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Difficulty: Beginner
A smoker barbecue can cook mouth-watering food, but taking some time to prepare your smoker for a big cook-up is essential. This step-by-step guide is for an offset smoker, where the fire chamber is off to the side, leaving plenty of room in the food chamber for big pieces of meat.
Video Tutorial
Steps
Step 1
Fire up a chimney starter with a full load of lump charcoal. This is going to start the bed of coals that you build your fire on.
Step 2
Ensure the vents on your offset’s firebox are half open. Then tip the lit charcoal into the firebox and push towards the back. You want to keep the front clear to preheat your wood.
Add some smaller pieces of wood to the fire and place two larger logs away from the fire at the front of the firebox to preheat. Now close the lid.
Step 3
After five to 10 minutes, lift the lid. Using tongs, place the two preheated logs onto the fire. They will light quickly. Place another log at the front of the firebox to preheat.
Close the lid and let your fire build. The smoke will start white but eventually thin out.
Step 4
Watch your temperature gauge for the desired temperature and use your vents to control airflow and stabilise it. You are looking for blue smoke before cooking – very thin smoke that is almost invisible. Too much white smoke can overpower meat and result in an unpleasant taste.
Step 5
Once stable, repeat the process of adding a log and preheating during the cook. Depending on the insulation in your smoker, the amount of air, the thickness of the steel and the outside temperature, the logs will burn at different rates. Typically, I add a new log every 30 to 45 minutes.
Materials
- Lump charcoal
- Ironwood or similar hardwood splits (logs)
Tools
- Offset smoker barbecue
- Tongs to handle wood and charcoal
- Barbecue chimney starter
