Mark Gibson wrote:
> HOW YA'LL ARE!!!!
>
> I just got a Brinkman smoke and grill; it was on sale at wally world
> so what the fug, why not. I've never smoked anything before, always
> been a gas grill guy so I'll try something new.
>
> after 7 hours of not knowing if I was going to screw up a 7 lb pork
> butt and a 6 lb roasting hen, TAA-DAA!!!!! I am a hero to my family.
> Who woulda thunk it?
>
> One thing that did come up is that things turned out really smoky
> flavored. I used a kingsford mesquite charcoal. Next time I think
> I'll use plain regular charcoal to sort of set up a base for future
> evaluation. Maybe I shoulda done that first? Anyway it turned out all
> good.

Dump the kingsford. Buy natural lump charcoal and add a few fist-sized
pieces of wood to your fire. When the wood burns down, you're ready to
cook.

>
> I brined the butt and hen overnight then dried them off and did a dry
> rub on the butt and left the chiken naked, then let the smoker run.
>
> What I'd like to know is whats the difference between commercial
> briquets and this lump charcoal i hear about.

Briquettes contain clay as filler, binders, coal dust and other stuff that
doesn't taste good. Lump charcoal is just carbonized wood. No additives,
no "extra" taste.
>
> Another thing is that a guy i work with has access to a hickory
> orchard (it's in his family} and he recomends using basic cheapo
> charcoal from wally world and using the hulls from the hickory nuts
> because they have a higher resin content than the hickory wood chips
> and therefore give more flavor with less material.

You can try the nut hulls, but I think you'll find that hickory wood, burned
down will produce a fine thin blue smoke and that's exactly what you want to
cook on, not heavy smoke.
>
> Then there is that water pan deal in the base. Any advice on what
> works well; and more important, what not to use? I used plain water-
> had to refill about 2/3 thru the process.

Most experienced users fill the pan with clean sand and cover it with
tinfoil. The pan (either water or sand) acts as a heat deflector. Water,
beer, herbs, spices in the pan don't add anything to the food, so they're a
waste of energy. Sand doesn't evaporate. Many of the resident Q artists
don't use a deflector at all, they just control the fire to avoid spikes and
flareups.
>
> A guy i work with says i can use the smoker to make jerky. The
> directions and recipies that came in the box did not address this.
> Whattcha thank?

Sure. You just need a tiny fire, which produces very little heat. Learn to
Q first, then try jerkey.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice, recipies, and voices of experiance.
>
> Mark in alabama

Keep Q'n, everybody will love you for it.

Jack Curry