New smoker from Oklahoma city

[usmcoklahoma]

How y'all doin today? Before I get into smokin details ill share a brief history of myself. I am born and raised Okie, I did 4 years in the Marine Corps Infantry and went to Iraq a few times. I currently hold a "normal" 9 - 5 and I like to grill and just started smoking.
My first try at smoking was a few weeks ago which hickory wood, cheap charcoal with misquite chips in it were used to smoke.... cubed steak (gotta start somewhere right?). I was suprised at how they turned out, very noticable but pleasant bacon flavor! Well yesterday I got a dedicated smoker.. well, grill/smoker. This weekend I'm wanting to break it in but I don't know what smoke.
If it helps, my smoker is a horizontal can like most grills. I have hickory wood chunks, most about the size of a mans hand and a few smaller ones. I have the charcoal with misquite wood chips in it. With this set up as is. What meats would I be able to smoke and how would I set up the fire?
I should note, id like to get some of those Jack Daniels barrel chips and maybe some apple wood. I have a buddy with a pecan tree so I can get pecan wood to but for now I may stick with my hickory/misquite set up.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[chainsaw]

Welcome aboard from Ponca City!

Thanks for your service. I served many years with Marines as 8404 corpsman & Desert Storm. Went to the ball every year.

We have some pecan trees but haven't used the wood yet. They sure drop a lot of branches. I have an MES electric.

Tons of great advice on here, recipes too.

You will enjoy this place.

 

[smokinstevo27]

I would start out with boston butt. As many hear will tell you this is a forgiving piece of meat. They are also relatively inexpensive. Try Sams or costco they usually have good butts. I dont want to disappoint you but I would lose the mesquite charcoal, it can give your food a bad taste. If you are already using natural hickory wood it will be plenty to flavor your meat. As far as your fire its best to start out with less fuel as it is easier to bring temps up than it is to take them down. With a pork butt your target temps will be between 225 and 250 cooking for roughly an hour and a half per pound. Refer to other threads for more info on dry rubs and cooking procedure. There is a ridiculous amount of info on this forum from guys and gals who can really help you produce some damn good food. Welcome my friend and good luck.

 

[usmcoklahoma]

Welcome aboard from Ponca City!



Thanks for your service. I served many years with Marines as 8404 corpsman & Desert Storm. Went to the ball every year.



We have some pecan trees but haven't used the wood yet. They sure drop a lot of branches. I have an MES electric.



Tons of great advice on here, recipes too.



You will enjoy this place.

Shoot Doc, don't thank me, thank you! My time in the Corps showed me that Marines LOVE our Docs. I have mad respect for you guys. I don't know many people who would brave incoming just to grab a downed guy, pull him to cover and patch him up. Semper Fi to ya ;-)

 

[porklvr]

Welcome to SMF, i served 8 years in the Army....just got out last year.  I would have to agree that a nice boston butt is a good starter.  That was the first thing I smoked (i think :-))  Like smokinstevo27 said, it is very forgiving.  If you don't already have a good digital therm i'd get one bc it will make your life much easier.  If you are gonna smoke alot, go ahead and spend the 40 bucks and get an ET-73....best 40 i've spent in a long time.  Go check out the pork section, plenty to read there.  It all depends on how you wanna eat it as to how long or what internal temp you are going to take it to....ie. sliced or pulled.  For pulling i shot for between 200-205 internal.  Good luck and again welcome. 

 

[northern greenhorn]

Welcome to smf, great place, good folks, check out the 5 day free course, some useful info there, and as porklvr said, if you don't already have a digital thermostat, get one, two would be better, I use one for the meat the other is stuck through a potato to get an accurate temp reading inside my smoker, you can't trust the ones on your grill/smoker. Good luck, get smokin, and bring on some qview.

 

[ravenclan]

Great to know there are more smokers from Ok !!

