Tips for first OBS smoke

[elweezo]

Hi guys,  2morow will be my first snoke in a 4 rack OBS.  I bout a 7lb butt, a 3.5lb yard bird and 2 racks of baby backs. I have rubbed my butt and ribs and am brining the bird. I am asking for any tips that you can give me for maximum success.   First will all of my meat fit?  How open should the vent be?   Do I "need" to use smoke the entire cooking time?  What order the meat should be stacked?    Any other stuff you could help a rookie with.

Thanks
Weasel

P.S My hound dog likes dehydrated sweet taters, do u think I could make those in the OBS? 

[FLBentRider]

Hi guys,  2morow will be my first snoke in a 4 rack OBS.  I bout a 7lb butt, a 3.5lb yard bird and 2 racks of baby backs. I have rubbed my butt and ribs and am brining the bird. I am asking for any tips that you can give me for maximum success.   First will all of my meat fit?  How open should the vent be?   Do I "need" to use smoke the entire cooking time?  What order the meat should be stacked?    Any other stuff you could help a rookie with.

Thanks
Weasel

P.S My hound dog likes dehydrated sweet taters, do u think I could make those in the OBS? 

That is a lot of food for a first cook. The timing may be a challenge.
The ribs will take about 4-5 hours, the chicken 4-5 hours, the butt 16-20.

Most do not run smoke the entire time, 4 hours is plenty until you get your individual tastes dialed in.

You're going to want the chicken on the bottom (I don't want chicken dripping on my pork)

then probably the butt and the ribs.

Put a rub on the chicken, I like to peel the skin back and put rub under the skin too. Note - if you like to eat the skin you may want to pull the chicken out a little early and put it in your oven @350F to crisp the skin

ribs - Check this thread http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=10182.0

butt - I put a rub on it, such as the renowed Mr Brown - http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?86-Pulled-Pork-and-Sauce&p=99#post99

pull the butt at an IT of 190-200F and FTC for at least an hour.

I'm not sure about the taters, give it a shot.

[12AMNSX]

I've never heard of anyone smoking that much pundage at one time.  Once you place all of that stuff into your smoker the temp will drop like a rock and take forever and a day to recover.  I recommend smoking whatever will cook faster first and then go on to the long term stuff.  In addition, unless you use a tray of some sort, the dripping from whatever is above will be mixing with whatever is below.  Let us know how it turns out.

In regard to your vent, I always have mine half way open unless I'm doing jerky where I keep it full open.

[GusRobin]

For the first cook I would recommend just doing the chicken or the ribs. My experience has been that the chicken takes on smoke quicker thean the beef. 3-4 hours of smoke for ribs and butt should be okay but may be too much for chicken (my personal taste)

So I would do the chicken first and get the hang of your smoker. Next smoke I would do the ribs. And I would do a butt by itself or with a brisket. Something that would take about the same time.

I found out in the beginning of smoking with the Bradley, that it was easier to keep track and take notes if I started slow. The purpose of the notes is so that you can adjust to your personal preferences the next time. Half the fun is experimenting.

I have done ribs with butts and briskets but put the butts and briskets the night before and then added the ribs the next day ( and more smoke). The key is to plan out the timing of when you will smoke and when you will remove.

[RAF128]

If you're doing multiple meats I think you'll need multiple temp probes.   Each thing in the bradley will reach the desired IT at different times and rates.

[ArnieM]

I agree with Gus - start off slowly.  When I first got my OBS I wanted to stuff it full and was gently  ;) advised it might not be a good idea.

I'd also finish off the chicken in the oven or on a grill.

Even if you're smoking two of the same thing, two probes should be used as RAF said.

And do the note taking thing.

