New Member, First-Time Smoker

[andangbum]

I bought my first smoker and will doing my first smoke this week. Starting with a Pork Butt. Heard it's hard to screw up. Going to smoke a turkey this weekend in preparation for Thanksgiving hopefully.

[Oak Smoke]

Good luck! There’s a wealth of knowledge and experience with all kinds of smokers to tap into here. Welcome from central Texas!

[Skip]

Welcome from Minnesota. Enjoy The Pit!

[fzxdoc]

Welcome! What smoker did you buy?

Kathryn

[Donw]

Welcome from Maryland. A pork butt is a great first cook.

[andangbum]

Thank you all. I bought an East Oak Electric Smoker. I'm starting with something that doesn't require a lot of skill. I understand the smoke flavor may be less, but want to learn before advancing.

[Spinaker]

That is what I started on only it was a Brinkmann smoker. You have come to the right place. You can still add a ton of smoke to electric smokers. Throw in a few briquettes or wood chunks to added flavor, once I realized I could this it was game changer.

[hoovarmin]

Nice! Welcome to The Pit. What kind of smoker did you buy?

[jfmorris]

Welcome to the Pit! You've come to the right place.

A boston butt for pulled pork is about the perfect first thing to smoke IF you have patience. It's a long cook. My advice is to not get too attached to 225F as the smoking temp, but to consider running 250F or 275F if you want to speed the cook up. 250F might be a good balance that will move the cook along without stalling as long.

You've not told us what kind of smoker you are using, but if a pellet smoker, those have much lighter smoke than charcoal or wood smokers, and you may want to run 225F for the first few hours, then move the temp up to 250 or 275 to help the cook move along.

My advice on turkey.... is to try a chicken first! Much smaller and faster! The trick with all poultry is that you DO NOT want to smoke at low and slow temps but instead cook at 325+. I run my smokers at 350-400 when doing chicken or turkey. With chicken it is important to have nice crisp skin - you get rubbery skin below 300 degrees. With turkey, especially larger ones, you need to smoke at higher temps for food safety reasons, to get things out of the unsafe 40-140 temp zone within the first couple of hours of the cook.

Good luck!

[HawkerXP]

+1

[Mosca]

+2. Also, birds will take on A LOT of smoke. Use very little wood.

[LA Pork Butt]

+3

[58limited]

Welcome!

[dpearce]

Welcome from Central Ohio, and as others have mentioned, definitely read through the recipes and articles. You'll find a ton of great tips. Any questions, just post, and I'm sure the very knowledgeable people here will give you a quick answer!

[Purc]

Welcome to The Pit from Texas. Enjoy the BBQ adventure, relax about it and have fun.

[Draznnl]

Welcome to the Pit from the Florida Suncoast.
i guess I’m late to the party. The folks above have already covered the key points. Just one other thing, HAVE FUN!

[RonB]

Welcome to The Pit. If there is any way you can add wood, please do. Chips or chunks will work if you can get them next to the heating element. If using chips, wrap them in a foil pouch and punch holes in the top of the pouch to let the smoke out.

[HawkerXP]

Welcome to the Pit!

Yes! Butt is a great starting meat!

Good luck!

Bing Videos

[Ace]

I bought my first smoker and will doing my first smoke this week. Starting with a Pork Butt. Heard it's hard to screw up. Going to smoke a turkey this weekend in preparation for Thanksgiving hopefully.

Welcome to the Pit. I started out with an electric smoker so you'll be fine with the cooker choice you made.
Show us those pictures and let us know if you have any questions.