Thank you all :)

[ChubbyBadnews]

My brother and I recently recieved a BDS (4rack) from Santy.

After setting up our little beast and seasoning it twice, I still didn't feel 100% confident about how we were going to get going.

That was until about 2 or 3 hours ago, when I loggen on here. All the questions I had plus issues I was unsure about have now pretty much been answered..  well, seem a good bit clearer now.

So, congrats to all aboard this lovely forum. It seems to be a very friendly, helpful and mature forum.

We start our first smoke tomorrow. Im bringing a loin of Good Irish pork along with some fat end belly ribs to the table. My brother will be rocking a full chicken(Booooring ;)

I think we will be starting without rubs or marinades, just to see how things work out flavourwise as a base.

Coming from Ireland we don't have a huge BBQ/Pit/Smoker culture so I am really looking forward to playing around with different rubs and BBQ marinades.

Anywho, thanks again to everyone who has posted usefull advice/information.

Looking forward to posting up some pic from along our smokey journey.

[Tenpoint5]

Welcome aboard! Your going to be the talk of the county, when you start serving your friends and neighbors pulled pork and other goodies out of your smokers

[ChubbyBadnews]

Have been all over pulled pork, brisket, anything slow roast really for a good few years now. But thats all out of an oven, and although I dearly love my Falcon gas range, it has gotten a little dull of late.. schh... I think it heard me :'(    ;)

Am already looking into this fella:
http://bbqspitrotisseries.com.au/store/Spit%20Roast%20Rotisseries/Spits/Charcoal%20Spit

I have massive respect for how seriously you guys over that side of the world take your BBQ/Pit roasts.

As suckling pig is my deathrow dinner (and might not fit in our DBS) I fugure its time to fufill my desire for slowly roasted pork and other large pieces of meat and get the charcoal spit.

Looking forward to summer A LOT, even if I do come out a few pounds heavier

[ChubbyBadnews]

.... and thanks TP5 

[KyNola]

Welcome to the forum Chubby and your brother.  You're in for a delicious treat with what you guys are going to smoke.

You going to try to smoke all of those meats at the same time?  If so, you are going to see a long heat recovery time in the tower.  Preheat the tower.  A couple of things you can do to aid in heat recovery.  Fill the water bowl with boiling water.  Wrap a couple of bricks in foil and place them in the bottom of the tower underneath the drip tray.  You could even preheat them in that Falcon oven of yours.  They will help in retaining the heat.

Let us know if we can help.

[ChubbyBadnews]

Thanks KyNola.

I'll be breaking the chinken down into different cuts for one tray(bottom tray), a 6 inch piece of pork ribs (middle) and a 6 inch loin on the top tray. I will be rotating these every hour.

Will defo be using the boiling water trick as well as looking out for some bricks that will be suitable for the job.

A question regarding pork and its skin. Is the tempreture in the BDS capable of producing crackling on a piece of pork?

Thanks for your time

[beefmann]

welcome aboard and  enjoy,, it is  quite a  good forum

[ChubbyBadnews]

Nice one Beefmann  8)

[KyNola]

A question regarding pork and its skin. Is the tempreture in the BDS capable of producing crackling on a piece of pork?
Thanks for your time

Short answer is no, it won't produce a crackling.  By the time it did, the pork would be so completely overdone it would be inedible.

[Quarlow]

A question regarding pork and its skin. Is the tempreture in the BDS capable of producing crackling on a piece of pork?
Thanks for your time

Short answer is no, it won't produce a crackling.  By the time it did, the pork would be so completely overdone it would be inedible.

Get it  to almost done and then stick it in the Falcon. Or BBQ/grill that will crisp it up nice. Not sure what a Falcon is but assume it is a grill of sorts. You could even broil it in the oven.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi;
Welcome to the forum.

I do something similar that Quarlow does. When I make Cuban style barbecue pork with a picnic shoulder, I will take it out of the Bradley when it hits an internal temperature of around 130°F, then place it in a 325°F preheated oven to crisp the skin and to bring the internal temperature to around 175°F. If you are serving the skin make sure you do not burn it. To crisp it even more, crosshatch the skin prior to smoking/cooking.

[Ketch22]

Welcome to the forum :)

[ChubbyBadnews]

Thanks for all the help, guys!

Regarding the crackling, I totally understand how the machine works now. After cooking some duck brest yesterday I can see that the oven doesn't go near the temp you need to get crispy skin. Which is not a problem at all. As Habanero said, Just finish it in the oven or on the BBQ.

Fired it up yesterday and had a day of marinating and smoking. We started with a spatchcoked chicken with just a simple seasoning of salt, pepper and some dried chillie flakes, aswell as two duck brests with a simple BBQ rub on them.

Smoked for three hours and one more with the oven only. While they were cooking I marinated a large section of ribs with our first homemade BBQ marinade (wet) and a homemade indian style dry rub for a rack of lamb. I also removed the skin from the ribs and have that sitting in some sea salt, as im trying to perfect the perfect pork scratchings as a snack.

Now, back to the contents of the smoker. After 4 nearly 5 hours in the smoker we took out the chicken and duck.

OH MY DAYS!!!!!! First, our back garden smelt like a restaurant (in a good way) and then there was the chicken.

I have never pulled a chicken but just couldnt help it. The meat just fell of the bone with a little help from a fork.
Pulled it all of the bone and mixed in a little BBQ sauce, a tiny pinch of Piri Piri powder and a bunch of chopped scallions.
I then chopped the whole mix up to avoid any large bits of skin.

I have to say, for a first try and with no real marinade on it the bird turned out just super!! Pulled chicken on crunchy bap with a little bit of mayo = nomnomnom

As for the duck. this was also super. Just scrapped the rub of the skin side as it contained a good bit of sugar, put them in a pan, skin side down and on a low heat and let the fat render out to produce a lovely crisp skin.

DELISH!!

I will post up the pictures and recipes for the rubs when I get a chance. In a bit of a rush here.

Thanks again for all ze help.

Two massively converted smokers :)

[GusRobin]

Reel 'em in, we hooked another.

[bigjimak]

Or, as we say here in Anchorage: "That ain't no slippery slope we're on... it's a bloody luge run!" :D

Jim