# New to smoking - any suggestions



## Kbsherriff (Jul 23, 2019)

Hi all, im from the UK new to smoking, i like bbq'ing and saw videos of smoking and loved how the food looked so i bought a bbq big enough to do both, any suggestions on what to start with first?


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## PrairieGeek (Jul 23, 2019)

Chicken. It's cheap so if you destroy it you aren't wasting big money.


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## kruizer (Jul 23, 2019)

Welcome to SMF from Minnesota. Try pork spare ribs. Cheap and easy.


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## SmokinVOLfan (Jul 23, 2019)

Welcome from East TN. What type of smoker/bbq did you get? I would either start out with chicken or a pork butt. Both are cheap and very forgiving.


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## JC in GB (Jul 23, 2019)

Welcome from Wisconsin. 

Chicken is inexpensive and cooks quickly but doesn't give you the satisfaction of a low and slow cook.

I would start with pork shoulder.  Bone in if you can get them.

It is satisfying to pull that bone easily out of an expertly prepared shoulder.

Also, pulled pork makes great leftovers.  Tacos, burritos, breakfast hash, chili....  Your imagination is the limit.

Have fun and don't forget to post pics of your cooks...

JC


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 23, 2019)

SmokinVOLfan said:


> Welcome from East TN. What type of smoker/bbq did you get? I would either start out with chicken or a pork butt. Both are cheap and very forgiving.









I bought a cheap charcoal bbq with coal tray that lowers and front hatch to add coals if needed


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## JCAP (Jul 23, 2019)

Echo the above. Pork butt is easy. Chicken thighs don’t take long but you can still get that nice smoke flavor!


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## banderson7474 (Jul 23, 2019)

Yep another vote for pork butt


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## newbienick (Jul 23, 2019)

Welcome!  NW Ohio, USA here...

Being in the UK, your meat prices/availability might be different.  I would also suggest a pork shoulder/butt if it is available.  For us, they are cheap and plentiful, and they are hard to mess up. 

For my own curiosity, what cuts of meat are available for smoking that we are used to?


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 23, 2019)

Thanks for all the suggestions, i think chicken might be my first try for the speed of it to mainly try and keep the temps and get results quicker then try shoulder/butt as my second attempt as a more satisfying cook, i will look into getting some meat probes to help get accurate temps and cooking times, i do have a digital meat probe and analogue one but theyre not instant


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## zwiller (Jul 23, 2019)

I would do a few short dry runs to season the smoker and get a feel of it first.


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 23, 2019)

I have used it as bbq a few times so far if that counts


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## mike243 (Jul 23, 2019)

Thats all good suggestions, looks more like a large charcoal grill and if it is you will need to build your fire off to 1 side, welcome and good luck with your cooks


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## tallbm (Jul 23, 2019)

Kbsherriff said:


> Hi all, im from the UK new to smoking, i like bbq'ing and saw videos of smoking and loved how the food looked so i bought a bbq big enough to do both, any suggestions on what to start with first?



Hi there and welcome!

I too would recommend chicken since it is cheap and tasty.  That makes learning fun!
As for chicken the EASIEST cut in the world to cook in any form or fashion, including smoking, would be Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs!

Season them and cook them. 
No need to brine.  
No worrying about getting tough skin... there is no skin.
They never come out dry... they are not breast meat.
They taste AMAZING!
You can easily scale up from small amounts to large amounts as you learn your smoker.

You cannot hardly lose with boneless skinless chicken thighs.
I would suggest you practice on them while you learn:

How to control your fire
How to control your smoke
How to use thermometers to measure both smoker and meat temp
How to control/maintain steady temps
Once you have all of that figured out pretty well you can then try different meats and focus on the quirks and techniques for cooking each specific meat cut.
Each cut of meat has it's own special tricks and quirks to handle so no need in throwing the 4 other things on top of learning the meat itself while getting started.

Best of luck! :)


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 23, 2019)

newbienick said:


> Welcome!  NW Ohio, USA here...
> 
> Being in the UK, your meat prices/availability might be different.  I would also suggest a pork shoulder/butt if it is available.  For us, they are cheap and plentiful, and they are hard to mess up.
> 
> For my own curiosity, what cuts of meat are available for smoking that we are used to?


Im pretty sure most the cuts of meat you get we do too although i havent often seen bone in pork shoulder, as for price i have seen rack or spare ribs (1kg/2.2lb) for £5.99 which works out about $7.50ish is this high or low for you guys?


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## tallbm (Jul 23, 2019)

Kbsherriff said:


> Im pretty sure most the cuts of meat you get we do too although i havent often seen bone in pork shoulder, as for price i have seen rack or spare ribs (1kg/2.2lb) for £5.99 which works out about $7.50ish is this high or low for you guys?



In North Texas that seems about on par with rib costs.  I never buy them at that price.  I wait until they go on sale which is roughly have price or less :)


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 23, 2019)

Is there any flavour woodchip you guys recommend? i have no idea what i would like the taste of


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## newbienick (Jul 24, 2019)

Kbsherriff said:


> Im pretty sure most the cuts of meat you get we do too although i havent often seen bone in pork shoulder, as for price i have seen rack or spare ribs (1kg/2.2lb) for £5.99 which works out about $7.50ish is this high or low for you guys?



I usually buy when spareribs are $2.00/lbs or less.  If my math is right, that's about 3.5 GBP / kg.  You might have to look around to see where the deals are.

Honestly, one of the challenges that I love about smoking is finding some cheap cut of meat and making something delicious out of it!  You might visit your local grocer or butcher and see what is cheap.  Report back with what you find, and we'll figure out what part of the animal it is and how to cook it.  :)


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## tallbm (Jul 24, 2019)

Kbsherriff said:


> Is there any flavour woodchip you guys recommend? i have no idea what i would like the taste of



I like a variety of woods for a variety of meats.  You may run into the issue that you are limited to only 1-3 options.

Hickory is the king of woods and is a strong wood flavor.  I personally don't like too much hickory because too much makes things taste like bacon so I usually pair it up with another wood.  I like bacon but I like when my bacon tasted like bacon not when my ribs taste like bacon :)

I'm a fan of Maple over Oak for my middle of the road more generic wood.  Think of like Oak being like vanilla ice cream where Maple is vanilla ice cream with nuts or a little flavor sauce (chocolate/cherry/caramel) to kick it up a notch.
Maple is an excellent wood to blend with Hickory or other woods as well so it is very versatile.

Finally, Apple is a very good one to go with.  You could easily blend Apple with Maple or Hickory.   When blending Apple with Hickory you are basically getting good strong flavor without overdoing the hickory.
When Blending Apple with Maple you are making Apple the star of the show with Maple to supplement it.

If you can get Mesquite, that to me beats all other woods for use with beef.  I also really like Cherry with beef but it is not as strong so also works good as a blend.  Most "Competition Blends" of wood pellets are Maple/Cherry/Hickory :)

Hope this info helps! :)


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 24, 2019)

tallbm said:


> I like a variety of woods for a variety of meats.  You may run into the issue that you are limited to only 1-3 options.
> 
> Hickory is the king of woods and is a strong wood flavor.  I personally don't like too much hickory because too much makes things taste like bacon so I usually pair it up with another wood.  I like bacon but I like when my bacon tasted like bacon not when my ribs taste like bacon :)
> 
> ...


Great help thanks


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## JC in GB (Jul 24, 2019)

I like hickory with either apple or cherry added.  Pecan and apple is one of my favorite combos as well.  I also use oak whiskey barrel chunks with cherry wood.  There are many different woods and combinations that will give you a good product.  I decide what smoke I want usually as my smoker is coming up to temp.  If you have hickory, cherry, and apple wood, you can smoke just about anything. IMHO

JC


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## banderson7474 (Jul 24, 2019)

I guess I haven't smoked enough to really get a palate of different smoke wood but I enjoy oak, hickory and mesquite.  My neighbor gave me a bunch of pecan from his yard.  I should try something different for poultry like apple to see if I can taste a difference.


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## JC in GB (Jul 24, 2019)

banderson7474 said:


> I guess I haven't smoked enough to really get a palate of different smoke wood but I enjoy oak, hickory and mesquite.  My neighbor gave me a bunch of pecan from his yard.  I should try something different for poultry like apple to see if I can taste a difference.



I can taste the difference between different woods.  Sometimes I can tell what wood was used if it was only one kind.

I agree with a previous poster that cherry works well for beef.

If I had only one wood type to smoke with, I would most likely go with apple.


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 24, 2019)

I have ordered some apple wood to start, as people have suggested they go well with both pork and chicken and they are what i plan to do this weekend, chicken saturday and shoulder on sunday


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## tallbm (Jul 24, 2019)

Kbsherriff said:


> I have ordered some apple wood to start, as people have suggested they go well with both pork and chicken and they are what i plan to do this weekend, chicken saturday and shoulder on sunday



Nice! You will enjoy it. 
Quick tip on your chicken.  If it has skin on it you will get rubbery skin unless you smoke it at a higher smoker temp.  Smoking it at 162C (325F) the whole time should give you edible and likely crispy skin.
A great alternative option is to smoke 107C (225F) and when it is like an Internal Temp (IT) of the meat at 57C (135F) you can throw the chicken skin side down on a super hot gas grill to fix the skin up and finish the cook on the chicken.

Best of luck on the smokes this weekend! :)


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## banderson7474 (Jul 24, 2019)

Agreed, I did a beer can chicken in a webber indirect between 280-300 and the skin still came out rubbery. I should have took the can out of its azz and threw it on direct for a little to crisp up the chicken.


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 24, 2019)

banderson7474 said:


> Agreed, I did a beer can chicken in a webber indirect between 280-300 and the skin still came out rubbery. I should have took the can out of its azz and threw it on direct for a little to crisp up the chicken.


Whats this 'beer can' chicken, ive seen it a few times but not 100% what it means


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## NormsEgg (Jul 24, 2019)

Just relax and enjoy the process.  You will nail some cooks and some, well not so much.  It's all good we have all been on both sides.


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 29, 2019)

So i gave smoking the chicken a go on saturday, didnt go as well as id like, struggled to get the temp up to 350f i got as high as 314f at time but mainly stuck around 300f was enough to cook it, was on there about 2 and half hours or just over meat came out juicy, juices were clear but sking was abit rubbery as suspected with temp problem but got the the legs and found that some of the meat was quite pink, looked firm not squishy but my partner is a worrier so didnt want that bit eating, probe said the breast reached 168 by time i took it off and all the breast was nice and white with a pink tinge just below skin, any advice or suggestions welcome, with temp problem and pink in legs


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## JC in GB (Jul 29, 2019)

Pink coloration just under the skin is likely the smoke ring.  If juices run clear and you are getting an IT of 165, you are golden.


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## JCAP (Jul 29, 2019)

As long as you hit 165, you're good. Color shouldn't be used to judge if poultry is done- trust the IT!

https://www.thekitchn.com/chicken-still-pink-after-cooki-157168


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## PrairieGeek (Jul 29, 2019)

Temp in the breast and thigh will generally not be the same. Thigh usually takes a bit more.


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## Kbsherriff (Jul 29, 2019)

Yeah i had a probe in the breast through the whole cook and one on the grate. One in the breast definately reached 165, i checked the legs after bringing it indoors and they reached 165 also, so will know for next time, couldnt do the pork outside this weekend, the weather just got worse on sunday and it was bad enough saturday hence the umbrella haha but i did do it in the oven with the rub and glaze i made and they did taste delicous


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## zwiller (Jul 29, 2019)

Good points made.  Spatchcocking helps with breast/thigh temps.  In fact, I go one step further and halve the bird.  Much easier to handle etc too.  For skin, I fan dry and form pellicle.  Not crispy but bite through.  Color is much better too.


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