Hello. I recently got the urge to give smoking a try. Bought some pork tips for my first experiment last week and added a whole chicken on the top grill halfway through the process. It came out pretty good. We use chicken to make dog food, but it was done right and not too dry when I tasted it..
I read where it was possible to use a barbeque, but that didn't work well. I think the temperatures varied too much even being propane. The small amount of water in the pan holding the chicken held out, but the much larger pan of water for moisture dried out quickly at the end. That's why I think the temps varied. The rub recipe I used was decent, even using sugar & molasses instead of brown sugar. And I didn't have wood chips, but this was mainly an effort to see if I needed a smoker. I sure do.
We're rural so I couldn't run into town for chips, and we only have Ponderosa Pine and Aspen for miles around. I read that the pine doesn't work, but can't find anything on Aspen, even on that SMF link I found on a thread below. Can I use that? If so, is it strong, because I'd like to at least begin with milder woods.
I've ordered a Masterbuilt 20070910 Digital Electric and some cherry & apple chips. Scheduled arrival is the 5th. I think that model number will let me replace the heating element without buying half the smoker. It's in the upper 50s today, late July, so I picked this model for its insulation as it will often be well below 30 on our deck and many reviews of smokers say they won't hold temperature at cool temps. Any comment on my choice will be appreciated.
I'm going to have a whole lot of questions and look forward to getting good answers here.
I read where it was possible to use a barbeque, but that didn't work well. I think the temperatures varied too much even being propane. The small amount of water in the pan holding the chicken held out, but the much larger pan of water for moisture dried out quickly at the end. That's why I think the temps varied. The rub recipe I used was decent, even using sugar & molasses instead of brown sugar. And I didn't have wood chips, but this was mainly an effort to see if I needed a smoker. I sure do.
We're rural so I couldn't run into town for chips, and we only have Ponderosa Pine and Aspen for miles around. I read that the pine doesn't work, but can't find anything on Aspen, even on that SMF link I found on a thread below. Can I use that? If so, is it strong, because I'd like to at least begin with milder woods.
I've ordered a Masterbuilt 20070910 Digital Electric and some cherry & apple chips. Scheduled arrival is the 5th. I think that model number will let me replace the heating element without buying half the smoker. It's in the upper 50s today, late July, so I picked this model for its insulation as it will often be well below 30 on our deck and many reviews of smokers say they won't hold temperature at cool temps. Any comment on my choice will be appreciated.
I'm going to have a whole lot of questions and look forward to getting good answers here.
