# An Idiot’s Intro



## PaulM (May 20, 2018)

Morning everyone,

I’ve been struggling with the absolute basics of smoking so thought id just ask your guys’ advice. Hopefully someone can answer my questions :)

For reference, heres my set up and experience so far,

Callow smoker no mods apart from just putting some foil around the door and charcoal tray. I boiled some water and it was a soft boil and the thermos showed 65c-75c. I’m using (probably incorrectly) Weber briquettes and their chimney starter.
I’ll just mention temperatures as shown on the thermo because my calibration wasn’t scientific. Btw, scalded my hand a touch when testing and didn’t blister so probably not as near boiling as I thought...

Cook 1 - Brisket. Disaster. Pure trial and error no expectations so wont bore you.

Cook 2, yesterday - Brisket 0.5kg. Dry rub overnight with garlic salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt.
I got the smoker up and running with a full chimney of lit bricks. Whacked the lid on and left it for 50 minutes and it showed 120c.
1pm- Put in a shallow bit of hot water and the meat. Put the water on the lower grill tray rather than it’s dedicated hooks and the meat in a baking tray on the top grill tray. Temp dropped to 90c doing all this.
2pm- Checked an hour later - same situation  so didn’t open anything, just moved smoker back into the sun.
3pm- Same again an hour later - out of curiosity, peeped at the charcoal tray and it was just simmering away with not much doing. Just under 90c
4.45pm- Got distracted putting together a wardrobe, checked in and temp had dropped to 70c. Stirred the charcoal a bit and did about 8 bricks in the chimney. One each piece had a bit of glowing white, I whacked them and some more warm water in.
6pm- half time in the FA Cup final, temp around 65c. Stirred the charcoal to try get some life in
7pm- temp dropped to 60c. Stirred the charcoal again and put some little bits of kindling from my indoor fire in try and ignite something.
9pm- temp getting down towards 45c now. Last ditch attempt, I put a log on it to see if it would ignite.
10pm- nine hours in there for the meat, I pulled it out.

It smelled and looked delicious on the thin half but dry and grey on the thick half. Cut off a pink ish piece that had a nice crust on it.
Just tasted of too much rub and smoke , biting at your throat in a sweet and ashy taste. Not great. The texture was like over cooked roast beef. Needed about 30 chews. And another 15. Just to swallow.

Gave it up as a bad job at this point as I read somewhere that you should leave it to rest before eating. This morning, it’s just the same.

Okay, my questions:
1. When it comes to starting the Weber bricks, should they be fully white like on a charcoal bbq?

2. Brisket. Is that this a tricky meat to start with?

3. Brisket taste. How smoky should it taste? I didn’t wrap in foil after a couple of hours because I wanted the crispy bark. Maybe this was an error.

4. Getting the heat up - how do I do this? I had the bottom vents 100% open and top 100% closed all day. 

5. Patience - the smoker was still ticking over at 45c this morning. Could I have left the brisket on overnight? 


I’m in a quandary now because I need to go back right to square one I think.

Hope somebody can help with some super basics for an absolute novice.

Cheers!
Paul


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## shipwama (May 20, 2018)

Hey Paul,I'll start with a few answers 
If you open both vents you will get more heat. Hot air rises . It needs somewhere to exit. That is why you weren't getting heat. This also traps old smoke inside the chamber which could be why the foul taste.

I personally wouldn't start with brisket as it is an expensive cut of meat to try on.
Amount of smoke taste is entirely personal preference, and learned by experience.

Keep up the effort there is a lot of good help on here


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## PaulM (May 20, 2018)

Thank you very much. That’s what I’ll try next - opening the top vents - I kept them closed because I read that having them open let’s the heat escape.

I’ll play around with that though.

Many thanks

Paul


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## HalfSmoked (May 20, 2018)

Yup agree you should start with something different like chicken until you learn how to control your smoker as stated vents open produce more heat.

Warren


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## PaulM (May 20, 2018)

HalfSmoked said:


> Yup agree you should start with something different like chicken until you learn how to control your smoker as stated vents open produce more heat.
> 
> Warren


Thank you very much.

I will try some chicken thighs I think this afternoon as that won’t take an age will it?

Just done a load more research and I wasn’t putting briquettes in which were fully heated - not off to a great start there haha

Sorry for being such a novice at it, I’m sure there’s plenty of eye rolling at my inane questions - I am reading a lot but getting lost in contradictions.

