Was thinking about the Mercilus release today and something struck me that makes me both sad and furious. It wasn't that long ago that the combination of Watt, Clowney and Mercilus were the core of one of the beat front 7s in the league. Now none of them are even on the team anymore, and what do we have to show for it? Jacob Martin, Barkevious Mingo and a 3rd round pick, all acquired in the Clowney trade. How in the f**k did this organization drop the ball so God damn hard that we literally blew an elite front 7 and have nothing to speak of in return. And I know I know, BoB bad, but Caserio didn't do s**t to get Mercilus and I live in KC, the local sports guys are falling over themselves trying to get him here. There was a market for him, but we just released him for nothing.

So I'm sitting in the hospital right now at 3 am, anxiously awaiting the birth of my first child. Little guy should be here some time this morning/early afternoon, so to distract myself a bit I figured I'd make the first ALCS Day post!

I know we're all worried about LMC, but I think this team can still take this series without him. I trust Framber and Urquidy and I thought Garcia showed good stuff in a tough situation pitching in a super hostile environment in Game 3 last series.

Likely going to be watching the first two games here at the hospital and I'm super excited to share these games with my kid and teach him everything about being an Astros fan!

Texans suffered their worst regular season loss in franchise history. The team is essentially the Indians from Major League at this point, only the owner isn't purposely tanking to move the team (that we know of at least). Yet they STILL aren't the laughingstock of the league because at least the coach isn't hanging out at his old stomping grounds trying to get some college strange after losing a game.

Thanks for taking another one for the team, Glitter Kitties. You're the best.

Oh, how things have changed since the last time this team was on the diamond for their magical run to the ALCS. The sports landscape in Houston is just a smoldering crater (except you, UH men's basketball. Go win a natty).

But this team has proven to be able to lift the city onto its shoulders. All of us remember those feelings from 2017 (even if now tainted) and how the Astros put the city on their backs in one of its greatest times of need. Well, we need them again.

I'm not saying the Astros have to win a world series this year. I'm not saying they even have to win the division. But we just need something competitive, something to look forward to watching.

I believe. Let's roll it out there and get some W's.

So, like hundreds if not thousands of us, I can no longer support this franchise. The only slimmer of hope I had was keeping Deshaun, literally the greatest hope this city has ever had at quarterback since Dan fucking Pastorini, but the ownership and front office incompetence has driven the thing we have coveted most away.

I'm pretty sure my first-ever reddit post was on this site. I've been an active member here for going on 7 years, and I've lived through a lot of down times with this team. And unfortunately the heights we experienced together never reached what we believed they could be. I love you guys, I love this mod team. I thank the mods for allowing me to make threads about meat smoking this year so we could discuss something other than the burning heap of garbage that was the 2020 Houston Texans.

This sub should remain for Texans fans. There will still be fans of this franchise moving forward, and this is their space to discuss. I don't know what I'm going to do, I'll root for Mahomes as a Texas Tech fan and for Watson wherever he goes, but one thing is for sure.

Jack Easterby and Cal McNair deserve each other and I hope they both rot in hell.

Good morning y'all!

We did it. We made it to the end of arguably the most frustrating season of Houston Texans football in the nearly two-decade history of this franchise. To those who have stuck around, kudos to you, and to those who have participated in my smoking threads, I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have!

Unfortunately mother nature too my final gameday smoke away from me, though it's my fault too. I smoked some wings for lunch on Thursday and got a little toasty too, which means I forgot to put my grill cover on. Then, on Thursday night and Friday we had half an inch of ice and 2 inches of snow fall on us that haven't gone away since. So my smoker is totally frozen right now, and even had I put the grill cover on it would be totally frozen too. So unfortunately no smoked meats for me today, unless I thaw out some from the past that I've frozen.

Good morning y'all!

I think I speak for all of us when I say this has been arguably the most trying time I can remember being a Texans fan since the inaugural season. It's been volatile, it's been frustrating and it's been down right infuriating at times. Getting through this season has been incredibly tough, but there's been a silver lining for me at least: these threads discussing another of my passions with y'all.

I had never smoked any piece of meat by myself before the beginning of August. Throughout this season, I have developed a new skill that I'm incredibly passionate about, and being able to share that journey with y'all and pick up new techniques and tricks while doing it has been incredibly enjoyable. I appreciate every one of you that have participated or lurked or what have you, when I haven't had actual football to look forward to I at least have my smoker, my fire and y'all to talk with.

So, as for this final smoke of this absolutely awful season, I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. I have half of a pork butt I can toss on for some pulled pork and some wings I can thaw and do, but we are possibly getting 4-6 inches of snow between tomorrow and Saturday so I guess we will see what I am able to do.

I'll definitely be smoking the other stuff though, picked up a quarter of some nice sativa-heavy hybrid that does a great mix of head high and body roll.

Good morning y'all!

Hope everyone had a lovely and safe holiday! Idk about y'all but I really feel like the days between Christtmas and New Years just shouldn't count, nothing gets done anyway.

