Hi all,
I'm a 38 year old father of 3 in Spring Grove, Illinois. In case you don't know where that is, it's close to the Wisconsin border, and roughly midway between Milwaukee and Chicago (distance wise, anyway.)
I've wanted to try smoking ever since the first time I had real smoked ribs. I've never been much of a fan of steak due to it's chewiness, and it turns out maybe I just wanted good, tender SMOKED meat. Well, my lovely wife got me a Brinkmann Electric Gourmet Smoker for Father's Day this year (the red one) along with a bag of Hickory chips.
The first thing I tried was a set of chicken quarters. I had some in the freezer anyhow, and wanted to start it slow. I also realize Hickory might not be ideal for chicken, but it's what I had.
I thought they looked pretty good, and they tasted good too! My only complaint was the skin, that was inedible, but I heard that's a fairly typical problem with chicken.
My next step is to try something else, and what I've heard is that a pork butt might be a good next step. I'll also likely look into getting a smoker box. I used foil wrapped chips the first time but the heating element in the electric smoker ate right through that aluminum foil over time.
I hope to make this smoking thing a habit, and look forward to learning from the community.
I'm a 38 year old father of 3 in Spring Grove, Illinois. In case you don't know where that is, it's close to the Wisconsin border, and roughly midway between Milwaukee and Chicago (distance wise, anyway.)
I've wanted to try smoking ever since the first time I had real smoked ribs. I've never been much of a fan of steak due to it's chewiness, and it turns out maybe I just wanted good, tender SMOKED meat. Well, my lovely wife got me a Brinkmann Electric Gourmet Smoker for Father's Day this year (the red one) along with a bag of Hickory chips.
The first thing I tried was a set of chicken quarters. I had some in the freezer anyhow, and wanted to start it slow. I also realize Hickory might not be ideal for chicken, but it's what I had.
I thought they looked pretty good, and they tasted good too! My only complaint was the skin, that was inedible, but I heard that's a fairly typical problem with chicken.
My next step is to try something else, and what I've heard is that a pork butt might be a good next step. I'll also likely look into getting a smoker box. I used foil wrapped chips the first time but the heating element in the electric smoker ate right through that aluminum foil over time.
I hope to make this smoking thing a habit, and look forward to learning from the community.
