Brand new to the form AND smoking all together. I have to say I'm a little overwhelmed by the amount of skill this seems to take, which I guess is whey great Q is hard to find.
Breaking my smoker in with a 5 lb. boston butt. I put a dry rub on it and refigerated it over night. I've had it on since 7AM and seem to be having trouble keeping the temperature at or above 200. I'm playing with the vents to try and get more air in there to increase the temp which seems to be working for now.
I'm using Cowboy lump charcoal as fuel, which I have read isn't the best, but the only option I could easily find in the Pittsburgh Area. It seems to burn really fast. Anyone have an idea how many pounds of this stuff I'm going to need to go through? I'm just sort of dumping the charcoal into the fire box and working to keep it all together, but is there a specific strategy for getting more heat from the fire?
Also, any tips/tricks about working with the Brinkmann horizontal smoker are welcome.
Breaking my smoker in with a 5 lb. boston butt. I put a dry rub on it and refigerated it over night. I've had it on since 7AM and seem to be having trouble keeping the temperature at or above 200. I'm playing with the vents to try and get more air in there to increase the temp which seems to be working for now.
I'm using Cowboy lump charcoal as fuel, which I have read isn't the best, but the only option I could easily find in the Pittsburgh Area. It seems to burn really fast. Anyone have an idea how many pounds of this stuff I'm going to need to go through? I'm just sort of dumping the charcoal into the fire box and working to keep it all together, but is there a specific strategy for getting more heat from the fire?
Also, any tips/tricks about working with the Brinkmann horizontal smoker are welcome.