Tip for owners of wood-burning smokers with an offset firebox...
 

I made one of these.

I loaded it with 4 lbs. of lump charcoal and a couple of small chunks of wood to season it this morning. Opened the damper all the way up and viola, the thing burned for just over 3 hours at 310 degrees, and I never touched it ONCE.

Well worth it, I must say.

Pic

Looks sweet man, I am envious. I am in the process of planning a permanent pit BBQ/smoker in my back yard. It'll be awhile but once I get the time to do it, it is gonna be sweet.

I was having problems with having deadspots (no fire) in my firebox. The grate that came with my smoker has 2" gaps in it, and I found that as the lump charcoal/wood burned down, it was falling through the grate and restricting airflow.

The bottom of that basket has like 3/4" gaps and sits a full 2.5" off the bottom of the firebox. So the airflow is absolutely perfect.

I'm guessing that with 4 pounds of lump and a few pieces of wood, I could close the damper to 1/2 and it would burn at 200 degrees for several hours.

That is a simple but ingenious solution to your problem. I have done some smoking but not a whole lot preferring to BBQ most of what I cook low and slow without smoke. I'll smoke a couple whole chickens or a turkey once in awhile, or if I find a deal on fresh salmon at the store do some of that up. I have always wanted to get an offset smoker just because the offset firebox would also allow me to BBQ without smoke at a good constant temp without the need to add fuel every so often. I generally do beef and poultry when I BBQ, especially brisket.

Yeah if you want to BBQ without smoke (note: I consider this blasphemy. :D) all you'd need to do is burn lump charcoal instead of wood.

As for meat, for me there's pork and there's everything else.

I used to love a good rack of ribs but I no longer eat pork. :(

I read somewhere on the internet that the beef council developed a rib product from cows. Can you believe that?

Speaking of pork, you know it's Memorial Day in Big Derrty when the whole fugging world smells like pork steak and fugging Mauls.

Die. Today. :cuss: :bang: :p

ROFL

Honestly, I can't stand beef ribs.

I did have a nice plate of Italian-spiced lamb chops last night, served with grilled green beens and a salad with feta and kalamata olives...

Yeah - I'm not a big fan either. Lamb chops are pretty slick, though. Sounds delightful.

All the smoker talk on the Planet got me motivated yesterday. I smoked two slabs of baby backs and a whole chicken. My wife likes the chicken and I am getting ready to finish off the ribs. :drool: Going to do a little twelve pound turkey tomorrow.

I usually do ribs and chicken too. Ribs are pretty pricey, so I use the chicken as "filler".

htis:

I'd seen those fireboxes on the web and thought they were a great idea. How did you fab it? Do you have a metal shop?

Agreed, and it kind of spreads the cost of the coals over more meat. Where do you get the solid chunk of charcoal you referred to? I had not heard of that before. :doh!:

My dad has a metal shop. He did most of the work - I did the "engineering". :D

Mine is slightly different from the one pictured - it's welded/soldered together instead of rivets.

That, and it evens out the cost of the meal. I usually do chicken and pork butts to fill people up because they're cheaper. I use the ribs kind of like an appetizer.

You can buy it just about anywhere. I bought some Saturday at Menard's. It's basically just pre-burned wood, so it doesn't have the coal or other additives of regular charcoal.

Here's the lump I usually buy at Wal-Mart.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpdatabase/lumpbag10.htm

Hey thanks, I will go get some this morning, just put the last of my charcoal on with the turkey. It is already smoking pretty nicely. I am using a mixture of mesquite and hickory for the smoke.
I have eaten so many ribs that last couple of days that I am looking forward to the turkey. Going to put some salmon chunks on about noon. :p

I purchased some of this yesterday, thanks. I noticed in another thread that you referred to a "rub" for the meat. Have you divulged your recipe, or a link for some guidence here?
I have always just salt and peppered and let the smoke fly. Turned out really good, but always looking to improve. :hmmm:

That looks sweet Parker. :thumb:

I am now an official smoker fan after smoking my very first brisket. Very easy to do and tasted great.

Just curious though, when you smoke ribs and chicken do you smoke them the same amount of time? Also do you set the chicken on the grate or over a beer can?

Thanks for your help.

For a rub, here's a recipe that I tried last weekend with good results:

2 Tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp coarse black pepper
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garlic powder

Here's a mop that I picked up from Food Network that works well too:

12 oz beer
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp minced jalapeno chiles

For the mop, all you have to do is cook it over low heat for about 5 minutes, and it's good to go. If you don't want to make a sauce from scratch, you can mix 1/2 cup of the mop, 1 Tbsp of chile powder, and 1 cup of a prepared BBQ sauce, and after bringing the mixture to a boil, you end up with a good passing sauce. I tried this with some KC Masterpiece, and everyone that I had over really liked it.

Well, for me, the rub is a 2-step process that includes a "wet" rub and a "dry" rub.

The wet rub consists of yellow mustard, fruit juice, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. I coat the meat with that first.

Then I put on the dry rub, which is granulated sugar, seasoned salt, paprika, cayenne, and a couple of other spices.

The mustard really helps the dry ingredients penetrate the meat, but the meat doesn't at all taste like mustard after it's cooked because of evaporation.

