Beginners guide to smoking

[davekat]

Hey guys is there any video or articles on using charcoal and adding wood chunks for smoke please

 

[krex1010]

What kind of cooker are you using? I don't know of any articles but here's what I've learned. Start slowly, 4-5 chunks buried in the coals is generally plenty for most cooks, you can try more or less. The most important thing is you want clean smoke, you don't want to see thick white smoke billowing out of your cooker, you want thin blueish smoke, the smoke may be barely visible at times but that's what you want. Usually in a charcoal cooker (I have a weber kettle and WSM) you will get the thick smoke at first, keep the air open and let the temps come up and let the smoke clean up. Once your temps are a little lower than your target temp, start cutting air back, and wait for the smoke to clean up. Once you have thin blue smoke then out your meat on. Hope that helps, I'd be glad to share more if you have more questions!

 

[davekat]

Sorry i use an offset horizontal cooker

 

[krex1010]

Ok, well the same rules apply to the offsets, you still want to see thin blue smoke. With an offset if you are using all wood for fuel you want a small hot fire, hot fires produce clean smoke, a big smoldering pile of wood will make for dirty smoke and bitter meat. If you want to use charcoal for fuel and add chunks then basically run the same way, keep decent airflow, so the smoke stays clean, add your chunks right in with your coals.

 

[davekat]

What happens when those chunks catch fire will it not increase the temp dramatically

 

[krex1010]

Yes they can spike the temp, but it's something you have to manage, most fellas that are good at running offsets run the smallest fire that will maintain temps and they run the fire hot with good airflow, they manage temps by the size of the fire as much as by airflow. You sound like you want to run charcoal as your fuel and chunks, so yes you will get spikes but don't worry, let them temp run up a bit, it will settle down, don't sweat temps going from 250 up to 275 or even higher, it's all good, let it ride. I'll run my cookers anywhere from 225 up to 325 and I'm good with that, chicken I'll run even hotter. You don't need to hold one set temp the whole time.

 

[krex1010]

Just remember if usin charcoal, you aren't going to be constantly adding wood chunks, maybe a once or twice during a long cook, and I doubt a single chunk or two will spike your temps that much.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Here you go, this should help. The first part is for a WSM but the second section deals with an Offset. Additional searching should fill in how other members have made out...JJ

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/85924/the-minion-method-explained-w-tutorial