Cheers


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## PaulM (May 20, 2018)

P.S. gonna practice on this recipe this aft as only got a few hours spare not a whole day.

https://www.smokegrillbbq.com/smoked-chicken-thighs.html


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## shipwama (May 20, 2018)

Never feel bad. We all gotta learn somewhere. I am not an expert but learnt a lot from this site


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## HalfSmoked (May 20, 2018)

We all started somewhere and made many mistakes along the way and some of us still do.
There is tons of info on this sight for you to read and you will find that the end results can be the same but getting there is sometimes ones personal preference.

Warren


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## Gwanger (May 20, 2018)

PaulM said:


> Morning everyone,
> 
> I’ve been struggling with the absolute basics of smoking so thought id just ask your guys’ advice. Hopefully someone can answer my questions :)
> 
> ...





PaulM said:


> Thank you very much.
> 
> I will try some chicken thighs I think this afternoon as that won’t take an age will it?
> 
> ...


Paul not a bad idea to burn a bag of charcoal, no meat, and see what temps you can achieve with your smoker,don't know what you have that would help us.If you are using charcoal you will be adding briquettes ever 1- 1 1/2 hrs till you learn to control temps after that I would look into using the minion method to better control heat on longer cooks.Remember you are looking for temps between 225*and 270*F and to be able to hold those temps for the duration. I would start with a pork shoulder it is very forgiving and will build your confidence, remember learn your smoker.you will also need to calibrate your temp gauges for accuracy.you will need to tell the difference between a smokey gray smoke that would give a harsher ash tray taste and thin blue smoke that is what you want.You also need to purchase some wood chunks,no bark if possible,and only a few onto your briquetes to give you some smoke flavor remembering you don't want billows of smoke just thin blue smoke.


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## PaulM (May 20, 2018)

Gwanger said:


> Paul not a bad idea to burn a bag of charcoal, no meat, and see what temps you can achieve with your smoker,don't know what you have that would help us.If you are using charcoal you will be adding briquettes ever 1- 1 1/2 hrs till you learn to control temps after that I would look into using the minion method to better control heat on longer cooks.Remember you are looking for temps between 225*and 270*F and to be able to hold those temps for the duration. I would start with a pork shoulder it is very forgiving and will build your confidence, remember learn your smoker.you will also need to calibrate your temp gauges for accuracy.you will need to tell the difference between a smokey gray smoke that would give a harsher ash tray taste and thin blue smoke that is what you want.You also need to purchase some wood chunks,no bark if possible,and only a few onto your briquetes to give you some smoke flavor remembering you don't want billows of smoke just thin blue smoke.



Nice one thank you for the tips.

I’m on the Callow smoker that’s reviewed on a thread further down the page.

Will keep playing around.


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## tropics (May 20, 2018)

Here is a free 5 day course
https://www.smoking-meat.com/smoking-basics-ecourse
Richie


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## SonnyE (May 20, 2018)

All cooking is mistakes.
Humans are the only animal that intentionally burns meat and likes it.
So it is degrees of burning it, and the application of tasty plant parts, salt of the Earth, and juices of fruits that set it apart.
The difference is, some burned up meat tastes better than other burned meat.
The fine tuning comes when you find your perfect point where it is burned to perfection to your taste buds.

Recipes are cataloged methods others found to burn meat to their preferred amounts, and the ingredients added.

No need to start over. Just take a step back. Do the simpler things like chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages. When you begin to say, "Hey, I did that and it tastes pretty good!" Then, you can try the more difficult things.
In fact, I'd recommend Hamburgers, and Hot Dogs. Those are items that if you err towards the under-cooked side, they aren't as likely to make you or the Family sickened. (Under-cooked chicken is a bad thing)

You're not looking for perfection here. First you need an acceptable point between Lion Food (Raw) and cremated.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and wonderful Bar-B-Que has to begin somewhere. You _can_ do it.

I wanted to get on the same page with you, I wasn't familiar with your smoker. So for me, visuals seem to work well.
Particularly because I can watch, apply, back-up, re-watch, and see how it's done. This link is specific to your Callow Smoker BBQ.
Interesting was the video that followed was an American version that was identical in most appearances and methods. And most interesting was the charcoal, and how it addresses your primary question of the lighting. It wants to be fully covered with white ash, indicating it is fully lit.
The two video's show distinctly different methods of applying smoke fuel. One Pellets, the other chips.

So take a step back, burn some charcoal, and heat up some hot dogs, sausages, or even Hamburgers, to get to know your Smoker/BBQ better.
Another nice thing about hot dogs or similar, you can sample a bit as things go along. Then pull what's left before it gets over-done.
You're learning, so just take small steps.
Fun, not frustrations. ;)


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## tallbm (May 20, 2018)

PaulM said:


> Morning everyone,
> 
> I’ve been struggling with the absolute basics of smoking so thought id just ask your guys’ advice. Hopefully someone can answer my questions :)
> 
> ...



Hi there and welcome!

Great advice so far by the others.  I agree that starting with brisket is probably not the most ideal approach.  I'll provide you with a little encyclopedia of a post with as much knowledge as I think would help you at at the moment, so beware the long post :)

To answer your questions/concerns about what you did experience:
1.  I believe your brisket was UNDER cooked.  Undercooked brisket is dry and tough.
2.  I believe your bad smoke flavor was from either Stale smoke or Thick White smoke.  Stale smoke exists when the smoke lingers and does not exit, you need some to not stick around very long so a continuous stream of new smoke is needed.  Thick White smoke will occur when you don't manage the fire/heat on the wood well enough or properly.  You want Thin Blue Smoke (TBS).
3.  You can leave the brisket overnight no problem as long as your heat/fire supports hit.  Brisket is ready when it is tender, not after X amount of hours or even one specific Internal Temperature (IT) of the meat.

Smoking good food seems to be a matter of the following factors:

Good control of smoker temp for cooking
Good control of producing the good smoke, TBS
Good prep for each particular cut of meat (Buying good met, Trimming, Seasoning, Hanging, Wrapping, etc)
Good handling/cooking of each particular cut of meat's Quirks (like smoking temp and amount of smoke and type of smoke per cut of meat, things like Chicken skin is tough unless cooked at 325F or higher or thrown on a hot grill, Brisket needs to be cooked to around an IT of 198F then check for tenderness with a toothpic and cook until tooth pic slides in all over with no resistance, sausage and bacon need have the smoker temp walked up slowly starting at 100F and ending around 170-180F to not melt the fat out, etc. etc.)
Good post cook prep (Resting, Slicing, shredding, serving, finishing sauce or seasoning, etc.)
As you get a handle on each of the 5 above, the food you smoke will get better and better.

Get 1&2 sorted out ASAP, these are fundamental!

Getting most of #3 sorted out will then allow you to produce some good food on simpler cuts of meat (bonless skinless chicken cuts for example).

Dealing with 3&4 together per cut of meat will be on a case by case bases to produce amazing smoked meat as you gain experience with that particular cut.

*So for Brisket 3,4, (& 5 for info purposes) * (my approaches):

#3 I buy choice or prime cuts of whole packer Briskets that have the most uniform thickness along the entire Flat portion of the brisket so I have to trim less of the flat away
#3 I trim the brisket much like Aaron Franklin does.  One main thing is trimming away part of the good Flat meat that is too thin and only leaving behind meat on the Flat that is basically the same thickness all over.  This prevents that portion for burning up and being inedible and I use that good meat elsewhere
#3 I season with Kosher Salt, 2x Black Pepper, Dehydrated/minced Onion, and granulated Garlic all over
#3 I put my Brisket on a non stick grid Q-mat and put that on a crisper basket that has handles so I can put/pull the entire thing out easily in my smoker
#3 In my smoker put a foil pan on the bottom rack with some trimmed fat and any trimmed GOOD meat that I ball up (like from the flat).  The foil pan will catch drippings, cook the good balled up meat without burning it (hence some trimmed fat), and I put the crisper basket directly on top of the foil pan so drippings are caught easily
#4 I cook at 275F for briskets to an IT of about 200F where I THEN begin to check for tenderness with a wooden kabob skewer or a toothpic.  When the skewer goes in all over with out any resistance I pull the brisket, if there is resistance I continue cooking another degree of IT or 2 and then check again.
#4 I smoke brisket with 100% Mesquite wood pellets (Lumberjack brand) for the ENTIRE cook.  WOW amazing flavor from mesquite!!!
#4 I use the A-Mazen-N Pellet Smoker (AMNSP) tray and a mailbox mod to provide my PERFECT Thin Blue Smoke (TBS), so smoke is always on point!
#5 When my brisket is done I pull it and wrap in double foil. I then wrap in 3 bath towels and let it rest for about 4 hours until time ti slice and eat.  At 275F a brisket cooks at roughly 50-65 minutes a pound so I plan accordingly when to start my smoke so it should be done 3-5 hours of time before time to eat.  Resing/Holding in double foil and wrapped in 3 bath towels will keep the brisket steaming hot for a MINIMUM of 4-5 hours.
#5 I slice the brisket the same way Aaron Franklin does
#5 I don't put any additional sauce or seasoning on the Brisket, people will do that when it is on their plate
#5 People usually self serve or I serve on a plate with no fuss for a brisket
Wow that is a lot of stuff to make an amazing brisket!  I give my brisket a 95% out of 100% on my desired brisket perfection scale lol.  To get that last 5% of perfection I just need to fine tune my process so that some parts of the brisket don't get too much bark.  Sometimes when I slice it there are some patches that are so barky they don't want to slice easily and want to tear a big part of the bark off rather than slice through.  Yes I could wrap and do some tried and true things but *MY* goal is to not have to open the smoker and mess with the brisket to fix this problem, I only want to open the smoker to check for tenderness and pull the brisket (yeah I'm being picky lol) :)
I've got a very good idea to deal with the situation according to my goal :)

