Hey guys,
I wanted to say Hello to all members of this forum from Romania, Eastern Europe! Glad to have found you!
Below is my brand new smoker, which I got when I moved into a new house - lived in the city by now, so I was only grilling from time to time. Now I got this baby - probably not the best, or the biggest, but it is what I found to be a better choice on a slow smoker market that we have here. It has a suitable size for me, and at least for an absolute begginer in smoking meat, it also has a reasonable price.
Let me tell you a little bit about my 3 experiences so far:
1. Very first ever - used it wrong, put charcoal on both chambers, but the result was not so bad, meat (mix of "mici", sausages, pork neck) was smoky, moist. But I was all over the place. I did not like the experience, and I thought that if this is how it's done, I will give up...
2. Second experience - also used wrong, tried to rush it, damn... Not so bad meat in the end, but also bad experience.
3. Now we're talking... I started it early, around 10:30 AM, with something else for lunch so I don't have to rush it again. I had some pork ribs and some pork neck, but in a piece this time, not in slices. I left the meat in the fridge with some bought BBQ sauce (not so great but eh) overnight, then started the charcoals and put the meat on directly from the fridge - I read somewhere that this is how it takes the most smoke in the beggining. I left these 2 in there for about 6 hours, the result was WOW - smoked meat, great experience, sitting there just chillin, havin' a brew...
I don't want to talk about the first 2 times, but I do have some questions about the real way of smokin' meat in general:
1. One of the most important questions: with the first batch of charcoal, the temp inside (on the lid) was about 150* Celsius. I know that this is not good, but how do I keep a lower temp with charcoals? And how do you keep it steady?
2. The pork neck I found to be moist inside, but dried on the outside. I did not rub anything else other than the sauce which was on it. I had a aluminum tray below with some water, but it seems that it did not do the trick.
3. Is the meat better straight from the fridge or at room temperature?
That's about it for now, I am going over to reading some recipes, some of your experiences and hopefully I will do better next time. The thing is that we need to have a house-warming party, and in my group I always grilled the meat, give advices about food, etc. so now I want to raise the bar and give my friends and myself a whole new experience.
Thanks!
I wanted to say Hello to all members of this forum from Romania, Eastern Europe! Glad to have found you!
Below is my brand new smoker, which I got when I moved into a new house - lived in the city by now, so I was only grilling from time to time. Now I got this baby - probably not the best, or the biggest, but it is what I found to be a better choice on a slow smoker market that we have here. It has a suitable size for me, and at least for an absolute begginer in smoking meat, it also has a reasonable price.
Let me tell you a little bit about my 3 experiences so far:
1. Very first ever - used it wrong, put charcoal on both chambers, but the result was not so bad, meat (mix of "mici", sausages, pork neck) was smoky, moist. But I was all over the place. I did not like the experience, and I thought that if this is how it's done, I will give up...
2. Second experience - also used wrong, tried to rush it, damn... Not so bad meat in the end, but also bad experience.
3. Now we're talking... I started it early, around 10:30 AM, with something else for lunch so I don't have to rush it again. I had some pork ribs and some pork neck, but in a piece this time, not in slices. I left the meat in the fridge with some bought BBQ sauce (not so great but eh) overnight, then started the charcoals and put the meat on directly from the fridge - I read somewhere that this is how it takes the most smoke in the beggining. I left these 2 in there for about 6 hours, the result was WOW - smoked meat, great experience, sitting there just chillin, havin' a brew...
I don't want to talk about the first 2 times, but I do have some questions about the real way of smokin' meat in general:
1. One of the most important questions: with the first batch of charcoal, the temp inside (on the lid) was about 150* Celsius. I know that this is not good, but how do I keep a lower temp with charcoals? And how do you keep it steady?
2. The pork neck I found to be moist inside, but dried on the outside. I did not rub anything else other than the sauce which was on it. I had a aluminum tray below with some water, but it seems that it did not do the trick.
3. Is the meat better straight from the fridge or at room temperature?
That's about it for now, I am going over to reading some recipes, some of your experiences and hopefully I will do better next time. The thing is that we need to have a house-warming party, and in my group I always grilled the meat, give advices about food, etc. so now I want to raise the bar and give my friends and myself a whole new experience.
Thanks!
