All about smoking for a newbie smoker like me! Help

[perrocallejero1]

Hey guys,

I am trying out for the first time the smoker that we just finished welding.
It is a 1 1/4 barrel type deal, the fire pit is 1/4 barrel with a door and a chimney. It is connected by a square metal pipe about 60 cm to the smokehouse, the pipe is attached to the top of the firepit, and to the lowest possible spot on the smokehouse. The smokehouse is lifted up so that the whole smoker is straight (25 - 30cm). Sorry if i am not being exact.
I just had some few basic questions about starting to smoke.
I understand that the flavor comes from the wood, but could we use any type of wood and not just fruit tree/hardwoods?? I am using eucalyptus at the moment because if you know ecuador, that's really all there is. I plan to put some of the wood under the smokehouse so that the grease will fall onto it for flavor the next time i smoke.
How do i maintain a constant smoke? Is it based on my trial and error with my smoker or is there aome sort of a straight shot, easy way to control it?
If i want to put some herbs, like laurel, where do i put it? In the smokehouse or the firepit??

Thank you guys!

And any more advice is more than welcome!!

 

[timberjet]

Can you take a picture? This sounds interesting. Woods in your area I am not too sure about. I know some woods are semi toxic. Do you have any nut bearing woods around like maybe pistachio or pimento, allspice? Macadamia? These are good woods for smoking. Other than that there are oak species everywhere on earth I think. You might have to go up to elevation and see what is around. I would think if you can eat the fruit you can probably smoke with it. Whiskey and wine barrels are great smoking wood too.

 

[timberjet]

Also I have heard of guys using corn cobs to smoke with. maybe someone that knows about this can chime in.

 

[perrocallejero1]

barrell.jpg

• pops6927
• Jul 16, 2014

[ATTACHMENT=1546]image.jpg (510k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]

 

[perrocallejero1]

I can take more pictures in the morning when i will smoke some of our french and italian sausages.

Could you give me some tips on how long i should smoke sausages? The last 15 min i pit the fire on very high and it kind of overcooked. Still good though, didnt think chorizo would be good smoked but it was!
And again, i will send you more pics if you wish.
Our smoker has three grills each about 20 cm apart.

 

[pops6927]

I embedded your Qview (photo) in your post for you.  See:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/how-to-embed-an-image-into-your-post

Depends on several things, but you should only cook it to an internal of 160°F (71.1°C) or the sausage could become too dry (for me, less fat means healthier! lol!) for sausages - cook by temperature, not time.

 

[oldgiesser]

I cook sausage to 158 temp but use a 80/20 meat you need about 20% fat to make it tender and not dry

 

[timberjet]

Yes we love pictures. I would try and find a thermometer for your smoker and a temperature probe for your meat. This way you can be much more precise in your cooking and just generally know a little better what is going on in there. You can make your own charcoal if you can't find it to buy where you live as well. It burns a little bit more consistently. Anyway have fun with it and show us what you are cooking from time to time. timber