First go on the brand new Excel 20.....

[zammo25]

Thought I'd post how my first go on the new ProQ Excel(and first ever go at proper low and slow) went.

Decided I'd do a load of chicken for the first go, fairly easy and no great loss if things went horribly wrong. So I got a load of wings to smoke and a load of leg quarter pieces with the plan of doing some pulled chicken. Made myself a rub with a recipe from Slow Fire by Ray Lampe. Pretty basic stuff I guess but really nice rub for wings, so I chucked it on the quarters as well. Prepped the chicken and gave it all a good rub and sat aside in a big tray while I got the Q going.........and here's where I had my first issue.

I tried to light half a Weber chimney starter of Heat Beads using the standard stuffed newspaper technique. Not happening. Tried 3 times with no joy. Trip to B&Q and got some natural compressed wood type fire-lighters and put 2 of them under the chimney starter to give it a kick start. Still no joy, the flames weren't high enough to hit the coals :facepalm: Found a broken piece of concrete and sat some new lighters on top of that which did the trick. Heat Beads took a while to take but got there in the end. Phew, was starting to panic a bit.

Now I dumped the lit coals onto a basket of the rest of a 7k bag of the Heat Beads and put the Excel together ready to go. Chucked some chips on for smoke and away we go.......Stuck the wings on the top and the quarters on the bottom, wanted to hit about 250 really but settled about 230 with all vents open.

Can't really remember how long it took now but the quarters got to about 185 so I took them off and loosely covered in foil and left to sit and rest. Gave the wings a good smothering in thin and spicy BBQ sauce, also from Ray Lampe's book. Left for half hour, flipped and sauced again. Left another half hour, sauced and flipped for last time. Took them off after another half hour and covered in foil to rest.

Mrs had lost patience with me about 2 hours ago so we'd already eaten but we both tried a wing and they were bloody brilliant. Took the skin off the quarters and "pulled" it. Was really moist and delicious. Anyway, we'll have pulled chicken baps and wings with some salad and Cous Cous tonight for tea, can't wait. Had a cheeky wing for breakfast and they tasted even better the next day.

I think given it was my first go, other than taking probably twice as long as I thought, it was a massive success, the food was really tasty. So anyway, here's some pics for y'all......









Few questions after my first go if you guys don't mind....

1. Any idea why the chimney starter never worked? It looks so easy on the tube and I'm pretty sure I did it correctly...

2. The chips I used were tiny and only smoked for about 5 minutes I'd say. I soaked them over night but would I be better off getting some chunks to be able to smoke for a little bit longer?

3. The temp would only reach about 230 something with the food on, once it was done, the temp was flying up. Will it only get so high while it's actually cooking and higher with nothing on it?

4. The pink bits on the chicken, is that signs of it being smoked?

5. Next up is a pork shoulder next Friday, looking at a longer cook obviously. If I'm just doing the shoulder on one stacker, is it best to only use one stacker and leave the empty one off or does it not really matter?

6. With longer cooks, if more charcoal is added, how is it best to do it? For example, would you just add another lit chimney starter full, or add more unlit charcoal, or a mixture?

Sorry for the essay and all the questions but my heads buzzing at the moment, loving how well the first session went and I literally can't wait to get the pork shoulder on next Friday.

[RobinC]

I'm sure others will jump in but..

1) it's a definitely a knack with the newspaper. Try some cooking oil on it. To be honest most of the time I use a couple of firelighters.
2) Chunks are definitely better. As a rule of thumb I only use chips on short cooks where I want a short burst of smoking ie fish / sometimes chicken. Chunks can smoulder for hours. Also though you are smoking you actually don't want to see lots of smoke pouring out of the smoker for long periods of time - that's normally a sure fire way of getting over smoked food.
3 - Don't use an Excel so can't comment
4 - Yes (sort of). Smoke rings aren't necessarily an indication of smoked flavour. The pink bits should have been around the edge of the food (as opposed to pink in the middle which normally means undercooked depending on what meat you are cooking).
5/6 again not used your make of cooker

[YetiDave]

1. More newspaper! I usually light a couple of pieces and when they burn low I'll stuff some more under the chimney to get the coal going a little quicker

2. Yes. Without a doubt. Do it. Never look back. Decent wood chunks can provide an hour or more of smoke. Chips are horrible and should be confined to rabbit hutches, or something..

