Newbie Looking For As Much Advice As I Can Get!!!!

[nrok2118]

Ive finally pulled the trigger and ordered a Weber Smokey Mountain 18.5 today to full fill some fat kid fantasies.  I want to go into this relationship as prepared as possible since I'm basically starting from scratch.  I'm only 25 living at my buddy's house so my kitchen/food supplies aren't that vast, though I do enjoy cooking so I at least have some basics and i know my way around food. 

First off, what kind of supplies should i buy/make sure i have?  Any special knives or utensils?  Is a large cutting board necessary for working with large amounts of meat?  Basically the little things I'm not gonna find looking around about BBQ. 

Now the big question is what should I tackle for my first smoke?  I'm leaning towards some ribs since they only take about 6 hours and i can do it in a day not worrying about having to sleep through a 10-16 hr butt or brisket.

I'm very open to any ideas/suggestions and hope to smoke the hell out of many meats/fish for years to come.

Also any links to recipes for rubs and sauces are appreciated (gonna have to stock up on some ingredients)

Help build me into a pro!

**And yes, through my initial research i have found the minion method and will give this a try**

 

[lugnutz]

hey ther nrok, from what I hear your gonna love that WSM. Try smokin a fattie first! They are awesome and take about 4 hours or less depending on how fat they are and how hot you keep your temps.

equipment? get a good digital thermometer or 2. One for the food one for the smoker. Oh and I am recently convereted from briquettes to lump charcoal, so I suggest some lump..good lump like Royal Oak

Drop by Roll Call and give yourself a proper introduction too! Let people know your here.

 

[mballi3011]

Now you sound like a real newbie. Ok nowhere we go first I would recommand the 5-day E-course it's free and very informative to. So here's alink to it:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/list/127  

You really like it fir it will give you the basics that you will need to smoke some of the best Q that you will put into your mouth. Now as far as any speciality things you will need. I would get a couple of good probe thermometers. One you need one for the smoker and then one for the meat. You really don't need that much stuff most of it is just regular grilling stuff. Gloves, a good pasting brush (for sauces) a spray bottle for the spritzing liquid and then maybe some heavy duty heat-residence gloves. Then you need some meat alot of meat. For once you start smoking and tasting the food you will want to smoke everything under the sun. Oh yea the pet dog won't taste worth a dang either. Next I would buy a food saver system you will need it for left-overs and for buy meat in bulk you will save a ton of money. So that's about all I can think of for now. So go get that e-course set up and happy smoking and..........

Welcome To Your New Addiction.

 

[jirodriguez]

Welcome to the forum! I got the big dog version of your smoker - the 22.5" WSM, you are gonna love it. The WSM is very easy to use and produces great Que! One nice thing about the WSM is the lid therm acutally works, unlike a lot of other smokers fresh off the shelf. If you run with the lid therm between 200 & 250° you will be doing good for 90% of your smokes.

Some basic supplies: chimney starter for lighting briquets, you dont want to be using lighter fluid; large roll of tin foil - big restaraunt sized one; digital probe thermometer - Kmart carries one for $13.00 works great!

If you have a drill here is a great mod for getting probe therms into each cooking rack. It is what I did to mine.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/94076/wsm-mods

The other thing you are going to want is spices! The basics to always keep on hand are: kosher salt, black pepper (fresh cracked is preffered), ganulated garlic, granulated onion, paprika, brown sugar, chili powder, cayane powder, dry mustard, and regular yellow mustard. Those will combine to create several basic good rubs.

For a sauce if you want to keep it simple for now buy some Sweet Baby Ray's Original BBQ sauce, and combine 2 parts BBQ sauce with 1 part cider vinegar and 1 part apple juice. Then add brown sugar to taste, and if you want a bit more kick toss in 1 Tablespoon of red pepper flakes. It is a very basic, but super easy sauce that goes well on pork, beef, and chicken.

NOW! for your first Que! I would do either chicken leg quarters and/or ribs - you got TWO cooking racks so you could do both!

 Chicken is easy and only takes about 3 hrs. on average.

Best of luck! and don't forget to post pictures!