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Rain Impacts

Discussion in 'Charcoal Smokers' started by y2kpitt, Jan 30, 2006.

  1. Jan 30, 2006 #1
    y2kpitt

    y2kpitt Smoke Blower

    Northwest Washington State
    All,

    I am making my plan of attack for smoking this next weekend but the weather man is calling for rain, rain and more rain. :( Now neither my smoker, myself nor my dog are made of sugar so I'm sure we won't melt. But I am wondering how much of an impact you guys think rain will have maintaining a constaint 225* for like 15 hours. BTW I have an ECB Smoke'n Pitt horizontal smoker.
     
  3. Jan 30, 2006 #2
    bob-bqn

    bob-bqn Smoking Fanatic OTBS Member

    Texas
    Y2K in your region rain is practically a way of life so don't let it keep you from cooking outdoors or you'll be "grounded" often. :( In my area, however, rain is having the opposite effect. We have been without it for so long that governments are shutting down outdoor cooking in several counties to prevent wildfires. We were fortunate to receive a few rain showers over the last week and everyone wanted to be out in it to celebrate. :D

    Rain hitting the outside of your cooker will cool the metal some but would have as drastic effect on it as a cold wind (unless it's windy too). You will need to add a little extra fuel to the fire and may have to open the intake vent a little more than normal to keep the temperature up in your cooker. So if you don't mind being a little damp, don't let the rain stop you.

    I've been to cook-off competitions where it was pouring down rain. They put wood on top of the firebox to help keep the rain from cooling the metal of the firebox and the heat from the fire help keep the wood warm & a little dryer.
     
  4. Jan 31, 2006 #3
    salmonclubber

    salmonclubber Master of the Pit OTBS Member

    forks washington
    y2k
    i live here in the northwest also and have smoked in the rain a time or two some times it rains real hard here so i will try and put some kind of roof over the smoker such as a tarp anything to keep it kind of dry rain aint a real problem the wind can be a problem in keeping the temp up i have seen guys around here put an old jacket around there smoker to help hold the heat in you can also use a card board box to block out some of the wind and rain for a little while anyway the weather man says we may get a nice day with no rain on sunday hope this helps you out
    salmonclubber
     
  5. Jan 31, 2006 #4
    Dutch

    Dutch Smoking Guru Staff Member Administrator Group Lead OTBS Member OTBS Admin SMF Premier Member

    Midvale, UT
    Michael, When I'm not doing the 'Que the wife and I cook in Dutch Oven competitions. Since these cook-off are in the summer one of the items that we purchaced was a portable sun shade (they are sometimes called "EZ-Ups" or "Pop-up's"). Before I had a covered patio to do my smoking on I would put up the ez-up if I knew we were in for a storm. Just a thought if you got some of that spare green burning a hole in your pocket. :D
     
  6. Feb 6, 2006 #5
    y2kpitt

    y2kpitt Smoke Blower

    Northwest Washington State
    In the end I decided to move my smoke under my car port and rigged an extension to the smoker's chimney out of some old dyer pipe and boy was I glad I did because well, it was some Saturday. :shock:

    I loaded up my fire box at 5am and man the wind was whipping and the rain was comin down in buckets. At 5:15am I heard a loud crash and the power was out because 100 foot tree took out the power lines about 500 yards down the road. :(

    We had friends in from out of town and we were planning on biscuits and gravy for breakfast so since I had my smoker rolling anyways I decided to try something out I got my dutch oven and cooked biscuits in it by placing it in my firebox. While they were cookin in the fire box I got my skillet hot and used the warming try on top of the firebox to make the gravy. For lunch we ate one of the chickens I was smoking and for dinner I got the dutch oven back out and took some of the chicken mixed it with some spices, some broth and some noodles put it back in the firebox and wammo Chicken soup, which we ate with the left over biscuits. Through out the day the wind had gusts of over 60 miles an hour the rain came and went, I had to make a make-shift wind breaker but other than that the old ECB came through like a champ. I even made a little smoked cheese dip by putting some Velveeta in a pan with some chopped peppers, onions and hot sauce then sticking it in the smoker for a half hour. Man, we ate like kings and queens feasting on fatties as I would pull them off the smoker, muchin on chips with smoky-cheese dip and drinkin a few cold ones. No one noticed we didn’t have power, well at least they didn’t complain. :)

    When the day was done, at about 10pm I had smoked the following; 3 Chickens, 3 Fatties, (2) 7 lb pork roasts and a 10 lb brisket. I also made an awesome new cheese dip and found a great use for my dutch oven. Oh yeah the power came back on around 11:30pm so I was able to pull the pork and slice the brisket with the assistance of the good old electric light. 8)

    I’ll try to post some pics when I get home tonight.
     
  7. Feb 7, 2006 #6
    y2kpitt

    y2kpitt Smoke Blower

    Northwest Washington State
    Here are a few pics of my set up and the food it produced on a windy Saturday
    [​IMG]
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  8. Feb 7, 2006 #7
    y2kpitt

    y2kpitt Smoke Blower

    Northwest Washington State
    Here are the last couple of pics enjoy :D
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  9. Feb 7, 2006 #8
    bob-bqn

    bob-bqn Smoking Fanatic OTBS Member

    Texas
    Looks great Y2K! :D
     
  11. Feb 12, 2006 #9
    Dutch

    Dutch Smoking Guru Staff Member Administrator Group Lead OTBS Member OTBS Admin SMF Premier Member

    Midvale, UT
    y2-The ol' black pot is pretty versatile. I own 14 of them in different sizes. It's not unusual to find me cooking with the DO's and a full smoker when warm weather rolls around.

    Having the means to provide hot meals when the power goes out makes thing a little more bearable. We had a power outage in 2003 that left the neighborhood with out power for three days. If it wasn't for my 2 propane stoves, my gas grill, the dutch ovens and the ECB I think that half of the neighborhood would have starved or been stuck eating out.
     
  12. Feb 15, 2006 #10
    cheech

    cheech Master of the Pit OTBS Member

    Beautiful Grand Rapids Michigan
    Earl D I think if I did not have my smoker I would starve let alone the other items