Thank you to all who helped me during the process of smoking a ham, which incedently was my first attempt at smoking anything. The advice on staying light with the mesquite saved the day. I used a light hand with the wood and smoke flavor was perfect for what I had envisioned.
It was a successful and an enjoyable yet semi-frustrating process. I began the smoke around 5am, just trying to get the smoke flowing and up to temp. This was the frustrating part of my day, wind chill in the single digits. Go figure a cold front would blow in that night. I had an enormous amount of trouble getting the temp over 200, most of the time it stayed aroung 175-195. It stayed on for about 5 hrs with a good light smoke flowing, and I was able to finish the heating in the oven.
Here's the rub down the day before:
Paprika, Dry mustard, Cloves, sugar, salt, and pepper.
I basted about once an hr. with liquid containing Chicken stock, Pineapple juice, dry mustard, and a pinch of clove.
The last hr I brushed with a simple glaze containing honey, pineapple juice and a pinch of clove. Sorry, I don't have a picture of the finished product before it was torn to bits for serving, I also did the rest of the cooking for the day and kind of got caught up. It was extremely juicy with a nice bark and not overpowering smoke flavor.
Also threw on a couple of pork tenderloin, they stayed on for about 2 1/2 hrs and I finished them on the grill.
It was a successful and an enjoyable yet semi-frustrating process. I began the smoke around 5am, just trying to get the smoke flowing and up to temp. This was the frustrating part of my day, wind chill in the single digits. Go figure a cold front would blow in that night. I had an enormous amount of trouble getting the temp over 200, most of the time it stayed aroung 175-195. It stayed on for about 5 hrs with a good light smoke flowing, and I was able to finish the heating in the oven.
Here's the rub down the day before:
Paprika, Dry mustard, Cloves, sugar, salt, and pepper.
I basted about once an hr. with liquid containing Chicken stock, Pineapple juice, dry mustard, and a pinch of clove.
The last hr I brushed with a simple glaze containing honey, pineapple juice and a pinch of clove. Sorry, I don't have a picture of the finished product before it was torn to bits for serving, I also did the rest of the cooking for the day and kind of got caught up. It was extremely juicy with a nice bark and not overpowering smoke flavor.
Also threw on a couple of pork tenderloin, they stayed on for about 2 1/2 hrs and I finished them on the grill.