Got a Smoker..What do i do?
frank williams
>/ \
>|________| <----- Cover
>
>|________| <----- Top Grill Screen
>| |
>| \____/ | <----- Pan
>| |
>|________| <----- Lower Grill Screen
>| |
>| |
> \______/ <----- Lower Pan
Looks like you assembled it wrong.
The lower grill goes right on top of the
water pan, the upper grill goes on at
the top, just under the lid.
That some-assembly-required line is
a killer.
Frank
fer...@jmbpo4.bah.com
I just received on old BBQ Smoker and would like to fire it up but a
question on how it is supposed to work. I've got a large weber kettle that I
use frequently and successfully, but this smoker has me confused. It looks
like this:
________
/ \
|________| <----- Cover
|________| <----- Top Grill Screen
| |
| \____/ | <----- Pan
| |
|________| <----- Lower Grill Screen
| |
| |
\______/ <----- Lower Pan
Here's my question: The lower grill grating seems too thin for charcoal so I
assume that the lower pan is where the coals go. If this is the case, then
what is that grill screen for? It could be used for cooking but there no real
access to it when the water pan is in place. I am gonna call the manufacturer
but i'd appreciate any tips from the experts out there. Ignorantly yours,
Perry.
Head Bozo
: I just received on old BBQ Smoker and would like to fire it up but a
It is unclear from your drawing what is holding the pan in place - I
am assuming you are setting it on the lower grill. I suspect you have
a piece missing, and you are putting the lower grill in the wrong place.
Mine is assembled like the following:
________
/ \
Top Cover ----> |________|
|________| <----- Top Grill Screen
Barrel -------> | |
|________| <----- Lower Grill Screen
| |
| \____/ | <----- Pan
|--------| <----- small grate to hold pan
Lower Pan ----> |________|
\______/
There are three main pieces to the smoker, the top "Cover", the middle "Barrel",
and the bottom "Pan". The middle barrel holds both the grills above the
water pan. You said the lower grating is too thin for charcoal, that is
probably the grate that holds the water pan, and in not used for either
cooking of for coals. The coals go right in the bottom pan.
Rick
kevin wilhite
>
>I just received on old BBQ Smoker and would like to fire it up but a
>question on how it is supposed to work.
Charcoal and wood chips for the smoky flavor go on the lower grill
screen. In the pan put some liquid to keep the meat moist. Beer, wine
water, your own concoction whatever makes you happy. The lower pan is
to collect the ashes.
--
The advance of civilization is nothing
but an exercise in limiting privacy.
-Pelorat
Mike Roberts
|> In article <2sl9rp$j...@booz.bah.com>, <fer...@jmbpo4.bah.com> wrote:
|> >
|> >I just received on old BBQ Smoker and would like to fire it up but a
|> >question on how it is supposed to work.
|>
|>
|> Charcoal and wood chips for the smoky flavor go on the lower grill
|> screen. In the pan put some liquid to keep the meat moist. Beer, wine
|> water, your own concoction whatever makes you happy. The lower pan is
|> to collect the ashes.
No, No, No.....
Charcoal and wood chips go into the lower pan. This pan should have a hole in the
middle of it for air to enter from it's bottom. The order of things from TOP to bottom is:
Smoker Lid
Meat rack no. 1. (grill, screen whatever you wish to call it, I call it a grill/rack)
Meat rack no. 2.
Water pan, meat rack no. 2. sits directly on top of this pan.
Charcoal pan.
The process is:
1. Soak your prefered wood chunks (chips if you don't have chunks) The type of these
depends on your preference. For beef and chicken, I prefer Mesquite. For fish I prefer
Hickory. This is really up to your taste. There are also several ways to make the chips
or Chunks smoke. I soak them in H2O over night and then place the directly on the charcoal.
Some people rap foil around them
leaving the ends open. They smoke longer this way, or so I am told.
