Someone suggested making this mod to the masterbuilte dual fuel smoker, so I thought I would give it a try on my first smoke using charcoal.
The mod was to cover the burner hole with a pie tin in order to get better control of the heat, by using the vents, as intended.
I couldn't liberate a pie tin, so I substitued a couple of layers of heavy duty aluminum foil, to cover the burner hole.
Then, I loaded up my charcoal plate thusly. A hefty panful of unlit charcoal, topped off with about 1/3 load of charcoal from my starter chimney.
Proceded to smoke the St. Louis style ribs for a few hours at around 250 degrees, only added coals once in the last hour of smoking.
Here's the load, with the frying pan chip holder mod.
I got great control of the smoking temp using only the vents. The immediate temp when starting up was around 350, but I was able to get it down to 250 very quickly.
The mod was to cover the burner hole with a pie tin in order to get better control of the heat, by using the vents, as intended.
I couldn't liberate a pie tin, so I substitued a couple of layers of heavy duty aluminum foil, to cover the burner hole.
Then, I loaded up my charcoal plate thusly. A hefty panful of unlit charcoal, topped off with about 1/3 load of charcoal from my starter chimney.
Proceded to smoke the St. Louis style ribs for a few hours at around 250 degrees, only added coals once in the last hour of smoking.
Here's the load, with the frying pan chip holder mod.
I got great control of the smoking temp using only the vents. The immediate temp when starting up was around 350, but I was able to get it down to 250 very quickly.