My new smoker arrived at the house today. It's a little charcoal fueled Brinkmann smoker tht I got as a service anniversary gift from work. I have never used a smoker before and my father has only used his electric smoker for an annual smoked fish binge. What are your suggestions for a first time smoker? I'm thinking of some cheap bacon and a turkey or chicken breast to get me started, but would consider other things as well.
Need a first smoker project
- Thread starter PugslyCat
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Good plan on starting small. Fire control is going to be your main concern as you make friends with the smoker, doing a couple dry runs is not a bad idea either. The unit you have has a wide distribution and there are tons of hacks and simple mods that will make her purr. Good luck and keep us posted.
Pulled pork. It's the most foolproof thing to smoke, because it's hard to screw up as long as you let it go long enough.
Big hunks of cheap, fatty meat are going to be your best bet when you're getting started. Pork Shoulder, Brisket, Fatties (basically ground meat logs wrapped in bacon), those are your staples. Poultry is really touchy to smoke and you'll likely overdo it your first few times. The large, fatty cuts smoke a long time and will be somewhat forgiving while you dial in your temperature and smoke level control. A few pork shoulders and a slab or two of brisket and you'll be cranking out smokey goodness every weekend in no time.
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- #5
OK. Now you guys have me thinking that I'll do pulled pork or a brisket for Sunday dinner and some bacon (meat candy) to have whenever.
Brisket is a little finicky, but totally doable if you have the right equipment. I'd recommend a Boston butt, but either way, I highly recommend a good thermometer (I swear by my Maverick ET-732). This way you won't have to keep opening the lid to check temps, which is when your ambient temp can get out of control. Read up on the Minion Method, be patient when it plateaus and make sure to post pics when you're done!!
Good luck and happy smoking!!
Good luck and happy smoking!!
Get a pork butt from Fareway. The guys at the counter will guide you in the right direction. Bad Byron's Butt Rub from the nearest Ace Hardware mixed 50/50 with Sugar in the Raw as a rub. Low and slow with hardwood charcoal and hickory chunks. Try to keep the Brinkman around 200-225 for most of the day. Figure 10-12 hours at that low heat. Try to place the smoker out of the wind as much as possible, that helps maintain consistent temps. The best part about butt is that it is pretty forgiving. If the smoker runs hot, you will still end up with a decent finished product. Once is come off the smoker, pull the meat and add a little more rub and some apple cider vinegar to finish. That makes tremendous sandwiches. I do a mess of these for tailgates. Good luck. Practice makes perfect and even the mistakes are usually pretty tasty!
Six bone-in butts
seven boneless (I prefer bone-in, but I got a deal. Turned out pretty dang good)
Six bone-in butts
seven boneless (I prefer bone-in, but I got a deal. Turned out pretty dang good)
Baby back ribs are pretty easy, and will forgive wildly varying temps while you learn, too.
Hit 'em with a rub over night. Then onto the smoker for 4-5 hours at 200-230°
Hit 'em with a rub over night. Then onto the smoker for 4-5 hours at 200-230°
If you are drive around and ask directions when you feel like it type, the above suggestions are great. If you are a map or gps type, then this starter book is a good one: Low-Slow-Master-Barbecue-Lessons.
HTH
HTH
I would say that a pork butt is the easiest to fix. You can make a nice rub of lemon pepper or red pepper, brown sugar, and salt. the best wood for smoking may not always be wood, just try hickorynut hulls. you can find them in a park, creek bottom or someone yard. soak them in water for at lease 4 hrs, i have fond that they create a more dense and tasty smoke than hickory wood and can be easier to get.
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- #11
It looks like I'm putting this off for a couple of weeks while I get components for a rub together. Unfortunately the smoker is down at the house where I can only access it alternate weekends.
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- #12
OK, I wound up stuck at the farm for an extra day, so I've stocked up on a pork shoulder roast, store bought dry rub, and charcoal. The smoker is assembled. Now all I have to do is pry loose some apple wood. Dad took all the tree trimmings already.
When I got my Weber Smokey Mountain smoker a few years back (awesome Mother's Day present), my first smoke was 2 8-lb boneless pork butts (Costco) and 2 slabs of pork ribs. Made my version of "Meathead's Memphis Dust" andeverything turned out great. I have to agree that it's pretty hard to screw up pork butts, even pork ribs.
Looking forward to seeing your first smoke results, PugslyCat.
Looking forward to seeing your first smoke results, PugslyCat.
Sounds like you got the ECB, the el Cheapo Brinkman, a smoker that has probably smoked more meat for recreational smokers than just about any other, if I had to venture a guess. The work just great, but will burn through charcoal quicker due to their leaky design. Keep the water pan full and you won't have any temp issues though.
