- Feb 7, 2011
- 9
- 10
Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and new to smoking. This past week I've smoked about 12 lbs of pork cushion meat and an 8 lb pork butt. They turned out good, but I want to work on perfection lol.
As for my setup, I really wanted to make a smoker. But since I didn't really know what I was doing I got the Masterbuilt XL propane model from BPS instead. I have to say in my limited experience that I love it. It went together easily, cooks well (minus a few problems) and was a great price to easily jump into smoking. I ended up finding this forum through google just looking for info on making this smoker better. After using the stock chip pan the first time and burning up a whole bag of chips, I swapped out ended up using a cast iron skillet sitting on top of the chip pan on the 2nd run. That didn't seem to make enough smoke so I took the stock water pan and used that sitting on the chip pan. Still not perfect, so I'm going to cut the bottom out of the chip pan so the flames will be closer to the cast iron.
Here's a few pics from my first two attempts:
After it was assembled.
Fist smoking attempt. Held the heat well, stock therm sucked.
Food turned out well. Cooked until 160, but it didn't want to pull. Failed to realize that there are more steps to a good pulled pork.
2nd try: Notice the foil water pan cast iron skillet. Got a better smoke ring this time, but the meat didn't pull once again because I didn't realize the final steps.
So anyway, that's my story. I'm looking forward to having a really successful 3rd try. This forum really looks like a place with an abundance of knowledge!
As for my setup, I really wanted to make a smoker. But since I didn't really know what I was doing I got the Masterbuilt XL propane model from BPS instead. I have to say in my limited experience that I love it. It went together easily, cooks well (minus a few problems) and was a great price to easily jump into smoking. I ended up finding this forum through google just looking for info on making this smoker better. After using the stock chip pan the first time and burning up a whole bag of chips, I swapped out ended up using a cast iron skillet sitting on top of the chip pan on the 2nd run. That didn't seem to make enough smoke so I took the stock water pan and used that sitting on the chip pan. Still not perfect, so I'm going to cut the bottom out of the chip pan so the flames will be closer to the cast iron.
Here's a few pics from my first two attempts:
After it was assembled.
Fist smoking attempt. Held the heat well, stock therm sucked.
Food turned out well. Cooked until 160, but it didn't want to pull. Failed to realize that there are more steps to a good pulled pork.
2nd try: Notice the foil water pan cast iron skillet. Got a better smoke ring this time, but the meat didn't pull once again because I didn't realize the final steps.
So anyway, that's my story. I'm looking forward to having a really successful 3rd try. This forum really looks like a place with an abundance of knowledge!
