Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Ok. How do I regulate the temp in this thing? I've heard keep the stack wide open and do it with the vent door in the fire box. Is that right?

 

Dammit! I was talking about breaking in you wife!!

For the grill, just light it up and get it good and hot to burn off the manufacturing residue. You don't need any smoke wood to do this.

PS Pics of the wife?

 

Too late. Bitch be smoking and I'm learning. Haha

Oh and only one I have of her on here. Her hair is a lot redder now.

Funny she's a natural redhead and colors it more red.

 

So, how do I know when to add more wood to the firebox? When it quits smoking or let it run a bit without?

I've always seen them smoking constantly.

 

The meat only takes so much smoke. If you are using wood for heat, at it when you need more heat. If you are using wood for smoke, only add it at the beginning. Poultry needs less smoke. Pork needs a medium amount of smoke. And red meat can take the most.... But this is all just my preference. I make sure pork has a moderate amount of smoke for about 4 hours and most of that comes from the few chunks I put in at the beginning. If you add unlit wood later, it can give a bitter flavor.

 

LoL nice pic. As to when to add more wood, just watch the temp. Too much smoke out the top will make the food bitter. Just keep at it, you will get it.

 

congrats

Did you seal the joints and add dryer vent to the stack?

I have one, love it.

You are looking for a thin blue smoke smoke coming out of the stack. No thin blue smoke, add a chunk of wood. As stated, you don't need smoke the entire cook, first few hours is all I have the smoke on for.

 

All I see are quotes.

 

I did seal the joints. I didn't from the firebox to the smoker though. It was a tight seal.

Getting the dryer vent tomorrow.

This is just a test run with nothing on it to figure out wth I'm doing.

How do I regulate the heat? I've heard keep the stack wide open and use the firebox vent. Playing with it when it went up and I closed the stack it lowered I'm assuming by cutting off what it can pull through the firebox. Is there a right way I'm not doing?

 

Here's where I'm at now.

 

You're on the right path. Usually exhaust is full open and the temp is regulated by the intake, but I'll let the expert on that particular piece of equipment verify .

Good luck! It's a fantastic hobby.

 

Yeah I'm really enjoying sitting out here with it playing around figuring it out.

 

No cooking for me today, but I did get my thermometers re-calibrated. Well, what is probably a little more accurate is that I got them cleaned off. I noticed that my cooks had been getting faster and faster as of late and figured my temps had to be a bit off. I set them in boiling water and, sure enough, I was reading a bit low. I tinkered with the calibration a bit, but if I'm honest, I probably ended up right where I started with them. The boiling water and wire brush got a lot of gunk off of them, though, and they both were spot on when I deemed them worthy of going back in the drum.

 

Oh God don't tell me I have to start calibrating my thermometer too.


I really can't believe the deal the guy gave me on all this. I asked about a thermometer and he had a wireless one. I asked how much they were and he said $5. I almost bought 2 of them. Lol

 

The dryer vent will bring the heat down to grate level, instead of just leaving the unit. Once you get the vent in, it'll be more consistent with heat control and longer burns.

Do yourself a favor, and get a decent remote thermometer like one in the links below. My lid therm is wrong, 100% of the time. It fluctuates high, and low. If it was consistent in one direction it would be useful, but it's not.

I bought a cheap veggie basket to use as a coal basket. I neatly stack coal 3-4 high back to front, and leave 1/4 of it open in the front, and put that in the offset box. I light 12-15 coals in a chimney starter on the pot burner, and dump them in the open spot of the basket when they are ready. I run with the chimney wide open, and the vent, and vent door closed 100%. That gets me close to 225-230 on my remote thermometer when it's between 50-80 degrees outside temp. There is enough of a gap in the vent door to allow the charcoal to slowly burn without going out, or starting too fast in the basket. It can be challenging on windy days, but you'll figure it out. SomeTimes the basket will ignite the coals pretty quick on windy days. When that happens and it gets too hot, I just open the offset lid or smoke chamber lid to let some of that heat out occasionally. That will cause me to have to add more lit coal for longer smokes.

Depending on how well yours is sealed, you may get different results. You'll have to just babysit it for the first few smokes to get a handle on it (remote therm will help with that). I kept a smoking log for my first 10-15 smokes so I could go back and refer to temps of the unit, how much charcoal I used to start (lit vs. unlit), ambient temps and weather, changes I made to the vent, when I added coal, basically everything. It helped my learning curve greatly. PM me your email and I'll send you the one I modified for me if you want it, but there are some available on the net. I don't bother with a log now as I fully understand what I have to do based on ambient conditions.

 

What kind? I may want one or two. They are a huge help. I can carry my monitor around with me and not have to be there staring at the unit for the entire smoke.

I got the thermopro tp 20 in the links below. No issues with it to date. Probes are spot on from day one.

 

This is the one I got.

https://www.charbroil.com/cold-spot...MIgfOn-KqA1QIVgh2BCh1H8gTiEAQYByABEgLyKPD_BwE

 

There is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that you don't have to calibrate the thermometer that came on your smoker. The bad news is that it likely can't be calibrated anyways, reads the temp at a bad spot, and is probably inaccurate no matter what you do .

To be clear, it has nothing to do with the smoker you bought. That is a great smoker, it is just that the built in thermos aren't that great and are put in an aesthetically pleasing location instead of a functional one. Heed @WBF610 's advice and get yourself a wireless thermo. At the very least, get

$7 Taylor 5932 Large Dial Oven and Grill Thermometer, 3.25" Stainless Steel Dial, Accurate Cooking Temperature Gauge, Durable Kitchen Tool

something like this and put it on the cooking grate to see the grate temp as it corresponds to your built in. I'm telling you, the one frustration you want eliminated immediately is the one about not knowing what is going on in that cook chamber. Peeking is a no-no, so a thermo that gives you a reliable reading is the way to go.

BBQ is either a beautiful science or a meticulously calculated form of art, I'm not entirely sure which, but it is fun and rewarding as hell.

 

Not familiar, but use it since you got it.

 

@medic2230 congrats

Looks like you're on the right track. seems everyone has given solid advice thus far. Vent fully open and adjust intake, dryer hose mod, coal methods Just throw some bacon on while it's burning in. crank up at end to crisp. Helps with seasoning the smoker. And you get bacon ... Looking forward to more pics.


Also, pulled a two pack of pork butts outta the freezer for this weekend