Page 1 of 1

Never smoked before

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 12:44 am
by Pig soooiiee
Hey all, thanks in advance for any help or advice. I just got a side fire box for my char griller grill. I picked up about a 7 lbs brisket and a pork butt today and planning to smoke them Sunday and or Monday. My questions are:
1. Do I need to put a pan of liquid under the meat?
If so, what in the liquid?
2. I don't have much wood so I'll be using charcoal and wood together for the fuel. Any advice here would be great.
3. I've seen a lot of people say at the stall wrap in foil or paper. What kind of paper? Will regular butcher paper or brown paper bag work? Pros and cons paper vs foil?
4. Any general tips or pointers would be very much appreciated.

Re: Never smoked before

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 7:15 am
by el luchador
Pig soooiiee wrote:Hey all, thanks in advance for any help or advice. I just got a side fire box for my char griller grill. I picked up about a 7 lbs brisket and a pork butt today and planning to smoke them Sunday and or Monday. My questions are:
1. Do I need to put a pan of liquid under the meat?
If so, what in the liquid?
2. I don't have much wood so I'll be using charcoal and wood together for the fuel. Any advice here would be great.
3. I've seen a lot of people say at the stall wrap in foil or paper. What kind of paper? Will regular butcher paper or brown paper bag work? Pros and cons paper vs foil?
4. Any general tips or pointers would be very much appreciated.


hi welcome.
for your first cook you probably need to give it every chance to be good
1. Let the meat darken for a couple of hours then put some water in the cook chamber with the meat
2. if using charcoal, I personally would try to use lump charcoal, but nothing wrong with that.
3. I use white butcher paper sometimes because thats what sams club has
4 . I would target 250-275, looking aint cooking,make sure your temp gauge is accurate, seaon overnight
5. good luck and enjoy your brisket :)

Re: Never smoked before

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 9:15 am
by txsmkmstr
So... I don't have much advice about your cooker except if you can measure your temperature at the grate level instead of where the gauge is you'll do yourself a huge favor.

Also..... FORGET the brisket this go-round and only do the butt. It's way more forgiving and will allow you to focus on your fire management rather that the meat. Brisket can be tricky enough without trying to learn your pit at the same time. I like to wrap butts in foil rather than paper. Also, you can always toss a wrapped butt into the oven to finish off if you've had enough after 4 or 5 hours.

Good luck and post up your results. :chef: :chef: :chef:

Re: Never smoked before

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 1:03 am
by Txdragon
I may be too late for this particular cook but here goes. If you're not used to using an offset, it's a whole new ball game. Make sure it's all sealed up. I'm a fan of making my own foil gaskets! Get a grate thermometer; it's WAAYY better than trying to rely on the door thermometer. Each pit has a happy place. A temp it likes to be. Mine burns BEAUTIFULLY between 250 and 325. Find where yours likes to be and you can adjust as necessary. Too far outside that range will surely give you a hard time trying to keep constant. Water pan? Sure. At any point really. I've never noticed any difference in bark texture or color when placing a water pan at various stages. Just keep it to water. Don't try and fancy it up with wine or juice or anything other than water as it won't do any good. It gets hot and steams and guess what, that steam is only water no matter what is in the pan. Lol! Charcoal and wood is perfect. Charcoal for consistent burn and wood for the smoke.
As for wrapping, if I do, I use foil. Paper is good, butcher paper preferably, but I've used brown paper grocery bags. The paper offers the same benefits as foil; trapping heat inside. Paper is porous though and promotes better smoke penetration than does foil. It's just all a matter of preference.
I would also agree here that you should hold off first on the brisket. Start with pork butt. Easier cook with similar methods and much more forgiving than brisket.
Keep us posted and ask any questions you may have !

Re: Never smoked before

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 9:30 am
by OldUsedParts
Every time I see this in the new posts, I am tempted to pop a Bill Clinton Joke but I promise not to hi-jack this new members thread. ;) :laughing7: