Need tips/suggestions for the newbie

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

pelican73

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 21, 2014
3
10
South Florida, Fort Lauderdale
OK here goes.  Smoked a 3lb pork loin yesterday, which I initially figured would be around 4-5 hours.  Moist and tasty despite the problems or maybe should say glitches I encounted.


I have yet to get my smoker so am using my jury-rigged propane grill for when I do my smoking.  I only use the far right burner/burners and place the meat on the far left with a drip pan underneath.  I set up a temperature probe on the far left to monitor the temperature at cooking height (with alarms set low for 200 and high at 265.  (I know sounds a bit excessive-even to me)

I used the A-Maze-N Pellet smoker with bourbon pellets (now what I read these pellets are hard to burn) so filling the smoker I figured would last the full 4 or 5 hours.

Well possibly too much air flow or something else the smoker was ash within an hour and a half and I had to add more pellets to get more smoke.

For the meat  I used “Jeff’s Naked Rub” letting it rest overnight.  Put in the smoker with cooking temp at 220 at around 1:15pm and since I am new at this I am never more than 2 feet from the smoker.  Manage to rescue the meat at 155 internal at around 3pm where I placed in foil and let it rest until time to eat a full 2 hours later.


Meat still very juicy but could have been much more tender if it had cooked slower and lower

Any ideas on what might have gone wrong - -do the pellets need to be soaked before using?  Drop the heat even lower?  Just looking for ideas.

Pelican73 (Roger)
 
The AMNPS and AMNS are temperature sensitive, as well as being sensitive to air flow. The smoke wood does not like being exposed to cooker heat source, as it provides it's own heat for smoke as it slowly smolders. If the cooking chamber heat source is too close to the smoke generator it can cause a flare-up of the smoke wood and this results in a fast burn with little smoke.

Where was the AMNPS placed at during smoking? Was it above the burners? If so, try placing it under your drip pan on the cold side of the grill. This will keep the heat source from igniting the pellets, as well as allow the smoke to flow upwards towards the food you're smoking. You may need to close-in the lower section of the grill somewhat (with foil) to prevent excess air flow to the pellets, and this will also aid in keeping heat on that side of the cooking chamber.

Just some thoughts to ponder...

Eric
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky