Smoking in the winter

[roblox84]

Well the temperature hasn't moved yet from 181 I'm starting to worry a little. I'm also unsure of how long it was at 181 through the night, it could have been 2-3 hours. I did open up the smoker and the meat was soft almost wobbled like jello when I touched it. Should I worry or still wait?

Edit.....Weird, after writing this an hour later the temp jumped from 181 to 198. We'll see how it comes out.

[DivotMaker]

Leave it in to at least 199, and don't open the smoker again.  It's in a stall.  I see secondary stalls in the 180s quite frequently.  Let 'er ride!

[rickne]

Let'r ride.  It's doing perfectly.  Sometimes the longest toughest stalls make the best end product.  don't worry about burning it.  You won't...    Not many cuts of meat that are meant to take to an Internal Temp of 200 degrees.  Cook the crap out of that thing!

Keep us posted.  I'm getting excited to see it!!!

[roblox84]

I pulled the brisket out at 199 and we got done eating a little while ago. It was just insanely good, I made some ribs two days ago and they were ok but the pulled pork tasted like something I'd buy at one of those professional booths. The hickory smoke flavor was spot on and the meat was so tender.

[DivotMaker]

Congrats on your first pork butt!  Looks fantastic!  Next time, you'll be ready for a stall (or two).  The best thing to do is just keep the door closed and let it power on through!  It's unsettling - especially when you sometimes see the temp go backwards - but it's a big part of the "tenderizing" process!  Great job!

[roblox84]

Congrats on your first pork butt!  Looks fantastic!  Next time, you'll be ready for a stall (or two).  The best thing to do is just keep the door closed and let it power on through!  It's unsettling - especially when you sometimes see the temp go backwards - but it's a big part of the "tenderizing" process!  Great job!

Thanks! It's amazing how hands off this smoker is. I only added 2.5 dowels of hickory at the beginning and that's all I needed to do. No babysitting and standing by the smoker for hours, I thought only fully automatic smokers were capable of that.

[DivotMaker]

The more you use it, the more you will embrace that!  One small recommendation - you said you added 2.5 dowels.  Depending on the length, that could too much or too little.  Sounds like you guessed right, though.  Most of us actually weigh our wood.  These use so little, it's really easy to over-smoke by adding too much.  I usually use 5-6 oz for a pork butt or brisket (long cook), 2.5-3 oz for ribs, and 2-2.5 oz for chicken.  Just some guidelines, based on my taste.  Adjust according to yours.

[roblox84]

The more you use it, the more you will embrace that!  One small recommendation - you said you added 2.5 dowels.  Depending on the length, that could too much or too little.  Sounds like you guessed right, though.  Most of us actually weigh our wood.  These use so little, it's really easy to over-smoke by adding too much.  I usually use 5-6 oz for a pork butt or brisket (long cook), 2.5-3 oz for ribs, and 2-2.5 oz for chicken.  Just some guidelines, based on my taste.  Adjust according to yours.

I sure did weigh it, the 2.5 dowels came out to 6.1 ounces. I think that is the perfect amount of smoke for my 6 pound pork shoulder. For the ribs I used approx. 1.5 dowels but I didn't weigh them that time and I'm pretty sure I could of used more since the smoke taste wasn't as good as the pork shoulder.

[DivotMaker]

Excellent!  You're definitely off on the right foot!  I see you've been studying!

[benjammn]

Sounds like you are on the right path to great smokes and are going to be an expert pretty quick. Keep smoking more and you can't go wrong. Plenty of tasty experiments to enjoy along the way.

[swthorpe]

Congrats Roblox84...sounds like everything went off without a hitch.  Perfect!   Worrying about the stall, though, is something that I think each of us has experienced on the first butt and yet they always come out of it and take off to 200IT.    Well done.  Cheers!

[roblox84]

I wood like to purchase some more wood and was wondering if you guy's have a preferred online store that you buy it from or do you just purchase more dowels from Smokin It? I'm looking at getting more hickory and maybe trying cherry and i've looked at a few sites but a lot of the wood comes with bark.

[DivotMaker]

Rob, the hickory and cherry from SI is very good quality.  For some other varieties, I buy from fruitawood.com and mainegrillingwoods.com.  Both of these suppliers have great wood.  Don't worry about bark; if the wood is washed well (which both of these suppliers do), bark is not an issue.  I use them often, and can't tell the difference between the chunks with a little bark, and those without.

Check out the "What Type of Tree Do You Use?" section for lots of discussion and opinions!

[Three Sons BBQ]

Use the garage.

Caution if it's an attached garage.

I have attached garage with an exhaust fan right above the smoker.  I turn the exhaust fan on high the first 2 hours.

Even with this... I still need the garage door cracked open about 3" to allow air flow in to ensure a coulda mess isn't in my garage. 

I also turn on the ceiling fan on medium to push any bypass smoke out of the garage.

All of that is needed in just the first hour or so with heavy smoke. If done there is no aroma in the house. After that point just the small little exhaust fan is perfect.

Have to caution that although this isn't a stick burner... A heavy haze of smoke would be harmful if it sealed back I to the house, etc. just be careful and use common sense.