New to smoking. Have a couple questions and looking for advice.

[jms88]

I've been looking to get a  smoker for a while now and I picked up a Smoke Hollow electric smoker yesterday. What I did was read the owners manual, followed the instructions and the recipes in the manual, then proceeded to completely over-smoke the ribs and the chicken legs that I was smoking. I'll be honest, I didn't do too much looking around online for tips on how to smoke and I wish I had. My thinking was the more smoke the better and after a little reading on this site I found out how wrong that was. 

So here are my questions:

1) How do you know when the smoke is too much or too little? Is there something I should be looking for or is it just something you get a feel for over time?

2) I picked up an iGrill cordless meat thermometer, nifty little gadget the sends the temps right to your phone. While heating the smoker I had the thermometer inside the smoker and I noticed that the reading on the iGrill was 10 to 13 degrees lower than the temp that was displaying on the smokers digital display. Has anyone had any experience with the iGrill thermometer or the Smoke Hollow display giving you inaccurate temperatures? Just wondering if I should return the thermometer or not or if it's an issue with the smoker itself.

3) Are some meats more difficult to smoke than others? What I mean is are there meats that as a beginner I should be attempting first? 

I'm sure I will have a lot more questions but those were the two big takeaways from my first failure at smoking. So with that said,  I was wondering if some of you could point me to some information that is useful? There is a lot of info online but I'm not sure what's good and what's bad. I'm looking for maybe a beginners guide to smoking and some good recipes to try. 

Thanks in advance for the help!

John

 

[noboundaries]

John, welcome to SMF!  Be sure to stop in over at Roll Call to say "hi."  That's where folks welcome new members.

Smoke?  There's dirty smoke, and clean smoke.  Dirty smoke you want to avoid.  Anything that looks white or grey, especially at the beginning of a smoke, is filled with ash and nasty tasting, unburned particulates.  Once a fire heats up all the fuel and wood, even if it hasn't ignited, it burns much cleaner.  We call that smoke TBS, Thin Blue Smoke.  That's where the true flavor lies. 

Temps?  Follow the iGrill.  With rare exceptions, the gauge that comes with the smoker is at best "in the ballpark."

Meats?  All meats are easy to smoke.  Rub, heat, smoke, meat, and time is all that is required.  Now, the kicker is knowing how much time each cut of meat requires at any given temperature, and there again, that's a ballpark figure.  Thick cuts of meat with lots of exercised muscle take the most time, like pork butts/shoulders/picnics, and beef briskets/short ribs/chuck roasts.   As a beginner, I recommend folks cut their teeth on easy to smoke, inexpensive, fast cooking meats.  It helps them get familiar with their smoker, and makes graduation much easier to a longer smoke that requires more patience.  Sausages, boneless/skinless chicken thighs, hamburgers, meat loaf are all great first choices.  Know your target Internal temps of the meat and enjoy the flavor.  Then you'll be ready to move on to ribs and butts. 

Take Jeff's free 5-day e-course offered by the forum.  It will help you learn quickly.  Here's the link.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/127/5-day-smoking-basics-ecourse       

 

[pops6927]

As a rule, you want to aim for 'thin blue' smoke:

IMG_3671.JPG

• pops6927
• Jul 5, 2017

Not big, white, billowy smoke.  I just add 2-3 chunks of wood in my iron frying pan over my propane stove in my smokehouse and let them smolder, keeping the temp inside the smokehouse  220° - 240°.  hey burn down to coals, then add another 2-3 chunks (a handful) about 45 minutes to an hour later.

 

[sauced]

 
John, welcome to SMF!  Be sure to stop in over at Roll Call to say "hi."  That's where folks welcome new members.

Smoke?  There's dirty smoke, and clean smoke.  Dirty smoke you want to avoid.  Anything that looks white or grey, especially at the beginning of a smoke, is filled with ash and nasty tasting, unburned particulates.  Once a fire heats up all the fuel and wood, even if it hasn't ignited, it burns much cleaner.  We call that smoke TBS, Thin Blue Smoke.  That's where the true flavor lies. 

Temps?  Follow the iGrill.  With rare exceptions, the gauge that comes with the smoker is at best "in the ballpark."

Meats?  All meats are easy to smoke.  Rub, heat, smoke, meat, and time is all that is required.  Now, the kicker is knowing how much time each cut of meat requires at any given temperature, and there again, that's a ballpark figure.  Thick cuts of meat with lots of exercised muscle take the most time, like pork butts/shoulders/picnics, and beef briskets/short ribs/chuck roasts.   As a beginner, I recommend folks cut their teeth on easy to smoke, inexpensive, fast cooking meats.  It helps them get familiar with their smoker, and makes graduation much easier to a longer smoke that requires more patience.  Sausages, boneless/skinless chicken thighs, hamburgers, meat loaf are all great first choices.  Know your target Internal temps of the meat and enjoy the flavor.  Then you'll be ready to move on to ribs and butts. 

Take Jeff's free 5-day e-course offered by the forum.  It will help you learn quickly.  Here's the link.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/127/5-day-smoking-basics-ecourse       

I agree.....excellent advice!!

 

[kihler]

All good advice. Another thing to think about - not all wood chips are created equal. Some are mild and some are strong. You need to match the correct wood with the meat your are smoking. I have attached a chart I use.