For a first smoke I'd go with a couple of small chicken fryers, they are inexpensive, simple to prep and if you screw up not a ton of money out of the pocket.

Two Fresh fryers at Costco are about $10, all you need is a basic rub, and I'd suggest going with a pre package rubs and getting a feel for the cook and flavors before you start investing in all the ingredients you'd need to make your own or copy some recipe from online. BTW I'm not saying both suggested web pages rubs are not good, or that it's not a good idea.

Just saying, First Time, First Smoke, get a feel for the cooker, it's pace, the amount of smoke you like, and learn how it cooks, before you toss a $150 Prime Rib Cut or $100 worth of Brisket in and learn the hard way...

Screw up a chicken and it's not a big loss, and frankly you'd have to really work to screw up the bird....


Local Grocery carries McCormicks, higher end groceries will have more options in the spice and sauce mix like Fresh Market etc. Our local ACE Hardware, they carry all the grills, and plenty of different spice blends since they sell Green Egg, Traeger, Green Mountain smokers.

Start easy, cook slow, and remember

Cook to temp, not time...

Get a temp probe like this Thermoworks, and it's WiFi connector so you can check temps from anywhere, and, you won't have to open up the door to check temp with a hand held, losing heat and smoke.

https://www.thermoworks.com/Smoke

https://www.thermoworks.com/Smoke-Gateway

quote:

Originally posted by MRBTX:
Pork loins are great, one of my favorites is to brush on olive oil, coarse salt, pepper and rosemary. The loins are lean, the dont take long.

This is a good plan. I'd add a little smoked paprika to it myself. That, and cook to 145-150 degrees internal temp, unlike an earlier post suggesting 165. The USDA changed their standards for pork a number of years ago. That 20 degrees makes a huge difference.

Jim

For a first cook I usually tell people to do Pork Butt/Shoulder. I did a couple bone in pork loins and they are simple to do too and came out really good.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by MRBTX:
Pork loins are great, one of my favorites is to brush on olive oil, coarse salt, pepper and rosemary. The loins are lean, the dont take long.

This is a good plan. I'd add a little smoked paprika to it myself. That, and cook to 145-150 degrees internal temp, unlike an earlier post suggesting 165. The USDA changed their standards for pork a number of years ago. That 20 degrees makes a huge difference.

Jim

YUP. I pull pork loins between 145-150F and they are perfect, maybe a medium well color inside. Very tender and juicy. I do mine at 300F on the Kamado Joe marinated overnight in mojo with Pecan wood and they come out great and done in about an hour +/-, very juicy and fairly tender. You could do them at 225F for about 2-3 hours for more tenderness.

This is a good first, so are ribs as you can do them in 5-6 hours . Doing a pork butt for 14-16 hours for your first cook might be annoying, although it's REALLY hard to screw up a Boston Butt roast, they're cheap, also very hard to over season due to the thickness, and on an electric smoke it for 5 hours, wrap it and go to bed and take it off in the morning...…..and pulled pork reheats very well...…..

.

All of my top Smoking websites have been mentioned except for this one ~ which is freaking fantastic!!!

www.DeeJaysSmokePit.net

DJ's has pages on:
Smoking Meat Menu
Beginners Guide to Smoking Food
Spice Blends
Dry Rubs
Marinades
Beginners Guide to Brining and Brining Recipes
Smoking Wood ~ Flavor
.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
Easy peasy for your first cook. Take a pork loin roast and marinate it in Lowry's Hawaiian overnight. Throw some pineapple and peppers into the marinate. Cook meat to 165 degrees at 225 degrees. About three hours. Remove from smoker and let rest for 10 minutes. Throw the meat into your favorite hoagie bun. I'm sure others will chime in with much better things to smoke but this is what got me addicted to smoking (meat).

Don’t use fresh pineapple in a marinade. It has an enzyme that makes meat have a weird texture. Canned I’d fine as the enzyme is easily destroyed with heat.

Whatever you do, don't go to Hawaii and eat BBQ because they've been using pineapple juice in their marinades for centuries.

Jim

With all due respect fresh pineapple makes meat weirdly mushy. I’ve tried a few times. Pasteurized juice won’t cause this problem. The enzyme bromelain causes this. I’m quite sure you’ve never actually marinated with fresh or you’d likely agree with me. It is noted on the web that it can be used as a meat tenderizer but I guarantee the texture is not pleasing.

I should clarify that if you heat up the juice or fruit it’s not a problem any longer.

https://www.amazon.com/Smokin-...345528530/ref=sr_1_3

also - a friend taught me this one - - - if you have some "extra room" in the smoker throw in either a small pan with a package of bratwurst or a half dozen chicken thighs. They re-heat well and there's no reason to let that smoke go to waste.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
Easy peasy for your first cook. Take a pork loin roast and marinate it in Lowry's Hawaiian overnight. Throw some pineapple and peppers into the marinate. Cook meat to 165 degrees at 225 degrees. About three hours. Remove from smoker and let rest for 10 minutes. Throw the meat into your favorite hoagie bun. I'm sure others will chime in with much better things to smoke but this is what got me addicted to smoking (meat).

