Just did my first smoke...

[Hoochie Que]

A couple of first impressions.  This smoker is very efficient and retains heat very well at low outside temps.  I had the smoker setup inside my garage right near the door with the door open.  Ambient temp was around 30 degrees and not a problem at all holding temp.  I did a rack of loin back ribs and some chicken legs.  I have done these same recipes many times on my old Weber Smokey Mountains.  For the ribs, I usually do 2 hours on the rack, 1 hour in foil, and then 1 hour back on the rack.  With the Smokin-It I didn't get the tenderness that I'm used to, perhaps I need to cook at a bit higher temp or leave the ribs in the foil a bit longer.  For the chicken, I usually do 2 hours right on the rack or until 165 internal temp.  The legs took almost 4 hours, which surprised me.  There was plenty of smoke from 2 small chucks of wood for the entire cook time.  I almost got bored not having to tend the smoker as much, which is nice.

Just some random thoughts.

J

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[NDKoze]

Here are my suggestions that should make your next smoke more successful.

What temp did you cook your ribs at?

You will not find many foilers around here. I think there may be a couple that still use the Texas crutch. But I don't know of anyone that still messes with the 2-2-1 or 3-2-1 method anymore. We pretty much all use the 4-5/5-6 hour no peak method depending on whether you smoke Baby backs vs Spare Ribs/St Louis cut. I prefer the St Louis cut which takes slightly longer. Leave the foil for covering your smoke box and bottom of your smoker.

Place your ribs as high as you can in the smoker with thicker pieces on the lower shelf, 2-3 ounces of wood, add a disposable mini-loaf pan filled with Apple Cider or Beer, and then smoke at 235 for 5 hours for Baby Backs and 6 hours for Spares/St Louis Cut without opening the door. I think my smoker runs a little cooler than others, so I always go with the high side of the estimate before first checking but some others start checking earlier. Once you get a feel for your smoker, you will find what works best for yours. Check for doneness, and keep smoking until you reached the desired doneness. Check every 30 minutes after your first check.

For the chicken, I usually smoke at 250 with 2 ounces of wood. Low and slow isn't really important with poultry because of the low fat/connective tissue content.

Last year my coldest smoke was at -15F with my smoker exposed on my deck with zero problems holding temp. The only issue would be slightly longer recovery time after opening the door.

It might take you a while to get used to the world of lazy Q, but you'll get there.

Hopefully this helps.

[Hoochie Que]

Good info, thanks NDKoze.  I ran the smoker at 225 for the first three hours with the ribs, then added chicken and bumped up to 250 for the remaining cook time.  I guess the only reason that I foiled the ribs is that I wanted to eliminate as many variables for my first smoke just to get a feel for how it ran.  I have also won a couple trophy's for that particular recipe.     Every smoker is different and I'm sure I'll need to make a few more tweaks here and there.

J