My very first smoke....

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aintrite69

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jul 15, 2014
31
11
Folsom, CA
Ok, so after doing all the modifications to my Smoke Hollow PS9500 4 in 1 and doing hours of research on this site and watching videos, today was the big day to try it out. I chose a bottom round from the freezer I was going to use as pulled beef as my test run. Used a simple injection I found and just some McCormicks Kansas City Rub from Sams. It turned out quite well, I think...has good flavor and is med rare. Let me know what you guys think.

Injected and rubbed fixin to put in the fridge.


Out of the fridge happy, happy, happy


All done and starting to rest.


Right where I wanted it to be.


This was for my wifes birthday dinner. Ribeyes....


So at first I had a little trouble controlling the fire heat. Temp went to 315 when I first started before I put the meat on, smoke turned clear and blue and I had to open the grill to get the temp back down. It fluctuated some when it was smoking but I figured it out pretty quick (once I got the initial temp down) and held the temp right around 230-240. I guess experience will help with this alot. Any tips, tricks, or suggestions will be very helpful. Oh and ask anything that I left out.
 
It had good flavor, but it did have a slight bitter after taste about 10 minutes after eating it.
 
Mesquite can give a bitter aftertaste...depends on your taste.

Next time, try using a mix of Hickory and Pecan...that may help with the taste.

Lighter fluid should not make a difference if you let it get real hot without covering or having all vents open.

Cheers!
 
I'll try that next time and see what happens. Although I tried some of the roast today a little while ago and it was great, no aftertaste either. maybe I just swallowed to much smoke or something last night.LOL
 
nice work. i start my fires outside of the firebox and let all the wood/charcoal burn down to coals, then i load the firebox, and yes i use a combination of hard and fruitwoods, if i use mesquite, it is a small percentage, anyhow, congrats!
 
This was wood I had bought at walmart. the chunks of wood they sell in the bags. I'm going up to my parents and get some of my dads oak this weekend and cut it down to size and I will be using that most of the time and will be experimenting with fruit woods also. Im new to all this so it a whole new learning curve. 

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments.

I went to Bel Air today and picked up some babyback ribs and a whole chicken today, so that will be next weekends adventure.
 
I use the wood from Walmart or academy and it does great. Wood is wood. As log as it's the type you like. Your bitter taste probably came from the mesquite. But lighter fluid taste can stick around too. Same reason I never use match light for BBQ.
 
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