I picked up a used SM 50 and fired it up this weekend. I've done some indirect grilling before, and thanks to some good advice from Hook and reading the posts, I felt confident about cooking up a pork butt (so confident that I invited friends over). I tried to keep it simple-rubbed the pork on Thursday nite and then started smoking Friday nite. I used about 2.7 oz of hickory, and I only peeked once! Once it hit 195 (around 4 pm Saturday), I pulled it and sauced it. Bottom line it was a big hit with everyone (my son was shoving it in even before I sauced it). My only mistake-I cooked it on the middle rack, and didn't take out the racks below it, so more cleaning to do (need a frowny face for that)
This thing is great, it is practically fool proof. I was also surprised how long it smoked-2.7 oz lasted until about 12 pm on Sat (almost 13 hours). Although it was very moist in the cookshack, and therefore the butt was very tender, It did have a nice bark (my rub has some brown sugar) and a bit of a smoke ring, but again, the bottom line is it tasted great
Obviously I'm excited about the smoker, so my next project is a Brisket. I'm thinking of following the same basic procedure, but had a couple of questions:
1. Does brisket cook quicker/slower than pork butt? I'm going to cook it to 185 so it is sliceable. Because the butt (which seemed relatively lean) turned out very moist, beyond a rub, I'm not going to spray or foil-mistake? I'm probably going use whatever they sell at Sam's, which I beleive is the point.
2. I was going to use mostly hickory (2 oz) with a very small amount of mesquite (less than a quarter once)-will this be too overwhelming?
This a great form, I've already learned a lot!
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