Santa brought me a smoker

[gy67]

Found this site and love it so far. Santa thought I was a good boy this year and brought me a propane smoker so for the last 3 weeks it has been used for almost every meal. I've followed the 3-2-1 ribs with great success. I cooked them for about 15 people last Saturday and have done a couple chickens, pork chops and porks steaks. All I have used is hickory chunks and mixed with cherry chips. Does anyone else mix woods or am I wasting my time? I have been into dutch oven cooking for the last 3 years and have graduated to this now. When cooking with these two styles of cooking makes for some great meals. Just looking around for some pointers from the experts here.

Thanks guys
Brad

 

[chris_harper]

i mix wood all the time. i use mesquite with a bit of oak; mesquite with pecan; mesquite with applewood chips. sometimes just mesquite. depends on what i have. i always use mesquite.
i need to go to my parents and get some more wood. i am getting low. last time i went out there, she told me, "cut down that mesquite tree if you want". if i had a trailer to put it on and i could unload it as i wanted to, i would have. it is a big tree. there is about 3 more mesquite trees growing next to it. i am having trouble finding the oak trees on their land.

 

[ultramag]

Welcome to SMF GY67!!! I will mix woods as well alot of the time.

 

[backyardgriller]

Welcome GY67!

I think you'll find that a fairly high percentage of smokers mix woods at least from time to time. I like mixing hickory and apple in particular. In the future, I want to try combinations using cherry, maple, oak, and pecan.

If you have any good dutch oven recipes you'd like to share, post them to the recipes area of SMF. I'm always on the lookout for new stuff to try.

 

[gunslinger]

Welcome to SMF. You've mastered the art of dutch oven cooking and graduated to smoking? Hmm. I would think it's the other way around. I see dutch oven cooking as a labor intensive chore that requires serious baby sitting. Maybe I'm just intimidated by it. But I'll just stick to smokin'.

 

[gy67]

Naw. DO cooking is easy. You get your charcoals white in color or get enough coals from the fire, set your pot on them put your meat or whatever inside put the lid on it and walk away. Come back every 30 min. spin the pot a 1/4 turn in one direction and the lid a 1/4 turn in the other and walk away again unless it is required to flip or stir.

While I'm here and posting has anyone ever used the Jack Daniels barrel chips? I found some last night as well as Pecan chips. I can't wait to start smoking with these this weekend. Anyone have any good ideas what to smoke?

Love this site

 

[bwsmith_2000]

GY67,
Ribs are always good and they aren't that hard to do. Also, you might consider a nice young chicken. Whatever, hope you enjoy........

 

[cheech]

I have used the JD chips before and love them, I save mine for special occasions because of the cost but love them.

 

[Dutch]

Brad, from one Cast Iron Head to another, Welcome to SMF. I too cook dutch oven and made the transition from DO's to smoking. I use a propane smoker myself. Do you visit the IDOS site any?

 

[gy67]

Dutch,

I get on that site once in a while. Lots of good information on there much like this one. I haven't been on there in a couple months with the holidays and all but now that all of that is over and I got a couple DO things for X-Mas I've been searching for a couple new idea's to try out this camping season. Do you have a large DO collection or just few pots? My father in-law says I'm going to have to step up to a 3/4 ton diesel pretty soon to take all my cast iron when we go camping if I don't stop buying soon.
I prefer the propane smokers myself. They seem to require less work then the others. I've heard that they don't give the best flavor compared to others but I have been very happy with the results I have gotten so far and don't plan on buying anything different then maybe a larger propane smoker.