First smoke?!?

[dmack]

Hey all,
I have begun my first smoke.Pork butt. Anyway, I don't have smoke yet. I soaked the chips will that do it? I'm using cherry. Last night when I seasoned it, I used hickory and got a ton of smoke. I did get impatient today and put the butt in when I had maintained 225 for a while. I have opened the valve on my propane tank a couple times. I have a decent flame. By the way I'm using a gosm wide body.

dmack

 

[earache_my_eye]

Hey Doug...saw your earlier thread...nice find on the wide body GOSM!

Most here will tell you to skip the soaking on your chips...they just hafta dry out before they can begin to burn....and travcoman will tell you that a cake pan with foil over it with a few holes poked in it will give you better smoke than the chip box that came with your smoker.

I tend to like that idea, because you could actually have TWO cake pans just for smoking and when one is done.....just swap the other one into the smoker when you go to spritz.

Tip will prolly be along shortly to elaborate on this....I'm just going by what I've read here on the forums.

Hope this helps,
Eric

 

[gobbledot]

Dito what Eric said. I have the wide body and I dont soak the chips, I just put in alum cake pan and cover with foil and 2 -5 holes and off off and away we go. Smoking in less than 3-4 min.. You'll luv your GOSM dmack it will become one of your best bud's

...

 

[travcoman45]

Personally, I don't soak chips er chunks. Use a 9x9 cake pan with foil over the top, pop bout 5 er 6 holes in the foil, like the others have said. When yer smoke starts to totally disapper yall can remove the foil, give the pan a shake and puter back in. The foil helps prevent flare ups an the white smoke, we wan't the thin an blue smoke. Remeber, cherry is a much lighter smoke then hickory, so you won't have as strong an aroma.

Another thin ya can do is put some bricks in the bottom of yer cooker, these will heat up and hep maintain temps an assist in regainin temps after openin the door. Wrap yer pans in tin foil, makes clean up alot easier.

Besure ta use a digital thermo fer yer box temp, not the one that came with the unit, they have a nasty habbit a bein wrong. Have another digi thermo fer each type a meat yer gonna smoke durin a run. Cheap investment in protectin yer goodies.

Run yer top damper wide open. I think yers has dampers on the bottom, yall can play with them some ta hep control the temps.

Good luck an may the smoke gods smile upon yer cooker!

 

[dmack]

Thanks for the help guys.Now everyone will think I'm crazy on this one. I was surprised how large a pork butt is. The smallest I could get was 6 3/4#.Since this is my first smoke I thought I didn't want to invite alot of people in to sample. Anyway, I cut the butt in half. I am smoking the half without the bone and will do the other soon. One last question, how long do you let it rest following reaching the target temp.

dmack

 

[pineywoods]

At least 1 hour I usually go 1 1/2-2 hours

 

[mavrick813]

I have seen alot of the posts on here about putting the bricks in the smoker.

BUT....

What if you happen to have a nice box of Ceramic Briquettes sitting in your garage you've never used before? And better yet don't have a use for.

Similar to these. What if I were to line the bottom of the smoker with these?

Mike