Daddypine

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daddypine

Newbie
Original poster
May 9, 2015
3
11
Hi all,

Just joined the forum today, my skill level is zero, my knowledge is zero and my experience is zero.

I live in the UK where the smoker business, as far as I am aware, doesn't seem to exist, so I am anticipating problems in getting hold of some of the commodities available to you guys over there.

I have just retired from the furniture retail business and aim to build myself whichever smoker design gets the biggest recommendation on here, assuming I get a little guidance to do so. I do aim to build this undercover, not from the sun, but the rain, of which we get more than our fair share.

I visit the US a couple of times a year and have become aware, as well as a lover of, a whole new world of cooking which I can't wait to get into, as I'm sure I will with the help of you guys.

I welcome any help or advice and promise to hold any one person responsible should I suffer any excessive weight gain from hereon in.

Thank you,

Regards, Paul.
 
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Daddypine,welcome! I myself just joined today. Coming to you from talllahassee Florida. You picked in my opinion one of the best hobbys/obsessions there is. It is just plain fun and you get some pretty good payout also. As far as a recommendation on a smoker, i use an offset smoker and to save time here, just look one up. They work very well but require some tending to when smoking. Best part is you ask me! Truth be told though, if you can create smoke inside almost anything that can heat up and retain that heat, you can smoke some meat. Get creative, there is no wrong way. You'll find your own way just like i have over the years.

Good luck to you my new bbq brother!
 
Daddypine,welcome! I myself just joined today. Coming to you from talllahassee Florida. You picked in my opinion one of the best hobbys/obsessions there is. It is just plain fun and you get some pretty good payout also. As far as a recommendation on a smoker, i use an offset smoker and to save time here, just look one up. They work very well but require some tending to when smoking. Best part is you ask me! Truth be told though, if you can create smoke inside almost anything that can heat up and retain that heat, you can smoke some meat. Get creative, there is no wrong way. You'll find your own way just like i have over the years.

Good luck to you my new bbq brother!
Daddypine and vonk15 Welcome to SMF There are a bunch of friendly people all willing to help,use the search bar ask questions when you have them.You may want to update your profile for location and your ssignature for typr of smoker,it helps us to help you. Enjoy
 
Welcome! This is a great site, and people are more than willing to help give advice. There are some people who are fairly new to smoking (like me) and some real experts. All have had success and failures at cooking, and all are willing to share what they have learned.

If you are starting new, I would recommend starting with something simple and easy to use. Get the feel for smoking, have some success, have a few failures, and grow from there.

First, determine what type of smoker you would like to build, and how much you want to spend. Take a look at some of the forums on this site and see what others are doing. Ask questions and get a feel for what is right for you. 

I started with a cheap Brinkman charcoal smoker, then bought a Masterbuilt electric smoker, then a Weber Smokey Mountain 22". I now own 4 smokers and 3 grills, and I use all of them for different cooks.

I use the Masterbuilt electric when I want a simple cook but don't want to spend a lot of time checking temps. To me, the electric is the easiest to use, and the food always turns out good. I use the Smokey Mountain when I want the best quality. Nothing beats the flavor of cooking over a nice bed of coals with a few wood chunks adding smokey flavor and a beautiful smoke ring. Plus the Smokey Mountain is very easy to use and maintain temperatures. My Brinkman is smaller, so I use it on RV trips with the family. It's a little harder to control temps, but it does a nice job of cooking, it's smaller, and I got it for about $40, so I don't mind if it gets banged up when I travel. I have one smoker I use only for cold smoking. I'm also planning on building a WSM Mini and want to eventually build a larger, heavy duty cooker too. (this can become an obsession)

My point is that there are several options available and all of them are capable of cooking great food. As you build your smoker, decide what you want to invest, how you want to cook, and go from there. 

Good luck and welcome to the forum!
 
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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
 
Hello One eyed Jack.  Thanks for the promotion.  We will help guide him through with the help of the other members.  
icon_biggrin.gif


Hello Paul and Welcome to our addiction.  Many good folks here with a load of experience that they are more than willing to share.  If you have specific questions just start a thread and someone with experience will be along soon to offer advice.  All info you can provide us with such as smoker type, location and so on will help us answer any questions you may have, and pictures help a bunch.  Spend some time doing some research on the forums, tons of advice and recipes already available there.  Check out Jeff’s 5 day smoking E-Course ( link below ) that will help you get started.  Couple other good threads to help you get started included.  We look forward to your contributions.  Have fun.  Good luck.  Keep Smokin!

Danny

http://www.smoking-meat.com/smoking-basics-ecourse

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/177452/new-to-smoking-or-have-a-new-smoker

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/178240/smoke-color-chart
 
texas.gif
  Good morning and welcome to the forum, from a wet and humid day here in East Texas. Lots of great people with tons of information on just about  everything.

Gary
 
Hi Paul, welcome to the "Family"

As already said on here plenty of good advice from both sides of the pond.

Which part of the UK are you from, it's always good to know, and their might be a memeber near by that can help or cast an eye over what you are building, or just pop round and have a Beer!!!

Smokin Monkey [emoji]133660013031[/emoji]
 
Hi Paul - Welcome to the forum. Where in the UK are you? There are a growing number of members from all parts of the UK and I think you will be find more meat smoking goes on here than you may expect. If you have difficulty getting hold of anything then just post it up here and someone should be able to point you in the right direction. The UK guys here also meet once a year at the end of July (near Lincoln) for a weekend of friendly banter and to share some good BBQ. It would be great if you could join us. It is NOT a competition and there are members there at all stages of their Smoking experience. If you just wanted to see a few different types of smoker and chat to others who were in the same situation as you not that long ago over a friendly beer, then this could help you to get started before you start to invest in your hardware.

The forum is a great place to get help and advice. No question is too trivial or stupid. The only stupid question is the one that is not asked. There is a lot of good experience on here but a word of caution before you start... There are wrong ways to smoke food but there is no single right way. You ask about how to smoke pork shoulder for pulled pork and you will get almost as many variations as there are members. Most will use basically the same method but we all develop our own slight variations that work for us. Read all the replies and start with the ones that you think will work for you. It wont take long before you are responding to others with your own personal variation.

The cuts of meat you need will be readily available through your local butcher but you may struggle trying to buy them from a supermarket. Most of the ingredients that you will see are readily available too - though some go under slightly different names - scallions = spring onions and cilantro = coriander etc. 

The US recepies are readily adapted though there are several things to consider. The Americans usually have a sweeter tooth than us and so you may want to adjust some of the sugar in the recipe. The American Chili powder is generally much milder than ours so beware when using our Chili it in rubs. The US pint is smaller than the UK pint - US = 16 fl ozs, UK = 20 fl ozs.

To begin your smoking you do not need to immediately go out and spend a lot of money. You can get very good results on a standard 22" kettle BBQ (e.g. Weber) but one very important tool is a good twin probe digital thermometer (e.g. Maverick) as smoking is totally reliant on temperature management.

When you get a chance please say hi in the UK Smokers group http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/groups/show/38/uk-smokers

Cheers

Wade
 
Dammit wade you would have to bring up the pint thing hahaha... It's just not fair. Welcome to the passion and ask many questions with as much detail as you can muster so we can help you out.
 
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