Smoking 101

www.smokering.com is  set of linked websites. At the bottom of each page is a navigator to the next site. This gives you a chance to work through a lot of perspectives, tips, photos and such of barbecue.

My favorite barbecue books:

How to Grill by Steven Raichlen

Peace Love and Barbecue by Mike Mills

Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue by Paul Kirk

And there have been a number of barbecue posts of merit here, particularly by the member boar_d_laze that you should seek out.

Lots of recipes, lots of techniques.

The most important technique is NO PEEKING!  You can tattoo that one backwards on your forehead so you see it in the mirror every morning.

Look up specific cuts like brisket, ribs, butt and so on and see if you don't find what you need.

Specific questions help everyone who wants to help you.  It's easy to generalize a bit from there; but otherwise we're put in the position of writing a book on barbecue.

One of the nicest things (if not the nicest thing by far) things about electric smokers is the way they free you from fire management concerns.   That means there's a lot you don't have to learn on the way to producing really good food. 

NO PEEKING!

Smokers are very specific to type and brand in terms of their "tightness," air flow (which determines the best way to load them, and their true capacity), and a lot of other things.  So, the brand and model of your smoker is going to be important.  In case we are not (or I am not) familiar with it, it would help if you could tell us what type of wood you use for smoke -- not species -- you were poised, weren't you? -- but whether it burns pellets, chips or chunk.

I've been smoking since the late sixties, using (relatively) small offsets since the mid-seventies. The last one, bought six years ago, was gas fired for heat, and burned chunk for smoke.  But, like you, I recently switched to a cabinet -- a Backwoods Fatboy -- which, unlike yours, is charcoal fired for heat and chunk for smoke.  After six or seven smokes, despite the long experience, there's still plenty of learning curve to the new equipment and the return to an old fuel.

NO PEEKING!

Another area is what sort of food you're most interested in producing.  KCBS style?  Regional?  "Nouveau creative?" and so on.  What about sides?  Desserts?  Will you be trying to do cold smoking?

Oh, and did I mention NO PEEKING?

BDL

I like the smokering forums http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/index.php

I've heard some negative things about electric smokers, mostly from people that use lump or stick burners. Seems like the main complaint is that you don't get enough smoke, and the smoke is of poor quality (thick white v thin blue).