IlliniQ
Knows what a fatty is.
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2013
- Location
- Chicago...
Let me start by saying I'm VERY new to smoking. I have done a few chickens on a gas grill with indirect heat a little metal smoker box full of soaked chips, but I have never smoked anything over charcoal. I'm excited to get started, though, and I'm really enjoying everything I've been reading on this forum so far! Also, this post is rather long...I tend to ramble a bit... :sorry:
My wife got me a brinkmann gourmet charcoal smoker (seems to be essentially the ECB I saw at Home Depot, but with a bit of an improved set up for the coals). I fired it up empty just to get a feel for how it would behave in the cold (I live in the Chicago burbs) and how well I could keep the coals going. Seemed fine, but I only kept it running for about 2 hours so as to not waste too much charcoal with no meat on the grate.
I have a 7 lb boston butt in the fridge that I was planning on using to inaugurate my new smoker, but temperatures are dropping sharply and we're looking at snow in the area. I'm not sure that trying to keep the smoker at the optimal temperature for 10-12 hours is the smartest idea given my complete lack of experience.
As a backup plan, I'm thinking of either doing a slab of spare ribs (i have a rib rack). However, when I picked up the butt, my butcher also showed me a 3 lb pork "roast" which he said is basically the first piece behind the shoulder. It looked fairly well marbled, not as lean as a typical loin. Has anyone had any luck smoking one of these? Seems like it might take less time, and I might have more success in the crummy weather - I suppose that also leaves me less margin for error since it's smaller.
If anyone actually read this far down (Thanks!) do you have any suggestion as to what would be a good first try for me. I'm pretty comfortable cooking in general, and I realize I could always move something to the oven to finish it, but I'd really like to do it all outside if possible. So...should I suck it up and stick to the butt? Do the spare ribs (thinking the 3-2-1 sounds like a solid place to start)? Or, the boneless "roast" from the shoulder?
Thanks in advance for any tips - Looking forward to many weekends wiht the smoker!
My wife got me a brinkmann gourmet charcoal smoker (seems to be essentially the ECB I saw at Home Depot, but with a bit of an improved set up for the coals). I fired it up empty just to get a feel for how it would behave in the cold (I live in the Chicago burbs) and how well I could keep the coals going. Seemed fine, but I only kept it running for about 2 hours so as to not waste too much charcoal with no meat on the grate.
I have a 7 lb boston butt in the fridge that I was planning on using to inaugurate my new smoker, but temperatures are dropping sharply and we're looking at snow in the area. I'm not sure that trying to keep the smoker at the optimal temperature for 10-12 hours is the smartest idea given my complete lack of experience.
As a backup plan, I'm thinking of either doing a slab of spare ribs (i have a rib rack). However, when I picked up the butt, my butcher also showed me a 3 lb pork "roast" which he said is basically the first piece behind the shoulder. It looked fairly well marbled, not as lean as a typical loin. Has anyone had any luck smoking one of these? Seems like it might take less time, and I might have more success in the crummy weather - I suppose that also leaves me less margin for error since it's smaller.
If anyone actually read this far down (Thanks!) do you have any suggestion as to what would be a good first try for me. I'm pretty comfortable cooking in general, and I realize I could always move something to the oven to finish it, but I'd really like to do it all outside if possible. So...should I suck it up and stick to the butt? Do the spare ribs (thinking the 3-2-1 sounds like a solid place to start)? Or, the boneless "roast" from the shoulder?
Thanks in advance for any tips - Looking forward to many weekends wiht the smoker!