Ok lets now look at something much much simpler and see how understanding a cut of meat and any of it's quirks are handled.

*Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs (BSCT):*

#3 I get what is at the store but many suggest getting chicken that has been modified in no way whatsoever (no in package brines, injected solution, etc.)
#3 I season with Kosher Salt, Black Pepper, Dehydrated/Minced Onion, and granulated Garlic

#4 Quirk (or lack there of in this case) - BSCT doesn't have skin so no need to worry about the chicken skin quirk! (Chicken/Poultry skin will be rubbery if not cooked at temps 325F or so OR if a bunch of other care is not taken to manage this chicken skin quirk)
#4 Quirk (or lack there of in this case) - BSCT is dark meat and dark meat never needs to be brined to avoid dryness like chicken breast or whole chickens often produce (dry white chicken meat sucks!)
#4 Quirk - Chicken/Poultry always cooks up very fast.  I cook at 225F to an IT of 165F-175F.  There is no skin to worry about becoming rubbery and with the lower smoke temp I get better "bark" and color on the meat with the longer cook
#4 Quirk - Chicken cooks up fast which reduces the amount of smoke flavor you can apply.  I burn 2 rows of pellets in my AMNPS to get more smoke flavor to FIX the issue of limited smoking time that causes weaker smoke flavor.
#4 I place on non-stick grid Q-Matts and the mats on the standard smoker racks (makes pulling the chicken off and clean up a breeze!)

#5 Chicken doesn't need any real planned resting.  I just pull and put in a pan and serve as soon as possible or let people self serve.
If I'm doing pulled/shredded chicken I shred at this point and add any additional seasoning as needed for more flavor and/or some finishing sauce (I just use regular bbq sauce, nothing fancy)
If serving as whole pieces I do nothing else as the original seasoning is good per individual piece of meat and people can apply bbq sauce (or other sauce like apricot jam, chipotle mango chutney, etc.) at their table

As you can see two different cuts of meat, two different 3-5 approaches for dealing with them.  Bonless Skinless Chicken is maybe the simplest cut of meat out there to smoke so give it a shot and then work up to whole chickens as you practice figuring out the fundamental 1&2 Controll aspects of your smoking setup.  Also chicken is cheap and tastes amazing smoked!

If you've read all the way to this point thanks for suffering through the super long post lol.  I hope all this info helps you out and you start smoking amazing food very soon! :)


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## wade (May 21, 2018)

Hi Paul and welcome to the forum.
I have recently been doing a lot of testing for Callow to fine tune the temperature control on their smoker. Which of the Callow smokers do you have? Is it the original smoker with the single lid vent, or is it the one that also has the side vents and two in the lid?

Firstly your main mistake was to close the top vents. I am surprised that it stayed alight at all. The temperature is dependant on a good flow of air in through the bottom vents, through the burning coals and then out of the top vent.

If the Callow has the sliding side vents then keep them fully closed. They actually make the temperature control harder and they will not be appearing on the next version. If you have some aluminium tape then stick some of this over the vent holes to seal them.

