Basic Barbecue or Smoker Tips

I am going to keep this VERY basic; I use a NBBD (people who are experienced with smokers know this term) offset smoker, I was lucky enough to get my hands on an original version, even though I had no idea what is was at the time. Anyway I am still in the learning stages of cooking with it, I have done extensive reading online before even attempting to use it barbecue and found there is a ton of good information out there, sometimes to much. The first thing I did was making the modifications that were recommended for my model smoker.

Tip 1: Start with regular charcoal briquettes:

The first time I attempted to use my smoker I used natural lump charcoal. I could not get the temperature low enough, it stayed around the 290 degree level and I could not get it any lower. The next attempt when I used regular Kingsford charcoal the temperature remained in the 220 to 240 ranges without any changes in the smoker.

Tip 2: Cook a chicken on your first attempt:

Chickens are a relatively inexpensive way to learn how to use your smoker. You really would hate to mess up large expensive cut of meat. There is no real benefit to cooking chicken low and slow so you will not screw it up if it gets to hot. You can make adjustments and learn your smoker. When you are confident in your ability to control your temperature move to a large piece of pork (or beef), contrary to popular belief a large cut of meat is harder to mess up then smaller cuts.

Tip 3: Make one change at a time and wait 20 minutes:

Any change you make to increase or decrease the temperature will take a minimum of 20 minutes to take full effect. One small change (.25 to .50 of an inch) in the firebox vent can change the temperature 20 to 40 degrees. Patience is a virtue here, it can take up to an hour just to get fire right before placing your food on so take your time and do it right.

Tip 4: Smoker Placement will effect the cooking temperature:

Try to place your smoker in an area that will either be in constant shade or constant sunlight. Think about it your smoker is a black metal tube, if left out in the sun the inside temperature will get over 120 degrees on a warm day, without any fire. The temperature in my smoker dropped by 30 degrees when the shadow of my garage covered it, at first I had no idea why the rapid drop in temperature.