Beginner

[smokingvic]

  About a month ago I got a Char Griller 5050 with side firebox , I tried to smoke a brisket and than I tried to smoke some stand up chicken but could not get the temp. above 200 , never used a firebox so any info. on what and how to do the fire in the firebox will be appreciated.I used Oak chunks and briquettes for the brisket and used Apple chunks and briquettes for the chicken.

 

[s2k9k]

I've never used a SFB smoker so sorry I can't help you but [color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]I see this is your first post here, when you get a minute would you do us a favor and go to "Roll Call" and introduce yourself so we can get to know you and give you a proper welcome, Thanks![/color]

 

[yellowsir]

You should buy some chicken thighs or drumsticks, rub them up, and smoke em.  I say chicken thighs cause their cheap and you dont have smoke them that long.  So they're great to practice with.  As far as your fire, you should lay some charcoal in the side firebox, and start a separate fire with charcoal in a chimney.  Once fire is ready in chimney, pour over coals in sidebox.  Open all vents on fire box and stack. Allow all white smoke to blow out (like 20 min), and throw on some wood sticks or chunk and let that also burn off a little. Now check your temp, probably 250-400.   Put that chicken in there till internal thigh meat temp is 160.  Now practice with tritip next time,

 

[pcjack]

Yellow is spot on with the basics. Start simple, if it wasn't for a few tips from a friend, I would have been stung by the white ash portion,

as I am primarily an electric smoker user until recently. I prefer chunk smoking wood, soaked for about an hour prior to tossing them in.
Let your smoke chamber come down to a temp below 300 so it doesn't cook too fast.  The thigh and drumsticks are cheap at Wal-Mart - $7 a 10lb bag.  Grab two cause they'll be gone as soon as the neighbors see you smoking up some meat and drinking a few cold ones.

Start simple, then expand your horizons as you perfect the hardest part of charcoal cooking - temperature control. 

Here's the main tips my friend taught me when I was first learning charcoal smoking on a SFB:

1) Let the coals & wood get flamed up and start to burn down

2) Wait until the white ash burns off

3) Toss on any smoking wood, then close the firebox vent down to 25% or less to slow the burn of fuel

          (top stack open/closed usually does not make much of a difference)

4) Wait until temp drops to around 300 to add meat

5) Try not to open the firebox or cooking chamber

Remember, whenever you open the firebox, you're allowing oxygen into the box, which allows the temp to change the longer it is

open.  You want to slow cook the meat and let the smoker add the flavor as it cooks.  :o)  Good luck!

PCJack

 

[smokingvic]

Thanks PC Jack , I will try some baby back ribs this weekend , I am still leary on what to use for heat , I do not have anything to cut up the wood if i get some , FYI , I just got a basket made for my SFB , it is 3/16" plates welded to 12" X 8" X 4" high with 5/8" holes all over around the sides and also all over on the bottom , I will set it on top of the ash tray on the bottom .

 

[pcjack]

Vic,

Though I'm a veteran to cooking chicken, turkeys, pork tenderloin and fish....I finally have found a way to get the ribs to where I call them "good eatin' ribs".  I've probably tried 8 or 9 times on my own (stubborn me for wasting good meat) and they always had an issue with toughness, fatty meat and not being tender enough for my liking....wife had swore off ribs completely.  I decided on this last try for good ribs to try some of the info I found on the SM newsletter.  Needless to say, this will be my primary method to smoking ribs from now on.  I typically use an electric smoker and the last batch I made, used a borrowed charcoal smoker as well as trying Jeff's 2-1-1 method with the foil wrap on the second step.  My buddy suggested skipping the third step because my ribs were so tender before the third step.  (Typically the 2-1-1 method is:  2 hours on the rack, 1 hour in foil, 1 hour on the rack again....read up on any differences between St. Louis and baby back cooking times, I have only cooked the bigger ribs and have not wanted to waste the extra money on BB ribs until I had perfected my process first)

My first batch of what I call REAL GOOD ribs while on vacation was only just 3 weeks ago, my wife has raved about them for the first time (all thanks to this website). I borrowed someone's charcoal smoker because my electric one took a dump (see my link below for the full story).  Until this time, I never used foil with ribs and my electric smoker does not have temp control, so "it's plug and go" at about 250F, that's it.  I was always skeptical with charcoal smokers because of the complaints about temp control and I hated waiting for the charcoal to normalize.  Let me tell you, my ribs came out totally different when using the charcoal smoker along with the foil method.

For the wood chunks, I started my smoking learning process, I bought a large bag of mesquite chunks from Home Depot.  It's about $15 a bag, but to get your first smoking wood supply, it will be just fine.  Later you can experiment with types and flavors....I have tried the Jack Daniels chips and Tabasco chips too......fun stuff.

