I just wanted to say Hi and thanks already for the information I have already learned in this forum. I was given my first smoker, Char-Broil Silver Smoker, by my son and daughter-in-law for fathers day. We put it together, I oiled the inside well and built a fire to season it. While it was seasoning I did a little shopping and little internet work and found this forum.
Did a little searching and found out about some of the drawbacks to the consumer grade smokers and the fixes. After the Smoker was seasoned I built a new fire and put on 2 full slabs of baby back ribs. 6 hours later we sat down to some fall off the bone tender juicy ribs. I am using a mixture of natural wood charcoal and quarter cut hickory logs. I guess they were alright, because 6 people at two whole slabs of baby back along with all the fixings and nary a word was said around the table.
During the week I went out and got two small thermometers and put them at cooking rack level, one on each end. Put in a heat baffle. Got a 9X13 pan and put it on the coal rack that will never be used in the smoke chamber for liquid, built a 15X15X9 burn box to put inside the firebox, got a Webber chimney and found that a bean can with the top lip cut off fit nicely into the bottom of the chimney and went down right to grate level. I also used some JB weld to fill in the cracks around the chimney and the flange it is attached to. (all learned on this forum)
To make a test run I placed a 14" long quarter cut log in the bottom of the burn box and covered it with two unlit Webber chimney's of charcoal. I lit a third chimney and got it white hot all over, poured it into the burn box and shut the lid, poured three bottles of beer into the liquid pan and waited for the smoker to come up to temp. Now both ends of the smoker are within 5 degrees of each other and the top thermometer is exactly 50 degrees hotter than grate level. After adjusting the dampers to get a 225 degree chamber I put in two well seasoned whole chickens. The charcoal/wood setup I started gave me a constant 225 for almost 3 hours before I had to use a poker to stir the coals around a bit. I added two more chimneys over the last two hours of smoking time. At 4:30 I dropped on 6 brauts and let them go. By 5:30 the chickens were a rich, reddish brown color and fall apart done. The brauts had nice crisp skins, full of juice and no cracks or splits like I get on a bbq grill.
Needless to say, everyone was real happy tonight. The chicken shredded nicely with just a couple of forks and was piled high on nicely toasted split Kaiser roll buns. Managed to save enough of the chicken for a sandwich tomorrow at work for the wife and I.
The next big test will be on the 4th. I have 15 lbs of reasonably trimmed brisket waiting to be smoked. The butcher trimed them to my specifications and did not trim them as close as he would normally. I like a bit of cooking fat, or in this case smoking fat, on top to give it moisture and flavor.
I think I am headed in the right direction. Again a big thank to the forum. It provided me a lot of good information that I have already put to use.
Did a little searching and found out about some of the drawbacks to the consumer grade smokers and the fixes. After the Smoker was seasoned I built a new fire and put on 2 full slabs of baby back ribs. 6 hours later we sat down to some fall off the bone tender juicy ribs. I am using a mixture of natural wood charcoal and quarter cut hickory logs. I guess they were alright, because 6 people at two whole slabs of baby back along with all the fixings and nary a word was said around the table.
During the week I went out and got two small thermometers and put them at cooking rack level, one on each end. Put in a heat baffle. Got a 9X13 pan and put it on the coal rack that will never be used in the smoke chamber for liquid, built a 15X15X9 burn box to put inside the firebox, got a Webber chimney and found that a bean can with the top lip cut off fit nicely into the bottom of the chimney and went down right to grate level. I also used some JB weld to fill in the cracks around the chimney and the flange it is attached to. (all learned on this forum)
To make a test run I placed a 14" long quarter cut log in the bottom of the burn box and covered it with two unlit Webber chimney's of charcoal. I lit a third chimney and got it white hot all over, poured it into the burn box and shut the lid, poured three bottles of beer into the liquid pan and waited for the smoker to come up to temp. Now both ends of the smoker are within 5 degrees of each other and the top thermometer is exactly 50 degrees hotter than grate level. After adjusting the dampers to get a 225 degree chamber I put in two well seasoned whole chickens. The charcoal/wood setup I started gave me a constant 225 for almost 3 hours before I had to use a poker to stir the coals around a bit. I added two more chimneys over the last two hours of smoking time. At 4:30 I dropped on 6 brauts and let them go. By 5:30 the chickens were a rich, reddish brown color and fall apart done. The brauts had nice crisp skins, full of juice and no cracks or splits like I get on a bbq grill.
Needless to say, everyone was real happy tonight. The chicken shredded nicely with just a couple of forks and was piled high on nicely toasted split Kaiser roll buns. Managed to save enough of the chicken for a sandwich tomorrow at work for the wife and I.
The next big test will be on the 4th. I have 15 lbs of reasonably trimmed brisket waiting to be smoked. The butcher trimed them to my specifications and did not trim them as close as he would normally. I like a bit of cooking fat, or in this case smoking fat, on top to give it moisture and flavor.
I think I am headed in the right direction. Again a big thank to the forum. It provided me a lot of good information that I have already put to use.
