Ready to start DOING some serious smoking!!

[scottfitz1]

  My name is Scott Fitzgerald and I live in the incredible area of Southern Illinois, hundreds of miles of lakes and forests.  The scenery is beyond breathtaking.

  I bought a MasterBuilt Smokehouse electric smoker this week and have been making rubs today. My first smoke will be 2 racks of Spareribs, one will be with MDM’s FINGER LICKIN’ RIB RUB and the other rack will be Jeff's Naked Rib Rub.  I plan on using the 321 method for my first smoke and using apple wood although I do have cherry and hickory as well.  I do not plan on saucing my ribs, i'm from the old school, if I even have to put steak sauce on a steak then something is wrong.  I love natural flavors and juices.

  I have been doing some serious study to some ebooks and these forums and to friends and coworkers in preparation for his momentous event and cannot wait to start in the upcoming days.

  I am very concerned about using too much apple for flavor as I am using wood chips and spritzing with apple juice as well.  I am also very concerned about how much rub to apply to them.  It seems like it is about a cup but am terrified of fouling things up by using too much.

  My next project will be an 8# pork butt, then a chicken, beer can cooking style, and then an 11# turkey.  I will be ambitious.  I have my own rub for my pork butt which I'm pleased with through much trial and error and am also happy with my bbq sauce for my it as well but will be playing and tweaking in the future.

 

[bluewhisper]

Welcome to the board! Smoking chicken parts can be a good inexpensive way to learn your smoker's traits.

As for the rub, I'd suggest that using too little is better than using too much.

 

[gary s]

  Good evening and welcome to the forum, from a very nice and warm day in East Texas. Lots of great people with tons of                    information on just about  everything    Chicken is cheap   That way you can figureoiut your smoker, flavor and rubs

            Gary

 

[scottfitz1]

Thank you so much for this quick response I look forward to learning at the feed of all you Smoking Veterans.  I've been through several ebooks and dozens and dozens of these forumsand have had chicken recommended to me twice so far. I guess i'm ambitious and very excited but I would really really like to wow a few people with a great dinner entrée in the upcoming weeks.  I would like to get into some combination chicken meals this fall and winter with 1/2 chickens, carrots, corn and red potatoes all together like Cracker Barrel serves during certain seasons.

 

[tbrtt1]

Scott,

Welcome and good luck. Sounds like you have done your homework. This site is the best reference for all things smoked (and other things as well).

I don't think you will have too much apple flavor. Frankly, you  won't get apple flavor form the wood and apple wood is a nice, rather mild smoking wood. I am sure lots of folks use apple and spritz with apple juice.

And as Blue mentioned above, less is more, at least to start with. I personally slather my rub on pretty thick since a lot of it will melt away as the ribs cook. I would suggest rubbing them and then wrapping them and letting them get a goods night sleep in the fridge the night before smoking them.

BTW, pork butt is incredibly forgiving and a wonderful thing to smoke early in your smoking career. I highly recommend it. They are outstanding off the smoker.

 

[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

 

[wolfman1955]

Scott,
Welcome, from southern Ohio, to the best forum on the internet if you are looking to learn how to BBQ/smoke/brine/cure/inject. Well you get the picture if you can do it to to something you put on a plate to eat then someone here has probably done it. Use the search bar at the top of the page and you will be led to the answer to most every question you can think of. If you don't find the answer there then just post it and someone will chime in with there opinion on the subject.
Always remember the only dumb question is the one you don't ask!!!
Keep Smokin!!!
Wolf