Greetings from South Dakota

[bdlight4]

I'm new to this smoking thing. I just purchased a MES, grinder, and meat mixer to process my own venison. Was looking for recipes when I came accross your site. I would have to say I'm excited to get started. I'm heading to Wally World in an hour or so to purchase a pork loin for the smoker tomorrow. I was thinking about a mustard bath along with a nice rub, allowing to sleep in the fridge overnight and rest most of the day because, at 3:00 pm it's getting smoked! If anyone wants to offer up some pointers, I'm all open. If I have done my research, I will smoke at 240 until internal temp is 150. I will be using dry hickory chips a handfull at a time, and continue smoke until done. Rule of thumb says about 1.5 hours per pound. What do I do with the damper on top of the unit? Thanks for the help and enjoy the site. Smoke on!

 

[ajthepoolman]

Welcome to the site!

Purchase Jeff's Famous Rub and put it all over the mustard covered pork. The taste is amazing!

 

[chadpole]

Welcome,bdlight4 to the SMF

 

[mossymo]

Welcome to SMF from just North of you !!! Be sure and season your smoker before you use it, it is a good test run and it will elminate any new tastes or odors from your smoker to the meat.

 

[bdlight4]

Thanks for the welcom. What do you suggest to season the smoker?

 

[meowey]

Welcome to SMF! Glad you found us!

You might want to PM Illini. He has an MES.

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[gypsyseagod]

welcome to smf.

 

[blackhawk19]

You can spray the inside with Pam, crank it up to a high temp and get some smoke going for a couple of hours

 

[richoso1]

Hello and welcome to the SMF. You'll have plenty of sound advise from some friendly folks on this site. Looking forward to your Q Views!

 

[illini]

Welcome to SMF..bdlight4

The MES has a stainless steel liner inside....no need to put a vegetable oil on it....just set your thermostat to around 230-250* put about 1/2 inch of water in the pan and burn 4 or 5 chips every 30 minutes through the dump pan...do all of this for around 2-3 hours and it will be ready to go.

To start with until you want to try something different leave the top vent open....I say this because most new owners tend to overdo the amount of wood they use....this full open position will allow more smoke to get out

Remember, if you can just determine that there is smoke coming out the top then you have it just right as far as the chips are concerned.....I find that somewhere between 3 and 5 chips added every 30-40 minutes gets you in the realm of thin blue smoke

If you are doing a Pork loin (the big ones) try cutting your hickory chips by 50% and replace that with apple chips.....50-50 mix

Never used mustard on pork loin....doubt whether it will help develop a "bark" since it won't be cooking that long....A good rub applied is great though

Take mine to 160-165 internal but that is my personal opinion

Usually run my smoker at 225 for most everything but 240 probably OK.

Good Luck and if at first you do not succeed then try try again......Lots of fun that way

 

[cajun_1]

Welcome to the SMF

 

[ultramag]

Welcome to SMF bdlight4!!!

 

[deejaydebi]

Welcome Bdlight -

Glad to have you aboard! You be love this new hobby!

 

[johnd49455]

Welcome to SMF the best BBQ site on the net

 

[phinfan]

welcome aboard.

 

[t-bone tim]

welcome to SMF,Bdlight and hello from Canada....real good advice there from Illini, don' t use a handful of chips 5 or 6 good size ones at a time will do ....when doing pork I run my mes @ 230 ....also Dutch has a wonderful recipe posted as a sticky in the pork section for pork loin...dutch's smoked porkloin with mahogany sauce ,try it's yummy

 

[bbq bubba]

Welcome to the SMF!

 

[coleysmokinbbq]

Hi bdlight4!...Welcome to the SMF!...

...Glad to have you aboard!...

 

[hawgheaven]

Welcome to SMF, glad you found us!

 

[bdlight4]

Thanks everyone for the welcome and input. I couldn't take it, last night I fired up the smoker just for the smell. I sat on the deck enjoying the smell and a cold beverage! I did notice that the MES didn't make a lot of smoke. The temp was holding between 238-240. The chips I have are more like shavings, not chunks of wood. Should they be wet? I have read that people use both ways.