I served in the Army and my wife is retired Air Force , Thats how we ended up here but we both liked it here so much we stayed !!

I live in Choctaw and use both electric and a wood/charcoal smoker , i tried the coal with wood bits in it "i think it was Kingsford" i didnt like it , it gave the meat a after taste i did not care for , in my smoker i do use charcoal but i try to use lump charcoal which i have found to be the cheapest at Crest but also the walmart has it too . i mix both the coal and wood but most of my heat is from the coal as far as the wood you will need to experiment with the wood , different wood gives a different flavor . I like Hickory the best for ribs, brisket and pork butts but that is just me .

keep in touch and if you do need any thing send me a email !!

[email protected]

A fellow okie smoker

Bob

 

[mythmaster]

Welcome aboard, neighbor!

I agree that starting out with a pork butt is a great idea because (a) it's forgiving, (b) it gives you some "quality time" with your new smoker to get a handle on maintaining temps/amount of smoke, and (c) there aren't too many things on this planet that taste better than pulled pork.

 

[cowgirl]

Thanks for your service and welcome aboard from another Okie!

 

[meateater]

Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks, great recipes and knowledge. Looking forward to your first qview.

 

[mballi3011]

First off Welcome Marine Dude to SMF. From a proud father with a once Marine but now Army son. You'll like it here for there are alot of really good folks here that would just love to help you with just about anything to do with smoking. Now there are alot of proven recipes for some amazing things here too. So if you need sign up for the E-Course it's free and it will give you the basics of smoking and some good methods to use also. So the next big thing for you to do is go out and get you something to smoke and if you happen to have any questions just post it here and we will be happy to answer them for you.

Welcome To Your New Addiction

 

[chainsaw]

. Semper Fi to ya ;-)

And to you my friend

 

[cjp87]

Hey, I'm a new smoker in Oklahoma as well, (Norman), working on building my first smoker from scratch. Got all the components put together finally (the thermometer came in a couple of days ago!), so I'll be building soon. You can read more about it in the thread a bit down the page, but long story short, I'm trying to build a Big Green Egg out of big blue flower pots. ;)

Anyway, thanks for your service in the Marines, I'm actually in the Oklahoma National Guard (Army), playing in the band as I go through my Ph.D at OU. So while I won't be going overseas, at least I'll get to play for those who do, welcome them back with some music, and support their families while they're away. Not the same as heading over to the sand pit, but at least I can do a little to help morale.

 

[usmcoklahoma]

Well I hate to let you folks here down, but I smoked a nice meaty rack of ribs from Crest... once I got past the fatty ones. I maintained between 190 and 230 with plain kingsford charcoal and hickory wood chunks. I added apple wood chips from lowes in the last hour, spent 4 hours smoking. I would have posted pictures of my first smoking but when I pulled it from the smoker, my family and friends decided to have a taste test... ya they ended up fighting over it so I failed to get a picture... ill haze myselfe later. Lol. It did turn out good though, meat fell off the bone. My only grip is that I didn't make enough of it (note to self...). Next smoking I do ill be sure to have the camera ready for before and after pics. So I guess I'm off to a good start for now.
As a side note, I may be charging head strong into it, but by years end, I plan to smoke my first brisket. I know it will take a few days, but if I do it right, it will be worth it. Oh ya, I'm not a big "rib guy" but even I was cleaning the rib bones, lol.

 

[chainsaw]

Congrats on your smoke & if it tasted good it was a success. Sometimes hard to remember the camera, and yes it disappears fast! I have a lot of prep pics w/o the finished product to show for it.

Next time have a little something just for the chef hid in the smoker someplace. Hard to work when everyone is holding a plate & waiting 

 

[toxie]

Welcome to SMF!! Lots of good folks and information here...

 

[walle]

Welcome aboard, USMCOK!Get all over that pecan wood - it's good stuff! All my neighbor has is tamerask...Can't wait to see some of you Q.Good to have ya.