Warming up the smoker?

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woodman6437

Newbie
Original poster
May 3, 2016
16
10
I am smoking three racks of spares this morning for a memorial day bbq. Should I put the ribs in the smoker cold and let it warm up with the smoker, or should I get the smoker to temp and then put the ribs in. I have the ribs out right now warming to room temp. My last smoke i put the ribs in the cold smoker and let them warm up. They turned out good but the smoker took forever to get to temp and I was only doing one rack. My smoker is a homemade plywood box with a propane burner.
 
Since you had a problem the last time, I would definitely get the smoker above your target temp, then put the ribs on & let it come down to the temp your smoking at.

Al
 
For the highest degree of safety, put Cold meat in a Hot smoker. Any amount of time the meat is not in the refer, <40°F or in the smoker >140°F, the meat is in the danger zone and the clock is ticking and bacteria is getting ready to grow, going through the Lag Phase, where it will multiply to unsafe levels...JJ
 
Thank you for the replies. For some reason i was worried about condensation from cold meat in a warm smoker but it appears there are bigger concerns. It made life a lot easier getting it up to temp empty.
 
Always get your smoker up to temp and settled in. By the time you throw your meat on, you should have a clean burning fire.
Edit* Propane is clean burning. I was referring to wood.
 
Last edited:
Yea i've had a couple problems while starting my smoker, wether I realized the propane wasn't feeding properly, smoke wasn't producing, or whatever it may be.

But I catch those things prior to my food being in the smoker than while it's sitting there get cold
 
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