@GMBoy
Here are a couple simple tips.
OH - what brand of smoker? Can you control the temperature? Mesquite is not the easiest wood to smoke with IMHO. Try apple or alder.
I wrote the bellow as if you had a pellet smoker.
Poultry brined vs unbrined, brine - wet or dry - wins every time in my book. Unbrined smoked chicken is good, but it's basically roasted chicken because well chicken needs a bit higher internal temps and the brine keeps it nice and moist and helps it absorb smoke flavor.
Salmon is great dry brined, but wet brine works well, IMHO. The trick is letting a nice pellicle form.
Pellicles of protein that form prior to smoking meat (including
fish and
poultry) allow smoke to better adhere to the surface of the meat during the
smoking process. Useful in all smoking applications and with any kind of animal protein, it is best used with fish where the flesh of a fish such as
salmon forms a pellicle that will attract more smoke to adhere to it than would be the case if it had not been used.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellicle_(cooking)
Now beef doesn't need a brine, this is true. But a nice dry rub and slow and low. You want a fatty cut, no one wants a dry brisket.
Pork is easy and takes nicely to a brine of any variety. Even smoked pork chops.
Thing is with smoke, yes low and slow and don't let your eye fool you. You really don't want gobs of blue/white smoke. A few wafts of smoke are OK, just light smoke and time does the trick.
So I would start with a pork butt, small one. Not too much $. Rub your butt with some salt and pepper and whatever spices you like. I never weigh this kind of dry rub. Let it sit in the fridge over night (or not). If you use a LOT of salt rinse it off and dry really well. Let it sit in fridge or 2-3 hours after rinse. Then smoke the thing, low and slow
