Pork spare ribs would be a good starter.
I'm a newbie too, so I like to smoke a few different things at once. That way if the "main course" doesn't come out I have something else to fall back on LOL. (That hasn't happened yet).
Throw on some extras like bacon wrapped chicken breasts, stuffed jalapenos also wrapped, or couple of kielbasa's.
I concur, sir. Let me tell you my story of how I got into smoking meats....
Years ago, when it was just the wife and I, I got this grand idea that I was going to smoke some brisket using the directions of the little Brinkman smoker I had. Didn't know what the hell brisket was, just knew it tasted good. Boy, how stupid of me.
That piece of meat was so rubbery, I could have erased a billboard with it. Needless to say, the experience stunted my BBQ growth for quite some time.
So I did more direct heat grilling over some years. Did ribs on the grill, steaks, things of that nature. Got decent with it. Eventually, we had kids and moved from the small apartment into a nice house. When we saw the house, it had this nice, large deck off the kitchen. I told my wife, "Dear, we need to get a real grill!" She concurred, and we ended up getting a Char-Griller from Lowe's.
I grilled more food for a couple of years, then my wife says to me about a year and a half ago, "You don't know it, but I'm gonna get you back to try smoking meats." I cringed, remembering my eraser brisket.
So, for Father's Day, 2010, I awoke to a side fire box for my Char-Griller. Put this thing on...and didn't even try smoking a damn thing until at least a month after she got it for me.
First thing I started with were a rack of spare ribs. That's how I happened upon the SMF - doing research on how to properly do this thing called 'low and slow' cause I got two kids with hungary mouths - no need to waste food and throw it away.
Did the ribs, low and slow, for four hours. Even documented my adventure with video. Needless to say, I was quite pleased! The ribs came out nice and juicy, not falling off the bone (big no no), but not chewy undercooked.
I then worked my way up from ribs to doing pulled pork. But before I did that, I had to find out that my smoker (that I still use) is an el cheapo that would need some mods. That's when I added the charcoal basket, extra therms, a heat baffle, and a chimney extender. These things alone helped me to not only do the pulled pork (which is easy peasy now), but I have done brisket and turkey as well.
So, I guess before you start smoking your meat, can you show us pics of your smoker?
