place I need to be right now. Wow.

ontheDL wrote:

bryndavies wrote:Currently on a suicide mission at the in laws working with inferior ribs that were not properly defrosted, and cooking them in an oven. God help me.

ABORT! Get the hell outta there!

Meatstock sounds like the place I need to be right now. Wow.

Turned out garbage. Of course. Family said it’s good. Bull fudge. Whatevs, made bomb tenderloin with reduction sauce the next day.

wottagunn wrote:

That looks bomb diggity! Also, limp brisket

got a few spare hours tomorrow morning, so ill be smoking another chicken and a bunch of sausages. excited to give my new Tel-Tru temp gauge a go!

ive been scouring online sale sites looking for a smoker on a trailer, or even just a larger one that I can mount myself on a trailer. Not many around here. The cheapest trailer mount ive found is $9000! for a comparison, I checked out the US ebay site... found a beauty on there for $1800... its not fair. Id pick that up in a heartbeat!

wottagunn wrote:got a few spare hours tomorrow morning, so ill be smoking another chicken and a bunch of sausages. excited to give my new Tel-Tru temp gauge a go!

ive been scouring online sale sites looking for a smoker on a trailer, or even just a larger one that I can mount myself on a trailer. Not many around here. The cheapest trailer mount ive found is $9000! for a comparison, I checked out the US ebay site... found a beauty on there for $1800... its not fair. Id pick that up in a heartbeat!

Ahhhh that does suck man.

The Tel-Tru is amazing! It's reading within 10F of my Maverick probe at the grill height. Loving it. Wish I picked one up a long time ago.
As a comparison, the stock gauge I got with the smoker would usually be reading about 400F right now.

I spoke with the owner and maker of Manhorne Smokers earlier today. I've concluded that they make the best smokers in australia.
He was great to talk to and gave me some rough prices on a trailer rig, as well as some of the options available for catering. He said he rarely caters anymore, so he can focus on his smoker business, but mentioned he catered just last week for a group of 300 and took home about $4500. Not bad for a days work.
I asked him about the actual practicality of running a 24" smoker, in terms of bringing it to temp and holding it there. He said it's far easier than smaller/cheaper smokers. Takes him about 30 mins to get it to temp, and then he just throws on a decent sized log every 2 hours. Due to the thick steel the smoker hardly cools down even when the lid is opened for IT checking.

So are we doing this? I wonder how much meat I can check on the flight?

so I got a quote on a Manhorne (above) 24" smoker on a trailer, and it was a lot more than I expected. Too much, honestly.
I remembered a manufacturer of smokers that I met at Meatstock a few weeks back that are trying to get in to the market. They had some real quality smokers on display.
So I contacted them the other day and have been discussing a trailer mount with the owner of a 24" pit. This will be his first trailer job, so the quoting process is taking a little longer. However, today he sent me a little model he made of what the trailer would look like after discussing my requirements. I think it looks great, and could be a real chance of happening if the quote comes in ok.

Damn. That’s pretty slick.

Doing two briskets and a pork shoulder tomorrow in the smoker. Biggest cook yet. Will update here with photos (if I don't drymount it all up)

My buddy has started doing his briskets fat side down and they’ve been noticeably different/better.

Definitely getting bbq today.


Step 1 Move to AUS
Step 2 Open BBQ spot
Step 3 RICH AF