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Originally Posted by Smudge It is beautiful!! Oh my goodness. I'm starting to wonder how I made it through my first 30 yrs of life without a smoker. I pulled it out at 11:30pm and it just fell off of the bone. Final temp was 185 or so, but I had to go to bed so out it came. Started it fat side down for about 2 hrs then went the rest on the time fat side up. I couldn't do the over night thing because my smoker goes through fuel like crazy. I used about 15lbs of charcoal and 12lbs or so of hickory and mesquite in 12hrs. I have to keep the vents open way more than I would like to, to keep the temp above 200. Open vents, more fuel. All of my wood was pre soaked as well... But the pay off is unreal. I hope I get into some tuna this year. Fuck it, I'm smoking everything I catch!! |
What kind of smoker did you get?
This summer, I had to keep all of my vents shut or the temp would shoot way up. It was all I could do to keep it at 225-240.
I use hard wood oak charcoal for this kind of (long) smoking and rarely add additional wood--hard wood lump charcoal tends to burn hotter and last longer than briquets; alot of that has to do with the high ash production of the briquets choking the fire. For fish, I just use briquets and use soaked alder, cherry, apple, etc since the smoke time is usually less than 3 hours.
I smoked ALOT of fish this year--everything from albacore to yellowtail and yellowfin. The folks that I work with ate very well all summer
BTW, it isn't uncommon to go through 20# of charcoal while smoking butts but you certainly used ALOT of smoke wood. You probably didn't need that much since once you get the meat temp above about 140 you aren't going to get anymore smoke flavor in the meat, just up the chimney.
BBQ Galore has a sale right now on their hardwood lump (couple bucks off a 20# bag). I may have to go buy some. Also, keep an eye out for sales at Home Dump during the summer. They frequently have smoking (pun intended) deals on briquets during bbq season. This season I got 2x20# bags of kingsford for something $8. This is the time to stock up if you have someplace to store it that is dry.
FWIW, this is the smoker that I have:
