I swung by Home Depot last night and on impulse and with a craving to try this out, I bought an electric smoker. All they carry are the cheapie Charbroil line of smokers and they only had a couple left of both the electric and wood/charcoal fired ones. I grabbed a bag of hickory chunks, some of those ceramic briquettes, and some other junk that I needed for the house. $60 for the smoker, $5 for the wood chunks, $12 for the briquettes, and $20 of house stuff.

Soaked the wood, assembled the smoker then placed the briquettes in and around the heating element (meant to temper the heat and provide a hot bed for the wood chips). I fired that baby up (plugged it in), set it to "medium", put in a couple handfuls of wood chunks, filled the water pan and let it run for an hour or so. The temp gauge in the lid didn’t get above 150° F but the water was boiling away and the wood was just starting to smoke so obviously the temp gauge is worthless.

I grabbed a meat thermometer and stuck it into the side of the smoker where the lower rack is. After a little wait, the thermometer was reading a bit over 200° F. The smoke was building with a nice hardwood aroma.

I monitored it for the next few hours and topped off the water twice. It seemed as though I went through water pretty fast, I put in 96 oz over 5 hrs or so. Oh well, it’s late so I let it run overnight and hit the hay. In the morning, it was still smoking along, the water pan was empty, and the thermometer was reading 300° F. Too hot, I know. I still need to get a feel for the settings on the temp controller and I haven’t played around with the vents yet.

When I set off for the maiden meat voyage, I’ll monitor it more closely and adjust the temp setting and vents until I get it right. After that I hope its “set it and forget it.”

Few questions:

1) What volume of smoke is desirable? At steady state, I had wisps of smoke/steam bleeding out from under the lid and access door. I’ve read that too much smoke will ruin the meat. How much should I be looking for?
2) I’ve also read that if your not burning the wood at the right temp you’ll get creosote build up - again ruining the meat. How do I tell if the wood is burning at the right temp? In the morning there were signs of creosote (tar like stuff) around the crack between the lid and body and also around the access door. Not too much but noticeable.
3)Is it normal to go through so much water?
4)Do you have a favorite quick smoking recipe that I can try? I’d like to do a small 6 to 8 hr smoking that I can start in the morning and have done by dinner time. Just as a trial run before I go for the overnighter.

I welcome any comments, criticisms, suggestions, tips…

no suggestions but baby back ribs are about a 6 hour smoke.

Too much hardwood/smoke can become almost bitter.... but I use lump coal and wood chunks.... not sure how to regulate with chips.

I prefer more smoke at the beginning, less at the end.

^ yep.........what TW said.

Try a cycle of three hours for 225F then an hour or two at 275F for ribs.

In my smoker, I put in a few chunks of wood to make smoke for the first few hours..........after that I don't bother. Also remember........most of the smoke you see coming out of the smoker is wasted.....you don't need much. For some recipes, I start the fire and let it burn the wood for quite a bit of time before putting any food in it so the smoke is a little "cleaner".

One of the challenges of an electric, or so I have heard, is that it takes a while to build up heat so every time you open the door you get a big temp fluctuation.

"One of the challenges of an electric, or so I have heard, is that it takes a while to build up heat so every time you open the door you get a big temp fluctuation."

Yep, I did see that when I was messing around with it last night. I guess I'm gonna have to be more patient and stop screwing with it once it gets going.

Am I going though more water than I should be?

I don't know........I rarely use water. In my smoker, the water is really just used as a heat sink to prevent to coals from directly heating the meat........with my controller it is not necessary and I think that the "water keeps meat moist" concept is bullcrap. Fat keeps meat moist.

"Fat keeps meat moist"

Ah ha, good point. I won't worry too much about the water then. It sounds like I have too much smoke going on. I'll cut back on the wood chunks and try some baby back ribs this weekend.

the water does regulate temp (helps keep temp down and constant). I don't use water either because the guru does that for me. I use wadded up foil in my water pan.

But in your situation I probably would use water....as Andy said, not for moisture but temp control.

Yeah, I'll still use water but I won't sweat it if it gets low or runs dry.

Thanks for the help.

NINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

some good info on water usage, and some alternatives....

http://virtualweberbullet.com/waterpanusage.html 

One thing I do to speed up the initial heating process is to pre boil the water going into the pan. I also will boil any water being added before going to bed. Check out bass pro shop dot com and order a Brinkmann charcoal pan for $4, add a 10lb bag of mesquite and or hickory if you like to offset shipping. It should fit but I'm not positive, but it holds almost two gallons of water. You WSM owners should order a couple / three to if you haven't already. They definitely fit the WSM and are almost twice the capacity of the stock water pans. Bass pro also has an assortment of wood chips that work well for grilling, not so much for BBQ but they will work in a pinch.

Charcoal pan;

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=59967&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults 


JJ

^ I have it when using water in my WSM but with the guru I typically so not use water.

^ Aristocrat...LOL

A great tip I got when I starting smoking meat was when the internal temp is about 10 degrees or so from desired temp, wrap the meat in tinfoil. Seals in juices......it has worked incredible for me at least.

I have a side firebox style smoker. Pork roasts usually cook for about 4-5 hours before being wrapped up....then another couple hours after that. Mmmm....man I love smoked meats!!

^ sounds kinda gay to me

I just mix aluminum filings in with my rub!!!

J/K...........I've heard that foil trick from a lot of guys, but for a slow and low cook (say 12-18hrs)I think the butt/brisket is pretty much sealed shut........like a big black meteorite.

I think that some people who want to avoid too much "crust" might want to try this.

I foil butts, and briskets after cooking and stuff them in a cooler for an hour or two. It seems to let things set up....... its a trick some use on ribs as well but tradionionalists get pissy about it.

I've got the electric smoker.

I do about 4 cups of chips soaked for at least an hour, on an hourly rotation. I also keep my water tray filled with at least 4 cups of water, usually the water I soaked the chips in - about once every 2 hours for a refill.

I smoke ribs for about 5 hours, then do what they call a "Texas Wrap" - putting a little water or broth in a tinfoil wrap - and grill for another hour. The ribs come out just about perfect although they done have as strong a smokey flavor as I'd like.

I smoke a pork butt for at least 10 hours. In both instances, make sure you spray down the meat with something like water, apple juice, or broth every 1/2 hour or hour.

I'm still not 100% happy with my technique. I don't get a pronounced smoke ring, and I don't have the strong, smokey flavor I'm looking for. I'm personally thinking about dumping the electric in favor of charcoal.

Like teedubbya, I also did a 2-step procedure where you smoke / cook the meat, freeze (or refrigurate) the meat, and then do another hour on the grill.

Fall-off-the-bone tender, and I think it tends to intensify the smokey flavor.

If you are opening your smoker every 30 minutes you are insaneo the clown......

I used to use apple juice.... now the only time I open my smoker during a 15+ hour butt smoke is if I run low on fuel..... wich is about 1/2 the time. Otherwise I never see it until its done