Ive been surfing this site for some time and just now saw the meat smoking thread. TO make BBQ you can be every bit as meticulous as brewing beer. At minimum edible bbq should take the same amount of work as a partial mash extract brew.
When you are BBQ'ing just as with brewing, temprature is everything. Alot of people use a thermometer in their cooking chamber but this takes a reading at one point in the cooking chamber. A smoker can be tuned just like a brew rig can to give you much better performance. If you use a wal mart smoker or the like they usually have a giant variation in temps inside the cooking side. If you really want a good consistent cooker then make the top of your opening even with your smoke stack. Its easy to buy some of that hotwater heater exhaust stack at lowes and slide it on inside where the stack is and that way your stack is even with your food grate. If you dont have a way of making the opening to the firebox level with the food grate, at least stick a small loaf pan on the grate all the way to the side with the fire box on it. This will cause the heat to flow through the cooking side better and draw the smoke straight across the meat.
I have an infrared thermo and i can shoot the different spots in the cooking side and see where the temps are compare with what they read on your thermo on your lid or whatever. If you dont have one simply take one of your meat thermometers and stick it in a wine cork and sit on your food grate. This keeps the thermo from toucing the metal of the grate and will give you an accurate reading. This way you can move it aorund and learn/tune your cooker up. Make different adjustments and see how it affects your temp in different places.
The main rule is that any adjustment you make to your dampers, it will take 15 minutes to affect the temp in your cook side. Everytime you open the lid you extend your cook time by 15-20 minutes. So dont open the lid till its time to pull your meat out.
You DO NOT WANT HEAVY SMOKE EVER. Heavy smoke will build up creosote! At any given time you should have a slight blue plume coming out of your stack. So play around with with how much wood you need to get the heat you need and the smoke you need. Just as with your brew rig, play around before you actually get to going and learn how YOUR rig works. You dont need any more than about three sticks of wood in a wal mart type smoker, and only one if you have some charcoal in there.
BBQ, like brewing beer should take at least 6 or 8 hours if not more.
shoot for around 200 degrees and you will be fine because you will get dips and spikes.
Learn Temprature control.
When you are BBQ'ing just as with brewing, temprature is everything. Alot of people use a thermometer in their cooking chamber but this takes a reading at one point in the cooking chamber. A smoker can be tuned just like a brew rig can to give you much better performance. If you use a wal mart smoker or the like they usually have a giant variation in temps inside the cooking side. If you really want a good consistent cooker then make the top of your opening even with your smoke stack. Its easy to buy some of that hotwater heater exhaust stack at lowes and slide it on inside where the stack is and that way your stack is even with your food grate. If you dont have a way of making the opening to the firebox level with the food grate, at least stick a small loaf pan on the grate all the way to the side with the fire box on it. This will cause the heat to flow through the cooking side better and draw the smoke straight across the meat.
I have an infrared thermo and i can shoot the different spots in the cooking side and see where the temps are compare with what they read on your thermo on your lid or whatever. If you dont have one simply take one of your meat thermometers and stick it in a wine cork and sit on your food grate. This keeps the thermo from toucing the metal of the grate and will give you an accurate reading. This way you can move it aorund and learn/tune your cooker up. Make different adjustments and see how it affects your temp in different places.
The main rule is that any adjustment you make to your dampers, it will take 15 minutes to affect the temp in your cook side. Everytime you open the lid you extend your cook time by 15-20 minutes. So dont open the lid till its time to pull your meat out.
You DO NOT WANT HEAVY SMOKE EVER. Heavy smoke will build up creosote! At any given time you should have a slight blue plume coming out of your stack. So play around with with how much wood you need to get the heat you need and the smoke you need. Just as with your brew rig, play around before you actually get to going and learn how YOUR rig works. You dont need any more than about three sticks of wood in a wal mart type smoker, and only one if you have some charcoal in there.
BBQ, like brewing beer should take at least 6 or 8 hours if not more.
shoot for around 200 degrees and you will be fine because you will get dips and spikes.
Learn Temprature control.