2. Place the charcoal pan into the smoker.
3. Pour about 5lbs of charcoal into the charcoal pan, and fire them up. I use a lighter fluid.
Some people use an electric starter..I find them a pain. The amount of charcoal is determined
by the amount of time you wish to smoke your food. If you are going to smoke a beef brisket,
then you'll need to fill the pan FULL, and then add new charcoal every 3-4 hrs. for up to 14
hours. I smoked brisket last weekend and did it for 12 hrs and it came out quite good. Chicken
and smaller cuts like spareribs can take about 6-8hrs. I'd do a full pan of charcoal for this too.
However, I won't have to reload fresh charcoals but about 3-4hrs into the process. I put about
a dozen or so new charcoals in through the little door on the side of the smoker.
While your fire is burning off the fluid, wait until they are white ashed, you can prepair one of
several things.
4. Optional step: Rub your meat. I use: paprika, garlic powder, salt, and lemon peper on beef and
chicken. Fish I marinate in lemon and garlic overnight. To rub your meat, no comments here,
moisten the meat with a litle H2O and sprinkle the spices on liberably. Then rub them in. It can get messy.
Actually, my daughter and I love to do this. Sometimes, I do it the day ahead. This gives the meat
a bit of time to spend with the spices...better I think.
5. Optional: Prepair your smoking liquid. I make up a good BBQ BASTING sauce. NO sugar in
this one. You can just use H2O if you prefer. I think if you are going to be smoking someting and
adding moisture, basically by adding steam, you might as well use a liquid that will help in flavoring
your meat. I use 2 recipes of the following:
Texas BBQ Mop Sauce
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1 cup Apple cider or Wine Vinegar ( I like red wine vinegar)
1/3 cup Worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup oil (use if you are using this as a mop sauce only, you don't need it for steaming)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic pwr
1 tsp chili pwr
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/12 tsp hot pepper
1/2 tsp ground bay leaf
6. Place EMPTY water pan on the first hooks above the fire pan. Don't try to place a water/sauce
into your pan before you place the pan in the smoker....big mistake...you'll burn yourself and put
out your fire when you dump the water on the fire. It gets damn hot in side the cooker at this point.
7. Add your steaming liquid (Texas Mop Sauce.) to the water pan and fill the rest of the way up
with warm water. Stir it all together. ( Again, you can use beer or anythng you like.)
8. Now add the first Meat Rack right on top of the water pan. Place your meat on the rack. I try to
keep it away from the edges because there is come pretty hot spots around the edge of this rack
since the rack will stick out beyond the water pan a little. No big deal though it just getts hotter on th e
edges and I like to keep my mean on this rack well within the water pan area.
9. Now place your second Meat Rack on the top hooks (grill holders whatever you call them) up
by where the lid will go. Put your meat on this rack.
Note: If you will are going to only do one rack of food, place the food on the top rack.
This is sort of your choice too though. I fine the top rack gets a better flow of wood/smokey
steam than the bottom one. My preference.
10. Close the lid and smoke away...
11. Watch the temp guage. and don't let it get out of range. If you have a "real" one that has degrees
keep it between 250-280deg. If not use whatever your's says is Ideal.
Oh, I almost forgot. When cooking for long periods of time, you will need to clean out the little
hole on the bottom of the charcoal pan. Ashes mount up and can prevent a good airflow from
entering the cooker. What I do is to take a piece of coat-hanger and bend it in an Z shape, then
get down on the ground (floor in mycase because I have it on a bunch of bricks on my screened
poarch) and poke the Z-shaped coat-hanger wire up into the hole in the bottom of the pan a little.
It cleans out the ashes and makes for a good draft again.
As you can see there is a bit of preparation to this water smoking stuff. It is definately worth
the effort. Your friends will love it. It is always a big hit, partly because not everyone will
go through alll the trouble for food preparation. Even through I have not tried it, I am told`
that whole fish like blue fish are out of this world on a water smoker. I'll have to try it some
day.
Marc Green
>In article <CqxpJ...@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>, kwil...@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (kevin wilhite) writes:
>|> In article <2sl9rp$j...@booz.bah.com>, <fer...@jmbpo4.bah.com> wrote:
>|> >
>|> >I just received on old BBQ Smoker and would like to fire it up but a
>|> >question on how it is supposed to work.
>|>
>|>
>|> Charcoal and wood chips for the smoky flavor go on the lower grill
>|> screen. In the pan put some liquid to keep the meat moist. Beer, wine
>|> water, your own concoction whatever makes you happy. The lower pan is
>|> to collect the ashes.
