New Member ( and new at smoking too! )

[Jadamow2]

Hello Everyone,

I have been lurking on this site for a while just looking around as I have always loved BBQ and been curious about smoking. I bought an Oklahoma Joe Longhorn Reverse Flow and made a few mods to it that I've seen recommended on here. I've high-temp RTV'd the seam of the FB, between the FB and the cooking chamber and around the chimney. I have installed 1/2 x 1/8" gasket around both doors and added a second temperature gage in the CC door. I have also installed a port for a grill-level temperature probe and installed Thermoworks DOT. I put a Destaco SS toggle latch on the FB door and two Destaco SS toggle clamps on the CC door. I would like to try the 1st burn and seasoning this weekend, weather permitting. I plan to paint it inside and outside with vegetable oil prior to the burn and take it to 300 for a couple of hours.

Does this sound right to you folks? Can you tell me anything that I am doing wrong or is there anything that I am not doing but should be?

I look forward to learning a lot on here and thank you for listening.

Joe

 

[noboundaries]

Joe, welcome to SMF! Glad you're here and excited about putting the new toy/project to work. I'm sure one of the wood-burner guys will be along shortly to answer your questions about your seasoning plan.

Enjoy the forum!

Ray

 

[SmokinAl]

Sounds to me like you have all your bases covered!
What do you have planned for your first smoke?
Al

 

[gmc2003]

Sounds like you went to town with the new smoker. You definitely have a plan and it's on track. Oh yeah welcome to the forum.

Chris

 

[Jadamow2]

Thank you for the responses and welcome wishes, noboundaries, SmokinAl and gmc2003. Also, thank you for confirming that I'm on the right track. It's been pretty cold and snowy where I live so I've had the time to read, re-read and follow the recommendations on this site.
I'm hoping to season the smoker this Saturday and the wife wants me to try some ribs on Sunday. I'll post back to let you know how everything went.
Thank you,again!
Joe

 

[Jadamow2]

Hello again,
I was able to do a seasoning burn on Sunday. I didn't use the grate level thermometer and just went by the temps in the door units. I kept it around 250-300 degrees for about 5 hours and called it done. It had a slight leak around the FB door gasket but I didn't think it was big deal.

Yesterday, I tried a chicken thinking that if I screwed it up, it wouldn't have been an expensive mistake. It turned our pretty good and took two hours longer than I expected but I learned some good lessons.

I had read that a chicken should take about 3 hours at 225 degrees. I learned that there is a big difference in temperature at the top of the door and at grate level. After three hours, I opened the cook chamber and my thermopen read 118 degrees in the breast! I closed it back up and cranked the hood temp to 300 and checked the meat temp every half hour. It took another hour and a half but I finally got the meat temp to 165. The skin was sorta tough (maybe due to the long cook time?) but the meat was wonderful!
I'll try something else next weekend. I learned a lot and have a ton of questions but I'll search the site for answers before I bother you all with asking for answers that have been answered before.

Thank you for reading,

Joe