Picked up this old charcoal smoker from a family member yesterday. Planning on cleaning it up and learning how to use it. Any recommendations on how I can start learning to use this thing or tips you’d want to pass along? I’m brand new to smoking
by Gup_Drummer
18 Comments
Give it a good clean then Google that smoker – lots of info on it out there and very mixed results. If it was free, I’d give it a few uses but would also be pretty willing to throw it away or post it on Craigslist
Rack of ribs, mesquite/hickory, (mesquickory) wood chips, some pineapple juice. 225f for 3 hours
Do a pork butt/shoulder first. It’ll be super forgiving if your smoking temps are off, so you’ll have an opportunity to start to figure out how the smoker works while still making something you’ll be able to enjoy. I usually smoke between 225F and 275F but honestly with pork shoulder you don’t need to worry too much if it ends up going into the 300s. Try for a thin white smoke. Too much smoke and you’ll end up with a bitter flavor. Get the meat internally to 205F, so it pulls apart really nicely. Anything under that and it won’t pull apart. Good luck, and enjoy
S M O K E T H E S E M E A T S
Smoke that shit
With all due respect, I would most definitely not recommend you start with a pork butt/shoulder for your first smoke.
Before trying something that ambitious, you need to learn how your smoker works. It takes a while to get the hang of it. You need to know what charcoal to use, and how long it lasts before you need to replenish it.
Definitely ask the family member who turned you on to it for advice. They know the idiosyncrasies of that model.
And search online for information on that particular model or similar models.
When I started out I joined an online smoking forum. I read everything obsessively. It was all very helpful but in the end I learned the most by trial and error. And let me tell you, there was lots of error.
You will be much better off starting small.
Smoke some chicken thighs or wings. Maybe smoke some sausage or a meatloaf. Much lower cost than doing a butt or any large chunk of meat. Lowers the stress too.
For your first few attempts, you want to smoke something that doesn’t take a super long time to finish. You will learn a lot each time you smoke.
After you master the fire, and know how to maintain a consistent temperature, then you can move up to a pork butt.
Best of luck to you! It’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun once you get up to speed.
If this is what I think it is, i had one, with a different name, and it was black….
Check that the bottom is actually closed off. From what it looks to me, it is completely open on the bottom. This will not allow an extended or controlled temp smoke. The side door indicates that it will require adding more briquettes to do an extended smoke. It will be a good smoker for burgers or chicken. Possibly, you could do ribs, but you will be adding briquettes, for sure. It will give you smoked flavor, but you won’t be able to control temps very well. All I’ve stated is if it’s an open bottom smoker like it looks like. Good luck, free is free, you can get a start with it. Look into UDS smokers @ r/UglyDrumSmokers
First time using one of those I cooked a tri tip using mesquite kingsford charcoal and it was the best one I ever made
Make a fire!
Bring to heat and sacrifice a half loaf of bread, place the bread over all the grate, cook for seven minutes and as you take the bread off lay it upside down just as you pulled it so you can see your heat zones
That was my very first smoker! Worked great, got food poisoning once from chicken cooked on it while learning and used to fold my briskets to them fit. We had many battles together.
Start with a pork shoulder. It’s very forgiving and a good way to start.
Clean it and then burn a hot fire in it with no food. Once it’s cleansed in fire, grab a chuck roast or a pork shoulder and start fucking around.
TURN IT INTO A MINION
Ribs were my start. They’re forgiving.
You can undercook them, but it’s hard to overcook them.
Put something cheap with some fat on it in that bad boy.
Spatchcock chicken anyone?
My first (and second) units were water smokers – you can get good results but I find them more difficult than offset smokers.
Do some research- I used “smoke and spice” as a guide when I started- but that was before the internet
Read up and go for it.
Try to find charcoal that doesn’t have petroleum products in it – you want briquettes that are wood and vegetable matter only
I just got one too. Let me know what good recipes you come up with.
Take out the grates, charcoal & water pans, then throw the rest of it away. This is the same design as the Brinkmann and it’s a pos.
It’s an open bottom, where you pour charcoal into a pan with no air flow to the coals, a water pan that causes even more air restriction and you’ll ruin any meat you put on it.
The only saving grace about this unit is that the charcoal pan holds 2 gallons of water and fits perfectly into the 18.5″ WSM with stock ledges where as the stock WSM water pan is shallow and not very secure. It falls off the ledges very easily.
Save your money and buy a proper smoker. Hell, even the electric Little & Big Chief smokers are better than this pos.
You have been warned.