Seasoning a new smoker

[texasbeachbum]

Say I got a new smoker (Char-Broil Silver Series) Now it is all assembled. What do I need to do to season it? Do I use vegtable oil or mineral oil? How hot of a fire do I need? How long do I keep it burning?


Thanks If I think of anything else I will post up.
Bobby

 

[bwsmith_2000]

Texasbeachbum,
I have one of the same type cookers. I'm sure there will be several thoughts, but with mine, I simply sprayed it lightly on the inside of the cooking chamber with veg. oil. I then built a fire with charcoal and let it get hot. I then put chunks of wood (I used hickory) on the coals and let it smoke for about two hours. It really turned out to be longer than that because I didn't put the fire out. I just left it and let it cool down by itself. Hope you enjoy the smoker!

By the way, there are some modifications you will probably want to do to your smoker. They help tremendously with equalizing the temp in the cooking chamber. I strongly recommend them. Dutch has a great reference site that describes the mods at WWW.bbqinstitute.com/smokermodifications.pdf One more thing I'd suggest and that is to raise the fire grid and/or definitely plan to occasionally remove the ash. It tends to suffocate the fire with long duration smokes.

 

[texasbeachbum]

Does it matter what kind of wood you use in the seasoning stage??? I have lots of hackaberry from Rita. I am going after lots of oak and masquite this weekend.

 

[jlloyd99]

Bobby, I would use whatever you have on hand. As you won't be cooking any food while seasoning the grill it's not that important. You can also use whatever oil you have on hand, we used veg. for ours.

 

[texasbeachbum]

Thanks for the replies. I am seasoning it as I type.