Starting out did you cook

[Burnt to a T]

one type of meat at a time or did you find yourself diving into multiple types of meats from the start? For example did you cook all ribs or did you cook a brisket, ribs, and butts, chicken all at the same time?

I have yet to get a smoker, but I'm pretty sure I know what I will be getting. I just don't want to say yet. I just want to know what the best approach is starting out.

Just so you know it will be a charcoal/wood vertical smoker. I think I have dropped the Pellet option because I don't really need a grill, and I don't want to buy two different sources of fuel.

 

[Happy Hapgood]

I started out with a Boston Butt as it is very forgiving until I learned how to control the smoke and heat in my rig.

Good Luck!

 

[Bludawg]

Chicken ribs & sausage on a weber OTS at one time.

 

[Mapperjay]

Bearing in mind I'm ADD, I have to try All The Meats! My go-to are chicken breasts because I have an easy marinade that always turns out perfect.
But now that I have a freezer full of deer and elk, I'll experiment with those for different recipes and styles. And I really want to learn more about pork butt and brisket.

 

[Mustang97mb]

+1 to pork butts

 

[LMAJ]

Ribs first for me.

 

[LYU370]

Butt. Hard to mess up.

 

[JDM46]

CHEESEBURGER:thumb:

 

[Rusty Kettle]

Chicken... Yep I love chicken. Bbq chicken is the best. Then a pork picnic roast.

 

[Okie Sawbones]

Ribs and chicken -- on an old Cajun Smoker. :-D

 

[blazinfire]

First thing I cooked on my smoker was pork butt and chicken. But from there it was everything! They say pork butt is very forgiving. Turns out well unless you really screw something up lol.

 

[Pyle's BBQ]

I cooked one thing, to make sure I knew how my smoker cooked. I started with pork loin. It was cheap and didn't take long to cook. Once you figure out how your smoker cooks you will be able to expand what you can cook.

 

[JRDINCC]

Smoked a lot of spare ribs till I figured it out.

 

[smokerpa]

I did a butt first so not to screw anything up. Then chicken. Then ribs. Then sausage.

And then brisket.....nailed that the first time making it. Thought everyone who screwed it up was a bunch of idiots. Thought it was easy and couldn't understand why anyone thought it was hard. :doh:

Then I screwed it up ten times in a row and finally figured it out.....first time was just luck.

Trail and error on most of these things and listen to what everyone hear has to say.

 

[S.Six]

My first smoker was my 18.5"wsm, and my first cook on it was ribs. Pork butt is a great first meat to try too. Just keep in mind it does take a lot of time.

 

[jgbmgb]

2 fatties here!! Then on to a butt. Both on the UDS.

 

[COS]

I started on baby backs. I was able to practice keeping the pit at a certain temp for a short four hour cook. Once I was comfortable with it I moved to the pork butt for longer 8-9 hr cooks.

 

[dport7]

Started out smoking what ever got in my way, had to try everything, then learn how to refine the cooks.

 

[nsbbqguy]

Ribs, pork butt and chicken thighs for me. Just experminted with each and tried different rubs a sauces to see what I liked best