New to smoking

slate · May 08, 2009, 05:34:37 AM

Hi all,

I have a OBS and haven't used it yet, I have some back ribs and some whole chicken I was thinking of smoking. My question is should I brine my whole chicken or just rub and smoke? Also suggestions for the ribs would be great.

Thanks Jim

KyNola · May 08, 2009, 08:27:26 AM

Slate,
Chickens, I have brined them and I have simply rubbed with olive oil and applied my favorite rub. I really can't tell much difference in brine vs. non-brined as the chickens aren't in the bring long enough to really help in my opinion. One tip for you, when smoking poultry always have the vent 100% open as they hold a lot of moisture and you want that moisture out of the box. Otherwise, it can hold your temps down and condensate and run out of the box. Also, poultry is a real smoke sponge so it may not take as much as you might think. I smoke mine about 2 hours and then transfer to the house oven to complete cooking.

Ribs, multitude of ways to do ribs. I'll give you mine and then others will come along. Day before the smoke, strip the membrane off the back side of the ribs. Paint with cheap yellow mustard(you won't taste it) or rub with olive oil, apply your favorite rub, wrap in plastic wrap and into the frig over night. Day of smoke, Take ribs out of the frig at least one hour prior to smoking. Preheat your smoker to 280 or so. Ribs into the smoker for 2 hours 40 minutes of HICKORY at 200-225. After smoke period, wrap ribs in foil with a splash of apple juice or place in roaster with a cup of apple juice and cover with foil. Into the house oven at 225 for 2-3 hours. Check for the meat pulling back from the tip of the bone about 1/2 inch. Ribs are essentially done. If you want to sauce them open the foil, apply sauce and back into the oven for 30 minutes or so with foil open. One last thing, time to eat!! ;)

Have fun!
KyNola

slate · May 09, 2009, 07:38:29 AM

Put my ribs and chickem in, but can't get my temp to 220.

KyNola · May 09, 2009, 08:01:34 AM

Patience my friend. Putting all of that cold meat in the OBS really knocks the temp down and it can take the OBS quite some time to come back up to temp. Also, make sure your vent is opened adequately. Contrary to belief, closing the vent will not help raise the temp as you need the moisture out. Finally, is the wind blowing on your smoker? If so, try to block the wind from your smoke as it can really have an adverse effect on the box temp.

KyNola

slate · May 09, 2009, 08:29:38 AM

No wind, a calm day, outside temp 70, I just checked and the Temp is about 210, which it took 2 1/2 hours to reach.

westexasmoker · May 09, 2009, 08:33:24 AM

Welcome to the forum slate!

Ky nailed it, depending on your load the smoker will take what seems like forever to recover! Sounds like to me your doing just fine! Good luck and keep us posted!

C

slate · May 09, 2009, 09:58:05 AM

Not impressed, had a fire in the OBS, burnt the door gasket and wrinkled the back panel. I was away from th uit for maybe 5 minutes. I think it is ruined. A very expensive first try to smoke.......

Mr Walleye · May 09, 2009, 11:10:35 AM

Yikes!

Very sorry to hear this Slate! :'(

Please give us more details and we'll see if we can figure out why....

Hopefully Brian will be along from Bradley and comment as well.

Mike

Tenpoint5 · May 09, 2009, 11:22:07 AM

Not Good!! Sorry to hear that Slate. Like Mr. Walleye said can you give us more details on what was happining.

slate · May 09, 2009, 12:21:35 PM

Had two chickens and two racks of ribs in the smoker fo 3 1/2 hours, heat was on high, checked on them and everything was ok, so I came in for a bite to eat maybe max 5-10 minutes and when I returned the smoker looked like it was a freight train smoking, open the door and saw flames.

westexasmoker · May 09, 2009, 12:39:30 PM

Egads! :o Been there done that when I first got mine, except for the flames, mine spiked to 375 in a heartbeat which killed the thermal switch......No damage I hope for ya! This is why I built a PID...How are things looking now??

C

slate · May 09, 2009, 12:51:36 PM

What is aPID? I think it is toast...... I can't get the racks to go in as the sides are wraped as well. Probably not covered under warranty.

Habanero Smoker · May 09, 2009, 01:57:43 PM

Sorry to hear about the fire, but glad the damage was maintained to the smoker only.

Was the "V" pan (drip pan) installed with its sides ascending up or descending down. It should be installed with the sides descending like a "V". Sometimes it is easy to make that error, because Bradley ships the "V" pan upside down.

slate · May 09, 2009, 02:41:36 PM

Installed V down.

Mr Walleye · May 09, 2009, 03:38:59 PM

Slate

It sounds like the water bowl may have became empty, evaporated. If this occurs and you are still applying smoke, the grease from the meat can drip on hot coals instead of dripping into water. Typically you want to empty the spent pucks and refill the bowl with fresh hot water at about the 3 to 4 hour mark. You also want to start with a full bowl of hot water. I'm not sure but this is what it sounds like what occurred.

Like I said earlier, hopefully Brian from Bradley will be along and comment on this.

Mike