amateur smoker questions

[Tiffin]

Hello all, ive seen tons of the pictures of all your guys food and it looks amazing, making me jealous.
I have the bradley digital 4 rack smoker. Ive tried ribs a couple times, pork loin roasts and a big lamb leg.
So far most of what ive cooked comes out overpowered by smoke. I cant get that clean smoke flavor like i have tried of other peoples things.
I kept the vent open the whole time with the lamb leg, smoked 3 hours and cooked another 2. and the outside still seemed very overpowered. I had my brother over once for some apple smoked pork loin roasts and he later told me everything he touched for the rest of that day reaked of smoke. I understand smoking is largely trial and error before you can get it right. But if you guys have some tips for me to correct this, i would greatly appreciate it.

Also regarding the Jan's rub i hear so much about, i got the recipe and am definitely going to make a batch soon. My question is, is this an all purpose rub? can i use it on everything from ribs, roasts chicken etc?

Thanks in advance!
Tiffin

[Tenpoint5]

Back your smoking time down to 1hour and 40 minutes if that is still too strong drop it down to an hour. Adjust up and down as needed to fit YOUR flavor profile.

Yes Jan's rub has become an all purpose rub even though it was designed for chicken

[beefmann]

you did not say what type of  wood you  are using,,, if you  are  using hickory or misquette  these two are very strong woods to smoke with, you also may want to try a  milder wood such as oak, maple , ash  alder. and see how they  work for you

[terry08]

As Beefman, and Tenpoint5, have stated. You need to try different pucks, and shorter smoke times.
I myself am from the South, and love hickory, but at the same time I hate the flavor of. Mesquite. I have family members, who can't stand the taste of any smoked meat no matter what flavor or how much.
Don't kick yourself, you are most likely doing a fine job. You just won't please everyone all of the time.

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[Spliner]

I personally love the smell the smoked food puts in my house when I bring it inside.  Your brother may simply not be a fan of smoked foods.  Next time you have him over and your Bradley has been seasoned really well, try making ribs.. dare I say it.. without the smoke at all.  Once you have smoked 6-10 times in that Bradley it'll be seasoned really well (nice dark film over everything inside) and any meat you fix in it will get a very slight smoke flavor which is probably what he's looking for.  Also.. if he spent any time outside around the smoker he probably had it on his clothes and that may be why he was smelling smoke all day.  I'll sit outside and drink beer a lot while smoking meats, usually before we eat, and while the food is resting, I'll shower and change so I don't smell like smoke all day.  In the end its all a matter of personal preference; try cutting your smoking times in half and see if that helps.. worse case scenario your pucks last you 2x as long as the rest of us.  ;)

General rule of thumb though for me is no more than 4 hours of smoke on any meat, and usually no more than half of the total cooking time.  Even large butts I expect 10 hours or so to get them to 190ish but I'll stop at 4 hours of smoke.  You might want to try 2 hours and see where that gets you on butts, and maybe just an hour of smoke on ribs or loins.  Loins are usually smaller, and pork and chicken will absorb smoke quicker than say beef in my experience.

Good luck!

PS:  Jan's rub is good on everything!  I like it best on chicken or pork though, but will use it more on chicken/fish/vegies/etc.  For pork I lean toward other rubs (dunno why.. I  tend to like some of the commercial maple/bacon rubs).  I have yet to do much beef in my smoker because pork turns out so flippin good in it.  But when I do, generally beef I'll use either Jan's or whatever trips my trigger when I'm at the store looking at rubs.  I love to make my baked beans in my smoker by putting them in on the bottom rack when I'm doing a pork butt.  They catch a lot of the drippings, and I mix in some of Jan's rub, extra brown sugar, and my favorite BBQ sauce.  Jan's rub is very versatile.  For me though, living where I do, it's expensive to make unless I order spices in bulk online. So I make one large batch each year and generally don't make any more unless I get a wild hair and order a bunch of stuff online.

Jan's rub is the BOMB on chicken.. try it sometime.  Oh.. and the recipe I used calls for sugar, but if you look around some people use brown sugar and some use white sugar.. I prefer brown sugar in mine but that's just me.  I've made it both ways. 

[Tiffin]

Well thanks for the replies everyone. After reading your replies and pages upon pages of threads on these forums im ready to give er another shot. went to costco last night picked up a big pack of back ribs and a big pack of side ribs and 3 chickens. Gonna put all my new aquired ideas to use and see how it goes and just keep adjusting to my liking. Going out right away to get the rest of the stuff i need for jans rub, gonna try that out on the ribs and chicken.
Ill post pics and results of my next attempts :P
Thanks again guys.

[Quarlow]

Lamb definitely doesn't need a lot of smoke.

[watchdog56]

You might want to try apple pucks for a more milder smoke. Works great with pork.

[Doowop63]

I have found that Pecan gives a nice even smoke flavor with no "bite".

[eldub]

I use a lot of apple wood and have never thought there was too much smoke flavor. Then again, I love sitting next to a smoker and getting a smoke bath.