New Smoker.. First Que.. with Q-View

[sinseven]

So, i tried my hand at smoking yesterday.. first time... I did a brisket, 2 ribs and 2 turkey tenderloins.. I used Hickory Cubes, Apple juice in the first tray and then switched to water.. The brisket and ribs were coated in my own rub overnight, the ribs were covered with mustard in the morning and the tenderloins coated in cajun seasoning from the store, overnight.

My 'GOSM' is stock.. just came friday.. I prepped it with pam and smoked nothing for 4 hours..

What I noticed:
1. The wood chunks burned pretty fast.. I don't wish I had more at one time, just wish they lasted longer.. I didn't soak them.. next time I will try soaking them in water first.. I didn't cause I had read a lot of people don't soak..

2. The door did leak a lot of smoke.. think i'll get some of that oven door stuff to seal it.. The meat was nicely smoked, so it wasn't a huge issue, i don't think...

3. I had a huge grease fire inside the smoker and it ruined a rack of ribs completely and partially ruined the other ones!!! The ribs did protect the brisket, so that wasn't ruined. The wood chunks would catch fire a lot.. I'm guessing the flames got up around the water pan and/or caught the sides of the smoker/gease on fire..
Any suggestions??? Would soaking the chunks have prevented this?

My new Landmann's 2 door Smokey Mountain in action

Meat is on.. I know i screwed up the thermometer in the brisket, i realized and fixed it around 140* so no biggie.. lesson learned.

This is the turkey tenderloin.. i learned i'm not a fan of tenderloin turkey.. i bought this on accident, meant to get breast... It came out juicy and tender, light smoke.. just something about the texture compared to turkey beast that I didn't like... It was for the Misses..

Here are the ribs that were salvaged.. tasted decent.. but the membrane side (membrane removed) was blackened...

Here's the brisket.. It turned out pretty well....

Thanks for any advice in advance.. and I hope you enjoyed my first Que-View...

Scott

 

[rwtrower]

Good job, Scott. Congrats on your new smoker, hope you enjoy your
new life together.

I thought the picture of the turkey tenderloin looked like it was taken on someone's tattooed tummy!?!?! I had to look twice to figure out it was the plate. Whew.

Keep 'em coming....

 

[mballi3011]

Yes you did a greta job and this is your first smoke???? Now your doing just fine and congrats on the new smoker and you will really enjoy it alot if the food comes off looking like that food does. So you have earned some

For sure. Great Job and keep on smoking and Qviewing too.

 

[thunderdome]

That brisket looks really juicy. Nice smoke

 

[treegje]

Man that all look good,wish I was there to help put some of that away.

 

[cajunsmoke13]

Looks great. Doesn't look like anything was ruined. Don't think soaking helps anything. Saw a test on it and the water hardly penetrates the wood for that short period of time you soak it.

 

[indyadmin1974]

Grease fires seem to be happening more often on the gassers. I had to dump mine a few weeks ago because of a grease fire.

Some things that I noticed about my gasser:

1. The water pan needs to have liquid in it (i.e. water, apple juice, etc.) Having it empty is begging for a grease fire. Others may weigh in here on weather or not you can use a clay pot or sand.

2. You always have to empty/clean the water pan after each smoke being careful not to let the liquid (now a mixture of grease and whatever liquid you put in the pan to begin with) spill onto the burner. Using foil to completely line the water pan will save some major headaches later on.

3. Disposable foil pans are your friend. I had the same or even better results smoking the larger pieces of meat like butts and briskets in my gasser when they were in their own pan. This has 2 benefits...one is it will keep the grease fire possibilities down and two you will have all of those awesome drippings available to pour back over the meat once you're done.

The other problem with gassers is the ability to control their flame. Some people have said that purchasing a needle valve works well.

I think you are on the right track with the oven door insulation. I was going to try that on mine before it went kablooey...

All in all I loved my gasser. It's what I learned to smoke with and in my opinion is the best thing out there for a n00b like me. I have since graduated to the WSM but if someone gave me another gasser, I wouldn't turn it down.

to you for keeping things under control and turning out some fine lookin' Q!

 

[flagriller]

looks good!

 

[holdem]

Mine leaks smoke around the door also.....what is "oven door insulation"??

 

[Bearcarver]

First---First---First?????

Sure doesn't look like a First!--------------->>

Nice Job,
Bearcarver

 

[tom37]

If memory serves me correct, my first smoke wasn't so good!! I am trying to remember, I don't think we ate more then a bite or two and the rest had to go.

Nice work.

Great qview.

 

[silverhawx]

Looks like I would go back for seconds.........

 

[dasmoker]

Looks great. I have a question though.

You said you put rub on the ribs, then let them sit, then applied mustard to them in the morning. May I ask why you applied mustard over top of the rub? I use mustard on my meat to kind of act as a glue for the rub, so the mustard goes on, then the rub on top of the mustard. I have not heard of applying mustard over top of the rub, nor can I figure out why you would want to do that, so I am curious.

And that looks a whole lot better than my 1st smoke. Good job.

 

[sinseven]

I thought I was told to apply mustard the morning after (day of smoke) to help create a crust. I could have mixed it with the rub and applied, but I thought that would prevent the total rub flavor from being fully absorbed by the meat... Highly possible I did it wrong..

 

[mofo]

I have never had a grease fire in my Big block and was kind of surprised to hear that you had one... Have others had this problem with the GOSM? I do always have water in my water pan though.

 

[hookup]

This is the second time I've read of a grease fire on a new gasser.

When you 'lube' the inside of the box, did you wipe up any excess 'lube'.  I noted a pool of Pam on the bottom of my GOSM when I cured it the first time.  Took about 1/2 dozen paper towels to get it all up.  Just a thought ...

Nice looking brisket and good job for your first.

 

[rbranstner]

Looks like you did a great job!!!

 

[harryho]

They all look fine to me.

As far as the grease fire is concerned, one scenario that I can think of for such a fire in your chamber to occur is that the wood in the chip/chunk box ignited which, in turn, lit up the grease. The burner and the opening around the burner is designed well enough to minimize the risk of flare ups.

Try adjusting the lower damper next time and see if you can shield off the wood chips as well. Once the chips/chunks get hot enough to produce smoke, you might want to close the damper and keep less oxygen from helping ignite the chip/chunk box. I have had a couple of times in which I overfilled the box and simply placed the slotted lid on top of the chips and the flames from the burner were high enough to ignite the chips.

 

[sqwib]

So, i tried my hand at smoking yesterday.. first time... I did a brisket, 2 ribs and 2 turkey tenderloins.. I used Hickory Cubes, Apple juice in the first tray and then switched to water.. The brisket and ribs were coated in my own rub overnight, the ribs were covered with mustard in the morning and the tenderloins coated in cajun seasoning from the store, overnight.

My 'GOSM' is stock.. just came friday.. I prepped it with pam and smoked nothing for 4 hours..

What I noticed:
1. The wood chunks burned pretty fast.. I don't wish I had more at one time, just wish they lasted longer.. I didn't soak them.. next time I will try soaking them in water first.. I didn't cause I had read a lot of people don't soak..