[elweezo]

WoW U guys are awesome, never thought I would get that much advice.   This is what I am goin to do

**gonna let the butt sit (rubbed) for 1 xtra day and cook the bird and ribs 2 gether since they take  close to same time (Ribs on top of Bird)

**Glad I asked about constant smoke cuz that will save me tons of bisquettes  (I am a cheap SOB)  This also makes it easier to cook the butt later since I wont be wasting pucks

**Rub on and under bird skin (got a mckormick roasted garlic and herb I been wanting to try

**Will finish the bird in the oven to crisp the skin

***vent half open 

cant wait to eat, maybe my wife will quit shaking her head when she tastes the food'  She thiks I am obsessed. Watchin youtube vids, reading posts,  looking up recipes..   well maybe a lttle obsessed

Thanks to ALL
weasel 

[hal4uk]

I see you picked up on the "bird on bottom" part!
That's an ALWAYS rule.
Nuthin' ever goes under bird.

Good luck, and happy smokin'!

[GusRobin]

With chicken I would have the vent fully open. Poultry has a lot of moisture and it will keep the temps lower.

Personally I keep my vent wide open no matter what I smoke. But regardless of your preference I think most will agree that if you have a full chicken in there you should keep the vent wide open.

[smoker pete]

With chicken I would have the vent fully open. Poultry has a lot of moisture and it will keep the temps lower.

Personally I keep my vent wide open no matter what I smoke. But regardless of your preference I think most will agree that if you have a full chicken in there you should keep the vent wide open.

I too would recommend keeping the vent fully open with chicken and like Gus I also keep the vent wide open no matter what I smoke.

For the bird, I like to rub on some Extra Virgin Olive Oil, EVOO, before applying any rub or seasoning.  But like others have said ... half the fun of smoking is experimenting and the other half is eating the fruits of your smoke  ;D ;D

Once your wife gets a taste she'll quickly become a convert and demand more  ;)  Have fun!

[ArnieM]

My vent is stuck fully open.  I'm not quite sure why it's even there.  :-\

[elweezo]

Ok I will leave the vent wide open.. and I was thinking about evoo but now I will surely do that.     It seems that my purchase of the smoker has ended the drought in ga so I might have to smoke in the garage. Has anyone else done this? Was the house smoky?   Will I be nagged to the ends of the earth?

A snapshot of my mind   Comedian Bill Burr   (Warning--do not go to link if you are offended by language)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imZ52DHBtug

PS if we are not allowed to post links like that please let me know

[smokeNcanuck]

Looks like the gang has ya covered and sounds like you have a good plan!
Once you get the first one under your belt you'll be a rock star, GOOD LUCK!!

P.S that guy is really funny, I laughed my a## off!!

[TonyL222]

Woo Hooo!!!!

My OBS arrived Tuesday.  I set it up on the patio yesterday and did the 1 hour seasoning run.  Looked in the mailbox and in there was my Aubuer Dual Probe.  Gonna go for my first smoke today.  On the advice here, I'm gonna keep it simple with just one whole chicken.  Instead of brine, I injected it last nigh and put it in the fridge.  This morning I rubbed it down, wrapped in cellophane and back in the fridge. I'm gonna start smoking early afternoon. Here's a list of "Best Practices" that I've picked up from reading the forum.  Please let me know if I've missed or misstated anything:

1.  Bring food to room temp before adding to smoker.
2.  Use warm (or maybe even boiling) water in the tower bowl - especially on refill.
3.  NEVER anything under bird (except maybe another bird).
4.  Damper fully open.
5.  Smoke only for about half the anticipated total cook time.
6.  On finish, FTC (Foil, Towel, Cooler - took me a while to find out what that meant) for about an hour or so before serving (does that apply to bird as well or maily beef and pork?)

Also, is it a good idea to set the initial heat up temp to maybe 25-30 degrees higher than your planned cook temp?  Just thinking about the temp drop when you first open the door to add the meat.  Finally, I ordered two bubba pucks but now wondering if I shoulda bought a third - on in the front and two in the back.    The one in front would be a "dummy" puck to let the puck burner heat up.  Thoughts?

[FLBentRider]

I don't FTC birds - it makes the skin worse than it already is.

You can pretty much crank the initial heat up as high as it will go to pre-heat - no worries there.

If you have 2 bubba pucks, put them on last, then stack another bisquette on top of that. that will ensure that the first bubba will end up staying on the burner.

I pre-heat the generator with no pucks while the main element is pre-heating.