Barbeque Smoker Tips

Your Barbeque Smoker

Getting superior results from smoking pork, or any other meat, on your Barbeque Smoker is truly an art. The keys to success are patience, heat and smoke. After all, the goal is to end up with a moist, succulent dish that is thoroughly infused with the taste and aroma of the wood.

Paitence

Smoking pork for barbeque is a time consuming process but the results are well worth the effort. Plan to spend approximately 1 hr 20 minutes per pound for proper results. Always remember that the single factor that determines when the meat is done is its temperature. The ONLY method of determining this is a quality meat thermometer. All cuts of pork should reach 160°F at the minimum. It never hurts to have basic understanding of Food Safety Facts.

It takes time for the smoke flavor to be fully absorbed into the meat. This means you're going to be using a rather low and consistent temperature. Patience my friend; patience!

Heat

The Smoker supplies the heat and proper conditions by indirect or reflected heat. This means that the fire is NOT directly under the meat. There are many choices of Smokers available; from simple, inexpensive horizontal water smokers to heavy-duty offset firebox designs. The goal is to provide an even, consistent cooking temperature of 220° to 250 °F over an extended period of time.

If you're just starting out or just want to experiment you can even use your basic grill. It has to have a cover to contain the heat and be large enough to separate the charcoal and wood (more on these below) from the meat. Begin by getting the charcoal fired up and then separating it into two piles. Place a disposable baking pan between the fires and fill with water. Add your wood chips to the fire, place the meat on the grill above the water, put on the cover and you're smoke'in.

This will only work well for small cuts because it is nearly impossible to sustain a consistent temperature for the time required. It's important not to get impatient and waste heat by removing the cover. You should dampen down the intake so that it supplies just enough air to keep the embers glowing. A raging fire is not the goal. If the coals burn out before the meat is done (You'll know because you checked it with a thermometer, right?) you can always finish the job in the oven. Just place the cut in a covered baking pan or Dutch Oven with a little water and vinegar until done. By all means, do experiment.

A Verticle Water Smoker like the Brinkmann Sportsman Charcoal Double-Grill Smoker & Grill pictured here is the next step up. With a little practice you'll be producing some excellent Barbeque with one of these. The construction is simple. A metal cylinder with a removable cover houses a fire pan at the bottom, a water pan above it topped with several cooking racks. The water pan acts to regulate the temperature and provide moisture. A latched door provides access to the fire and water pans below the cooking area. These range in price from around $40 to a couple of hundred and like most things you get what you pay for. The less expensive models often lack vents to regulate airflow and managing the fire and water can be cumbersome. Most models include a temperature gauge.

The Horizontal Smoker with Offset Firebox is for real serious barbequing. The 'Smokin Pro' from Char-Griller seen here displays the basic features that make this type of smoker the choice of pros. The large cooking drum with a firebox placed lower and to the side and excellent ventilation controls give the pit master complete control of heat, smoke and moisture. The entry cost for these starts at around $200 and with professional models selling into the thousands.

Barbequing on these pits is straightforward. You build a good fire in the firebox with hardwood logs and the smoke and heat rises into the drum. In the drum you keep the meat and a large water pan, which acts to keep the meat from drying out. Be prepared to spend 8 to 12 hours tending the fire and with a little practice you'll be making award-winning barbeque.

Smoke

Where there's smoke there's fire. The materials you use to produce the smoke and fire in your barbequing affects the taste and aroma of the meat more than anything else. You'll probably burn some combination of charcoal and hardwood, though the offset firebox smokers will take hardwood logs alone. Different wood types produce distinctive flavors and there are a variety of Woods To Use (check it out) with Hickory being the most usual choice. Your local hardware or barbeque supply store should have wood chips or logs or you can check out the selection at Smokingwoodchips.com. On smaller smokers or the grill method it is suggested that you soak the hardwood chips before placing them on the charcoal embers. Never use pine, cedar or, heaven forbid, treated wood in your smoker.

Your choice of charcoal will also affect the outcome. We're all familiar with charcoal briquettes. These are more than simply charcoal, they often contain additives; borax to bind the ground charcoal; nitrate to ignite it; and lime to whiten the ash. These additives can alter the flavor of the meat in subtle ways. We recommend simple hardwood lump charcoal, which is nothing more than, well, cooked wood. It has a higher BTU output and more even burn rate than briquettes.