Smoking Help
Buying a Barbecue Pit or Smoker
The term “barbecue” has a lot of interpretations. To some people, the term barbecue is pretty much any type of outdoor cooking. To others, real BBQ can only be made by slow smoking meat at a low temperature for hours on end.
If you want to tackle this type of cooking you’re grill just isn’t going to cut it. You’ll need to buy an honest to goodness smoker or barbecue pit. If you’re in the market to buy a barbecue pit or smoker, what features should you look for? What’s the difference between a water smoker and other types of pits? The first choice most buyers will need to make is whether they want a water smoker or a barbecue pit (a dry smoker). In this article I’ll try to shed some light on just what your choices are and help you determine which is best for you.
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Quest for Fire: Part 1
I’ve been trying to learn the secrets of creating a long burning fire in my smoker so that I won’t be forced to continually add charcoal every hour or so. Recently, I read about the “Big Dan” method, described in this FAQ at the Barbecues Galore Forums.
To summarize, you put in all your charcoal in at the beginning of the smoke cycle, pretty much filling up the smoker box. You then pour one chimney load of lit charcoal atop the pile, and allow the pile to gradually burn itself down in the process.
First step was block the vents on my Hondo Deluxe. Turns out that the replacement charcoal grill grate from a standard Weber grill works fine. That is the lower grill grate the charcoal rests on, not the cooking grate. Picked one up from Home Depot for $10. Placed it inside the smoker box, where it’s almost a perfect fit, leaned up against the outside vents.
Now here’s where I deviated from the plan. I didn’t have any lump charcoal, so I used a 20 pound bag of Kingsford briquettes. As predicted by the article, these didn’t work out perfectly due to the large volume of ash they produce.
Things looked great for awhile, I got a good 2 and half hours before I had to mess with anything. By then, the piles of ash from the briquettes were beginning to choke out the fire. A few quick stirs with a stick and I was back in business. But, I had to keep stirring the coals every 45 minutes to an hour. When I was done I was left with a 8” deep pile of ashes that were still hot 2 days later.
Next time I’m going to stick to lump charcoal and I think I’ll be all set. This will make barbecuing much more convenient, especially when cooking brisket.
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Freezing your barbecue for a rainy day
Every time I barbecue I have left overs. No, it’s not because it tastes bad, my guests never go home hungry. Rather, its because I always make some extra, generally as much as my pit will hold. The extras go first into next day’s lunchbox, (and sometimes the next, and the next…) then into the deep freeze for a rainy day.
It’s great to have an emergency stash of barbecue standing by, so I thought I’d share a few tips for freezing barbecue. Barbecue freezes surprisingly well. I’ve eaten chicken quarters and briskets well over a year old and I swear you can’t tell the difference.
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Learn to Barbecue
If you want a great introduction to basic barbecue techniques, you can’t get much better than Prof. Wiviott’s Weber Smokey Mountain Course. This free, online tutorial takes you step by step through the process via five recipes covering chicken, ribs, and pulled pork. You’ll learn everything from how to light the fire to knowing when ribs are done.
Great for beginners beacause each step is supported with photographs, and full instructions. While it focuses on the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker (the WSM) the lessones are equally applicable to other brands, water smokers, and other home barbecue pits. You do however, have to agree to the following pledge:
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How to Choose the Right Smoke for the Right BBQ
Do you know whether oak works with seafood, or if orange wood tastes good with beef? Here’s a quick guide for which woods go best with each type of BBQ meat.
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