# Smoking Help



## PompNewbie (Oct 1, 2007)

I have a big smoker/Grill but ive never tried to smoke anything in it...I know it takes a long time to smoke something and thats fine I just need to get the how to .

So If you have any suggestions of a easy first try and what I need to do I would appreciate it.

Thanks Mike 

(I thought about ribs but my wife likes the baby backs and I know nothing about rubs and what not)


----------



## Xanadu (Oct 1, 2007)

I had the same thing some years ago. I had a big bad smoker and no smoking experience - legal or otherwise and I got some good advice.



First, try baby backs cause that's what I like. Buy Butt Rub from the grocery store and liberally apply with hands and rub it in. Wrap in tin foil and let it sit in the fridge at least a few hours or overnight. Depending on smoker, get your fire started till it gets to coals then add your smoking wood. I like to sear my ribs a few minutes on each side over the fire and then move to the smoking box and close down all the holes so my temp is around 165-175. Close it up and monitor your temp and let it smoke for an hour or so. At that point, I usually start to spray my ribs with apple juice through a pump sprayer and let the smoke dissipate. After another half hour or so, I'll soak them down with the apple joice again and wrap the ribs tightly in tin foil. Let them cook as your fire and heat dissipate.



Add a few coals to get fire going again and brush on some favorite sauce and grill a minute or two to caramelize the sauce! 



FYI, the first batch may suck, but try again. If the batch turns out good, you will not have cooked enough. if it sucks, it was only $40 worth of supplies and a wasted day of cooking. Good times!


----------



## Getsome (Sep 28, 2007)

What do you use the apple juice for? I never heard of that but it sound good.


----------



## Xanadu (Oct 1, 2007)

> *Getsome (6/7/2008)*What do you use the apple juice for? I never heard of that but it sound good.




I think it was an Emeril recipe that suggested it and somehow the enzymes in the AJ break down the meat and make it fall apart. Sometimes I'll soak the ribs in AJ and the rub before drying and dry marinating in the rub only. It works like a charm and keeps them nice and moist. Sealing them up in the tin foil with juice will result in a very tender and moist rib.


----------



## Xanadu (Oct 1, 2007)

Shit. Now you guys made me hungry so I'm off to Apple Market to waste a hundred or so on ribs and snacks. Thanks. It's not like I'm not already fat enough.


----------



## hebegb (Oct 6, 2007)

seals the deal....ribs on the smoker here tomorrow too :hungry:letsdrink


----------



## PompNewbie (Oct 1, 2007)

Sounds great thanks for the tips....however I dont have a temp gauge on mine just a dial that says Ideal warm and hot


----------



## WW2 (Sep 28, 2007)

There are a millions ways to do it. just depends on what you want your results to be. Often you can cook your meat through first and use the smoker to finish it off or you can use the smoker to do the whole deal. 

Almost any hard wood is good to smoke with, don't just use hickory or mesquite, mess around. I have used oak alot and it does a great job. 

if you use the smoker to cook the meat through make sure that at some point the meat reaches "safe" temperature to kill the bacteria and what not. 

I use mine to do everything, i don't own a grill. Making jerky is awesome. Just use the internet and hunt and you'll find some great ideas. 

oh, you can try this too, use crock pot to cook a pork roast or whatever with marinades/juices whatever you want. Cook it on low for about 4 to 8 hours (how you like it) then it will probably be falling off the bone. take it out and drain the juices. Use a baking pan to spread the meat out(pull it). Add more seasonings or not to taste, smoke for as little as 20 minutes or as much as a few hours, the temp will be very low in this case, you are going to want lots of smoke not a lot of heat, the meat is already cooked. Then decide if you want sammiches like that or iff you want to add bbq sauce or whatever.

My latest was using crock pot with dill pickle juice, 2 grapefruit and water. Cooked the pulled pork overnight in crock pot. Tasted it in the morning and it was HORRIBLE.  It made the meat very sour...this was the plan. I then put it on the smoker for an hour. Once it came out I put a sweet honey bbq sauce on it. Ended up with an awesome sweet/sour BBQ pork sammich smoked in Oak.....oh yeah...fried the the pickles in beer batter...so, beer batter fried pickles and sweet/sour bbq pulled pork sammich....WOW it was awesome.

You will fail sometimes.


----------



## gulfdreamin (Jul 7, 2008)

Finally something on here i can contribute to!! Don't know what kind of smoker you have but mine is an offset smoker. I get my temp up to 225-240 and add my ribs. (after they have been rubbed down overnight.) I use the Bad Byrons Butt Rubb but i add some things. Brown sugar is the main thing just add equal amounts of each. Anyway, after smoker is up to temp put the ribs on for 2.5 hrs with a 225 temp. After that i take them off and spray them pretty liberally with apple juice. The flavor of apple goes well with pork but it helps steam them also. I wrap them with foil(with the apple juice) for another 1-1.5 hours depending on how the temp is going. Then all there is left to do is unwrap and let them dry on the smoker for about .5 hour before adding your favorite BBQ sauce.(I make my own) Let them set on there for another 30 min. to let your sauce stick to the ribs and your ready to rock. Hope this helps, any questions send me a PM.


----------



## Reel EmergenSea (Jan 31, 2008)

Pomp Newbie,

I realize your post was some time ago, hopefully you're still checking it out.

I bit the bullet last year and bought a Big Green Egg. My life hasn't been the same since.

Produces the best ribs, boston butt(bbq) I have ever had. I also kicks butt as a grill for whatever you want.


----------



## Huntinman (Aug 12, 2008)

If you have access to any, pecan wood always adds to the great smoke flavor. If you want to cheat, JW Refroe has massive piles of pecan shells behind their building, throw a hand full or two of those on the coals!


----------



## PompNewbie (Oct 1, 2007)

Great info guys!!


----------



## Billyum (Nov 10, 2008)

I found the following site a few years back and have been using it ever since:

http://www.3men.com/index.htm

The have a great variety of recipes for the smoker!


----------

