I received my first ever smoker last week. I've been reading in the forum for a few months and when CookShack put them on sale for Father's Day I placed my order.
When the smoker arrived my wife asked "What's this?" Just a smoker I ordered for us I said.
Armed with nothing more than instincts and knowledge learned here, my first step was to season it. First night, 5 hours with hickory wood. The next night 4 hours with apple wood. All the while my wife was complaining that I was over doing it.
I said no, I'm just doing what I've read in this forum. It appears that many people have had problems with their first smoke so I wanted to make sure I had a good seasoning before my first ever attempt at smoking.
I bought a 11-11.5 Boston Butt from Sam's Club. The butt was cut in half. I rubbed the butt with spicy brown mustard and the CookShack rib rub. Let it sit in the fridge overnight and put it on at 0600 the next morning - 3.5 oz of apple wood.
The initial temp climbed pretty quick to about 130 degrees - about 2.5 hours. It was shortly after this time that I realized I had forgotten to poke the hole through the bottom foil. At the 3 hour point I opened the door and created the drain hole.
My butt cooked pretty consistently. I did not have any periods where it seemed to cook longer at a particular temp before increasing in temp. Just a slow steady increase in temp throughout the entire 19 hour smoke.
At 19 hours it finally reached 195 degrees and I pulled it out, wrapped it in foil for 30 minutes and then pulled it. The initial tastes were a little disappointing as it just tasted like cooked pork. Nothing special. I pulled all the pork, placed it in a bowl and put it in the fridge then went to bed. About 1000 the next morning the flavor was a whole different story. Very nice.
I mixed up some of SmokinOkies pork dipping sauce and made sandwiches for lunch. Wife loved it. No more complaints from her about the smoker.
The other half of the butt is about ready to be removed from the smoker. This one is smoked with 3.5 oz of hickory. It is rubbed with spicy brown mustard also but I used the rib rub as well as some of the chicken rub.
Now the real learning curve begins as I experiment with other meats and woods.
Dale
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