3. Any food placed in a smoker will lower the ambient temperature as it acts as a heatsink. Were you relying on the lid thermometer in your Excel? They're fantastic smokers with terrible terrible thermometers. At least the one in mine is - it seems to be consistently a minimum of 20F off actual temp. Often it's shown 190F when in actual fact the cooker's running at 270F. If you had to open up all of the vents to hit that kind of temp then I'm guessing yours is off too. Maybe consider a digital probe like the ET732, they're far more accurate and make life much easier (particularly with having the food probe too)

4. Smoke will result in pinkness around the edge of the meat due to a reaction involving nitric oxide (I believe? Someone chime in if that's wrong. It's the same reaction that results in cured meats retaining pigment)

5. I wouldn't have thought it's much of an issue having both on, at least not in this weather. Keep both on and throw some sausages on to smoke whilst you wait for the shoulder to cook. Once you've tried smoked sausages every other way of cooking them will be disappointing

6. I always add unlit directly on top of the existing lit coals. You'll notice a slight temperature drop once you've added some but it'll soon climb back up

Good luck with the smoke!

[YetiDave]

Also, what are you using in the water pan? If it's water, I'd suggest not using it. The cleanup's a nightmare, temp control's more difficult (at least I found so) and it doesn't seem to make any difference as far as moisture goes. The clay saucer method I found to be FAR more effective. If you're not familiar with it, just get one of these -



Wrap it in a bit of foil, put it in your empty water pan and then put a layer of foil over the pan. Then for cleanup all you have to do is replace the foil and clean the grates

[zammo25]

Awesome replies guys, much appreciated.

I'll try and get some chunks for Friday's pork, guessing best place would be a garden centre locally or something like that?

I've got an ET-732 which I was using....you're right about the lid thermometer, was about 15-20° off I reckon. The temp I got up to isn't a worry really as I think that's hot enough for what I'll be mostly smoking anyway.

I'd read about the clay saucer method so was using that, glad I did as it made cleaning up so easy. Would have been a nightmare otherwise, there was loads of black stuff baked on to the foil.

One other thing, can I use the left over charcoal? After the ash was shaken off, there was still quite a bit of solid charcoal left.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

[keith157]

Yes, put it at the bottom of your chimney starter it catches quicker than fresh. As to your question 6 have a look on youtube for the minion method.

[zammo25]

Yes, put it at the bottom of your chimney starter it catches quicker than fresh. As to your question 6 have a look on youtube for the minion method.

Cool. I used the minion method this time, wasn't sure whether I should use lit or un-lit when adding more charcoal midway through a long cook.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[YetiDave]

http://bbqsmokingwood.co.uk/ this fella is held in high regard around here for wood chunks. Although I ordered some pecan from here and it arrived damned quickly and I got some really big chunks http://www.druidswood.co.uk/smoking.wood.htm

[dobba1988]

http://bbqsmokingwood.co.uk/ this fella is held in high regard around here for wood chunks. Although I ordered some pecan from here and it arrived damned quickly and I got some really big chunks http://www.druidswood.co.uk/smoking.wood.htm

i recently ordered some cherry wood from bbqsmokingwood.co.uk and it arrived the next day in a big empty paper box! Some really nice sized chunks in there...i only had to use two for my last cook which was awesome!!!

As for you chimney problem i think most people would be lying if they said that they cracked it first time out! I bought a book on low and slow cooking by Gary Wiviott, it was a HUGE help for me when i was new to smoking some great techniques and recipes also! He states (i concur) that you use 3 and THREE ONLY sheets of newspaper in the bottom of the chimney! Curl them around the bottom in an o shape and then light using either cooking matches or a lighter!

Happy Smoking

[keith157]

I use the old charcoal bags, in my chimney starter, saves on bin space. Mind you if I used newspaper I could BBQ 3 times a day every day with the number we get through.