Gotta love it...have looked at them for two years and resisted...my wife came through big time

First try today...did just a small rack of ribs this morning while cooking a 5lb butt. Had a nice rib lunch (a bit heavy on the smoke - first lesson learned)...now waiting another hour or so for the butt. should be a fun first effort, but I can tell that practice will be good for me, adkins friendly (relatively) and this forum is great. Thanks to all who proceeded me for some info already learned reading through.

hi alldaybbq!!!!!
man have you got a nice wife!!!!!
congrats on the new rig and welcome and happy new year!!!
jack

Well, finished up my first attempt. Ribs were very good...fell off the bone nicely...I think I used two much smoke though. Put about 6oz in (3 small chunks. Probably a common new guy error...it just doesn't seem like much wood. Now that I've been reading a lot of forum posts though, I'm learning. The butt tasted good...took almost 12 hrs and didn't quite qet to 190 so next time I'll adjust a bit - I think I know the solution. That's all for now. Good Q-ing to all in 2005!!
Sean

Congrats on the new cooker and the first cook! As another new guy, I'm learnign, too, but 6 oz of wood does sound like too much. For my fist butt I used 4 oz for a 8 1/2 lb butt, and that was pretty good. For my first ribs, I only used 2 oz and that may have been too much for my wife, but was fine for me.

I looked at my wood, it looks like its around 3 to 4 oz a chunk..I used one chunk for my spare ribs and it was just right, am going to use 8oz for my 8.75lb pork butt Sunday

I'll give it a try today. Got friends coming for dinner. 10lbs of ribs ready to roll for today. I'll stick to 3-4oz and see how it goes. thanks for the input. Go Seahawks today

Welcome to the forum. Remember, these units are efficent...you really want to start out low with the wood. Another thing is that I hardly use hickory anymore. I find it way too strong for my taste.....at least straight hickory. I like oak, pecan, apple , cherry, and most fruit woods. Now I do mix hickory with these other woods from time to time though. When I first started, I weighed my wood to get a true feel for just how much wood I was using per smoke. Not saying that this is what you need to do but it sure put things in to prospective for me. Do a search and you will find that this subject has come up very often. Try new things and keep good notes and you will get there.

Good luck, Doc

Zar,
You may want to be careful with 8oz of wood on an 8.75lb butt.......especially if it's hickory.

Doc

I checked it out just now, 168, right now its going up about 5 deg per hour, but I know its going to slow down any time now..

Its done..
pulled it out at 203deg. It fell apart when I moved it to a glass tray. Its in the frig now, but me and my wife took a few mouthfulls before we put it up for pulling in about 20 min..

Geez, don't keep us in suspence.......How was it???

Zar,

Do you usually put your smoked pork in the frig befor pulling? I always put mime wrapped in a cooler for a couple of hours, before I pull it.

Happy Trails

Zar,
I weighed the wood chunks before I put them in. I had read in here about people using a chunk or two, and couldn't believe that was right because we were used to loading it in our old smoker. Folks were saying 6 oz. of wood made their meat too strong. I thought, well, maybe they're from up north and not used to smoked meat. But these cookshack smokers don't need as much wood to get the same good smoke flavor.
As far as pulled pork goes, it pulls lots easier if you do it while pretty warm, if not hot. Tastes just as good though if you chop it when it gets cool. I usually end up with a combination of chopped and pulled.
I'm glad you're having so much fun with your new smoker!
Peggy

It was great. I waited about 30min to pull. It still had a few hot spots in it. It pulled like tuna, only had a bit of fat on the top, about a table spoon all together, even tho it had a good sized fat cap to start with..

I have 2 bags frozen up for later!!

Speaking of pulling....I was watching a BBQ show on TV and they were pulling pork with tools that looked like a 4-tooth hair pick, only each tine or tooth was about the size of a cigarette, with a point. Anybody ever see those before? Did a really neat job.

Counting down 'till I order my CS...