Newbie

[garbadee]

My name is Ed and I live near Charleston SC.  OBS is in route with special blend as starter bisquettes included.   

I can burn anything on a grill and it gets worse from there so I'll need a lot of help.  Really want to start with some ribs and chicken.  Initial concern is when is curing needed and info on type of/how to pick cuts of meat.  Also would like a couple nice chicken and rib recipes.  Simple is good. 

Down the road I may want to look into a PID and/or additional heating element.

Please don't hesitate to drop me a note and thanks for reading.

[FLBentRider]

W E L C O M E  to the Forum garbadee!

I used to live in Summerville.

If you click on the ribs at the bottom of this post, it will take you to our recipe site. There you will find our tried and true recipes for chicken as well as ribs. I would recommend starting with the chicken.

A few tips:

With chicken keep the top vent wide open.

Chicken takes smoke like a sponge takes water. Go easy on the smoke at first, I would suggest no more than 2 hours of smoke, and then continue to cook until you reach you desired IT (internal temperature) - usually 165F for chicken.

[KevinG]

Welcome Ed! There's plenty of good chicken and rib recipes here and on the recipe site.

Chicken
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?board=26.0

Ribs
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?board=9.0

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?board=10.0

Recipe site
http://susanminor.org/forums/index.php

[RossP]

Welcome Ed, don't worry about ruining stuff in the Bradley,
if I can cook in it anyone can. Just remember to leave the
top vent open, ask lots of questions, and post lots of pictures
of your smoked food. We all like pictures.  ;D

Ross

[dbondy]

Welcome to the forum Ed.

[MPTubbs]

Welcome Ed.

You came to the right place for answers.

[Tommy3Putts]

Hi Ed

Welcome.  You made the right choice.  I'm a Bradley newbie and love it.  This also is a great forum with great folks out there to help on almost any question.  Don't be afraid to ask.  And don't be afraid to provide your thoughts to us.  People are always trying things differently and learning new techniques.  Since you are from SC be sure and share your ways of doing BBQ.

TW

[garbadee]

My thanks to all for the posts.  Looks like a lot to learn.

I read some posts on curing and brining.  Still confused on when you need to do this.  For instance if I wanted to cook some chicken, a steak or ribs, do I have to cure the meat first?  Also, would like some pointers on IF.  Read some posts on thermometers but would appreciate some more pointers here.

Thanks again.

Ed

[KevinG]

Anything that cooks with low cooking temps (temps below 200) using smoke should have a cure. It's the combination of the two (and moisture) that helps promote botulism.

As for thermometers, we pretty much cook by temperature when smoking, not by time. So think about investing in a good one. A lot of us have been using the ET-7 and ET-73 because they are remote thermometers meaning you can walk away and it'll tell you when the time is up or temp is reached.

[Tenpoint5]

Anything that cooks with low cooking temps (temps below 200) using smoke should have a cure. It's the combination of the two (and moisture) that helps promote botulism.

As for thermometers, we pretty much cook by temperature when smoking, not by time. So think about investing in a good one. A lot of us have been using the ET-7 and ET-73 because they are remote thermometers meaning you can walk away and it'll tell you when the time is up or temp is reached.

Your Ribs and Chicken will be smoke cooking at about 225* so you shouldn't need to cure them. The curing is more for sausage making and making bacon where you will be at much lower temps for longer times. such as Ham that smokes at 120* for 12 hours.