wile_e8 here

[Huskee]

You can use a couple bricks wile_e8 just place two bricks end-to-end on the side third of your kettle, making 2/3 indirect and 1/3 direct zones. Add a chimney of charcoal behind the bricks (unlit), add about a dozen well-lit briquets on top of that, and a couple pieces of wood. Keep your vents at about 1/4 open top & bottom. You can keep a temp in the 225 or thereabouts zone for hours! No smokenator needed! Place a pan of water on top of the coals or down on the charcoal grate beside the bricks. Hands-free other than occasional vent tweaks until you get the temp steady.

[wile_e8]

Thanks for the info everyone. For now I've just been snaking my charcoal, but I'll look into a Smokenator if I start getting serious about it (there's always next Christmas). And I think I'll be fine to try some ribs next time I smoke something in a couple weeks, so hopefully that will go well. Thanks for the help!

[JeffJ]

I second Jordan's suggestion, Wile. I have a Smokenator with the hover grill for my 22.5" Performer. I've used it roughly a dozen times and always with success.

[_John_]

Once you get used to it, a 2 hour cook isn't much different than a 8 hour cook. Ribs are definitely ok to do next, a good bridge to the longer smoking stuff. If you maintain a reasonable temperature and do the bend test, they will end up fine.
On tv you see all the pro's checking with toothpicks which is now my preferred method. It took a lot of racks to get it right, but I suggest training yourself by poking every hour for the first few hours and when you think it is done. I would then take it inside, cut it in half and sample a rib from the middle and toss them back on if needed. Once you associate the tenderness with the toothpick feel you probably will never have another bad rack.
What method do you use for charcoal i.e. do you just toss it in or lay it out a specific way? Are you pretty successful maintaining temps now?

[JeffJ]

I have been ogling the 26" Weber at the local hardware store. That thing is a beast!

[fuzzydaddy]

Good morning wile_e8 and welcome to the Pit. I have a new Weber kettle 26" with a smokenator and after a couple of dry runs cooked ribs and temp management was easy. I also have a BGE and use it for pork butts and with help from folks here my last cook was 16 hours and had lump charcoal left. I've not yet done long cooks on the Weber.

[jmott7]

Get a smokenator. You should be able to keep the temp down and do loin backs without refilling. Enjoy.

[wile_e8]

One question: would it be a bad idea to try ribs next instead of something like pork butt? The time consuming part of pork butt has me worried, it seems like a big jump to go from quick things that take less than an hour to something that will take most of the day. I'd like to get used to maintaining temperature for something more intermediate before I try that. The rib recipes seem to take that intermediate amount of time, but I have no clue if they'll turn out decent if I don't get it exactly right while I'm learning. Are they too difficult for a beginner?

Or maybe I should just try meatloaf. I hadn't even thought of that our seen any instructions before you mentioned it.

[Jerod Broussard]

Welcome Wile and thanks for the support!!!

Try out a smoked meatloaf. Maybe layer some bacon on that sucker. Pork butts are very forgiving. Time consuming, but forgiving nonetheless.

[wile_e8]

Hi everyone,

I'm always looking for new recipes and online that I can make at home, and I love pulled pork at BBQ restaurants. I got a simple Weber kettle grill for Christmas last year, and I found this site while trying to figure out how to start smoking meats. So far I've just started small making smoked pork tenderloin a few times while trying to figure out how to control the temperature, and now that I'm reading all over this site while making plans to move on to bigger jobs I figured you deserved my subscription fee. I'm looking forward to a regular excuse to spend the day outside playing with fire and having a few drinks, and hopefully a great meal at the end.