New Member!

[5busyfoxes]

Just recently purchased my first smoker - an Oklahoma Joe.  This past weekend I smoked two 2 chickens and some ribs, was pretty happy with how everything turned out.  The ribs were fantastic, but the chicken was not as juicy as I was hoping for.  Now I have some quick questions!!

1) purchased some oven thermometers to place on the grill rack (was all I could find on short notice and I didn't want to wait for an online purchase to arrive - I was anxious to use my smoker!!).  Placed one on the smoker box side, and one on the far side.  Grill rack level temps varied greatly from the temps being reported on the thermometers on the lid (one came with the grill, and I found an identical one at Wal-Mart so now I have them on both sides of the lid) - at one point the lid said 350 and the rack temp was only 225.  Is that normal?   The oven thermometers didn't last long, the glass windows are already smoked black and just about unreadable.   Now that that experiment didn't work, what thermometers should I be looking at??  I have a probe, but I'm more interested in something that is going to help me with regulating a more consistent heat - see number 2 below.

2) It's going to take some practice before I can consistently regulate the heat.  I was using charcoal and I was pretty good with just that, but when I added the hickory and apple wood chunks temps would rise dramatically.  Any tips?

Pete

 

[smokesontuesday]

Welcome to the forums. 

Hit up http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/133/roll-call  and let us know about you.

1) The therms that come with your smoker are rarely right, be it due to bad placement (the usual issue) or just being a bad therm.

I like the Maverick line of therms. Before I went a bit crazy (my wife's term) and switched up to a home built system I used a pair of the Maverick ET-732s  to monitor everything. They work well and the remote is nice.

2) I'm not much of a wood burner (mostly use electric) so I'll let someone with better experience answer that one.

 

[GaryHibbert]

   Smokes on Tuesday pretty much covered it.  A lot members use Maverick remote thermsI kinda like the ET-733 myself.  They're dual probe therms so you can moniter grill temp and internal temp at the same time.  Very accurate.  Most stock therms that come on smokers are garbage--just leave it there to cover the hole.

Gary 

 

[mike5051]

I've got a Maverick, and use a Thermapen for checking steaks and such.  Quality thermometers are a must for trusting your temps.

Happy smoking!

 

[GaryHibbert]

Hey Pete

As far as your "oven therms" go, a trick we used to use when camping when I was a kid, was to coat the bottom of the pots with liquid dish soap before putting them over the fire.  The black from the smoke and fire then washed off pretty easily.  Don't know if this would work for you, but maybe give it a try.

Gary