Hello all from TN!

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Shootlessjoe

Newbie
Original poster
Oct 13, 2019
19
7
Hello all!


New to the forums here. Been lurking around for a bit here recently as I was in the middle of deciding which path of smokers I wanted to go as this was a gift for my wife. She wants to learn to smoke. I ended up getting one of those:

upload_2019-10-14_18-57-10.png


Figured that most people are going three different ways. My wife didn't want gas smoker, pellets were a tad too high with some issues. So I ended up with this thing here from Lowes. Already got it assembled and fired it up for a few hours to get the chemicals off.

I read some threads on the forums here that focus how to smoke meats and such. I went with the lump coal. To my surprise, it does nicely compared to briquettes.

My question here is how does everyone handle their charcoal smoker? Do you light it up and throw some dry wood chips or do you soak them before hand? We want to get a good smokey flavor on our meats. My wife wants to pre-cook the food to reduce some time spent smoking for many hours. Just don't have all that time in the world.


Thanks!
 
Small splits will do best in your smoker and don't wet them. Just feed one split about every thirty to forty five minutes. Start your fire with charcoal and then feed the splits.
 
Small splits will do best in your smoker and don't wet them. Just feed one split about every thirty to forty five minutes. Start your fire with charcoal and then feed the splits.


Kruizer,

Thanks for the advice! I know there are different types of woods to get and etc.. but where would be an ideal place to get such wood? I know Lowes and the other big box stores carry them but I do like to see what others here have found. Maybe a question in the wood section would a better place to ask such questions for wood splits. LOL
 
Welcome from East TN! Warren made a good point above. If you are trying to save time pre-cooking meat probably isn't your best option as it can affect the smoke penetration. You could always do things like wrap meats and finish them in the oven or smoke at higher temps for butts or briskets.
 
Thanks for the advice. Shoot, I don't know how much time we want to spend smoking it so I was hoping to somewhat have it cooked to a certain point. I might find something that would work. Then again, we haven't started anything yet. LOL
 
Welcome to SMF!
If you want to shorten the cook time just run the smoker at a higher temp, or smoke it for a couple of hours & finish it in the oven. I would not pre-cook it I would smoke it first.
Al
 
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