Cold weather cooking

[spmrks]

I almost.....almost attempted to grill up some steaks on the Weber Kettle tonight with ambient temps of -6 degrees -16 with the wind chill. The only thing that kept me from attempting this cook was the fact that I only had a half bag of lump charcoal left and figured it would be a waste. This got me thinking...What is the coldest temperature any of you ladies or gentleman have ever cooked in?

 

[pgsmoker64]

Cold?  What's that?  I live in South East Virginia and the coldest weather I have cooked in is about 30 degrees F.  Kinda warm for you Utah folks but darn cold for me.  I used a bit more fuel that normal even with a wind break.

Bill

 

[garand555]

I've only seen it get down to -6f here twice. I have, however, cooked outside when I was camping up near the lake that I was going to walk out on, punch a hole in the ice and start fishing. I don't know what the lows were at the camp spot, but I know that it regularly gets down to 0f up there around that time of year. It's about 12f here now, and if I had guests coming over tonight, I wouldn't be opposed to firing the smoker up and throwing a butt or two in right now. Only problem is, there are no guests coming over and I have no butts in the fridge.

 

[spmrks]

I wouldnt consider myself Utah man Bill...not here by choice and cant wait to leave...its not a bad place but just not for me.

Ill come over garand....just give me a couple of hours to get there. Ill bring the ribs.

 

[frosty]

While  I was working in North Dakota, we cooked on a patio that had a thermometer that said 3 degrees F on it.  The We3ber I was using at the time, had 8" of snow on it before I lit it up.  For some reason, no one wanted to drink beer on the patio, much less hang around outside. Nice dinner though.  Nice place, but too cold for my tastes.

Have to admit,  cooking in the 40's was better this weekend. 

 

[3montes]

I have cooked in below zero temps quite often. I won't do it in a strong wind though. I have a large offset stick burner built out of 1/4" steel. Once you get that steel heated up it chugs along just as if it was 70 degrees outside.

If I didn't smoke in the cold I'd only cook two or 3 times a year up here!!

I park the rig right outside my heated garage. I can look out the garage door windows and see the therms and know if I need to go out and add another stick.

Heck grilling up some steaks in a Weber in cold temps should be a walk in the park. Takes longer to get the charcoal going then to grill the steaks.

 

[roper33]

I live in Montreal, and last winter I smoked a brisket, and some baby backs in -30ish (celcius) temperatures. I had to put up a little tarp to shield the smoker from some of the wind. Things took about 90 minutes longer to cook, and i used a couple extra pounds of charcoal in my Brinkmann, but everything came out pretty decent! I never let the temperature tell me when its too cold to grill or smoke!

Cheers

 

[roper33]

-30 celcius = -22 farenheit

 

[lu1847]

12 degrees here now and I've got some summer sausage and snack stix on right now. Was 9 degrees when I started. Winona Mn.

 

[altarose]

-30 c when I  smoked the X-mas turkey, had to move into the greenhouse

 

[norsican]

It's not a major weather event unless someone in the family is outside tending a fire/meat.

18 below is where my record stands I believe. Steaks for 10 or so folks in almost 3 feet of snow. 14 more inches fell as we were finishing the steaks.

 

[izaguf]

My coldest grilling was -28C with 50km winds.  Luckily my smoker was in the baby barn!  I adapted a 15" bent steel wheel around the base of the Brinkman Smoke and Grill which keeps it off the floor still gives good airflow.  Started the coals in the chimney pot over propane side burner and worked like a charm.  As long as you can keep the wind down, the space heats itself quickly.  Pretty sure I had to take the beer in from the snowbank though!

 

[jarjarchef]

Man the extreme cold smoking in Florida is amazing.... I don't know how we can survive while doing it...... It was a blustery 50 degrees the last cold smoking experience I had to endure..... The extremes we have to go through for our love of good BBQ........


All seriousness ....... Really -28C with 50 mph winds....... I would not even leave bed if it was that cold...

 

[bigblue]

cooked dinner for guys at work (not sure of the the temp but cold )then throw wood on top of the kingsford and stood around and drank beer like a burn barrel. multipurpose webber kettle 

great times 

 

[badmoont2]

Did some chucks this week with a starting temp of 16, a heat wave compared to some of the temps quoted in the previous posts. Smoke went well. I use a WSM and find wind is much more of a problem.

 

[spmrks]

Did a pork shoulder yesterday while it was about 5 degrees and snowing..came out goooood

 

[05sprcrw]

I don't know the coldest temps I have cooked in but I have found that my R/F stick burner likes the cold it seems like the fires burn more intensely and just like to run along. I usually use one of my out buildings to block the wind whichever direction its coming from. I cooked a couple weekends back with it just a brisket and it was below zero out.