Roll Call- New Member

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kschumaker

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 2, 2014
1
10
My Name is Kate and I live in southeast Michigan.  I am new to the, "smoking community", and don't have much experience so I am looking for a little direction.  I have been talking about getting a smoker for sometime now, and I love to cook.  I have 2 kids and a husband whose idea of cooking is eating Chef Boyardee straight out of the can (Ewe, it makes me cringe).

   I recently purchased, "The 3-in-1 Big Easy", gas smoker from Charbroil (it smokes, grills and roasts).  The first 2 items I smoked was a 5 lb rack of ribs and a 10 lb pork butt.  To my surprise, these two pieces of meat were done long before I expected (like within 3 hours) and were not as tender as I had hoped, but tasted great.  Because I am an amateur, I dint not even think to make sure that there was temperature gauge on the outside of the grill, and of course there is not.  Can I get an oven thermometer to keep inside the smoker to check the temp?   The meat that I cooked was on the lowest temperature possible for this smoker, and  have a feeling that it was too hot (obviously). Does anyone have any suggestions on how to lower the temp and keep it at a consistent even temperature without losing the smoky flavor?  I thought that maybe I could crack the lid, but then all the smoke would escape and I fear I will not have that smoky flavor I am looking for.  Also, I keep reading that many people have a tub of water that goes in the smoker and mine does not, am I at a disadvantage?

I appreciate all your feed back, and look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

Kate
 
Hey Kate, hello and welcome from East Texas. I'm not familiar with your smoker sorry, you can use an oven thermometer but better would be to buy a good external mount, drill a hole in the lid close to the food grate and mount it there. Maybe another member will help that is familiar with your smoker

Gary S
 
Welcome Kate! I was so intrigued by your report of a 10 lb. butt finishing in 3 hours that I just had to look this thing up and see what's going on. I know nothing about your particular smoker, but found this: http://grillinfools.com/blog/2010/07/14/product-review-charbroil-big-easy-smoker-roaster-and-grill/

Seems it has a problem getting below 375, and the infrared aspects of it add another dimension entirely. You might try contacting Charbroil directly to see if there's any way to get it down to the 250 range, but my guess is no.

Also found this on doing pulled pork in an infrared grill: grillinfools.com/blog/2010/07/28/pulled-pork-done-in-an-infrared-grill

Looks like it should be possible, but the process will be a bit different than most of us are used to.

Sorry I can't be of more help.
 
Last edited:
I'm not familiar with it either, but wanted to offer up a Welcome to SMF! Sounds like too hot to me too. It all depends how deep into all of this you want to go or if you're going to make what you have work (modifications.) But the two essentials are a thermometer on the smoker at the grate level and some sort of thermometer to verify the internal temps of your meat. A lot of folks use the dual probe thermometer, one for the meat and one for the chamber. You can monitor temps and keep the lid closed! 

Best wishes and welcome! 
 
Welcome to the forum from Lansing Kate.  And what a great forum it is to learn the art of smoking everything.

We have a Michigan group here.  http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/groups/show/27/michigan-members-group          

If you get a chance check it out and please join if you have not done so yet.

We are having a Michigan get together this year and I hope you can make it.   There’s still time to get in the fatty throw down. 

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/159461/2014-michigan-get-together-july-19-2014

It’s always nice to see another Michigander here.  

Stan
 
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