Rookie in San Rafael, CA

[pmkrlaw]

Aloha:

I live in San Rafael, CA about 17 miles north of San Francisco.  I was inspired about trying smoking as Danish friend was smoking salmon at his holiday party and another friend brought a salmon to Christmas dinner that she had cured herself.  Plus I am trying to keep up my limited cooking skills as its been to easy to depend on my wife who was a professional caterer and in the restaurant business before children.  She had gotten an old "Coleman Outdoorsman" smoker either at a garage sale or from a friend a few years ago.  I decided it was time to fire that puppy up and see what it can do!  I've seen a number of discussions on this site and the web about the "Deluxe" model of the Outdoorsman.  Our model seems to be a more basic or earlier model (has a red exterior) as it doesn't have an enclosed bottom chamber.  I have included a picture of the smoker:

IMG_0949.JPG

• pmkrlaw
• Dec 30, 2012

You can see from the photo that the bottom is not enclosed.  The pan in the front is the charcoal pan and obviously the one on the right is for the water (soaking hickory chips).  I anyone has any ideas about this Coleman model I am all ears.

My immediate goal is to learn the basics so that I can smoke salmon and pork.  With the pork, ultimately I hope to recreate the flavor of an "imu" cooked pig or "kalua pig" for any or you that have been to a Hawaiian luau.  I am drooling just thinking about it.

Anyway glad to be aboard!

Pat

 

[s2k9k]

Hi Pat! 

to SMF!!! We're happy you found us! You've come to the right place, we have over 40,000 members and over 800,000 posts so you should be able to find almost anything you want to know. Remember the search bar at the top can be your best friend for finding answers fast!

You might want to check out Jeff's Free 5 day E-course it will teach you all the basics and a whole lot more!

If you have any questions about the forums or need any help navigating around don’t hesitate to ask or send me a PM, I am more than happy to help out!

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Welcome to the SMF family, Pat!

Just caught this after answering your PM...my reply was (for the benefit of others with a similar smoker in mind):

Don't plan on smoking the butt to finished temps in this rig...you'll pull your hair out trying to keep the fire going for that long. Of it's a 7-10lb butt, you'll be busier than a buck during the rut trying to keep the fire hot enough to cook. To get some smoke to it, just plan on about 3 hours max @ 250* chamber temp if you can get it that hot, then transfer the butt to the oven @ 225-250* to get it to finished temps.

OK, first off, you won't get a long burn time from your charcoal with this set-up, as there is no where for ash to fall out form the charcoal...need mods to correct that. This is a very similar smoker in comparison to the Brinkmann Smoke n Grill, which I do own, but only to use the extra barrel to make a double stacked, 4 cooking grate vertical smoker from, and I use the charcoal pan in place of the smaller water pan to use as a baffle for tuning up the top to bottom grate temp variances... works pretty well for my needs.

The biggest issues you will run into are lack of temp control (open bottom, no intake draft control) and no ash fall-out from the fire (no fire grate). Lack of temp control can really only be compensated for by adding small amounts of fuel at a time, otherwise you will likely have high temp spikes. The lack of ash fall-out will only become an issue on longer smokes...ash will build up in the charcoal pan and snuff out the existing fire, so you add more burning charcoal, and some more, and some more...it's a vicious cycle.

I just went back that thread, and I guess I mentioned a lot of this already. But, to get your feet wet with smoker and a pork butt, keep the temps up pretty well and have a thermometer handy to check the smoke chamber temps, as the factory thermometers are usually very inaccurate, or completely useless. If you can't keep temps up, abandon the smoker and head to the oven or another cooker which can maintain temps high enough to cook in a reasonable amount of time...it's reason for food safety concerns, otherwise.

Eric

 

[pmkrlaw]

Eric:

If you see a double reply from me its because I initially sent it from a table and wasn't sure that it was sent and wanted to make sure that I thanked you.  Despite the anticipated problems with this model of smoker and I will try and forge ahead this morning.  I guess I'll find out why my wife was just given this smoker.  In any case, its a New Year and hope springs eternal to start a new adventure.  Will let you know how it all turns out.

Aloha - Happy New Year

Pat

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Welcome to SMF, Pat!



~Martin

 

[diana]

Hi, Pat !

I know San Rafael well as I was stationed at The Presidio for 2 yrs---67-69 in the Army Nurse Corps,  There was a great  dress shop that only carried petites--and I loved it !

Anyway---on to smoking  I had a smoker like yours for a long time. I hated the dirtyness of the charcoal, so got an electric model, which I love. It does great on beef, chicken and pork, but don't try salmon on it, as it cannot smoke at a low enough temp.  I have a Bradley smoker now, also,  which can smoke fish and cheese.  Yum !

You'll like this site

Diana

 

[pmkrlaw]

Thanks for the info.  I have a Weber Kettle which I am going to try next time since it looks like I will be able to control the temp better and also keep the charcoal going.  I had a delicious pork butt.  However, it took 10 hours.  Don't know if the work was worth it, although the experience was.  Trying to recreate that hawaiian luau kalua pig taste!!!  My cousin was also stationed at the Presidio at Letterman as a doctor...Nathan Wong.  We're all from Hawaii.  I'm pretty sure that he was there after you.

Will try to see if I can smoke some salmon on a Weber next time!

Aloha,

Pat

 

[diana]

You need to smoke fish at 100 or below---usually an open grill won't go below 200, in my experience. I do pork shoulders all the time on the grill like your red one ( but electric).

EXCELLENT!!

Didn't know your cousin----I was never in the new Letterman--only in the old one, which was an old WWll barracks.  The new one opened when I was in Vietnam.

 

[pmkrlaw]

Diana:

If you haven't been to the Presidio in the last few years, its really change.  It really has been upgraded.  And Chrissy field and the Richardson drive to Lombard has totally change with the reconfiguration of the roadway after the GG Bridge Toll Plaza.  

thanks again for the info.  Can't wait for my next foray into the "SMOKE!"

Pat

 

[smokinhusker]

Hello and welcome to SMF!

 

[pmkrlaw]

SmokinHusker:

Thank you for the "welcome."

aloha,

Pat