Well i finally decided to smoke something on my Char-griller w/ sfb. I have grilled pork on it twice already, but never smoked something on it.
I bought a pork tenderloin (well 2). The rub i used is a rub i have used with pork chops for a long time, something simple; sage, thyme, salt, pepper, garlic powder, & crushed red peppers. The only difference was i rubbed the tenderloin down with dijon mustard first, then I rubbed in the herbs and such.
The air temp is 76º and it is a bit windy.
I first lit RO natural charcoal with newspapers for heat then i added some hickory chunks to get some good smoke. The temp stayed around 230º for the 1st hour of cooking. The pork temp climbed kinda fast in the beginning then leveled off and climbed slowly for the rest of the cook. Then grate temp dropped pretty fast. I started to throw more RO on it and then the temp started to climb back up. I noticed that there was not much smoke coming out from my smoker so I added more hickory chunks. Then the smoke was coming out real good. I was sitting in it. I have a small patio (8'x8') and the wind was blowing the smoke right in my face, (mmmmm smoke).
I had kinda a hard time keeping the temp in the 225-250 range towards the end of the cook time (last 50 minutes). It got down to 175º at one point but then after adding RO it got back up to 240º. It took alot of opening this damper and then the chimmney and then closing things. One thing i have noticed with the Char-griller is that most of the smoke escaped from where the top meets the bottom. It is not a snug fit. That's good for my Maverick ET-7 (another post), so it doesn't pinch the wires, but not for all the heat and smoke. Does anyone know a solution to this or do all horizontal smokers have this issue?
Overall it was worth the wait. Here are some pics of my cherry poppin endeavor w/ pork tenderloins. Granted the beer that was consumed while waiting helped, but the meat had a nice smoke ring and "bark" and tasted great! It did taste different then what I have had at my bro-in-law's, but he smokes with just logs (mesquite, cherry, apple). I use RO natural charcoal and hickory chunks.
Thanks to Deejay for her temp and time guide, it helped me from getting worried. Tomorrow I am doing baby back ribs.
I bought a pork tenderloin (well 2). The rub i used is a rub i have used with pork chops for a long time, something simple; sage, thyme, salt, pepper, garlic powder, & crushed red peppers. The only difference was i rubbed the tenderloin down with dijon mustard first, then I rubbed in the herbs and such.
The air temp is 76º and it is a bit windy.
I first lit RO natural charcoal with newspapers for heat then i added some hickory chunks to get some good smoke. The temp stayed around 230º for the 1st hour of cooking. The pork temp climbed kinda fast in the beginning then leveled off and climbed slowly for the rest of the cook. Then grate temp dropped pretty fast. I started to throw more RO on it and then the temp started to climb back up. I noticed that there was not much smoke coming out from my smoker so I added more hickory chunks. Then the smoke was coming out real good. I was sitting in it. I have a small patio (8'x8') and the wind was blowing the smoke right in my face, (mmmmm smoke).
I had kinda a hard time keeping the temp in the 225-250 range towards the end of the cook time (last 50 minutes). It got down to 175º at one point but then after adding RO it got back up to 240º. It took alot of opening this damper and then the chimmney and then closing things. One thing i have noticed with the Char-griller is that most of the smoke escaped from where the top meets the bottom. It is not a snug fit. That's good for my Maverick ET-7 (another post), so it doesn't pinch the wires, but not for all the heat and smoke. Does anyone know a solution to this or do all horizontal smokers have this issue?
Overall it was worth the wait. Here are some pics of my cherry poppin endeavor w/ pork tenderloins. Granted the beer that was consumed while waiting helped, but the meat had a nice smoke ring and "bark" and tasted great! It did taste different then what I have had at my bro-in-law's, but he smokes with just logs (mesquite, cherry, apple). I use RO natural charcoal and hickory chunks.
Thanks to Deejay for her temp and time guide, it helped me from getting worried. Tomorrow I am doing baby back ribs.