Here's what I did to prep for my best batch of ribs: 

Some people start their charcoal with a chimney starter, I simply threw on some small wood logs, used a propane torch and lit the wood (many of the threads say avoid starter fluid so this was my "fluid-less" solution for starting my fuel), then added about two handfuls of natural lump charcoal to it to get it started.  Once the wood fuel burned down and the charcoal was going great (was around 400F) , I threw on another whole bag and a half of natural lump charcoal (this was a big smoker, obviously use smaller amounts for smaller smokers) and then I choked down the firebox vent once the white ash stopped flying with the doors open.  Within an hour the temp was just under 300F because I choked it down by removing the oxygen allowance.  Once the ribs were prepped & rested, I tossed on my smoking chunk wood, let the ash settle again and put on the meat.

I thawed 3 sides St. Louis style ribs in the fridge two days before cooking

While waiting for smoker temp to come down, I began the meat prep work:

Washed meat and pulled the lining from the back of the ribs

Cut off all the excess fat I could get my hands on without cutting into the meat

Lightly coated the ribs with standard mustard (I plan to try spicy mustard next time)

Used a moderately heavy coating of Durkee Chicken and Rib rub (bought at Wal-Mart) with an extra touch of cayenne pepper

Ribs rested for about 45 minutes before going into the cooker

Cooking at just under 300F - - - Target temp is about 275F

I threw on several "fist sized" chunks of water soaked mesquite wood right before the meat went on and let the ash settle.

Smoked the ribs for 2 hours on the racks uncovered (flipped at the end of the first hour, next time will try no flip to see if different)

I then removed them from the smoker and wrapped them in *HEAVY DUTY* Reynolds foil and put back in for another hour and a half.

Meat completely fell apart when picking up the foil packs with BBQ tongs, so I knew I was on to something when the meat was falling apart right away. It was the most awesome set of ribs I had ever had at home, restaurant ribs had nothing on these and Sonny's ribs could be compared to shoe leather against these ribs!  Can't wait to make some more......my mouth is drooling like niagra falls with rib desire as I wrote this reply.  LOL  Just need to get my smoker situation fixed or replaced first.

Let me know how your rib venture goes & hit me up with any questions.  I may not have all the answers, but very willing to share

what I have learned so far.  I wish I had used this resource sooner!

Happy smoking!

PCJack

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/125391/new-to-this-forum-but-not-to-smoking-meat#post_840227

 

[bruno994]

Welcome to the forum Vic from another Texas member.  If you haven't yet, make sure and research all the threads here on Chargriller mods and tips.  You are on the right track with the charcoal basket, I found the stainless steel wok that Lowes or Academy sells worked out great in the SFB of my Chargriller until I got one built out of expanded metal.  Fill it up with unlit, light about 12-16 briquettes in my chimney, pour on top of the unlit, spread them out evenly and off we go.  During the cook I'll throw on some oak and mesquite chunks or chips to get the smoky flavor we're all looking for.  I don't soak the chips either, but once again thats a personal preference.  As far as not getting above 200 with your smoker, it might be a bad therm on the unit itself.  Factory therms are known to not be too accurate.  You will need to buy a digital therm and place the probe in the middle of your grate in a piece of wood or potato or onion to get an accurate reading of what you are cooking at.  You can also use an oven thermometer to accurately measure your actual grate temps, but the digital allows you to monitor temps without having to open the smoker lid any more than you have to.  It could also be too small of a fire in the SFB.  Just keep playing with your smoker, you'll learn the ins and outs of it in no time.  Make sure that the exhaust stack is fully open as well, allowing for a good draft through the smoker.  Building a few practice fires is not a bad idea either, just to play with your temps to see how they react to changes to the air intake.  Good luck and happy smoking!

 

[pcjack]

Bruno,

Good point on the thermometer, I didn't think of that.  All too easy to trust a factory thermometer when it's right there in your face....
I guess having a secondary one just to ensure the primary is within a degree or two will do the trick.

My question is this:  I know they sell inexpensive digital sticks at the Home Depot and Wal-Mart, but the burning question is --- can you trust them? 

Or do you buy a good one from somewhere else?  At home, I have a wireless digital remote temp monitor I got for Christmas two years ago plus a basic

digital stick, so I'm good with that, but when I went on vacation, I completely forgot to bring either and was reluctant to buy a $7 digital one at Winn-Dixie while

on vacation.  I just eyeballed my ribs, luckily they came out fantastic and I didn't need one.  I guess I could have borrowed one from my neighbor

as well.

A second set of eyes & ears always finds something we have overlooked.

Appreciate the input on this thread.  :o)

 

[oldschoolbbq]

Vic,try this for burning wood in your side box: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/search.php?search=stickburning+101

Have fun and...

