Had my first smoke today - Lots of questions.. :-(

[simmantix]

Hi guys, new to the site.. Hope you can help..

So I have too many questions so I will lay out the story and see if any one can pick up anything I can improve.

- Have been give a Bar-Be-Quick Smoker for my birthday, seems much like a El Cheapo Brinkkman. Seasoned it yesterday, seemed to work OK.
- Bought a Maverick Thermometer, Weber Chimney. all work well though chimney seemed to take a while.
- Got butcher to do me a Brisket and some Pork Ribs. Rubbed them and fridged them overnight, got them out and let come to ambient temperature prior to cooking.
- Bought Bar-Be-Quick charcoal briquettes - are these any good? Read onward to see why I ask..

So I started the chimney and loaded up with half a chimney of lit on to a chimney of unlit and left it for a while. Expected to smoke the ribs for 5 hours and the brisket for 4. Added hot water to the water bowl and then put the meat on at 175F expecting it to come up to temperature (225F).

Had the thermometers in but could not get the smoker to get to more than 220F let alone stay there. I used a more than a 5kg bag of briquettes, emptied the ash out a couple of times but could not get the temperature up. I have even copied the brinkkman brick mod (legs on the outside, fire dish on bricks) to allow me to get to the coals..

Ended up finishing the meat in the oven and though the brisket was ruined, the ribs were quite nice. I must say that my initial enthusiasm has been dampened by this experience as I spent most of the day being beeped at by my maverick and blowing the coals of my little smoker. Note that the smoker has no dampers or ash grate, just a gap around the fire dish at the bottom and an ill-fitting lid at the top for the air flow.

Can anyone shed some light on my lack of temperature and excess fuel consumption..

I would be very appreciative of any advice, I have a preserved brisket for anyone of wants it

[keith157]

Get some decent charcoal, Heat Beads are available some suppliers will offer free delivery for quite a small quantity if you can't get restaurant grade lumpwood. Personally I would have started off with cheaper and smaller cuts till I knew how the grill works, but that's just me. A good quality charcoal leaves less ash, burns better etc

[Tiny]

Hi there,
sorry to hear it was not a success. Like keith I would play about with chicken thighs or the like until I had the measure of the beast or something more forgiving like a pork shoulder.

Sounds like you had the poor air flow and iffy charcoal combo. I dont possess one of these little bullet smokers but most seem to need drilled coal pans and other mods to get the air flowing., and in an sherlock holms way from your note that the weber chimney took a while to get going this sounds symptomatic of either damp charcoal or limited airflow.

Try different fuel as keith suggests and perhaps a different more exposed spot in the garden,

Most importantly perservere, it will be worth it in the end!
Cheers
Tiny

[tommo666]

i agree with the air flow problem, this page http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/smoker_mods.htm is about a brinkman project. Usefull info and a good read.

[Toby]

Here are some points about technique rather than the cooker

Firstly don’t rub your ribs (or any pork) overnight the salt content will start to cure it and you will end up with bacon.

You haven’t mentioned the size of brisket but I would expect it to take far longer than 4 hours cooking low and slow.

If you are using water make sure you put no more than 1” in there as the energy from the charcoal will be lost boiling the water rather than cooking, try using a clay sauce wrapped in foil rather than water, search on here for clay vs water and you should come up with a few posts.

Wait until the cooker is up to temp before putting the meat on, you are putting more stress on it trying to heat the meat and the smoker at the same time. Target 250 rather than 225.

Try minion method, use the chimney starter and put the hot coals on unlit. Make sure you use good quality charcoal.

Every time you empty the ash you are stalling your cook by about an hour. Every time you lift the lid you loose 15 mins.

[simmantix]

Ok, thanks guys.

Have ordered a charcoal grate to try and keep the coals off the deck somewhat. Going to buy lump wood charcoal and go for a Boston butt and some ribs for this weekend.

Going to drill the bottom of the pan and put some kind of damper on there to get some air going through the coals and do a dry run on Sunday to see if I can get it going better before the big cook on. Monday..

There is also a big gap around the top of the smoker where the lid fits so may try and seal that somehow and put another damper in the top. Research seems to suggest less holes in the top than the bottom but if I put the dampers on then I can adjust to suit.

Thanks for all your help,

James

[wozzad]

not sure how the guys on here would seal it, but having made a few fireplaces, I can suggest firerope as a long term option.