Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

@ramonortiz55 , you might consider getting one of those hinged grates that fit the weber, so you can lift one side and add more charcoal for longer smokes without having to move your meat

 

Didn't think they were any where near your mind??

 

You absolutely should do this, fck the charcoal. Maybe do it a couple times until you know how to work your pit. Very important.

 

@ramonortiz55 , here is a very good post on a Q site about what you're dealing with at this point in the game...

You absolutely can use the top vents to control the temp. As already stated you need to have a clean burning fire.....DO NOT light a whole chimney of charcoal to get 225 degrees for a low and slow indirect cook! If you learn how much fuel to use the Weber will do all the work for you....if you put a whole bag of coal in for every cook no matter what you are making you will get frustrated because no matter what you do your temperatures will be all over the place and you will over cook everything and waste charcoal. For something that requires high heat I have the bottom vents all the way open, but I use a full chimney and get it really hot and the meat is off after a short period of time and then I choke the fire and have lots of coals I can reuse. For almost every other kind of cook I do I have the bottom vents almost all the way closed and get my target temp by the amount of charcoal I use....it takes a couple of times to figure out how much you need but pretty soon you will get it down. If I am cooking something low and slow but my heat gets a little too high I close the top vent to lower the heat. You don't want to mess with the top and bottom vents at the same time since you will not see a result right away but may overdo it since you are trying to control your intake and exhaust at the same time.....do this one at a time and watch the temp.....it may take 5 or 10 minutes to see the temp drop so don't freak out and adjust the vents at the same time....make an adjustment ,wait and make another adjustment and wait until you get you temp. It is easier to get you temperature up than to cool it down so practice will make perfect. If you are doing a lower temp cook I can not stress the usefulness of a water pan......it will help keep the temperatures even since the water can only get up to 212 f and will also keep the cooking chamber moist.

from http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/grilling-bbqing/controlling-temp/

 

Okay.

Experiment -

I will remove HALF the coals - I filled the whole thing up with coals.

Lets see what that does.

I also will add a pan of water.

 

@ramonortiz55 You may have to put the lid on and then turn it to find a better seal. I had a bad seal until I cooked a couple of times and built up some grease.

If you have time to tend the fire, close off the bottom till the fire comes down to 250 and then open the bottom a 1/4.

Like any smoker it takes to time to learn your smoker.

 

bottom opened 1/4.

top is fully open.

added a pan of water.

removed half of coals.

now to wait 30 mins

 

I use a weber starter cube to start my fire in the slow n sear. Watch till 225 and then close top and bottom half each and then only touch the lower.

 

the cat just tried sniffing the coals.

 

Chinese for dinner?

 

I usually start 1/3-1/2 top and bottom. You can get about 20-25deg either way with that up or down just on the top vent.

 

I had my water pan on the ground after a smoke, and the cat took a taste. Did the ol', tongue in and out trying to get that taste gone thing. I thought it was funny.

 

You know the slow/sear has water pan built right?

 

start with throttling down the bottom vents. if that isn't sufficient, throttle down the top vent. it is essentially sucking air in the bottom since heated air is exiting the top. it has to get that air from somewhere. the vents do leak some air, so that is where it gets it, but the smaller the top opening, the less sucking ability it has.

 

I had a Traeger Junior that I loved! Still have a pellet pooper. No complaints from me!

 

looks reeealllly good..

 

How are you running your probe cables into the kettle?

 

I've got one sitting in my garage right now. LOVE it. As for going through pellets I don't have an issue with that. No more pellets than we go through in wood/coals/propane doing it the other way.

One thing I will tell you is DON'T use their pellets. Not saying they are bad but they have no real flavor (heard they are supposedly better now new way of doing them I guess) but there is SO much better out there for the same or less money. I use Lumberjack Pellets great flavor, don't seem to burn out as fast.

Unlike Scottalot I don't have 18 bags of pellets sitting in my garage either.

Which model are you getting? Some of the older ones from when they moved production had issues but to be honest those are easily fixed with a new controller which you can buy online and swap out in about 10-15 mins with a much better one.

I did the nomex gasket on mine and I can tell you best $20 or so I've spent on it. Keeps so much more smoke going to the right places not out to the little gaps and stuff in the lid. I also added the front shelf which I got off Amazon, I was tired of using the hopper lid as my shelf lol.

 

Whatcha smokin??

 

Used Q pellets when I was in NorCal, haven't found any pellets here in Texas. Just the traeger bag I find at Costco. Prob order some online.