Seasoning a smoker

[lilbuilder]

i understand how to season a smoker, I’ve always used oak in my smoker, and the more I cook on it the better it turns out, I blame this on how much the smoker has been seasoned, my question is if I have used oak this entire time and change to a different type of wood, does it change the seasoning of it? I have a 120 gallon reverse flow smoker

 

[flatbroke]

Nope

 

[sauced]

Nope, not at all.

 

[oldsmokerdude]

Not to pile on (after all there are only so many ways of saying no), but it doesn't matter at all.

 

[smokedad]

I am in the process of building a smoker that will use wood exclusively, but I am a newbie and have always used charcoal. Can someone please explain how to season a smoker? Do you have to just burn wood in it a few times without any meat in it? Thanks for any help.

 

[oldsmokerdude]

You got it smokedad. Just need to get a good smoke going in the smoker for an hour or two with no food in it. This will burn away any residual yuckies left over from the build and give your smoker a nice coating on the inside. Nothing hard about it at all. That first seasoning smoke is also a good time to get used to whatever temp controls (vents) you have built into your smoker and how they affect temperature and flow.

Can't wait to see pictures of your new build.

 

[smokedad]

The smoker I am building is an offset smoker. for seasoning, do I just need to build a fire in the firebox? will that take care of burning off anything in the area where the meat will be, too, or do I need to build a fire in that area as well to season it?

 

[Fig_n_Pig]

Only build the fire in the firebox. It may make sense to wash out the cook chamber with water to get rid of any leftover residue from manufacturing. Let it dry completely before you season the chamber with some type of cooking oil. Personally, I used peanut oil and then burned a fire for 5+ hours at 250. Some will say burn hotter, but I followed the instructions that came with me that said longer time and lower temperature. Hope this helps.