Just ordered the #3

[wehill]

Just finished ordering the #3.  Hate to spend the money on another smoker ... just got tired of having to babysit my Oklahoma Joe's off-set smoker.  Have no idea how long it will take to get it to Oklahoma City via FedEx Ground. 

I'm thinking the first thing I will smoke is a big ole brisket.  Any suggestions?

 

[old sarge]

Brisket is fine. Plenty of recipes and tips in the beef section.  And congratulations on #3.

 

[Airchair]

Congrats on the SI3 Wehill. I purchased a 3D a couple months ago and it doesn't disappoint. As far as first smoke I chose a pork butt. Its a long smoke and the finished product is hard to screw up. This is the first time I've ever smoked so I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. There is an endless amount of info here and if you can't find what your looking for Im sure someone can answer your question. Good luck....you'll be smoking in no time.

Court

 

[Glock_21]

Good to see another Oklahoma guy on here.  I'm an hour north of you.

+1 on the pork butt for the first smoke.  You might as well go ahead and place an order with smokinlicious.  Get a box of wood headed you way.

 

[Meatball]

Glock 21 has the right idea....  order your wood and get your basics so your ready to roll when you get your smoker.
There are plenty of ideas on here for rubs and prep for brisket and prep work. I would suggest looking online at some of the videos by guys like Aaron Franklin or Meatheads site for more ideas. Meatheads site is a really good source of info for just about everything you need.
  http://amazingribs.com/meathead/meet_meathead.html

 

[NDKoze]

Welcome from ND Wehill! You are going to love your #3.

I usually recommend a Boston Butt for first smokes. But, brisket will work great too. I would recommend taking a look at the stickied threads in the beef and pork sections for the recommended processes.

Many of the tricks that you needed with your Oklahoma Joe (or other wood/charcoal/propane smokers) like foiling, spritzing, etc. are not needed with the SI smokers. So, for your first couple of smokes, I would try to follow some proven processes.

Good quality smoking wood is important too. Many of us here have had really great luck with www.smokinlicious.com.

The fun is just beginning on your journey into "Lazy-Q".

 

[JustChillin]

Congrats on your purchase. I too feel that the pork butt is more forgiving and a wise decision for a first smoke but a brisket should work just fine.

 

[drains]

Welcome from Texas! The #3 is a great choice. You will definitely need your wood to have the proper moisture content(20% or higher) so keep that in mind. Good wood is very important. I also recommend a bone in Boston butt that weighs over 7 pounds. Anything smaller tends to present problems. Good luck.

 

[ibbones]

Congrats on one fine (and last one you will ever buy) smoker.  I bought mine almost a year ago but had been saving nickels and dimes for almost two years.  I KNEW I wanted it and after I ordered it had buyers remorse really bad.  Even after I had it for a few months, I still questioned myself about spending the money but every time I used it, I was soooo impressed.  Over the thanksgiving holiday, I gave away an old bag of charcoal I have had stuck away in the corner that I knew I will NEVER use again.
Enjoy your well built smoker and like others, get some good smoking wood soon because it will not take too long for the smoker to get to your doorstep.

 

[wehill]

Changed my mind on the brisket.  Decided to smoke about 10 pounds of country style ribs.  Thought that $13.60 worth of the country style ribs was a better first smoke risk than a $45 dollar brisket.

 

[SuperDave]

Changed my mind on the brisket.  Decided to smoke about 10 pounds of country style ribs.  Thought that $13.60 worth of the country style ribs was a better first smoke risk than a $45 dollar brisket.

Depending on how thick they were cut, you are probably looking at 4.5 - 5 hours at 235 degrees.  Soak in a pork brine for about the same amount of time as the cook time, rinse, rub and go! 

 

[wehill]

Changed my mind on the brisket.  Decided to smoke about 10 pounds of country style ribs.  Thought that $13.60 worth of the country style ribs was a better first smoke risk than a $45 dollar brisket.

Depending on how thick they were cut, you are probably looking at 4.5 - 5 hours at 235 degrees.  Soak in a pork brine for about the same amount of time as the cook time, rinse, rub and go!

Dave, thanks for the input.  I will skip the brine as I am on a very low salt diet.  I do put a small amount of sea salt in my home made rubs.  Have been using the same ole rub formula for years.  I cut the salt down in the rub about seven years ago.  Many, many years ago I used to cold smoke [at 75 to 90 degrees for 2 to 4 days] lots of turkeys and would sometimes brine them before the cold smoke.

 

[wehill]

Ok, I put the 10 pounds of Country Style Ribs in the Smoker about 12:00 today.  I put my rib rub on then the night before so they had about 15 hours on the fridge.  I set the temperature at 225, put the ribs on the 2nd level from the top of the #3.  Used foil to line the bottom of the smoker and also made a tent of foil over the firebox.  Used a small foil baking pan filled with applejuice in the bottom of the #3 and against the firebox.  Put about 6 ounces of a mix of hickory and cherry wood in the fire box.

