# smoking meats in cold weather



## cryptkicker (Feb 7, 2015)

HEY.......I WAS JUST WONDERING ABOUT SMOKING MEATS IN COLD WEATHER BECAUSE I HAVENT TRIED YET...I GOT A MASTERBUILT ELECTRIC ANALOG SMOKER WITH A 1500 WATT HEATING ELEMENT THEROSTAT...HOW COLD OF WEATHER WILL I BE ABLE TO SMOKE IN WITH OUT ANY ISSUES?...AND WHY AM I NOT GETTING A SMOKE RING?...THE RIBS COME OUT EXCELLENT JUST NO SMOKE RING.


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## gary s (Feb 7, 2015)

Most people on here smoke year around unless it's just unbearable or to bad

Gary


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## welshrarebit (Feb 7, 2015)

The coldest outside temp I've ever smoked at home is 70*... ;)


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## jarhead1979 (Feb 7, 2015)

I live in the south...South Carolina to be exact and I'm a bit of a smoking newbie myself, but I'd say it depends on what your setup is. It hasn't been too cold to smoke down here yet, but I've noticed that wind seems to be a bigger factor for me than the ambient temperature.


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## bluewhisper (Feb 7, 2015)

With direct smoking, ambient cold is no problem. But with my offset in about 30F, I found I needed to run a load of fire just to get the rig hot first, then settle in to a smoking fire. Even then, I've needed to let it run with an open flame, just to keep the chamber hot.


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## fwismoker (Feb 7, 2015)

It's not a temp thing why you're not getting that coveted smoke ring, rather a lack of combustion.

You could put something like tender quick on your meat which would fix that but I prefer wood and charcoal cookers instead personally.

Lots of electric guys add a extra smoke generator


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## jlcnuke (Feb 11, 2015)

You can smoke in freezing temps without a problem.  Mine reaches and holds 275 even when it's below freezing.  You don't get a "smoke" ring because you lack sufficient amount of combustion.  On the plus side, a "smoke ring" has nothing to do with the flavor of your smoked food, it's just a chemical reaction between NOx and the meat producing a color change.  You can give the "smoke ring" to the meat if you really want artificially or by burning a whole bunch more wood in an attached smoke generator but it won't make it taste any better.

The key thing to remember is that a "smoke ring" has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you're getting the flavor you want. I can give you a smoke ring by cooking meat in the flue gas exhaust from a coal or natural gas power plant (though less so these days now that the EPA regulates how much NOx emissions they are allowed to make...).


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## swoodze (Feb 11, 2015)

I'm still very new to smoking but the coldest I have smoked at here in WA is 30 degrees. My smoker did great after I set up a makeshift wall to stop the wind from hitting the smoker.


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## bluewhisper (Feb 11, 2015)

My ancient little Weber kettle can shrug off a lot of crosswind and heat is no problem given a decent supply of fuel. For those conditions I'll err toward too much fuel because I can always snuff it when done cooking.


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## cryptkicker (Feb 11, 2015)

Thanx for the replies and info guys...ill have to try it


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