Hello fellow barbeque enthusiasts! My name is Bill Greene and I live in Prince George County, Virginia.
Cooking and grilling have been a passion of mine for years, and I have been making my own rubs and sauces for quite a while. I started playing around with smoking last year using my big charcoal grill that has a separator piece between two rather large grates. I would place the meat, mostly pork shoulders, on one side and the coals and smoking wood on the other side. It was pretty difficult to maintain the temperatures, but I managed.
I recently purchased a CharGriller smoker with the side firebox and quickly discovered many short-comings with the unit. I have made a few simple modifications to take care of the heat distribution and heat control problems and I wish I had known about this website before I started using the smoker.
My first smoke was ribs, and since I had temperature control issues, they were tough. Since then, I have learned a few things that really helped my results. I have had perfect results on both ribs and boston butt every time since that first smoke and I attribute the results to the items below.
1. All natural lump charcoal provides better temperature control and produces less heavy ash. It’s worth the money!
2. Use some type of baffle or tuning plate to help alleviate the hot spot directly adjacent to the firebox on the CharGriller. This increases available cooking surface.
3. Add a coal grate just above the slide out ash dump try so that you can dump ashes during those long smokes, like with a boston butt.
For mother’s day, my mom and mother-in-law were our guests of honor and I smoked ribs. They were PERFECT. The whole family agreed that this was the best meal they had eaten in years. My wife fixed a fantastic macaroni salad, squash and potatoes, and I fixed up some green beans to go with our ribs.
I can’t believe anyone would actually BOIL ribs! I love my little smoker, but I am looking forward graduating to a nice Klose or Lang smoker soon.
Cooking and grilling have been a passion of mine for years, and I have been making my own rubs and sauces for quite a while. I started playing around with smoking last year using my big charcoal grill that has a separator piece between two rather large grates. I would place the meat, mostly pork shoulders, on one side and the coals and smoking wood on the other side. It was pretty difficult to maintain the temperatures, but I managed.
I recently purchased a CharGriller smoker with the side firebox and quickly discovered many short-comings with the unit. I have made a few simple modifications to take care of the heat distribution and heat control problems and I wish I had known about this website before I started using the smoker.
My first smoke was ribs, and since I had temperature control issues, they were tough. Since then, I have learned a few things that really helped my results. I have had perfect results on both ribs and boston butt every time since that first smoke and I attribute the results to the items below.
1. All natural lump charcoal provides better temperature control and produces less heavy ash. It’s worth the money!
2. Use some type of baffle or tuning plate to help alleviate the hot spot directly adjacent to the firebox on the CharGriller. This increases available cooking surface.
3. Add a coal grate just above the slide out ash dump try so that you can dump ashes during those long smokes, like with a boston butt.
For mother’s day, my mom and mother-in-law were our guests of honor and I smoked ribs. They were PERFECT. The whole family agreed that this was the best meal they had eaten in years. My wife fixed a fantastic macaroni salad, squash and potatoes, and I fixed up some green beans to go with our ribs.
I can’t believe anyone would actually BOIL ribs! I love my little smoker, but I am looking forward graduating to a nice Klose or Lang smoker soon.