Both of the previous versions have problems getting sufficient air through the coals to keep the temperature up when the smoker is being used in cold weather. You will need to drill some 10 mm holes in the side of the fire basket to help the air to reach the burning charcoal. If you feel brave then you can also cut out the bottom of the fire basket (leaving a lip around the outside) and replace the bottom with some wire mesh or some perforated sheet. Doing this will give you an extra 20 C degrees.

Bottom of fire basket removed






Replaced with a disc of 10 mm perforated steel










Replaced with wire mesh (from an old cake cooling rack)






If your smoker has 3 or 4 bottom vents then leave them all open. If it has 4 bottom vents then you can leave one vent permanently closed as it is not actually required and only complicates adjusting the temperatures.

If the smoker has 2 top vents then leave them both open. If it only has one top vent then remove the vent adjusting cover completely and using a step drill enlarge the 3 holes that are under the cover. 

As you are having a problem keeping the internal temperature up to 120 C, unless you make the mods, you should not be using water in the water pan. The water will absorb heat energy from the smoker as it turns into steam, which will have the effect of lowering the internal temperature further.

With regards to the Weber briquettes. The best way to get prolonged smoking times is to use the Minion method. To do this, fill your charcoal basket with unlit briquettes and then take about 1/3 of them out and place them in a chimney starter. rearrange the briquettes that are still in the fire tray so that they are around the edge and have a hole on the centre.






When the surface of the lit coals are covered with white ash pour them into the centre of the fire basket. As the unlit coals gradually light they will burn outwards over time giving a sustained heat.

Forget the thermometer that is in the lid - it is inaccurate. All new Callow smokers are now shipping with a more accurate thermometer - but these types of thermometer all tend to be inaccurate. You are better to invest in a cheap digital thermometer, like a Maverick or an Inkbird. Personally I like the Smoke thermometer from ETI.

As the internal temperature rises then gradually close the bottom vents until the desired temperature has stabilised.


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## HalfSmoked (May 21, 2018)

The great thing about this forum is somebody has it seems all the answers for just about everything you need information for. A great response Wade.

Warren


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## wade (May 21, 2018)

For the smoke, place a few chunks of wood on top of the coals and they will gradually catch as the burn progresses. You should not be seeing large plumes of white smoke billowing out of the top vents - except maybe right at the beginning of the cook. I think that your over smoky taste was probably caused by the top vents being closed. This would not let the smoke pass over the meat and out of the lid but would trap stale smoke inside which would have deposited unpleasant tars and soot onto the surface of your meat.


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## wade (May 21, 2018)

Thanks Warren. We are all here to help wherever we can :-)


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## PaulM (Jun 6, 2018)

Just a quick post to say thank you for all the advice. Going to try and implement it tomorrow.

Things have been delayed and I've had radio silence due to first baby arriving two weeks ago.

Will let you know how I get on with the next smoke if there is anything of interest to share!

Thanks again


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## KrisUpInSmoke (Jun 6, 2018)

PaulM said:


> Thank you very much.
> 
> I will try some chicken thighs I think this afternoon as that won’t take an age will it?
> 
> ...


I like your questions. The things we need to learn now can become second nature to people with lots of experience, so we'll need to remember that when we're as good as they are...(I hope :oops:)...lol.


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## PaulM (Jun 8, 2018)

Success!

Thanks for all your help, I’m well chuffed. Solid 6.5 hours at a steady 115-120c (90 or just under on the naff callow thermo) and we have some tasty pulled pork.

Had to put 6 bricks in about 4.5 hours in and that saw us home.

Pulled the meat apart and whacked the fat directly on the heat for five minutes and salted it. Lovely.

Thanks for all your help! What shall I do next eh?


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## PaulM (Jun 8, 2018)

KrisUpInSmoke said:


> I like your questions. The things we need to learn now can become second nature to people with lots of experience, so we'll need to remember that when we're as good as they are...(I hope :oops:)...lol.



Haha I’ll take cooking something edible at the moment!


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## dl8860 (Jun 18, 2018)

Paul, that Pork looks great! Chuffed that you've overcome the issues and managed a good cook, you certainly did start on hard mode with Brisket and keeping your top vent closed! I know all too well the frustrating feeling of temperature control not working out though, we all learn something new every cook, so keep at it.

Pork or beef short ribs would be a good one to try next.


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