Planning to start with traditional boston butt. Any suggestions/recipes/dos and donts?
Welcome. If you do a search for what you mention, you will find all you want. By doing your own searches, you'll find out information you didn't know you needed 8)
Here's a recipe site for you. The recipes are from Bradley owners.
www.susanminor.org
Keep the vent open
Another suggestion. The water bowl serves 2 purposes, it catches the pucks and catches the grease drippings. When I do butts I smoke for 4 hours, then change the water. An 8 lb butt can take 12, 16 and I have had one take 20 hours. I change the water again after 10 hrs or so, when it looks like it is becoming full of grease.
Many people also use a disposable aluminum pan (9X13) in lieu of the water bowl.
Thanks a million fellow smokers. I'm a total novice. I have never smoked before. I chose the Bradley to see how I liked it before taking the Cookshack dive. I was worried after reading a number of negative posts about the Bradley heating element failing and other issues. Nonetheless, the pros seemed to outweigh the cons. I'm hoping the Bradley folks have listened to their customers. I will show pics and share my first smoke experience this week.
You will always hear more negative comments than positive ones on any product. That's just human nature.
Welcome aboard and have fun with it.
Welcome to the boards