Is that considered a hot box?

Honestly, I cook stuff until it's "done". I don't use a thermometer or anything, I can just tell by looking at it or touching it. Usually, the chicken and ribs are done about the same time. A butt takes a bit longer. And no, I don't put the chicken on anything special. I also don't cook whole chickens "as is". I either buy parts or I butterfly them so that they lay flat.

I call it a charcoal basket. You can call it whatever you want. ;)

Thanks a lot, what is Cumin? :hmmm:


Thank you, I will try it this weekend. :drool:

Cumin is what gives Chili Powder it's unique flavor.

http://www.mccormick.com/content.cfm?id=8203

OK... so somebody hook me up with a good smoked turkey recipe. I'm probably going to do it this weekend. I've never smoked a turkey before, so help out!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/reci..._11125,00.html

Leaving aside the issue of cooking ribs indoors, has anyone tried Alton Brown's ratio of 8:3:1:1, or his idea to reduce the wet rub to make a glaze.

I smoked one yesterday, it turned out really good. It went on at 6:00 am and we were eating it at 3:00. I just put an onion inside it, salt and pepper. That is all.

I prefer turkey with just a bit of garlic salt and pepper. Turkey actually does better on the smoker without much flavoring, IMO.

Thanks for the help.

I did my first beer can chicken a couple of weeks ago. It was ok I was just curious how everyone smoked their chicken.

Man I am hungry now...again.

Really? How big was your turkey? I was under the impression it took around 12-14 hrs to smoke a turkey.

It's really all about the thickness of the meat. A turkey is big, but the biggest hunk of meat (the breast) isn't all that thick. You just need to make sure that the turkey is plenty exposed. If you spread it out good before putting it on (like butterflying it the way I do chicken) it will cook alot faster.

seems like someone should give you a nickname...........

Well, if I ever make it to the competition circuit, I've already used your nickname for the name of my team.

So there, bitch. :p

14 lbs. I thought it was twelve at first, but it was 14. It was fresh, not frozen, I don't think that has anything to do with it though. It had one of those handy dandy pop-up things in the breast that tells you it is done. I did not even open the smoker until six hours had gone by, it was looking pretty well along then.

Actually fresh vs. frozen has a TON to do with it.

It's got something to do with physics, I can't adequately explain it, but it's about displacement. If you add 14 pounds of turkey that's 32 degrees, you've just displaced the corresponding air that was 225 degrees.

So, the overall mass of your meat and it's temperature makes a huge differrence, especially in the 1st hour or so.

I always make sure my meat is not frozen and further, I let it sit out for and hour or 2 before putting it on so that's it's almost room temperature.

I am learning a lot here. So you are saying that a fresh turkey will cook faster than a totally thawed out previously frozen turkey? This is the first totally fresh one I have smoked, all of the previous ones were thawed out from being frozen. This one did seem to cook faster as you say. :hmmm:

I think he's saying, regardless of whether it was originally fresh or frozen, putting it in at room temperature will greatly reduce cooking time over putting it in there frozen or near frozen.

I will start doing that, I usually take the meat straight from the frig. Have always been kind of hesitant to leave poultry out.
Going to do some more pork ribs this weekend. I bought them fresh but then stuck them in the freezer. I will let them come up to room temp as suggested. :thumb:

Not only will a frozen slab of meat cook slower, but it will also cause the meat around it to cook slower.

It will also cause you to burn (waste) fuel trying to keep the heat up because that cold mass is bringing your temp down.

Another way to offset the heat loss of putting the meat on is to put a couple of fire bricks in the cooking chamber. They absorb heat and stay hot forever. Their mass counteracts the mass of the cold meat.

By the way, leaving thawed chicken in the fridge does nothing for you. Keeping the meat at 45-50 degrees doesn't inhibit the growth of salmonella bacteria the way you think it would. You're just as safe putting it out on the counter (just not too long) since it will also cook better the warmer it is.

Another reason to let your meat come to room temperature before putting it on the smoker is to avoid condesation of creosote on the surface of the meat. Creosote is the tar like subtance that builds up in your chimney. Now I'm not saying your meat will be coved with tar, but a little condensation of smoke can contribute some nasty flavors that can be largely avoided by bringing your meat to room temperature.

Yep, you're right. I forgot about that.

And a little creosote can flavor the meat (in a bad way) to the point that it's inedible.

We are probably overly cautious about salmonella at our house. If in doubt, throw it out. I got food poisoning twice from restaurants one year, traveling a lot. I spent two days wrapped up in a blanket in Kingman Arizona hoping to fugging die.

I had never heard this, thanks.

I am kind of pumped about trying all of this out now, thanks.

I know what you mean...I'm thinking of taking a day off just so I can fire up the smoker and put on some slabs...

Hey, that sounds an awful lot like the past 2 weeks in my life.

I hear you, hopefully it will all come out well in the ENDelt. Once you get home with Pink, all will be good!

htismaqe: I'm going to cook up some ribs Saturday and plan to try your mustard wet/dry rub system. Do you leave the rub on overnight?

thanks for finding this thread cdcox, I wanted to write some of these recipes down. :thumb: