Use a Charcoal Smoker
Smoked and barbecued foods are as much a part of summer as baseball and apple pie. Often, people are apprehensive to attempt smoking their own meats. But, with a little bit of knowledge, the process can be quite simple to learn. Here are some tips to use when using a charcoal smoker to smoke meats and vegetables for a cookout.
Steps
- Prepare your charcoal pan. Remove the charcoal pan from the smoker and fill it half full with charcoal briquettes. You may choose to use regular briquettes or flavored ones. Charcoal flavored with mesquite or cherry wood is popular for use in smokers. These special charcoals give your food a bit more flavor. Also, keep in mind that you can put small pieces of wood in your charcoal pan. Pecan, cherry and hickory woods are often used in smokers. Wood should be moistened and wrapped in tin foil when placed on a bed of coals.
- Light the charcoal. After the charcoal has had a chance to burn a few minutes, slowly add more briquettes. Allow the charcoal to burn a few minutes. Make sure all briquettes catch on fire before replacing the pan into the smoker.
- Insert the charcoal pan back into the smoker. Do this slowly so as to not upset the distribution of charcoal briquettes or put out the fire.
- Fill the water pan 3/4 full with water. Put it back into the smoker. The water pan is usually in the center section of the smoker and is used to help regulate the distribution and temperature of the heat. Without the water pan, you won't get as much vapor, which helps to evenly cook your meat and vegetables.
- Place food on the grill grates. If your smoker has more than one grate, put the smaller items and vegetables on the top grate. The top grate gets less heat than the lower one. Distribute the larger pieces of meat on the bottom or lower grate.
- Close the lid and open the vents. One vent is strictly for the ventilation of the smoke. The second vent is to help provide ventilation and fresh oxygen for your fire. Regulate both vents depending on the what the smoker needs. If the fire is waning, open the fire vent more. If the meat seems to be smoking faster than you anticipate, open the other vent to provide increased ventilation.
- Check the meat as infrequently as possible. The more times you open the smoker lid, the more smoke and heat escape. While it's important to check on your meat periodically, refrain from opening the lid every few minutes.
- Allow the meat and vegetables to smoke longer on your smoker than you would allow them to sit on your grill. Since they are being cooked by an indirect heat source, they will take much longer than when being grilled. Exercise patience when smoking meat.
Video
Template:Video:Use a Charcoal Smoker
Things You'll Need
- Charcoal
- Matches or lighter
- Water
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