>No, No, No.....
>Charcoal and wood chips go into the lower pan. This pan should have a hole in the
>middle of it for air to enter from it's bottom. The order of things from TOP to bottom is:
>Smoker Lid
>Meat rack no. 1. (grill, screen whatever you wish to call it, I call it a grill/rack)
>Meat rack no. 2.
>Water pan, meat rack no. 2. sits directly on top of this pan.
>Charcoal pan.
>The process is:
[...]
>11. Watch the temp guage. and don't let it get out of range. If you have a "real" one that has degrees
>keep it between 250-280deg. If not use whatever your's says is Ideal.
Good advice until this last point. The temperature you suggest is much to
high. The optimal range is 180-225 deg. Also, never use lighter fluid. The
best method to heat coals I've found is to simply place them on the
bottom grate of my gas grill and turn the thing on. After about 8
minutes, I transfer them to the smoker. It might even be worth buying
on of those little table top gas grills just for this purpose.
One other point. It's not a good idea to do fish in the same smoker as
meat/chicken/pork. The fish taste/smell gets into everything eventually.
Marc Green
Michael Toy
>question on how it is supposed to work. I've got a large weber kettle that I
>use frequently and successfully, but this smoker has me confused. It looks
>like this:
> ________
>/ \
>|________| <----- Cover
>
>|________| <----- Top Grill Screen
>| |
>| \____/ | <----- Pan
>| |
>|________| <----- Lower Grill Screen
>| |
>| |
> \______/ <----- Lower Pan
I have several smokers and am a budding expert. That design looks suspiciously
like the unit I call "R2D2" except that the order, from bottom to top is:
Pan For Coals
Pan For Liquid
Bottom Grill
Top Grill
Cover
I also second the following statements made in this thread:
1) never ever use lighter fluid. you will taste it in the meat,
and lighter fluid does not taste good. I use the newspaper
"starter chimney" that is in all the stores as summer starts,
works great.
2) Keep the temp low. For my favortie BBQ items (briskett &
pork tenderloin) you want it in the low 200's. Any higher
and the meat cooks through before it gets smoky enough.
IMHO you need a thermometer to keep this under control.
Maybe we should start a "BBQ Smoker FAQ"?
-Michael "Briskett King" Toy
Michael Cerreto
hot sauces, smokers, grills and equipment. Visited their shop today. Nice folks.
Peoples Smoke and Grill
75 Mill Street
Cumberland, RI 02864
FAX (401) 421-5120
Phone: (800) 729-5800
Accept Visa Mastercard Discover
I have no connection with this shop, but was glad to find it.
Mike
fer...@jmbpo4.bah.com
From original poster: Thanks for all your helpful posts and e-mails.
I feel like I'm ready to smoke the world... I'll be giving it a
try this weekend.
Not so ignorantly,
Perry
Mike Roberts
|> I also second the following statements made in this thread:
|> 1) never ever use lighter fluid. you will taste it in the meat,
|> and lighter fluid does not taste good. I use the newspaper
|> "starter chimney" that is in all the stores as summer starts,
|> works great.
Well, I use lighter fluid. However, I strongly agree that you will ruin your
meal if you don't let the fluid burn off completely. I use my nose. If I can smell
any trace of it at all, the coals are NOT ready. I made the mistake of going a bit
early ONE time.
|> 2) Keep the temp low. For my favortie BBQ items (briskett &
|> pork tenderloin) you want it in the low 200's. Any higher
|> and the meat cooks through before it gets smoky enough.
|> IMHO you need a thermometer to keep this under control.
Now, for my real reason for a followup.... Mike, do you have any secrets you wish
to share about BBQing pork tenderloin? I have been itching to try one but haven't.
What do you use for spices? Do you rub prior to smoking? How about basting...do you
if so with what? H2O in pan or something else? Clue us in....please.
|> Maybe we should start a "BBQ Smoker FAQ"?
Why not...we have a FAQ on every other topic.....want to start one. I'll contribute.
Regards, and "Good Grillin" Mike Roberts