Wood box and flavor savor problems

[chizotz]

Hi everyone,

Hey, I just got my brand new #1 and cart all put together. I wanted to season it tonight, and attempt my first smoke with it tomorrow. I'm having two problems.

First, and by far the biggest, is -- for the life of me I can't see how the wood box is supposed to fit in the smoker. It's like it's just too long, no matter how I try to slide it in there. Is there a trick I'm missing, or is it possible I got the wrong wood box?

Second, I also got the flavor savor to hold liquids, and the hooks do not fit my grills, not even close. Do you have to bend the hooks, or did I get the wrong one?

Thanks.

Ron

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[puddle jumper]

I have not gotten mine yet but have you watched the you tube video on your smoker that Steve did on the bottom of the page you ordered from??
Might Help,,
Good Luck,,
PJ

[chizotz]

Well... there's an hour of my life gone to my own stupidity. Turns out, every time I tried it, I was trying to put it in backwards. It only fits one way. The weird thing is, I really thought I had tried it both ways... guess I didn't.

Anyway, I went to my wife and said, "I think they sent me the wrong wood box". And she said, "Did it come in the other box?" (I got the optional cart, so there were two boxes), and I said, "You're right, it came _in_ the smoker, it's just got to be me" and wondered away muttering "What am I doing wrong, what am I doing wrong..."

But I got that fixed, finally. And I started to season the smoker. Mmmm tomorrow is my first attempt at a smoke

Now I just have to figure out how the hooks on the flavor savor are supposed to work. I'm probably wrong on that too, but tomorrow is soon enough to worry about that.

Thanks for the reply!

[puddle jumper]

No problem,,
 Glad you got it figured out..
PJ

[UWFSAE]

No worries chizotz ... at least you've got it ready to rock and roll for tomorrow. 

Ms. Lilly's Flavor Savor simply hooks onto the rack (they loop over the tops of the rails).  From my experience, put it on your lowest shelf and keep it positioned very close to, but not touching, the fire box.  I also fill it once it's inside ... moving the shelf often causes spillage.

The hooks also use a rack as a top anchor point ... obviously you'll need to remove lower racks to accommodate the hanging ribs.

Good luck and be sure to post pics of your results!

[old sarge]

All's well that ends well.

[chizotz]

Well, I did my first smoke today. It turned out "OK", it's edible, but some lessons have been learned and I suspect many more to come.

I did boneless beef ribs. I set my new #1 smoker at 220. I used 2 of the hickory blocks that I got with the smoker. I also put some beer in the flavor savor reservoir. I had a temperature probe inserted into the thickest piece, but it said it was done after only about 45 minutes. Now, maybe I should have opened her up and taken a peek then, but my wife had said she didn't trust that probe... so I left them in, thinking they couldn't possibly be done in that short a time.

But that kept bugging me, so about another 45 minutes I just opened it up to see what I had. They were very nearly well done, which isn't what I wanted (Bridget likes beef medium to medium-well, I like medium to medium-rare). They are also pretty tough, when I thought low and slow would make them tender. Maybe that's to do with the cut of meat too.

There's no doubt about the smoke, though, good grief they are almost too smoky. Not to the point of bitterness I've read about here and elsewhere, but I think one piece of wood will be plenty for the next time. That's one lesson learned, less is definitely more in this case, and it doesn't take much wood at all to get that smoke flavor going.

Lesson two, much lower temp setting next time until I figure out the balance I need on this smoker.

When I seasoned it last night, with the throttle at the top, it started smoking at about the 15 minute mark. It took about 35 minutes to start smoking today. It was still smoking strongly at the 45 minute mark, but had all but quit smoking at 90 minutes when I checked them and discovered they were actually a bit over done.

Any comments and advice appreciated. I'll probably try something else next weekend, maybe some pork. Suggestions?

[chizotz]

Correction, it took 25, not 35, minutes to start smoking. Typo

[UWFSAE]

On the time it took, with thin cuts like those boneless beef ribs you will see a very short cooking time; even chuck roasts hit medium rare in a couple of hours.  To make it more tender, you could use something like Tenderquick, a Jacquard to "stabinate" it to loosen up those muscle fibers, or an overnight marinade with some soy and pineapple (both of which will tenderize).

On the wood, I urge you to get an inexpensive kitchen scale and start weighing your wood.  Those hickory dowels can be pretty beefy and with a relatively small load in a #1 you could get away with 2-3oz ... I have a sneaking suspicion you doubled that figure.

If you're going pork next weekend, Boston butt is the low and slow king ... if you're doing ribs find some good St. Louis cut and just pick a recipe at random from the Pork category on the main page.  No matter what meat you're using, keep it cold and load the smoker without preheating ... but just use less wood.

Sorry this cook wasn't a home run for you, chizotz ... trust me, once you dial these suckers in they'll be your best friend.

[chizotz]

Thanks. I'm not too disappointed, I sure got the smoke flavor I was looking for! And I expected this to be a learning experience, for sure, so that it even turned out edible makes it a success, even if not the "perfection" I hope to attain in the future.

Next weekend I'll prepare better, and marinade the meat ahead of time. And take what I learned... and learn some more

[swthorpe]

Your observations about the smoke time is quite similar to what I observe.  I have a #2 and usually start to see smoke at about 25 minutes.  The smoke is heavy for the first hour or so, and then tapers off.  I suspect the smoke is still present by not as easy to see well after the first hour as I typically have wood left over in the box that is smoldering when I am done.

In terms of temp, I typically smoke at 225F and I reach that temp at about 1 hour after I start.

[DivotMaker]

Chizotz - you picked a pretty challenging first smoke.  Joe is right about thin cuts like those; more prep is needed to get them tender.  They look great in the pics, but I can bet they were a little tough.  On your next cook, I agree that you should try something like a Boston butt or spares. 

As for the timing on seeing smoke, you're dead on.  That's the reason you want to start with cold meat; as the smoker is warming to get the wood hot, your meat is warming to "room temp."  That's when it's going to start absorbing the smoke best.  Also remember that the meat isn't going to "absorb" much smoke once it hits about 140-degrees internal.  Any smoke after that is going to collect on the surface and give you that "over-smoked" taste.  2-3 oz of wood for small/thin cuts (ribs, wings, etc), 5-6 oz for large cuts that take a long time (brisket, butt).  Remember that once the meat is smoked, most of your cook time will be just plain old slow-cooking to finish it!  It's a common mistake that people think it's the smoke that tenderizes, and the meat has to be in it the whole time.

Anyways, welcome to our little gathering!  Congrats on making the best smoker decision out there!