How to Cook on a Brinkman Smoker

Preparing meat with a Brinkman Smoker is a task that can be easily accomplished, but you will need a large amount of time, as smoking meat is a slower process than direct grilling. There are two types of Brinkman Smokers. One model features a detached firebox while the other model allows wood chips to be added inside the cooking area. Using a detached firebox allows you to monitor your fire and smoke coming from the wood chips without losing the heat in the cooking area.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Start your cooking process even before you start the fire in your Brinkman smoker. To begin, place a rub on the meat you will be smoking on your Brinkman Smoker. Let it sit for a few hours to let the seasonings flavor the meat. During this time, cover your wood chips in a bowl with water 1 inch above the wood chip level to soak the chips.

2. Start a fire in the Brinkman smoker. Brinkman smokers include both offset fireboxes that are not in the portion of the smoker where the meat is placed and one-unit devices where the fire is started below the meat.
   
   If starting the fire below the meat, use hardwood or charcoal, and push them to the sides of the grill once they are coated with gray ash. Place an aluminum drip pan under the center portion of the cooking area on your Brinkman Smoker, even with an offset firebox, to catch the liquids from the meat as they drip.

3. Place the meat in the smoker on the grilling surface, and place the wood chips either over the charcoal and hardwood in the main grilling area or in the offset firebox. Close the lid and do not open it unless you must, and that's to add wood chips during the cooking process to a Brinkman Smoker that does not have an offset firebox.

4. Continue adding wood chips to the offset firebox during the cooking time. You can open the firebox as often as you wish as it will not reduce the heat in the cooking area of the Brinkman Smoker. If you have a Brinkman Smoker with one chamber for placing the wood chips and the meat, limit adding wood chips to once per hour.

5. Avoid lifting the lid to check in on the smoking chamber where the meat is. This will allow both the smoke and the heat to escape. Both are essential to use your smoker properly.

6. Apply barbecue sauce to the meat 1 hour before the meat needs to be done. Apply the sauce quickly to avoid having the lid of your Brinkman Smoker open too long and having the heat and smoke escape. The temperature in a smoker is lower than a typical grill that uses direct heat.

7. Test your meat after the anticipated cooking time using a meat thermometer. Make sure your meat is at least 160 degrees for medium doneness and more than 170 degrees for medium-well. Close the lid if it needs to continue cooking.

Tips & Warnings

• Apply the rub liberally on your meat. You do not have to worry about the rub burning on your meat like you would when doing direct cooking with high heat. Using a Brinkman smoker results in a low-cooking temperature around 250 to 300 degrees.
• If you need to add additional charcoal or hardwood for fuel while smoking, use a chimney starter to light these. Keep all children away from the chimney starters as they will be hot.

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[shell55]

on 4/20/2009 I am very dissapointed with this smoker, it doesn't get hot enough! The amount of wood that it is going to take to make this get hot enough is a tree at least, and with that tiny pan in the bottom is just a joke! Maybe enough to cook a chicken wing.