Smoker rookie

[Creamer]

I got talked into buying a Masterbuilt electric smoker. A buddy has one and loves it, I've been wanting one for a while, and finally took the plunge. I cashed in some credit card reward points for Amazon gift cards and knocked $100 off the smoker. My first attempt was with turkey breast. Not wild turkey breast, because turkeys are dicks.

It turned out pretty good. The rub recipe I went with I liked, but I thought the marinade I mixed and injected was a little too salty. If I had it to do over, I'd dial back the salt level of the marinade.

On Sunday, I took a run at 3-2-1 ribs. My wife doesn't like anything that has too strong of a flavor, so I went a little light on the rub and threw them in for 3 hours with hickory chips.

Then the next two hours with the brown sugar, butter, and I used apple juice for the liquid.

Sauced and one more hour in the smoker.

I think the next thing I'm going to try is to smoke some salmon. I found a recipe that looks good, using honey as a glaze for the fillet. Only two smoked meats in, I'm learning this thing a little bit and the food has been pretty good.

 

[Sgt Fury]

I’ll be getting a smoker soon so I’ll be following along. I picked up two books that have recipes/instructions that I’ll use until I figure things out. Maybe some of the members here could post on this thread with some stuff they’ve done along with a few pointers. There’s a lot of posts on the “What’s for dinner“ thread that involve smoked chicken, ribs and brisket.

 

[giles]

I don’t suggest putting salmon in it if you plan to cook other meats afterwards. You WILL taste the salmon in everything. I always had a fish smoker when we lived in Alaska and never once thought about putting anything else in it. Then a couple of years back I offered to bring some to strouds for @Beentown to smoke. He told me to Fugg off, it’ll never go in his smoker and explained why. (The fish taste) It made perfect sense to me why no one in AK mixed them.

 

[giles]

BTW, I’d suggest a Little of Big Chief for salmon. If you really wanted to smoke some. Cheap and easy way to get it done.

 

[Jackalope]

Who boy look how clean that smoker is.. I highly recommend getting a few pork butts and settling in for a nice long smoke. Get the inside of that smoker well seasoned and the quality of your product will increase dramatically. Just like a good cast iron skillet, a seasoned smoker is very important at imparting awesome flavor. That's why Giles mentioned doing salmon in a different smoker, it'll impart a fish taste into the smoker season that will take forever to work itself out. Where is the chip pan in that smoker?

 

[Creamer]

Who boy look how clean that smoker is.. I highly recommend getting a few pork butts and settling in for a nice long smoke. Get the inside of that smoker well seasoned and the quality of your product will increase dramatically. Just like a good cast iron skillet, a seasoned smoker is very important at imparting awesome flavor. That's why Giles mentioned doing salmon in a different smoker, it'll impart a fish taste into the smoker season that will take forever to work itself out. Where is the chip pan in that smoker?

It's in the bottom beside the water pan. I had my wife check on pork butts at Sams last time she went and the only one they had was huge. I'm definitely going to throw some hog ass in it.

Well shit on the salmon idea. I was looking forward to that. I guess I'll have to grill it instead.

 

[Dustinb80]

It's in the bottom beside the water pan. I had my wife check on pork butts at Sams last time she went and the only one they had was huge. I'm definitely going to throw some hog ass in it.

Well shit on the salmon idea. I was looking forward to that. I guess I'll have to grill it instead.

Pork shoulder keeps very well when vacuum sealed and frozen. So smoke as big of one as you want, seal and freeze for later.

 

[Outdoorsfellar]

On another note .... take your salmon, cut it into cubes. Wrap bacon around them & douse with syrup. Your smoker will thank you.

 

[Jackalope]

It's in the bottom beside the water pan. I had my wife check on pork butts at Sams last time she went and the only one they had was huge. I'm definitely going to throw some hog ass in it.

Well shit on the salmon idea. I was looking forward to that. I guess I'll have to grill it instead.

I usually snag them from GFS just because the availability is always consistent and the price is right.

 

[Creamer]

I threw a bag of wings in the smoker yesterday for dinner. Stupid simple to cook them. The rub I used was a recipe I found online and I happened to have all the spices. I put the rub on them, let them sit for maybe 90 minutes, then put them in the smoker for a little over 2 hours at 225-230*.

I ate one with no sauce and it was pretty good as-is. I did brush a little BBQ sauce on them last night. With the leftovers today I'll use some buffalo sauce.

I've got a pork butt to do on Wednesday.

 

[Big H]

I have found that it is easier to do smaller pork butts vs one big one. Buy the big butt(makes me think of a song LOL) and cut it in half or thirds.