Received an Excel 20 about 5 weeks ago, and have had a couple of smokes now, so thought i'd post up my results.
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First burn was with some cheap charcoal to pre-season it and burn of any nasties. Managed to find a source for restaurant grade charcoal thanks to a member on here. So all cooking so far has been with restaurant grade charcoal using the minion method.
First cook was with beer can chicken with a peri peri rub and a very cheap pork shoulder joint (both from Tesco). The pork was not good. A value joint reduced just seemed to have too much fat so there was very little meat. Basically binned after sampling a bit of it.
Beer can chicken was nice! Nice and moist, a bit of a smokey flavour (handful of mesquite chips at the start of the cook). Will definitely be doing it again!
Next cook was a much better shoulder of pork (again from Tesco) with a peri peri rub on it the night before. I pulled it and it was good! Subtle smokey flavour, pulled quite well although could have been a touch more tender.
Problem is that everytime I cook anything, we have something else for dinner so I can only try what i've cooked in small portions the same night.
This pulled pork was heated up the next night with some bbq sauce.........good!
Before pulling
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After pulling
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Also cooked some ribs. Marinaded the night before in soy sauce, peri peri rub, London bbq sauce, apple juice, garlic salt.
1 hour cooking, 1 hour foiled cooking, 1 hour out of foil. As with all my cooks, a good handful of mesquite chips at the start of cooking, and also once out of foil.
They were the best ribs i've ever personally cooked! Possibly a touch dry, but came off the bone pretty well. Think next time I need to do some sort of sticky bbq sauce, as that's the way I really like them!
Today i've done a few things all at the same time. Came across a rolled brisket joint in Tesco last night so picked it up and dry rubbed it with a bbq packet rub last night and sat it in the fridge. While I was at it I also bought a cheap unsmoked gammon joint that I thought i'd have a go at, so covered it in Lyles maple sauce (not true maple syrup, but didn't want to waste the good stuff on a cheap joint).
Brisket finish temp was 192F after about 6-7hrs. It's good is all I can say! Not had brisket before to the best of my knowledge, but i'm now a fan!
Gammon isn't so good, but will hopefully be ok for sandwiches this week. Finishing temp was 185F because the charcoal was getting low and it was getting late. Hopefully be a step up from sliced ham from the supermarket.
While I was at it this morning, I browned off some casserole beef, onion and leeks, threw in a packet of chopped carrots, potato and swede, a couple of Oxo cubes and a bottle of Guinness and slapped that on the top rack with the brisket and gammon. Got a nice slow cooked casserole for dinner tomorrow night
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This slow cooking/smoking thing is getting addictive! I need to start making my own rubs and sauces now. Got a decent pacific rim sauce recipe that may well beat my current best ribs!