So for today's smoke I'll be tossing some venison on the fire. I put it in a simple brine yesterday morning and I'll take it out here shortly, planning on putting it on the smoker right around noon.

Edit 1: Just got the fire going, it's been 2 weeks since I've actually lit a fire on my smoker and it feels nice. I just love the act of building the fire and maintaining it, little pyro kid energy still hanging around I guess.

We are also super fortunate today. Christmas Eve the high was 20 and it was crazy windy, and on Christmas Day it still didn't get above freezing. But today? Sunny and mid-50s. Perfect smoking weather.

Edit 2: I ended up doing a chipotle chili rub, nothing too heavy but something to give the venison a little spice. It's been on for about 30 minutes now, fire is running nice and smooth.

It's funny, I share smoking stuff with friends and family as well as you guys through snapchat and such, and usually people are like "oh that looks good!" But today people are SUPER interested lol. Smoking venison is a bit of an experiment.

Edit 3: Well that smoke went quicker than I expected. In fact I pulled the venison at around 145 and it ended up closer to medium well than I wanted, but it's still pretty juicy! Just a hint of gameyness, which honestly you want because that's part of the flavor.

https://imgur.com/Qq260OL

Good morning and a very merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone!

Obviously, we as Texans fans don't have a lot to celebrate right now... but whatever, I'm still firing up the smoker on Sunday! Even though it very well might be below freezing all day here in the midwest.

Going to smoke some venison on Sunday, first time I've done venison so this will be an interesting experiment. My brother-in-law shot a good sized deer and gave me a Walmart bag full of meat (which I was very grateful for) and my father-in-law is giving me a s**t load of hickory, oak and cherry wood (I'm telling y'all, marrying a farmer's daughter is the way to go).

Recipe edit: I figured I should let y'all know HOW I'm going to smoke the venison lol. So I've pulled it from the freezer now and its thawing in the fridge. On Friday night or Saturday morning I'll toss it in the simple brine I do (1 cup brown sugar, 1 1/2 cup kosher salt and a splash of maple syrup per 2 quarts of water) and let that soak until Sunday morning when I pull it. Then it's just smoking it around 250 for around four hours and boom.

Good morning y'all!

Sorry I missed the What to Smoke Wednesday thread, it's just been kind of a hectic week. I'm at the in-laws this weekend and didn't think I'd get to smoke any meat for the game, but on Friday my wife goes "hey, they've got a bunch or meat in the freezer and (Father-in-law) was wondering if you'd want to help him smoke something. To which I replied, "hell yeah, of course!"

So we are doing a turkey roaster and 2 racks of baby backs today. I'm not on my home turf so I'll have to figure out some things, especially since they have a pellet smoker. I'll miss my stick burner but its good to expand your horizons.

Also, I don't care how this season is going. F**k the Colts all day, every day, and I hope we beat that ass today.

Edit 1: Learned a valuable lesson today. Typically, I'm a buy the un-trimmed piece of meat and cut it down like you like kind of person (I like control, OK?) But here at the in-laws, I don't have that luxury. Case in point, the turkey today. We thawed out a boneless turkey roast and I tossed it in a brine yesterday afternoon. Problem is, I've never worked with one of these roasts before so I removed the string holding it together. Well when I took it out of the brine this morning, it all fell apart because it's not one cohesive piece if meat. It should still be fine, I've got a good chunk of breast that will cook normal and now a couple pieces of dark meat that will probably cook a little quicker.

Edit 2: Learned my second lesson of the day! My FiL's smoker was up to temp but not producing smoke, and he isn't really sure how to use it yet. So we were kind of messing with it and there's a pull on the side, and when we pull it the vent on bottom opens up better and exposes the fire on the bottom. So now we are rolling good smoke, and I've got the turkey on too.

Edit 3: Just popped open the hood to pull the ribs and wrap them and, after a little fine tuning, I'm pretty happy with how all of this is turning out!

https://imgur.com/7RGR5WE

Good morning y'all!

Today's finally the day! Finally smoking my second brisket. My parents bought an eighth of a cow and gave me the brisket (since they didn't want to mess with it). Its a scrawny little thing, clearly one that was cut in half, but at least I got a decent bit of flat and the part with the point, though the point has been cut off. Still, some good fat on there and I think it will turn out well (plus it's free, so no arguments here).

Edit 1: I've had the brisket on for about an hour now and so far, so good. Unfortunately for some reason I can't find actual logs to save my life in this town, so I have to just use wood chunks today. Its fine, it just means I have to babysit the fire a little more because there's just not enough heft to the chunks to burn. And if I put too many in at a time it just totally bursts up my heat.

I feel like I've said this a lot lately, but I'm just not sure I can remember a more trying time as a Houston sports fan. Yes, there's been lean years and heartaches, but I feel like for the last few months I've just been Deshaun on the bench at the end of Sunday's game. Between our turmoil here and what's going on with Harden and of course all the Astros s**t, I just feel kind of numb.