Never touched the #3 until the ribs had been in the smoker for 5 and 1/2 hours.  The meat on these ribs were about 1 1/8 in thick.  In my experience smoking ribs like that would have taken somewhere around 6 hours to get them to the doneness the way I like them.  After taking them out of the smoker, I set them on the counter covered with foil for about 30 minutes.  Rescued two of them onto a plate and gave them a try.

They were pretty close to the doneness [yes I know doneness isn't a word] that I like.  Next time I might add another 30 to 45 minutes in the smoker.  The taste was good.  I would prefer more of a smoke flavor.  I also think that next time I will lay off my normal rub and just use some olive oil with a little salt and black pepper.  Also I think I will take them out after about 6 hours and slather them with my BBQ sauce and pop them back in for another 30 minutes.

This was my first time, ever, to smoke the Country Style ribs.  These things have a great flavor.  The meat was really easy to pull the meat off of the bones and separate the fat from the lean.  It just came right off.  On the 2nd I just used the regular table knife and scraped the meat off easily.

All and all, I thought this was a pretty good smoke for the first time with this electric #3.

Anyone have any ideas on how to increase the "wood flavor" with these electric smokers?

I think that is the only issue I am going to have with this Smoke-It #3.  The preparation of the smoker and post smoke clean-up is a little more effort, but beats the babysitting of my old off-set.

 

[old sarge]

I would stick with just hickory for a stronger smoke flavor. Except for alder that I use for salmon, hickory is all I use for beef and pork. Glad the first smoke came out pretty good. Congratulations.

 

[SuperDave]

Walt, when you did your clean up, how spent was your wood chunks?  6 ounces of wood for ribs should have been a strong smoke for these smokers. 

 

[wehill]

Walt, when you did your clean up, how spent was your wood chunks?  6 ounces of wood for ribs should have been a strong smoke for these smokers.

Dave, I checked the firebox and there was three piles of ashes.  I placed the wood blocks at the front, back and in the middle of the firebox.  This was the second time I have burned wood and on both times the wood was totally reduced to ashes.

 

[LarryD]

A-ha!  Ashes would indicate that your wood chunks caught fire and combusted.  When I do it right I end up with full-chunk size pieces of charcoal.  (I actually throw the charcoal chunks in my charcoal supply and burn them in my grill.)  You might try 'foiling' your wood and that could help reduce the incidence of combustion.  I've also been known to soak my wood chunks for 10 minutes before smoking which really seems to help.  Make sure you're not turning on your smoker before the door is closed/locked... otherwise you'll get lots of fresh oxygen in there which might cause the wood to ignite.

This would explain the less smoky flavor as your wood is burning instead of smoking...

Dave, I checked the firebox and there was three piles of ashes.  I placed the wood blocks at the front, back and in the middle of the firebox.  This was the second time I have burned wood and on both times the wood was totally reduced to ashes.

 

[SuperDave]

A-ha!  Ashes would indicate that your wood chunks caught fire and combusted.  When I do it right I end up with full-chunk size pieces of charcoal. 

My feelings as well.  The Smokilicious folks say that the higher moisture content wood doesn't combust.  For us other guys, a little MacGyver work and I believe combustion can be avoided with any wood. 

 

[wehill]

A-ha!  Ashes would indicate that your wood chunks caught fire and combusted.  When I do it right I end up with full-chunk size pieces of charcoal.  (I actually throw the charcoal chunks in my charcoal supply and burn them in my grill.)  You might try 'foiling' your wood and that could help reduce the incidence of combustion.  I've also been known to soak my wood chunks for 10 minutes before smoking which really seems to help.  Make sure you're not turning on your smoker before the door is closed/locked... otherwise you'll get lots of fresh oxygen in there which might cause the wood to ignite.

This would explain the less smoky flavor as your wood is burning instead of smoking...

Larry, thanks for the reply. 

My method was to prepare the smoker by covering the bottom with foil; loading my wood chunks in the firebox; put a foil tent over the firebox.  Then loaded the meat in the smoker.  Then I shut the door and locked it down.  The the "last" thing I did was turn the smoker on to a temperature of 225.

I watched the smoker for the first 30 minutes.  I first detected faint smoke at about 15 minutes and it was smoking really good at 30 minutes.  I had good smoke through the first 4 and 1/2 hours.  So, I don't think the chunks burst into flame and burned.  If spontaneous combustion had happened, I wouldn't have had any smoke by the end of the first hour or so.

 

[wehill]

Dave and Larry, thanks for the advice.  I have spent the better part of the last couple of days figuring out the mechanics of how the #3 cycles through a smoke.  Also, worked on the advice on how to control the oxygen to get a smoother and longer smoulder of the wood.  In my last run, I put in 5 ounces of wood and ran the #3 for three hours at 225 degrees.  I got good smoke for three hours and when I took the firebox out of the #3 I had three blocks of wood that collectively weighed 1.5 ounce.  So, I only smouldered 3.5 ounces of wood during the three hours.

I put in two racks of Babybacks about 10:00 a.m. this morning.  I'm going to let them go for four hours, then slather the ribs with my sauce and put them back in for 20 to 30 minutes.