1st smoke some advice required.

Hi everyone,

I'm going for my 1st smoke tomorrow and could do with some advice please.

I'm going to smoke a whole chicken and a rack of ribs on my amigo using cherry .
1st piece of advice is do I apply the dry rub a hour or so before starting to smoke them or the night before? I'll be removing the membrane tonight so could apply the rub then . I'm looking to use the 3-2-1 process for the ribs. adding the chicken aftr about an hour so it had about 4 hours All sound ok so far?
2nd pice of advice is the brickets the only ones I could find locally are autralian heat bricks (I think that what they are call without going outside and looking) I have a 4 kg bag. Do I put half in the smoker light the other half and once lit add put the lit ones on top of the unlit ones?

Once the tem is at 220 I'll add the ribs and a handful of soaked cherry chips.

Does the above sound ok? Any oher suggestions?

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

I will probably be shot down in flames by the others because i am a bit of a hit and miss bbqer but......... If i was marinating meat i would leave it for as long as posible, I dont think there is any need to put the rub on the night before, just a couple of hours prior should be fine. I use the Aussie heat bricks as they do seem to last longer, My method is, put half the bag in, when 50% white 50% black, i throw the rest in, leave it until they are white, put your food in and dont open it for Min 4 hours...........................

I am sure someone will come up with a technical answer, but i seem to get good results with this method.

Toby

Thanks for the reply toby. I was thinking along the same lines in that I wasnt marinading the meat. I'll add it tomorrow morning.

Just to clarify what your saying do you put half the bag in the smoker and half in the chimney and light that? Once that chimney coals are ready tip them on the ones in the smoker? Do you them wait for all the coals in the smoker to light before starting or just go once things are upto temp? How ong does a bag of aussie bricks last. Not sure you'll be able to asnswer that as I guess it all depends on external factors?

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

Light the chmney when thats ready put them in the BBQ and put some more on (hot ones on the bottom) , i just like to get a real hot bed going............... Let them catch properly before starting to cook. I cooked a four Rib of beef (approx 6 kilos) without adding any more charcoal. The inittial load should handle the chicken and ribs without a problem.

Toby

Thanks Toby. I'm off to sort the meat out ready for the morning. Its an early start to eat at 1pm.

Hi Jerrry,
It will work with your method, but you'll get a high initial reading & burn a lot of coals. I tend to light a lot less coals to start & let the unit stand & come up to temp (though with chicken it's good to have a high temp to get a crispy skin).
I've copied the post below as you may find it useful



Re: Can't get up to heat
by Novice on Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:20 pm

Hi Jeepster, The first thing I would check is your thermometer. The one in the lid needs calibrating when you first start using it, there are a few posts on how to go about this, (it's easy enough), but it can be quite misleading if it's not set up right. I'd strongly recommend getting a digital probe thermometer as well (like the Maverick ET-37).
Make sure your top vent is wide open at all times & calibrate the temp by small alterations to the bottom vent. Put boiling (or very hot) water in the bowl.
To get a longer burn, use a lot less lit charcoal, & let the smoker come up to temp, rather than dumping a full chimney load on. I used to do this & you get an initial very high peak but the whole basket load burns away very quickly.
Arrange the until coals in a 'donut' shape, with a gap in the middle, & drop the lit coals into the gap. (You can achieve this by putting a tin can with both ends taken out, in the middle, & dropping the lit coals into it, then pulling the can out with some pliers, leaving the coals in place).
I also have a Frontier & it maintains 220-260F with little effort, so you should have no problem. I use coconut husk charcoal & I think this helps.
Good luck, if you still get problems, ask, & there are plenty of guys with loads of experience here who are very helpful.
Good luck

Well 1st smoke went well, although I made the mistake of letting the water pan run dry so the ribs we a little dry. Both chicken and ribs were very night though. Here are some photo's of my first smoke.

Jaylay,

That looks like a result for your first shhmoke. Did you compete with the wife?

this all look mighty fine to me p.l.a.b. C.J.

Jaylay

What a way to start

do so on

All Weather Griller wrote:Jaylay,

Did you compete with the wife?

Yes but she stuck with her roast chicken. She did try some of my smoked and said it was ok. So first battle to me. I'll wear her down. lol

Jaylay,
Well done, that all looks just about perfect. You should have seen my first attempt at ribs, not a pretty sight!
It looks like you may have a knack for this!

Well done!
You may want to brine the chicken next time, very juicy product that way!