My First Attempt!

[tallbm]

Final results for today’s project.

8.14lb butt yielded 3lbs 2.5 ozs (plus some “quality control” sampling) of pulled pork.

The vast majority of the meat pretty much fell apart for me in my hands as I was separating the unrendered fat out. There were a few small sections that required a bit of effort to pull, but still looked great when done. And then there were a couple of really small corner/point pieces that were dry and crunchy and I nibbled on them or tossed them.

Smells wonderful (as it did the entire time, lol) and the taste was definitely to my liking. I took Tallbm’s advice on the seasoning and used a mixture of SPOG, one measure of each, and added 1/3 measure each of paprika and cumin (I really like the flavor cumin gives to meat). Mixed the spices, took the butt out of the package and rubbed it down while moist. It sat for maybe 15 minutes while I was getting the smoker all set and ready to go and it went in at 300.

Temps were all over the place, unfortunately, as I am still getting used to regulating temp and smoke with the burner and the vents. And, OF COURSE, the propane tank ran out a couple of hours in! If I had to estimate a temp chart it would look like this:
300 for about 30 mins
350 for about 30 mins
275 for about an hour
325 for about an hour
250 for about 30 mins
200 for about 15 mins (the changing of the tank)
275 for about 20 mins
325 for the rest of the time until the IT hit 203.

Even the wife liked the taste of the meat and she is not a huge smoked/BBQ fan (I love her for other reasons, lol).

Here are some pictures. Not sure I’m ready for fish yet, might try brining/injecting a bird and doing that again…View attachment 635751View attachment 635752View attachment 635753
Oh, also, I did do the slice down the middle, but I didn’t get it exactly in the middle and I think the smaller section got a bit dryer. Also, there was not a lot of a fat cap on this out of the package, probably only about ⅛ to ¼ inch maximum, so I did NOTHING to that. Fat side was down for this run.

Had to add more wood chunks once and refilled the water dish twice.

Hey that looks fantastic!
I'm glad it was a success and you learned a few things.

As for holding. I pull mine out of the smoker, tightly wrap in 2 layers of foil, and then tightly wrap in 3 bath towels . I set it on the table or counter and 4-5 hours later it is still piping hot so I pull/shred it and it is ready to serve and eat :)

The nice thing about pork butts, pork ribs, and briskets is they don't care what temp you smoke them at as long as you aren't burning them... and you don't have sugar in the rub/seasoning :)

Doing more pork butts and learning how to whip your smoker into shape and get the behavior you want is a great way to practice and it's a cheaper cut of meat.

Once you absolutely nail about 3 pork butts then you can spend some money and try a brisket if that ever interests you. Until then I would stick with perfecting long-big smokes by doing pork butts.

Keep at it and keep enjoying the good bbq! :D

 

[Mike Kilo]

Welcome from Nova Scotia

Your chicken looks great, but like all above have said higher heat for birds. And like tallbm said try not to tent up .

I have the same smoker and I smoke/cook quite a few different things in mine . Most things work and I have had a couple fails, not the smokers fault , it was the cook trying out different things.

You will enjoy the smoker and like said. the temp gauge on the front is always wrong. I have a 4 probe Inkbird and love it. As I can go about my yard choirs while the smoke is rolling. I have mine set up in it's own little building so I can cook/smoke almost anytime of year. A couple of snow storms slowed me down a bit.

This place is full of great folks that will help you if you need it and cheer you on while you enjoy this way of feeding the family.

David
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I love your smoke hut setup!!

With your recommendation and some further investigation, I picked up an ink bird four probe thermometer and am looking forward to getting to use it!

Thanks!

 

[Mike Kilo]

Hi there and welcome!
Great first smoke.

Biggest poultry tips to help you out are:

1. Smoke your poultry at 325F smoker temp to get edible skin. Poultry skin just doesn't want to be edible unless cooked at a higher heat. Think of this is a quirk of skin on poultry (chicken or turkey)

2. If you cover/tent cooked poultry it starts to rehydrate and toughen up the skin some. Try not to cover or tent it if you can avoid it. So in your case putting the bird uncovered in a warmed oven would have been a good way to hold it and keep it warm while working on sides and stuff.

3. Brining, curing, marinating, or injecting will help ensure a bird is not dry in the breast and white meat. Same with just smoking breast meat. If you decide to brine/cure/marinate let us know and we can discuss the beauty and precision of an "Equilibrium" brine to nail it and never get too salty.


So there are the few little tips for your whole birds and poultry with skin on.

Now you mention doing turkey legs. If you want state fair/disney land style smoked turkey legs then you will need to use come cure #1 or else it will be like your chicken and less like those hammy mahogany smoked turkey drums.

Let us know when you are doing your pork butt and ask any questions you may have.
Everyone says it is an easy smoke BUT... like all smokes each different one has different quirks and tricks to consider.
You just ran into skin on poultry quirks. A pork butt will have different quirks not related to the whole bird.
That is part of the understanding of smoking meat. Each cut is different and has a few quirks to address. You rarely can treat two different cuts of meat the same with process, seasoning, and trips/tricks.

I hope this info helps :)

Trying some chicken thighs and drumsticks today. Made a brine of 12 cups water, ½ cup kosher salt and one cup brown sugar with a couple teaspoons of garlic powder, a sprinkling of thyme and rosemary and a dash of apple cider vinegar. Soaked the meat in it for about 12 hours. The meat is in the fridge on a rack dripping onto a pan right now. Been in there about an hour so far.

Gonna give it another hour or so and then into the smoker. Based on your previous suggestions, I’ll be setting it to 325. Good internal temp 165 or 185? Given that it is all dark meat I’m thinking the higher temp, but I’m here to learn from others!

I’ve read it’ll be about an hour and a half to two hours at 225, so this should be a pretty quick smoke.

Gonna do applewood with no water in the drip pan.

 

[tallbm]

Trying some chicken thighs and drumsticks today. Made a brine of 12 cups water, ½ cup kosher salt and one cup brown sugar with a couple teaspoons of garlic powder, a sprinkling of thyme and rosemary and a dash of apple cider vinegar. Soaked the meat in it for about 12 hours. The meat is in the fridge on a rack dripping onto a pan right now. Been in there about an hour so far.

Gonna give it another hour or so and then into the smoker. Based on your previous suggestions, I’ll be setting it to 325. Good internal temp 165 or 185? Given that it is all dark meat I’m thinking the higher temp, but I’m here to learn from others!

I’ve read it’ll be about an hour and a half to two hours at 225, so this should be a pretty quick smoke.

Gonna do applewood with no water in the drip pan.

Glad you liked my setup and are getting your setup beefed up! :D

I agree with the higher internal temp for dark meat. Dark meat comes out better at a higher temp. Lots of folks don't go over 180F but I dont think 185F would hurt anything. Dark meat is forgiving.

Yep it would be a quick smoke and I think it will come out well for ya.

If this goes well I encourage you to do a dark meat smoke where you just season up and go.
This will let you compare your brined/marinated approach to the season and go approach and allow you to weigh pros and cons of each. Then you can pick which approach you want to do depending on the time you have for a smoke.

I've heard it said once that happiness means having options... after long and hard thinking, I came to completely agree with such a simple and innocuous statement haha :D