I wanted to share my first experiences with my new AmeriQue, which I have had for almost a month. The new smoke box worked great, after I burned 4 oz of wood for 4 hrs I put 2 pork butts in for 12.5 hrs, I got great smoke soon after firing it up about a half an hour into the smoke and had every neighbor within a block salivating. I had a group of restless natives anticipating pulled pork. Temperature got to 170 degrees and I couldn't wait any longer because the group was organizing a lynch mob. Not able to pull but it turned out pretty darn good and I live to tell the story. It was an off and on rainy day and I had to create a makeshift tent (Yankee ingenuity) AQ at 225 degrees and probe set for 195 with 4 oz of Apple 2 pork butts at 7# each with a dry rub that I got from Steven Raichlen's book BBQ USA called Barbeque University dry rub, I really like the flavor it gives port butt.
My next smoke I ran into a problem and should have done more cruising around on the forum and found the post about working in the sun. It was a fairly hot and very sunny day and had the smoker sitting on my patio in the direct sun, MISTAKE, about an hour into the smoke I happened to check progress and had no display and lots of clicking going on and had to shut it down. I was afraid that I had fried the electronics because the outside of that baby was very hot to the touch. I threw up my trusty makeshift tent and let the AQ sit for about a half an hour, held my breath and then cycled it back on all was well but the experience scared the heck out of me. I tried the same settings and wood and got to 172 degrees after almost 14 hrs and couldn't wait any longer had to have Q came out really excellent but again couldn't pull the pork I had to slice really good reviews from the natives.
Finally on my third smoke, pulled pork nirvana, this time I started the smoke the night before with pretty much the same settings went to 4 oz of Apple and 2 oz of Hickory and went 22 hrs and got an internal temperature of 193 degrees. Wow, when I opened the door it was like I had smoked a different piece of meat it was magnificent I almost lost it getting it out of the smoker it was so tender and moist it practically came apart in my hands as I was taking it out. It took me about 10 minutes to pull 12 #'s of pork butt and serve it to the natives (12), it was gone in a flash, people were coming back for seconds and thirds and I ran out of buns, didn't matter they just ate it off their plates. I was crowned the pulled pork king of Cape Cod that day, what a feeling.
I'm going to try my first baby back ribs smoke this weekend and will post my results, you bet I am scouring around the forums looking for tips and tricks for this one.
My one big observation with using my AQ is that it is done when it is done, it seems that the AQ seems to smoke slower then some of the other CS smokers so now I have a much better feel for when I should start things. Let me tell you this thing rocks, to be able to start it up, go to bed, get 8 hrs of sleep and check the AQ in the morning and find it chugging along without a care in the world is just incredible. My advise to anyone that is looking for a new smoker is to beg or borrow the coin to buy an AmeriQue you won't regret it.
Thanks for listening, rule #1 is It's done when it's done.
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