ANOTHER NEWBIE QUESTION..

It burns pretty efficiently.

The goal in any cooker is to see as little,or no smoke-if possible.

Run your hand over the exhaust vent hole and you should feel heat/smell smoke.

Tom knows smoke(ing)

The smoke you see "may" cause bitter or off tastes on/in your smokes. The smoke you don't see (clean smoke) is the good stuff.

Just keep chugging, you'll do fine. Have fun with your new toy!

Thanks!!! Yup there is heat coming out of the vent hole.

This is all very very new ground for me!!!

I appreciate the help!

HI Loopy, My 25 came yesterday also. Did the exact same thing. I'm a newbie too, Welcome aboard! Check out page 7 of your manual, gives you an idea what to expect.I didn't agree with the cheap meat part so I just put the wood in. Keep posting , let everyone know how you're doing. Lot's of nice experienced folks here.

Thanks Bigdog!!!

The "cheap,fatty meat" helps coat the walls,and gives you the color/surface that you achieve with an old iron skillet.

Much less power is used and much more even cooking is the result.

There might be a reason ,that the folks that have built this cooker for a half century,say use fatty meats-they know stuff.

I did a pork butt after my seasoning. It put a nice color on the walls and made for some great sammmichz for my family and co-workers. My co-workers have generously volunteered to be my gineau pigs.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom:
The "cheap,fatty meat" helps coat the walls,and gives you the color/surface that you achieve with an old iron skillet.

Much less power is used and much more even cooking is the result.

There might be a reason ,that the folks that have built this cooker for a half century,say use fatty meats-they know stuff.

Great info Tom!

I had done a forum search on seasoning new smokers. (my sm020 arrives this Friday!!!) Looked like main concern was 1)ridding new smoker of residue from manufacturing 2)coating inside walls with smoke/oils to lessen their ability to absorb flavor and smoke (ie meat gets more). 3)smoking cheap cut helps with #2, and allows test run of smoker to check out operation and operator lol. 4) Lastly it(seasoning new smoker) seems to be a time honored ritual for new smokers... who would want to skip that!

I wasn't aware that it can save power. How does that work exactly? Thx again. Mark

If I'm burning off manufactureing residue, oils toxins, weld rod,flux, stamping oils? Why would i want to eat the food from this run? How much elecric does this save? 5 bucks? How many kilowatts? Please advise, we newbie's can use the help.

Guys,

It's simple.

Wipe it down, out.

Throw some wood in, let it smoke overnight, no food, no water, nothing.

Next day, put some PB in and smoke that for a first smoke.

BBQ is simple, let's not over think it. Forums can sometimes complicate the simple tasks so let's not.

Just me trying to keep it easy for the newbies.

Thanks Smokin' Okie. You summarized it nicely.
B
The biggest I read on this forum is that of caution.

yeah, when you get your smoker, season it. But don't over analyze it. Just clean it, and run a few hours smoke through it. Done. Now enjoy.

Beyond that, just enjoy. It realloy doesn't matter how extensively your smoker is set. In fact, at some point in th future, you're going to have to scrape some excess seasoning off the walls of your smoker.

ManelyDave

Love your recipes, pics and suggestions. I review your site at least once a day, looking forward to getting my AQ within a week or so.
Look forward to checking our your Website.
Thanks for the work on posting.

Jay