As Jim mentioned, google, "ECB mods", or the like and you will see that just about anything that can be done with one of those little guys, has been done, and most of it will only cost you a few bucks. It was my first smoker as well, and R2D2, as my kids came to call it, is still in my backyard.
As Jim mentioned, google, "ECB mods", or the like and you will see that just about anything that can be done with one of those little guys, has been done, and most of it will only cost you a few bucks. It was my first smoker as well, and R2D2, as my kids came to call it, is still in my backyard.
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- #15
Yea, it's the ECB. I checked out some of the ECB mods and they make sense. Basically install a raised charcoal grate, add a real thermometer, and control airflow in and out of the smoker.
This weekend I will finally try it. I'll probably do my smoking on Saturday night and serve it reheated for dinner on Sunday, if it works. Otherwise I'll have a plan B for Sunday dinner.
This weekend I will finally try it. I'll probably do my smoking on Saturday night and serve it reheated for dinner on Sunday, if it works. Otherwise I'll have a plan B for Sunday dinner.
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- #16
It looks like the first project is going to be getting the smoker assembled. It seems that my ECB is "special" and shipped with the wrong handles. Waiting to hear back from Brinkmann now. I could have used it today with some hot mitts to remove the lid, but they may want the whole thing returned so I don't want it messed up at all. It looks like my pulled pork dinner is going to have to come out of the slow cooker instead of the smoker.
Boston Butt was my first project, and very successful. I'm about 50/50 with brisket, but have never screwed up a boston butt. There's just too much meat and fat to go wrong, unless you get your temps way too high. 220* for 12+ hrs does it for me. I have a little propane smoker from Home Depot, so I'm not using pro gear.
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- #18
I think mine is more likely of Dalek lineage. I think I'm going to derive great joy out of taking the thing apart to use as raw materials to build a better smoker.
Apparently Brinkmann knows they do a less than great job with shaping the handles.
The stars finally aligned this weekend and I was able to smoke my first pork shoulder roast! I'll try and get some pictures up when my phone is cooperating.
I took a small, under four pound, pork should roast and marinated it overnight it in apple juice and apple cider vinegar. I suppose I could have added some salt and other spices to make a brine out of it, but didn't think of that at the time. In the morning I dried it off and applied a store bought rub. This is the same preparation I had used for the roast I cooked in the crock pot a couple of weeks ago. While I had reserved only a little of the marinade to use as a cooking liquid in the crock pot, I threw all of it into the ECB water pan and added another gallon and a half of water on top of that.
The ECB was set it up on a concrete slab a short distance from the house. Not to claim we have wind problems down at the farm, but that slab had been the foundation for a metal garden shed that blew away after a few short weeks. Well, for the first couple of hours that wind played havoc on the smoker. The wind going under it was actually drawing most of the smoke and heat out the bottom, so it never really got up to a good cooking temperature, or hit the very bottom of the "Ideal" range at the very best. Anyway, about two hours into the cooking I added a lot more charcoal which didn't seem to make a lot of difference. An hour after that my father and I picked it up and moved it to a grassy area that was sheltered from the wind behind the house. The cooking temperature immediately rose into the middle of the ideal range and ninety minutes later a meat thermometer showed the roast was done.
After a short rest I sliced half the roast. I sliced it rather than doing the two fork thing because I wanted to check the smoke ring. I'll try to add a picture of that later as well. It definitely had a visible smoke ring and the flavor was there.
It was a pretty good roast and all, but this seems like a lot of work to produce a single roast. I suspect that the thing to do going forward is to always run the smoker with a full grate of various things.
I want to make the following changes to the smoker:
1. The thermometer that comes with the ECB has no numbers and only three arcs on the dial labled "Warm", "Ideal", and "Hot". Brinkmann sells a replacement with numbers on the dial, but I already have a regular grill thermometer I can add to it as soon as I can get a hole drilled.
2. One of the links provided above has the tip of attaching the legs to the outside of the smoker rather than the inside and supporting the fire pan with a couple of bricks. To add charcoal or smoking wood you can then just lift the smoker off the top of the fire and not lose all of your heat.
3. Add three or four eye bolts to the rims of the water and fire pans to use as lifting rings. Two chains with S-hooks on the ends would engage the eye bolts and facilitate lifting the pans with minimal danger of tipping or burning fingers against the wall of the smoker.
4. A simple metal wind skirt that goes 2/3 of the way around should help to keep the heat and smoke from being sucked out the bottom or the smoker.
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mmmm Fatties
- Thread starter
- #20
I've managed to get out and do another pork roast on the unmodified ECB smoker. This time I set up on the driveway out of the wind and everything went as it was supposed to go. The next time I get it out I'll add some variety to what I'm smoking and try to fill up the grill a bit more.
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