Don’t use fresh pineapple in a marinade. It has an enzyme that makes meat have a weird texture. Canned I’d fine as the enzyme is easily destroyed with heat.

Whatever you do, don't go to Hawaii and eat BBQ because they've been using pineapple juice in their marinades for centuries.

Jim

With all due respect fresh pineapple makes meat weirdly mushy. I’ve tried a few times. Pasteurized juice won’t cause this problem. The enzyme bromelain causes this. I’m quite sure you’ve never actually marinated with fresh or you’d likely agree with me. It is noted on the web that it can be used as a meat tenderizer but I guarantee the texture is not pleasing.

I should clarify that if you heat up the juice or fruit it’s not a problem any longer.

Okay. All I know is that I have smoked tons (not literally but close) of salmon, steelhead and trout filets for years and pineapple juice is an ingredient in the marinade. I use canned juice that may be pasteurized or not. I have no idea. One thing I do know is that the finished filets come out firm and tasty, never mushy.

Jim

quote:

For a first cook I usually tell people to do Pork Butt/Shoulder.

This. Easiest smoke ever other than the time potentially. If your smoker isn't setup right, you can always finish it in the oven and it will still be good. Best way to learn on long smokes and way cheaper to mess up than brisket(and it'll probably still taste good). The chicken suggestion made is a good place to start as well.

quote:

Originally posted by sleepla8er:
.

All of my top Smoking websites have been mentioned except for this one ~ which is freaking fantastic!!!

www.DeeJaysSmokePit.net

DJ's has pages on:
Smoking Meat Menu
Beginners Guide to Smoking Food
Spice Blends
Dry Rubs
Marinades
Beginners Guide to Brining and Brining Recipes
Smoking Wood ~ Flavor
.

Thanks for posting this. It looks good and I'll take a closer look.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
This is a good place to start.

https://www.smoking-meat.com/

Jim

Agree that Smoking Meat is good

However, IMO amazingribs.com is much better. Three main reasons:

they have a meat scientist on staff and they’ve debunked many BBQ myths.

their recipe testing is more rigorous as a trained chef creates, tweaks, and then has other trained chefs test.

their rub recipes are free. I’ve purchased the Smoking Meat recipes, but no longer make them as my guests (Texas BBQ aficionados) and I prefer AmazingRibs’ free recipes.

Amazing ribs is my one stop resource. The Memphis Dust is my go to pork rub.

quote:

Originally posted by l33571:

quote:

For a first cook I usually tell people to do Pork Butt/Shoulder.

This. Easiest smoke ever other than the time potentially. If your smoker isn't setup right, you can always finish it in the oven and it will still be good. Best way to learn on long smokes and way cheaper to mess up than brisket(and it'll probably still taste good). The chicken suggestion made is a good place to start as well.

I like the pork butt/shoulder idea for a first smoke.

As far as the chicken suggestion, instead of the whole chicken I would recommend chicken thighs as a first smoke. The reason for this is that chicken thighs are incredibly forgiving due to their fat content and the OP won't have to worry about the chicken breasts being unforgiving (narrow range of being juicy and delicious to being dry and overcooked) due to their lack of fat.

I found my first smoke on my BGE, it was a fatty (incredibly forgiving as it's bacon wrapped ground pork and ground sausage).

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
Easy peasy for your first cook. Take a pork loin roast and marinate it in Lowry's Hawaiian overnight. Throw some pineapple and peppers into the marinate. Cook meat to 165 degrees at 225 degrees. About three hours. Remove from smoker and let rest for 10 minutes. Throw the meat into your favorite hoagie bun. I'm sure others will chime in with much better things to smoke but this is what got me addicted to smoking (meat).

Don’t use fresh pineapple in a marinade. It has an enzyme that makes meat have a weird texture. Canned I’d fine as the enzyme is easily destroyed with heat.

Whatever you do, don't go to Hawaii and eat BBQ because they've been using pineapple juice in their marinades for centuries.

Jim

With all due respect fresh pineapple makes meat weirdly mushy. I’ve tried a few times. Pasteurized juice won’t cause this problem. The enzyme bromelain causes this. I’m quite sure you’ve never actually marinated with fresh or you’d likely agree with me. It is noted on the web that it can be used as a meat tenderizer but I guarantee the texture is not pleasing.

I should clarify that if you heat up the juice or fruit it’s not a problem any longer.

Okay. All I know is that I have smoked tons (not literally but close) of salmon, steelhead and trout filets for years and pineapple juice is an ingredient in the marinade. I use canned juice that may be pasteurized or not. I have no idea. One thing I do know is that the finished filets come out firm and tasty, never mushy.

Jim

Yeah all the canned stuff is heated. I have done the same and love the flavor. Once I had a whole pineapple so I cut it up and put it in a marinade and it was nasty weird. That’s when I googled and found out about the enzyme. But juice is good to go.

Op I’d recommend Aaron Franklin BBQ manifesto book.