 

[smokingvic]

Thanks for the Info. , I bought 2 bags of the RO 100% all natural wood lump charcoal from Wally world in the red bag made in USA ,As mentioned before I have a 12 X 8 x 4" high basket , Do i fill this basket up with the lump charcoal or not and do I need to leave a strip through the middle to help with the air , and do i need to use any other wood or charcoal , will this RO produce smoke also and i also have some Western Mesquite B B Q Mini Logs ,I am going to do some Ribs and use my rib rack , might also do a split chicken also , any suggestions on what would help in testing this smoker out would be helpful to me.

 

[pcjack]

I think this is where I lack the expertise and am not afraid to admit it.  I own an electric smoker, but when mine puked, I borrowed

a smaller trailer smoker from a neighbor to smoke the 3 racks I had prepped.  I simply didn't want them to go to waste.  With him

coaching me over my shoulder, I used a charcoal setup for the first time with no mishaps and the ribs came out perfect.  I used

the Winn-Dixie store brand lump charcoal because it was on sale -- buy 1 get 1 free, cut my charcoal cost in half and it worked great.

I think the charcoal will smoke a little, but I would want wood smoke (this is why I tossed in mesquite on my 1st run with a charcoal smoker).

On the rig I used, there was no basket and I pretty much burned the whole two bags and spread the coals out.  I started with wood logs & about

1/2 a bag of charcoal on top, once the wood starting burning on its own just to get the fire box going hot.  Once I had the first 1/2 bag burning good,

I dumped the other bag and a half so the box had ample long-term fuel to continue through the smoke process. (I closed main cooking area doors)

When that heap of charcoal began to burn throughout, I then tossed on my smoking chunks (made sure there was no white ash anywhere) and

closed up the fire box top door and closed the rotating air intake vents on the fire box, closed down to about 25% to choke down on the incoming

oxygen and slow the fuel burn process. 

Cooked my ribs 2 hours right on the grates, then another hour and a half wrapped in heavy foil.   Was right on the money for me.  Hope this helps......

I usually don't have to foil the chicken, so that should be "toss right on and cook", getting decent results with chicken is MUCH easier than ribs.

Again, I've only done charcoal once with the smoker owner's guidance......but I had the man right there to ensure I did it right.  I'm now seriously

shopping for a charcoal smoker in my area because the finished product sold me....

Good luck & keep us posted....

 

[piaconis]

Vic, here's what I do with my SFB smoker and the exact same charcoal:

• Line the bottom of your charcoal basket with a couple handfuls of regular briquettes.  If you burn through your lump, you'll have these to "catch and hold" the temps
• Fill the rest of the basket close to the top with your lump charcoal
• Use a chimney starter to start a handful of larger lump charcoal until it looks ash colored, then pour it in on top of your charcoal in the box...search "minion method" for more specifics
• Wait about 15 minutes or so as the smoker gets up to temp, and adjust.  Feel free to throw two or three chunks of wood, if you like, for added flavor

That works for me.  Every smoker is different, so you'll want to do some test runs just to get used to it.

Also, I have that Wally World digital probe.  It's worked for me, though occasionally it does some funky things on the display when you use the custom temperature mode.

Happy smoking!  Be sure and post some Q-view!

 

[smokingvic]

Thanks ,

Another thing, what direction should I have the SFB vent turned at , I always had it in the direction of where the wind was blowing from , do I need to turn it any if the wind direction changes ????         Do I need to spray the ribs with ??? every thirty minutes , I seen this in one of the forums but I cannot find it now.

 

[bruno994]

I would rotate the smoker according to wind direction or use some kind of wind block.  The  more air (oxygen) you get to the fire, the hotter she will burn.  The wind is the number one killer of a smooth smoking session, rain is a close second.  For the ribs, I spritz with apple juice every 45 minutes or so during the smoking portion of the 3-2-1 method.  Sometimes, I'll mix a liitle Jack in with the juice for added flavor.  As far as using lump, it's real wood, not manufactured briquettes, you should get plenty of smoke from just the lump, but throwing some smoking chunks or sticks on the fire won't hurt, just don't overdo this unless you like a real smoky flavor.  "Piaconis" is right on the mark, layer the bottom of your basket with briquettes to help keep the heat steady, while filling it up with the lump.  You can always add more lump and or briquettes as needed for longer cooks.  Knowing and learning your pit will only make fire management easier each time you cook, it will come with time.  Also, make sure you have done the boil test on all of your therms, the digital, the one on the smoker itself, basically perform the boil test on any therm you will be using while cooking.  This way, if they are off, you will know how much and can make adjustments accordingly. 

 

[piaconis]

Bruno is right on the money with the boil test.  The only thing that screws up a smoke worse than difficulty controlling temperature is having control of the wrong temperature.

Stick burners take time to learn, but I still believe they produce the most flavorful Q.  Wouldn't trade mine for anything, even though it can be a pain in the rear to babysit every now and then.

Keep us posted on how your experience goes!

 

[smokingvic]

  OK Bruno ,  I get the understanding that I should have the SFB vent opposite from the wind direction to act as an wind block to not kill the smoking session .