Started my first smoke at 7 a.m. today!

[jmillz]

Temp has been holding steady at 250 for the past 2 hours - got baby backs and a brisket going. Got my smoker as a Father's Day present last weekend and been doing mods all week long. Seasoned it yesterday and played with the temp. Got thin blue smoke right now and everything is looking great!

 

[buddha65281]

Not sure but I have been reading and 220 seems to be the norm for ribs... not sure about the brisket (heard they are GOOD)... I have a Butt in the freezer, hopefully I will cook it up in the next 2 weeks.. got 6 racks of ribs on the smoker now, 1 St. Louis style, 1 baby back and 4 beef ribs. I have been smoking since 1pm and I am huuunnngrrryyyy.. ummm. As you can tell I am a newbie as well, what smoker did you get? I bought the charbroil 1280 offset from Wally world, they mis-priced it and for 79(normally 150) I jumped all over it...

I think because this one has so many drafting issues, I am going to MAKE me a smoker. Looking for a 80-100 gal air compressor tank now.. Hope your food comes out great.. Just an FYI, DO NOT USE "CREOLE" seasoning! I put it on my ribs today and without realizing it is 25% SALT, had to completely wash my ribs off and start over.. NEVER AGAIN, that stuff has already been put in the garbage!

Happy Grilling (HG)

Buddha65281

 

[jmillz]

I got a Chargriller smokin pro but did quite a load of mods to it before I fired it up! I sprayed the whole smoker with 2000 degree high temp silicone. I made sure all the openings were sealed with a rope gasket and all the attached openings were sealed with high temp silicone. Installed 2 thermometers at grate level and extended the smoke stack to about 1 inch above grate level. Had a new firebox grate cut to allow access to dump all the ashes and everything actually turned out pretty good for my first smoke. Probably won't use mesquite again and will tweak a few other things as well!

 

[jmillz]

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• jmillz
• Jun 23, 2014

 

[jmillz]

image.jpg

• jmillz
• Jun 23, 2014

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Very nice smoke, especially for your first ! Looks awesome ! Thumbs Up

 

[geerock]

Very nice job. You've been studying haven't you? Mesquite I never use. Sounds like you found out why. Never liked the flavor even when it goes on light. But every cook is a learning experience.

 

[jmillz]

I always tend to do some studying before diving into something new. I definitely won't be going with mesquite again. The smell was starting to make me sick half way through the smoke. Didn't realize it was that strong. Had to add new charcoal 2 times during the smoke to keep my temps up and was wondering if that is normal? What was surprising to me is I thought keeping the heat down was going to be my biggest issue but I was actually having the opposite issue. I had a pretty nice size fire going in the firebox to maintain 250 on the firebox side.

 

[geerock]

You also may have layered on too much smoke. Lots of new smoke cooks put out clouds of heavy smoke. But mesquite doesn't take much to get overpowering. Try just about any other smoking wood in thin layers and you'll find the amount and flavor you enjoy.

 

[jmillz]

How do you maintain temp without constantly throwing in wood chunks? Keep adding charcoal instead of wood?

 

[jmillz]

I was actually getting the thin blue smoke the whole time except for the initial flare ups when I added wood chunks

 

[jmillz]

So what I'm really doing is cooking the meat with the heat from the charcoal and smoking for flavor??

 

[caribou89]

So what I'm really doing is cooking the meat with the heat from the charcoal and smoking for flavor??

Bingo