Newbie ready to move from grilling to smoking

[onbelay007]

Greetings,

I'm a midwest guy who grew up outside of Chicago but am now living in Madison, WI. I've always enjoyed grilling steaks, brats, hotdogs, etc. but never really ate much smoked meats (or even knew about the process). Anyway, I lived abroad for a number of years, most recently in Shanghai for 2.5 years. While I love Chinese food, from time to time I still wanted western food. One day I stumbled upon a Texas style BBQ joint near my office and got some ribs. Then I was hooked and started exploring the other smoked meats on the menu.

Moving back to the US I knew I wanted to try smoking myself and ended up getting a Big Green Egg this summer. So far I've only used it for grilling but now with labor day weekend here I plan to finally do some smoking. Tomorrow I'll try baby back ribs, on Sunday I plan on beer can, and not yet decided on what to do on Monday.

So I'm obviously here to learn tips/tricks and hopefully learn from the mistakes of others to avoid making those same mistakes.

 

[oldschoolbbq]

Hello 007 . you have a great opportunity to 'up your Smoking ' knowledge . You , I'm sure have a dependable Thermometer , use it to maintain a 225*F Internal cooker temp. , gt a 'bone in ' Butt and set back for a great smoke.  Now this will take a while to get done , so start early and cook it until it reaches 200*F inside the deepest portion  of the meat mass. When done , wrap in foil and a big towel and in a cooler(Igloo or so ) for a couple hours and pull it apart. the bone will almost fall out.

Use a finishing sauce , such as Soflaquer's  , found in the search feature.

I mention Butts because they are hard to ruin , a great learning choice. Don't give up the ship and give - upon it ... if patience wears out , you CAN finish it in a 250*F oven, however you'll miss nout on some good "Bark" , the crunchy goodness on the exterior .

Have fun and as always . . .

 

[grillmonkey]

A Texas BBQ joint in Shanghai? That explains this article:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-08/30/c_133606856.htm

 

[onbelay007]

Yeah, I was a bit surprised to find a BBQ joint in Shanghai. But actually, this restaurant had 3 locations in the city and was a nice hangout for the foreigners. Shortly before I moved back they even opened up a Stubbs BBQ branch with a limited menu.

 

[gary s]

Hello and good morning, from East Texas and welcome to the forum. Lots of great information and real good people here.  

Gary S

 

[onbelay007]

Bummer. I was hoping to do my first smoke today but the weather just isn't cooperating. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

 

[themule69]

Glad you joined the group. The search bar at the top of any page is your best friend.
About anything you wanna know about smoking/grilling/curing/brining/cutting or slicing
and the list goes on has probably been posted. Remember to post a QVIEW of your smokes.
We are all smoke junkies here and we have to get our fix. If you have questions
Post it and you will probably get 10 replies with 11 different answers. That is
because their are so many different ways to make great Q...
Happy smoken.
David

 

[addertooth]

Do you have the ceramic diffuser plate with your Egg?