another question....

[kosmo]

I have another question for the stacked or tower type smokers....do you put the fastest cooking meats on the top or bottom ???

 

[danielh]

Poultry on the bottom, other than that its just learning your cooker and how it cooks.  A charcoal smoker or UDS type deal with no water pan may be hotter the closer you are to the fire, others with a water pan/diffuser/heatsink may be hotter at the top than the bottom.

 

[rbranstner]

What kind of smoker are you using propane, gas etc.????? Is this your first smoke on it or have you used it before and have an idea how it cooks and where the hot/cold spots are at?  Depending on the smoker some of them will be hotter or colder depending on how high or low you are in the smoker. My big smoke shack is so well insulated that it has little to no difference in temps from the bottom to the top. But if you do have some difference in temps you can put different meats on different levels but it all depends on what you are smoking. What are you thinking about smoking that would cook faster than the other meats. If I were doing a brisket and a fatty I would put the fatty's on top as they will get done faster but if I were doing brisket and pork butts I would probably just rotate the grates every once in a while so they all get evenly done as they will take about the same time to cook depending on their size. If I had a big brisket and a small butt I would probably leave the brisket on the bottom as it will take longer to cook than the smaller butt. So to me it all depends on what I am smoking and what their sizes are. Just make sure you have thermometers so you can watch the temps and go by temps not time and you will be fine no matter what you do. Hopefully other members will chime in here to and you can get some more idea's on what to try but there is no right or wrong way really.

 

[kosmo]

I have a members mark stainless steel "tower" smoker with drip/water pan. It is 12000 btu per hour with 3 rack, ( removable ) system. The temp gauge is on top and I do have a remote temp gauge I can use. I have been using a char-broil charcoal smoke/grill and I love it, it smoke well and I can adjust the temps pretty quickly depending on time of year. Today I'm gonna smoke country style ribs and chicken with some apple wood.