First Smoke on the SnP

[bigjonbbq]

I bought a new SnP to use at the house last week, and I finally had a chance to try it out this weekend. I seasoned it last week, and then put in a baffle, but things didn't go very well with it. For some reason, the baffle I made, didn't let much of the heat tranfer between the firebox and the main chamber. On Friday night, With a normal fire, I could only pull temps of 190*. I finally opened the door on the side of the firebox to let more air in, and the temps finally hit 250-270*, but the intense heat in the firebox made the paint blister off of almost the whole firebox.

I finally finished the ribs and ABT's that I was making and they turned out pretty good....The ribs were a little tough, but I have had not experience with Spares...only Baby Backs.

On saturday I removed the baffle and the temps were easy to control around 250* so I threw on 2 Boston Butts at 7am and hoped they would be finished by 3pm so I could make my Tee Time.

At 3pm the butts were only at 180* so I went ahead and pulled them off, double wrapped them in foil and towels and threw them in a cooler. After we played golf we came back to the house for some Que and the pork was too tough to pull, so I cubed it up into small pieces. The flavors were still good and I had a good half-inch smoke ring. My friends said they loved it...but I'm going to make them some more next weekend, so they can try some real good tender pulled pork.

 

[mballi3011]

First off welcome to SMF. You already know how good the place is so I'm glad you came out of the darkness and saw the light. We are always glad to have new people here cause they might just look at things and little differant then we do and that always make for some really differant way to do things. I hope you have the how to's and what if's on the whole Qview thing and if not go here:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=58920
and it will show you how to post pictires so we can see what your smoking on and with and what your smoking. So hurry and go get something to smoke.
Welcome To The Addiction

 

[fire it up]

Glad you are getting things worked out on the sNp BigJon.
Whenever it needs it I slather my firebox (outside of it) with crisco before I start smoking and that helps a lot.

A quick tip on the pulled pork, you can always toss them into an oven set at 200 and leave them for hours and they won't be dry and will come to temp and shred beautifully.
Were you planning on bringing them all the way to 205 without foiling? Lots of folks will wrap them once they hit 160 and then finish bringing them to 205, not only will it trap the juices in but the foil helps bring the temp up a bit quicker.

Hope all smokes well for you, would love to see some Qviews

 

[rickw]

Not all that familiar with your smoker but I foil butts at 165F and then take them to at least 200F for pulling. You didn't get the meat up to pulling temps, that's all. With the ribs did you do the 3-2-1 method?

 

[ddave]

Congrats on your foray into the world of smoking. A couple of things come to mind though.

Take a look at this thread.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...d.php?p=290506

It details how I modded my SnP. Not the only way to do it but it worked pretty well for me. And you're right -- if you're not careful and the baffle is too big, it will do more harm than good. Same goes for the tuning plates -- you don't want to block too much of the heat from the firebox, just encourage it to travel farther down the smoke chamber.

As far as the butts go, it sounds like you were pretty close. You didn't mention how big they were but I can usually do two 5 pounders in 9 hours. I usually put them on around 6 am, foil at 165° and take them off at 195°. This usually happens around 3 pm or around the 9 hour mark. But you'll want to go by temp not time.

Sounds like you're primed for a rousing success your next go around.

Good luck and have fun.

Dave

 

[linescum]

when i had mine i didn't put in a baffle i just filled an aluminum roasting pan with water and put it tight against the firebox side and i never had a problem with temps unless the wind was howling.. i also rolled up a peice of flashing and shoved it in the stack to lower th exhaust to grate level