First brisket and rib cook.

[SmokinSC]

I cooked my first batch yesterday. Had a few issues but worked through them. Used ideas and recipes noted on this forum. Thanks to all. I do have a few questions though. After smoking for 4 hours, I removed the unused biskets and left the smoke generator on for the extra heat. Is this right or should I turn it off???? Before starting I removed the meat from the fridge and pre-heated the BS to 250 deg. After loading the meat it took 2 hrs. for the temp. to recover. Is this normal????? Does the temp. slide bar control the heat like a home thermostat? No matter how hi you turn it, it will only put out so much heat. Or does it put out more heat the higher you slide it?? Any time the door is opened should the bar be moved to hi until it recovers and then re-adjusted to set the temp?? Hope this isn't to confusing. 

[Wildcat]

You did not indicate what you smoked.  Depending on what you smoked, 250F may have been to high to start with.  How long it takes for the temp to recover depends on the temp of the meat to start with, the bulk of the meat involved, and the overall load of the BS.  Some folks leave the generator on after smoking and some turn it off.  There are differing opinions on that.  I personally leave it on to avoid having to readjust the temp with the slider.  The slider does put out more heat the higher you set it, but it IS limited on how high the temp will go.  When you open the door, it is up to you on whether or not to readjust the slider.  I do not do that.  Generally, when you open the door, the meat is already fairly hot and if you limit the time it is open it should recover in short order.

Hope this helps.

[manxman]

Hi SmokinSC and welcome to the forum.


When doing ribs or brisket I generally let the meat come to room temperature and heat the BS up to about 250F as you suggested. It will take a good while for the BS to come back up to temp when the meat has been put in, I generally take the cabinet temperature to about 210F when smoking/cooking.

4 hours worth of smoking is fine in most instances. I think most people tend to leave the smoke generator switched on, they take the view that an additional heat source is a good thing! The element in the BS is not particularly powerful and does not put out that much heat... however that is the reason why the term "low and slow" appears so often on the forum, it's a great way to cook.

The heater has a cut off limit but that is unlikely to be reached in practice with a load of meat in the smoker, I tend to just keep door openings to an absolute minimum and resist the temptation to take a peak every once in a while!

Just changing the water at 4 hours should be the only time you need to open the door in most instances and I have a spare water bowl so I can open, remove one bowl and slip another one in in a matter of a couple of seconds.

After opening the door sometimes I have pushed the slider up a bit further, other times not. Tends to depend on individual circumstance although more often than not I leave it where it is, tend to go by internal meat temperature too on this one.

Hope this helps. :)

[Smudge]

I'm one who turns the smoke generator off after the smoking process. It fits into my political worldview nicely...fiscal conservative. My thinking is to save on the wear and tear of the generator since it continues to mindlessly run the bisquette advance. That's several hours of needless wear and tear IMO.

Yes, one needs to make minor adjustments to the slider to maintain temperatures with this conservative outlook, but that has become part of the adventure of smoking. You can get very adept at ever-so-slight adjustments.

[SmokinSC]

Wildcat I had cooked a 6lb. brisket and a rack of St. Louis ribs. Thanks to all  for the answers to my questions.