First smoke?

[gene80]

Given that I am totally new and a believer in the KISS principal, what should I attack as my first smoke with my brand new Camp Chef. Also, what do the "points" refer to?

 

[seenred]

 
Given that I am totally new and a believer in the KISS principal, what should I attack as my first smoke with my brand new Camp Chef. Also, what do the "points" refer to?

Hey Gene...kinda depends on how much time you want to spend.  If you've got time for a long cook, you might try a boston pork butt for pulled pork.  Takes a long time to finish (average between 1.5-2 hours per raw pound of meat), but its pretty easy, hard to mess up, and well worth the wait!  

If you're in a bigger hurry, its hard to beat your favorite chicken parts.  Wings, legs, quarters...whatever you like.

The "points" is a reflection of a member's reputation on the forums.  Any time you read a thread or a post that is helpful, or if you just want to thank another member for a post they made, you click on the little thumbs up button in the lower right corner of their post.  This adds to their point total, or "reputation".  You can see each member's points in the upper right corner of each post they make.  I believe all new members begin with a 10 points...kind of a "head start" to get you going?

Hope that helps...welcome aboard and have fun with that new smoker!

Red

 

[foamheart]

Red's got good advise and a great explaination.

Personally I started out on chicken, why? Because Its always easily available, its one of the faster smokes, it has the ability to try and learn numerous techinques, and its fairly inexpensive. That is nearly all you can ask. But the pulled butt is most forgiving, but patience was never one of my virtues and it was gradually learned as my smokings skills were increased. That word is most important in smoking, "Patience".

Smoking is about learning, reading helps to hopefully avoid pitfalls, but without the meat in the box its all conjecture.

Plan once a week for 3 or 4 weeks to smoke a chicken. The more you smoke the more you'll understand the post relating to it. As you understand more, you'll want to try different techinques, brines, rubs, injections,herbs, fruits, pellet flavors, etc etc.... The list is endless. Once you can make an impressive chicken, and gather all the love from friends and family, you can start another meat and carry what you learned from the birds forward.

When you see something new, go back and try it on the chicken before trying it on a 35.00 brisket.

The best thing about smoking is there no one and only perfect way to smoke. Every chef is different, every pit has to be learned, and each meat massaged into being exactly what you want it to be. If you play golf you'll understand, you smoke 8 briskets and then you get that 9th one, its perfect but you did it in all aspects the same as the first 8. You have to keep doing them to figure out why. Its not a destination, ist all about all the good stuff you get to eat, make, and the friends you accumulate along the way.

Remember the search engine, its heaped full of expertise and foul ups to help you along. Keep a running set of logs or smoke critique. He's some other have used to help you. Seriously this will happen to you, it gets everyone. You cook the most perfect smoke you ever had, you know what you did but no need to write it down. The rest of your life you kick yourself in the butt. It only takes a min, and can save a few hairs from greying. Take some notes.

 http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/attachments/3

Since Red answered the points, I was only supposed to say, I like chickens (they are still one of the best).

Bon Chance and I hope you really enjoy smoking. Its legal, does not cause cancer, but it could be fattening......LOL