First Cooks on new AQ.
Actually did these in late November, but just got around to posting.
Our first cook was a small Swift pork tenderloin and a small eye of round both from Costco. The tenderloin was from a cryo pak and came preseasoned & marinated. We found the seasoning and marinade flavor to be fairly nasty when we first tried them, so our intent here was to try to salvage the remaining tenderloins if possible. The only prep for the tenderloins was to rinse off as much of that seasoning as possible and pat dry. We seasoned the eye of round with some Durkee steak seasoning and let everything sit on the counter for about 30 minutes.
Started the smoker at 2:50PM at 225˚ using 2 ou. of hickory. The meat probe wasn't shipped with the cooker, so I doubled up using a Maverick and a Polder probe on the eye of round. Cookshack was great getting the probe out to me in just a couple of days.
Took the eye of round out at 5:30PM when the Maverick showed 140˚ and the Polder showed 132˚ . My instant read sided with the Maverick at 140˚. The eye of round was pink throughout, tender and tasty.
Kicked the cooker up to 250˚ and put the Maverick probe in the tenderloin. Took the tenderloin out at 11:30 PM with the internal temp at 195˚ and shredded it. The meat was a little dry, but that was expected. Mixed it up with some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and we were happy. The funky preseasoned taste was pretty much gone.
The second cook was 2 Costco chuck roasts about 3lbs each. Seasoned them overnight with Cookshack Brisket Rub. Let them sit on the counter about a half hour before they went into the smoker. Set the cooker to 220˚ and cooked to an internal temp of about 165˚ (about 4 hours). We double foiled the roasts and cooked them to an internal temp of 195˚ (Don't remember exactly, but I think it was about 2 - 3 more hours). We shredded the beef and warmed it up with Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. It came out great
The third cook was a couple of racks of pork loin ribs from Costco, about 5.5 lbs. Used the Cookshack Rib Rub on them overnight and let the ribs sit on the counter about 30 minutes before they went in the smoker. Set the smoker to 225˚ and smoked them for 7 hours, then held them a 140˚ for another hour. Preheated the oven to 350˚, sauced the ribs and put them in the oven. Set the oven to 550˚. By the time the oven hit 550˚ the ribs were charred perfectly. I've smoked up a lot of ribs on a water smoker, but these were by far the best smoked ribs I've made.
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