First Steps

You first season it with smoke by putting 4 oz wood in the woodbox and running on 225 for a few hours. Next, season it by cooking a nice size butt or shoulder. I use Pam for grilling on the grills/racks. Don't forget to cover the bottom with HD foil and punch a drip hole. Also, cover the woodbox with HD foil. When finished, put the grills and racks in the dishwasher or soak then scrub them with dawn. Wipe out the interior with paper towels, no cleaner. Clean the outside with 409 or Fantastic or similar. For cooking the butt or shoulder, use the advice you have been studying on this forum. Remember to take explicit notes to include meat temp, outside temp, wind, type and amount of wood, cook temp, weight of meat, time, etc. Use a digital probe in the meat and do not open the door until it reaches the target temp.

Ya know, everybody says "take notes", so I did. Did it like 5x. For "me" I found out it was pretty pointless. The only bad things I ever had come out of my CS, I believe, were attributed to "bad" wood.

So, what I now do is actually let the wood start smoking before adding the meat. My problem was that a few times the amount of smoke created was ungodly. I mean like scary amounts of smoke.

The CS is like Ronco " set it, and forget it", essentially, and within reason.

Oh, and yes, use the probe or probes. Now those, aree what really helped me.

One other thing you need to do is make sure you put a pan under your smoker to catch the grease.

Very good points indeed. Do not use too much wood! You will be very surprised at the small amount of wood it uses. Remember, the wood is just for smoke, it cooks with electricity. The 4 oz wood mentioned above is for seasoning when the smoker is empty. When seasoning with the pork, 1-2 oz hickory is usually plenty. A drip pan is mandatory! I use the enamel coated one from out of the bottom of the kitchen range. It is good and heavy and fits.

Go to the "open forum" and read the post at the top labeled "lessons for new users". That post will save you some of the interesting lessons learned by new users.

Congrats and welcome to the forum.

Smokin'

Wellk, I wrote a reply a few min ago but it didn't post. I'll try again. I'm still new to using the Cookshack Forum. Wanted to say thanks for the help above. I was wondering how I would get a drip pan inside the cooker, and learned from your posts that it goes on the outside, under the cooker. The info about how to use the foil also helped. Will the first item (the pork butt) be edible or will it be a throw-throw away?

Just season it before you smoke the first time. Put 4 or 6 ounces of wood in and just let it go for several hours.

Then smoke the butt and it will be fine.

Smokin'

I read the "lessons for new owners" on the open forum as suggested above and that also helped. I continue to have questions, however: When I clean the cooker after each use, do I need to clean the inside walls, or just the racks and the bottom of the cooker. I'm assuming I will take the foil out of the bottom and off of the top of the burner, wipe any grease out that got down below the foil, replace the foil for the next cook, take the grates out and wash them (in the dishwasher or otherwide), and that's pretty much it, other than maybe a little grease that got on the walls. I'm assuming I should not use cleansors on the walls because that would ruin my seasoning of the cooker. Is this correct?

scrap the chunks off the walls
Clean the racks (food chunks will stick)
Use aluminum foil on the bottom and on top of the smoke box and remove as needed (when it looks like it needs to be removed).

Don't CLEAN the walls with any cleaner, ever, unless you plan on reseasoning each time.

Does that answer the questions?

Yes, thanks, that answers those questions. Glad to hear I won't need to do much cleaning of the walls, and that I don't necessarily need to change the foil every time I cook. I've been looking in the archieves, trying to learn how to run the cable of a probe thremometers to the outside of the cooker, but didn't find anything on that subject. Do I run the cables through a vent hole in the top of the cooker or through the door and close the door on them.

GC,

Season like everyone says. You WILL be able to eat that first butt, I haven't thrown anything out of my Smokette yet, lol.

Put your temp probes down through the vent hole on top...they'll do fine there.

Here's a brief movie I made of my first butt on my Smokette, hope you enjoy:

http://homepage.mac.com/copyconn/iMovieTheater16.html

You'll love your smokette!

Cya,
C'Nooga

Hey C'Nooga, the video is great. Also, thanks for answering my question about the probes. Did I notice in the video that you placed a drip pan inside the cooker, on the bottom rack, under the butt? I had wondered if I could do that without causing any problems conserning how the heat rises and hits the meat, etc. Second question: About how long did it take you to cook the butt?

That is the greatest movie about cooking that I have ever seen. KATHY

C'Nooga, nice video, LOL on the music choice, fun stuff.

GC,

NO, there was no drip pan inside the smokette. Just under the smoker. BUT, if you really want something good, make up a batch of baked beans, put them in a nice pyrex type dish and put them UNDER your butt, figure on about 3 - 3.5 hours on the BEANS. They turn out great.

From my experience (and a 7 lb. Butt is going on tonight at 11pm eastern, after a couple more sips of my Jack, lol.), a 7 lb. butt for me set at 225 goes for a good 16-17 hours. I'll pull it usually at around 195 degrees. DONT go by the times in the CS cookbook.

Once my bud Ron Howard sends his crew to my house, I'll be able to make some feature length Q films. lol.

Good luck, thanks for the video compliments. I'll do more this spring and summer.

C'Nooga out......

C, do you have to skim grease off of the beans, considering the drippings are a combination of juices (broth) and melted fat? (I can just imagine how good the pork flavor will be in the beans; I will definitely to try this.)

WOW, 16 or 17 hours for a 7-lb butt set at 225* and pulled at 195* internal temp. I'll bet that thing will be goooood! I can't wait to get my Smokette next week and cook one. Your numbers will be a good reference for me. Thanks.

Really there isn't that much fat that drips off.But of course the beans can be skimmed or chilled in a freezer for a few minutes so the fat starts to congeal.

Sounds really good. And will be an easy way to prepare a side dishes to go with the butt.

My husband has nearly finished the last of the pork butt we smoked Thursday night/Friday.It was one of two in those family packs. He eats it for breakfast,lunch and dinner until it is gone.Even my Mother in Law had no complaints.

A pork butt cooked low and slow it hard to beat. As soon as one is done, I start eating it, before it ever gets to the table.

GC,

You're absolutely right about that! Those couple nice chunks with bark on it you steal while taking it out of the smoker makes it all worthwhile.

C'Nooga

PS - Just don't let the family catch ya doing it! lol.