Hi Jack - Steve pointed you to the UK forum for things that are more relevant to the UK market, but please feel free to post in whichever area of the forum you think best fits your post. There are a growing number on here from the UK and Steve mentioned in the main role call about out 4th annual gathering in Lincoln. It if free to come along and you will see a lot of different types of smoker can even try them out. If you accidentally post in the wrong place then that is fine as we can easily get the posts moved if necessary.
To your specific question, the first thing you need to work on is the temperature control of your smoker. They are all different and you need to learn the quirks of yours. It is all to do with stabilising the temperature in the cooking chamber by balancing the heat from the coals with the heat loss through the flue and the cooking chamber walls. In order to do this effectively you need the lid and door on the firebox to be reasonably airtight and the air vent to seal effectively.
Firstly, if you can see gaps around the firebox lid or around the firebox door then you can use some self adhesive stove tape to seal these more effectively. It is good to also get a good seal around the smoking chamber lid too however this is less important.
Choice of fuel is also important. If you are only wanting to burn wood then you will need to tend the temperature more often by tweaking the air vent. Briquettes are far easier to control and you can use your wood (or pellets on top to add the smoke flavour. The Houston as standard has a single grate for the fire in the firebox - if you can find yourself a wire basket which you can place on top of the grate to contain the wood/briquettes then this will enable you to have much more control over the burn - and therefore the temperature.
As with any smoker you need to manage the temperature from the beginning. It is much harder to bring the temperature down after it has over-shot than it is to slowly increase it until it reaches the desired temperature. Monitor the smoking chamber temperature and when it gets to about 2/3 of the desired final temperature start shutting down the air intake on the firebox until equilibrium is reached at the desired cooking temperature.
With a relatively small offset smoker like this (the commercial ones are much bigger) you will expect to getting quite a temperature gradient within the smoking chamber so it will be important to take this into account and rotate your meat periodically to ensure even cooking.
Do not rely on the thermometer in the lid as these are almost always inaccurate. If you are expecting to do more smoking in the future you should consider investing in a digital twin probe thermometer - somethig like a Maverick (Redicheck) ET-732/733.
For your first cook, while you are getting used to the temperature control, I would suggest smoking something that is forgiving and inexpensive - like a chicken or even sausages. Try keeping the temperature at about 150-160 C. If you don't manage to get the temperature right straight away they should both still be edible - either for you or your dog
. After that has been mastered then try to cook something like ribs or a small pork/beef roasting joint at about 125-130 C as these will take 4-6 hours. After that you could go for the pulled pork at 110-120 C for 8-12 hours.
I hope this gives you some pointers to start you off.
Wade
