How to Use a Smoker for Cooking

A smoker allows its user to cook and smoke meats and other food items at a low temperature, typically well below 300 degrees F, for several hours at a time. If done right, smoking food provides a unique and irresistible flavor. The key to successfully using a smoker is patience and maintaining a low cooking temperature by opening and closing the smoker's vents.

Things You'll Need

• Charcoal briquettes
• Chimney starter
• Newspaper
• Match
• Hardwood pieces

Instructions

1. Light the charcoal briquettes and add them to the bottom section of the smoker, sometimes referred to as the "charcoal bowl." To light the briquettes, fill a chimney starter with briquettes until full. Stuff the bottom portion of the chimney starter with some newspaper. Place the chimney starter on top of charcoal grate within the charcoal bowl. Light the newspaper at the bottom of the chimney starter with a match, then wait until the coals are covered with gray ash. Pour the lit briquettes onto the top of the charcoal grate.

2. Fill the water pan with approximately 1 gallon of water, then lower the water pan onto the lower brackets located in the center of the middle section of the smoker. Place the cooking grate onto the brackets just above the water pan.

3. Place a few fist-sized pieces of hardwood on top of the charcoal briquettes. There is no absolute correct or incorrect type of wood to use. Each type of hardwood produces a different taste. However, hickory and mesquite are the two most common types. Hickory is generally best when cooking pork, beef, wild game and chicken, while mesquite is most often used exclusively for vegetables and most types of meat.

4. Lower the middle section onto the top of the charcoal bowl, then place the items to be cooked onto the cooking grate. Lower the smoker's lid onto the top of the middle section. Note the two circular vents on the smoker: one on the charcoal bowl and the other on the lid. These vents are used to control the temperature within the smoker. Open vents allow more oxygen to enter the smoker, and therefore increase the temperature. Close both vents half-way, then open or close them later as needed. The temperature should be regulated between 225 degrees F to 250 degrees F.

5. Allow the meat to smoke for several hours. If a cooking time of longer than 6 hours is necessary, the charcoal briquettes and hardwood pieces probably will need to be periodically replenished. To do so, simply open the door on the side of the middle portion of the smoker and add the briquettes and wood chunks as needed.

References

• Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue; Cheryl Jamison and Bill Jamison; 2003
• Weber's Big Book of Grilling; Jamie Purviance and Sandra McRae; 2001
• The Art of Grill & Smoker Cooking: A Practical Guide to Backyard Cooking; John Matthews and James Van Treese; 1994