New Electric Smoker

I received a gift in the mail. Out of the blue. It is an electric smoker.

So what should I do with it? And how?

Recipes? Advice?

I guess I'm a meat smoker now...

Details? Pics? How'd this come about?

Off topic, we received a "How To Train Your Dragon 2" box of toy dragons in the mail the other day addressed to my wife. We have no idea who the sender was, other than that the receipt showed the item billed to an Amazon store, but the receipt was from Toys R Us. We've no idea who sent it, and we don't know anyone in St. Louis, where the package originated. My 4 and a half year old was thrilled though.

Well, my sister sent it to me as a birthday gift. My birthday was back in June, and I don't expect gifts form her but, apparently she decided I should have a meat smoker. It is still in the box in my foyer and I haven't even really looked at it yet. In the box, it stands a little less than chest height.

Did the smoker come with any instructions?

My first couple of projects were pork shoulder roasts. I just coated them with a store bought rub and followed the general instructions that came with my smoker until the internal temperature of the roast was acceptable. Time varies with the size of the roast.

Another good starting project is this Pig Candy, which is essentially buying the cheapest thick cut bacon you can find and then giving it second smoking yourself.

I'm certain it did come with instructions and recipes. But I'm certain that whatever recipes are included with it will pale in comparison to what people here on the forum cook up!

The rub (pun intended) is that I'm no cook. But I love ribs, wings, brisket, etc. so this might be an interesting hobby for me.

OK, so the smoker is a Masterbuilt 20070610. It did come with a few recipes, but nothing that seemed very exciting. It did have one for Smoked Pork Butt which I'll try this weekend unless you guys have some tried and true pork or beef recipes to share.

Here's something to try, smoked salmon. It's best to use fresh, not frozen, salmon. You'll need a porcelain pot or glass bowl large enough to hold the salmon fillet and about 1 1/2 gallons of brine. Dissolve 1 1/2 cups of kosher salt and the same amount of brown sugar in the water. Your brine will be the right strength if a fresh egg will float in it (still in the shell of course). If not keep adding salt and sugar until it does. Place the fillet in the brine and weight it down with a plate so that it remains fully submerged with the flesh side up. Everything goes in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Next day take the fillet out of the brine. Rinse it off, pat it dry, dust it with fresh ground pepper and chopped fresh dill and place it on a rack uncovered in the fridge for at least another 24 hours so that a pellicle, a dried glaze of salt and protein, will form. At that point it's ready to smoke. Time in the smoker will depend on how thick the fillet is and how much flavor you want. Mix leftover smoked salmon with softened cream cheese and spread it on a bagel for breakfast. Now that's living high on the food chain.

A pork butt is probably one of the easiest things to cook when you are just starting out.

Coat the meat with yellow mustard liberally, rub on any pork rub, I like Weber's Kansas City rub and put in the smoker at 250. Plan on the meat taking 1-1.5 hours per pound. Remove the meat when the internal temp is 195-200. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for an hour.

After resting remove the bone, and then stand at the counter and fulfill some deep seeded primal need to rip apart and eat meat with your bear hands.

Commander Quan said:

A pork butt is probably one of the easiest things to cook when you are just starting out.

Coat the meat with yellow mustard liberally, rub on any pork rub, I like Weber's Kansas City rub and put in the smoker at 250. Plan on the meat taking 1-1.5 hours per pound. Remove the meat when the internal temp is 195-200. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for an hour.

After resting remove the bone, and then stand at the counter and fulfill some deep seeded primal need to rip apart and eat meat with your bear hands.

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This seems pretty good to me. Easy enough to make your own rub if you like. I like to include kosher salt, brown sugar, paprika (the Spanish smoked kind, if you have access to it), cayenne pepper, black pepper, a bit of powdered mustard. The yellow mustard coating helps it adhere, but is optional. I have the rub on the pork butt overnight in the fridge. That is optional, too.

I usually start at 225 or so rather than 250, although I seem to almost always end up going to 250 or 260 toward the end to speed things along.

The temperature of the pork should stall for a rather remarkable amount of time at 155 to 165 degrees. Be sure to keep going until it reaches 195. I would say that 200 to 203 is better. Rookie mistake is to lose patience and take it out too early. And I would put wrap it in foil and put it in a cooler wrapped in towels to rest for more than one hour, if you have the time.

It is said that the meat stops absorbing smoke flavor after the first few hours. But I tend to add wood throughout. I use wood chunks, not chips. I tend to use hickory with some apple.

Lots and lots of information on good BBQ technique out there, along with lots of fair disputes. Hard to set it all out here.

Have fun.

Thank you Gentlemen!

I did a pork butt over the weekend, pretty much as I described below that seemed to come out the best of anything I have ever done.

A key, I think, is getting the meat to above 200 degrees. I took this one to 203 on the Maverick T-732. My Thermopen actually said that most of the butt (actually two pieces) was higher than that and I was somewhat concerned, but it seemed to be a hit. About 2.5 hours wrapped loosely in foil in a cooler after coming out of the smoker.

Had to jack the temperature up to 255 or maybe it was 260 to get it there in 12 hours. Starting temp was 225.

I seem to always forget to refill the water tray in progress. Not sure it is really needed anyway. For this I used about half water, half apple cider, with some garlic cloves floating around in it. I also threw some garlic in where the wood chunks go later in the process.

Rub was brown sugar, smoked paprika, kosher salt, black pepper, granulated garlic, cayenne pepper, small amount of powdered mustard, over a slaver of Grey Poupon (sp?) mustard overnight in fridge.

Made all my dry rubs yesterday, and will fire it up early tomorrow morning!

DayMan said:

Made all my dry rubs yesterday, and will fire it up early tomorrow morning!

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Remember to take photos and post them. I never seem to remember to take photos!

Have fun.