I wasn't going to make this thread because I just wasn't feeling it, and there's been reduced participation in them because, well, everything going on. But, this is also one of the few things that has given me joy on this site for the last few months, and even if one other person enjoys it as much as I do its enough for me to want to keep going.

So, with all that being said, I'M FINALLY DOING ANOTHER GOD DAMN BRISKET! My birthday is Friday so I'm actually taking off work and doing it then. My parents bought part of a cow and gave me the brisket over Thanksgiving, its actually a smaller one but I think it's got some good fat striation so I'm stoked about it.

Also, for the other thing people think these threads are about, I've recently been toking on the Mag Landrace strain for a couple weeks and it's so damn good. Really fantastic indica, even at lower percentages (batch I have is like 13% THC) it packs a punch and delivers a really great and relaxing high.

Good morning y'all!

First, everybody say it with me this morning:

F**K. THE. COLTS.

I just got the smoker started about 5 minutes ago and I'll be tossing a spatchcocked turkey on here when it gets up to temp. Haven't decided what I'm going to rub it with yet... but that will be easy enough to figure out.

So first, before talking about the future, I've got to go back to last weekend. I did my normal smoking thread on Sunday because I wasn't able to do one Thursday with Thanksgiving and all, and I did some smoked lamb leg that turned out fucking awesome, so I'm reposting the photo for those curious and weren't on here on Sunday with no game going on.

https://imgur.com/LUEqMFR

Now, for this weekend, like a lot of grocery stores I'm sure ours did a "buy a ham, get a turkey free" deal, so my wife and I jumped on that. We cut the ham up into ham steaks and we used some of that to make kolaches (I can't get them in the midwest so my wonderful wife learned how to make them herself). For the turkey, I'm gonna spatchcock the sucker and toss the whole thing on the smoker. Probably going to do my typical rub, a little heavier on the black pepper, and I'll baste with some herb butter near the end of the smoke.

Also, I don't care what the season looks like, always excited for the Colts game and beating those fuckers. Losing Fuller hurt, and I actually believe he was just led astray by a dipshit doc, but I still think the way Deshaun is playing right now we can get this win. Even if we can't have nice things.

FTC all day.

Good morning y'all!

First, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know I thoroughly enjoyed watching our boys look like the team we thought we had at the beginning of this season. Unfortunately I wasn't able to smoke anything on our actual gameday, but with the nice relaxing Sunday ahead of course I'm tossing some meat on the grill!

Today I'm branching out and doing a lamb leg, first time I've ever cooked one of these. I'm pretty excited, mixed up a rub that's a little more herby than normal and I used olive oil on the outside to apply the rub instead of mustard like usual. Going to smoke it at 250 over a base of apple and pecan wood, let it go until it hits about 140 inside.

Any smoking plans today? What game are you watching today? I kind of want to see this train wreck of a Denver game with no QBs.

So first off, a very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in this sub and all Texans fans worldwide. It's been a tough year for... lots of reasons... but I'm incredibly thankful to have this sub and you fellow fans to talk with and share things with. It truly makes my day most of the time.

Now, for the reason we're all here, I'm actually NOT smoking anything tomorrow for Thanksgiving/the game. We are heading to my parent's place for a social-distancing dinner and, while my wife is making some amazing desserts, they have the meat take care of. So, I'm not doing anything tomorrow, BUT I am going to smoke on Sunday for the traditional gameday smoke.

I'm also going out of the box here and doing a lamb leg (I refuse to say leg of lamb). Its a 3-pound boneless cut, and I'm pretty stoked about it. Seems like an easy smoke from what I've read, but I'll only know when I get the fire going.

What's your plans for the holiday? Cooking anything fun? Also predictions for the game tomorrow? I 100 percent see us winning for our second straight victory.

Morning y'all!

Getting at it early this morning, its never easy setting an alarm for 7 am on a Sunday, but as soon as I get rolling it feels worth it.

Pulled the pork belly out of its brine this morning when I got up, now I'm fighting to light a fire in 35 degree and rainy weather. Once it gets going it should be good, but getting going is the hard part.

Edit 1: Got the pork belly on about 20 minutes ago. I left it as a slab and we are going to slice it for sliders when it's done (wife is making Hawaiian rolls). Really excited for this one, had it in a brine of mainly brown sugar and salt but also a little maple syrup and bourbon for some kick, then a simple rub of salt and pepper.

Edit 2: A little more than an hour into the cook, fire is being a little temperamental but I like the look of the belly. I wasn't planning on opening the hood until at least two hours in, but I had a temperature spike unfortunately and had to expel some heat quickly. It's all good, I got to it in time and got a sneak peek of the meat.

Edit 3: Just popped open the hood again about 2 and a half hours in to spray the belly down, and yeah its looking real good. Its kind of crazy how this cooks with all the fat rendering down on the top.

https://imgur.com/ioIW1Mr