New to smoking

[teps71]

Great forum! I'm a newbie just getting into smoking. I was bitten by the smoking bug several weeks ago when my brother-in-law and I rigged a turkey deep-fryer propane burner under his El Cheapo Brinkmann. We did a couple pork loins, chicken breasts, fish even some ribs - everything came out awesome!!!

I recently purchased a Brinkmann cabinet style propane smoker. While it does the job and having the seperate door for the wood/water is great, I'm finding the size is limiting. I'm smoking a turkey this weekend and the 13# turkey will just barely fit! I'm in the process of designing and building my own cabinet style propane smoker. As the project kicks off I'll post some pictures along the way.

Looking forward to lots of searches, lots of learning and *LOTS* of smoking!

Thanks for such a great site!

James

 

[Dutch]

Welcome to the Forums James. If you're just starting out and you are already thinking of building a unit, you have been bitten hard by the BBQ bug.

Lots of good ideas and tips to be found in the build forums.

Enjoy!

 

[lucky13]

Welcome James!  Good luck with the build, look forward to watching the project.  There are some pretty 'handy" folks on this site (not me, but others) that will be able to help with any questions before / during / after the build.

 

[meateater]

Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks, great recipes and knowledge. Looking forward to your first qview.

 

[mballi3011]

First off Welcome James to SMF. you'll like it here for there are alot of really good folks here that would just love to help you with just about anything to do with smoking. Now there are alot of proven recipes for some amazing things here too. So if you need sign up for the E-Course it's free and it will give you the basics of smoking and some good methods to use also. So the next big thing for you to do is go out and get you something to smoke and if you happen to have any questions just post it here and we will be happy to answer them for you.

Welcome To Your New Addiction

 

[eman]

Hiya James,

 Welcome to your new addiction!

 Saw a nice gasser built out of a 5 drawer legal size fire proof file cabinet yesterday .

 amazing what folks come up with.

 

[wngsprnt50]

Welcome and good luck with your build!

 

[teps71]

Every year the siblings on my wife's side rotate hosting Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. This year we have Thanksgiving and I thought we would try smoking a bird in addition to drying one out in the oven. Not being one to leave things to chance or "wing it" we decided to have a trial run. The results were spectacular and we'll definitely prepare one this way as well as in the oven!

Brine:

2 Gallons Water

1-12 C Kosher Salt

1/3 C Light Brown Sugar

3 T Minced Garlic

1 T Ground Black Pepper

1/4 C Worcestershire Sauce

1 t Cumin

1 t Celery Seed

1 Lime Quartered and Squeezed

1 Orange Quartered and Squeezed

1 Lemon Quartered and Squeezed

1 Apple Quartered

Soaked for 36 hours.

The "stuffing" :

The bird was coated with a thin layer of EVO after "stuffing" and placed in the Brinkmann upright propane smoker.

After 1 Hour:

After 2 Hours:

After just over four hours:

The smoker temp was kept between 230 and 240. Wood used was soaked hickory chunk and we spritzed the bird with apple juice every half hour. Cook time was just over 4 hours with a breast temp of 170. We pulled it and rested it while we set the table, laid out the trimmings and such. Temp at breast was 180 just prior to slicing. The breast meat was out of this world moist and the flavor was amazing. I think this smoking meat thing is going to catch on!

 

[scarbelly]

Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. That is a great looking bird - Congrats

 

[chefrc]

Welcome To thre Family Friend