new to the site new to smoking

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dalglish

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jun 6, 2008
70
11
Portland, OR
well smoking of the cooking kind anyway :) Hail from Liverpool UK, currently living in Portland, Oregon.

I just got the Perfect Flame smoker from Lowes so I should probably scour this site to find out I made a really bad decision, impulse buys are a habit of mine but I've wanted to produce my own smoked meat and everything else for a long time.

So I think I'd like to start with Chicken seeing as it's cheap and can be excellent tasting, that way my mistakes won't be too costly. Any advice and pointers most welcome, regardless of how obvious you may think they are....yes I have propane and wood chips just in case there are 'flamers' here
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Welcome, if you haven't checked in to the roll call forum do so now tell us alittle about yourself etc. Also you should consider becomming a Premier member for about 4 cents a day and support the forumn. Also take the 5 Day Smoking Course offerd free here.

Good smoking!!
 
ck into roll call to introduce yorself and tell us about yourself and what brought you to smf. welcome to the forum ck out the ecourse.
 
You were , sorry, I didn't see that, welcome again.
 
dalglish
To answer your question I would say to first make sure and prerun your smoker and season it well with by spraying some juice in it and/or rubbing the interior of the smoker down with oil and then firing it up; then just add some wood for smoke.

For a first smoke I would suggest smoking to temperature, sliced or pulled pork. As pork butt may be the most forgiving peice of meat you can find for seeing what temperatures you can keep a new smoker consistantly at.

Good luck and be sure to post pics of your first smoke !!!
 
Thanks Mossy, currently doing a prerun now but I didn't know about rubbing down the interior bit. What I did was filled the firebox with wood chips and filled the water bowl with a simple watery marinade and have it on a low gas setting which is about 175F.

Subscribed to the 5 day course also. Can't wait to get started on this and I've just discovered something I haven't seen before but know I'll love....the Fatty!
 
If your going to do chicken I recommend a temp of 300 to 350 degrees. This should leave you with a nice crispy skin and not rubbery if your doing skin on. Scour the sites and do some research on what others have done especially with all the pics on this site.
Make sure you get yourself a good meat thermometer. Calibrate it so you know if its off a few degrees or not. You will wanna do your cooks by temp and not by time. The hardest part is accepting that meat will be done when it is ready. It may look done so checking temps are very important. No 2 cooks will be alike.
So welcome to the SMF forums and remember there are no dumb questions.
 
Welcome to the SMF!! Just my opinion but I think doing chicken is harder than doing a pork butt. I would try the butt first because they are much more forgiving if you don't have everything perfect. I still haven't done chicken right yet..........well at least not to my satisfaction.
 
Glad to have ya
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Goose has a good point. Pork butt was my first date with smokin and is the most forgiving! Make sure you cook your food by temp not time!!! Check the forums and don't be afraid to ask questions. Never a dumb question!

You found the right place. You have the best BBQ'ers in the USA at your finger tips and they love to help.

Good luck and send your pixs in.
 
Dalglish - Welcome to the SMF. Glad you joined up. I did the same thing. Read a little bit (not SMF) and went and bought an electric ECB before I knew what to do. But don't worry, the SMF usually has optimal info for your rig and/or the folks here will convince you to upgrade/modify it.

As a relative newbie, I agree with goose below that trying a pork butt right out of the gate is easier than chicken. But if you search the info in these forums and ask questions, the SMF will not let you down.

I butterfly the chicken I do and crisp up the skin on the grill after smoking it to 170 internal temp with a 250-275 smoker temp. I will likely never grill chicken again now that I eaten it smoked. Yum. Good luck.

Consider getting Jeff's rub recipe as a great starting point as well. (a few $)
 
Well I'll take the experts advice and go with Pork butt, I'm hoping that if I start now I'll have something edible this evening (10.30am here). I'll go and check the pork section of the forum.

Thanks for the pointers so far and I'll be sure to post pics good or bad!
 
Scrap hoping for something tonight, I'll go with pork butt and it's ready when it's ready. I'd like to get it right first time rather than rushing to meet a deadline. The lady will understand, you can't rush these things especially when you haven't got a clue what you're doing :)
 
If I am trying prepare a meal to have guest over, I plan on having the food done 2-hrs B-4 I plan on eating. All smoked food need to sit after it reaches temp. I use the time table listed in the forum for smoking and give myself 2-hrs. Now sometimes when you are working with a big pork butt or brisket I'll give myself a 4-hr window.

It get done when it's done
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pork butt will be the best to start off with and it will taste fantastic.....welcome to the site and ,,best of luck with your smoker
 
Thanks grillin' just got a 4.5lb pork butt and I'm about to start the brine, nothing fancy just kosher salt, brown sugar and water. 1 cup to 1 gallon of water for sugar and salt.

I bought an off the shelf rub to use later, seeing as this will be my first ever I want to keep it simple, I'll experiment later with different brines and rubs etc.
 
Just checked meowy's pulled pork step by step guide and there's no brining included. I'm just going to follow that to the letter then.
 
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