Mike Scrutchfield (mikes@gvi.net)
Fri, 22 Dec 1995 15:46:05 -0700
Jack, If you are having to baby sit your smoker, you are probably
not building a large enough initial fire. First of all it seems
as if you maybe are trying to cook with straight wood. Forget
that nonsense! One of the best cookers I know is Jeff Stehney
with Slaughterhouse 5. He always cooks on a big, side fire box
Okla.Joe, and I know for a fact he uses a lot of charcoal, and
I mean a lot. Build yourself a good charcoal based fire, white
hot, well in advance (1 hour at least) of
your anticipated cooking start time. As soon as the charcoal is
white hot, add the smoke wood flavor desired, shut down the air
supply for the fire box to just a trickle, leaving the stack wide
open. After a while you'll see the cooker start to calm down and
start cooling down. Once you open it back up to put the meat
on it's going to cool down even more. From that point on you need
to start opening the air vents and spoon feed the fire until the
cooker runs up to the desired cooking temperature, and then you
will find that you still have plenty of fuel left to run at a
constant temperature. What I have just explained are basics.
Every smoker cooks a little different, but if it wont cook this
way, trash it! Remember, more charcoal, less wood, lots of patience,
and plenty of practice are the key ingredients to kick ass BBQ.
On ham and Turkey I would use a 50/50 mix of Oak and Cherry for
flavor. Only cook a pre-cooked ham and smoke it until the internal
temp. gets to 150 degrees. 4 hrs.? Turkey, see my letter from
yesterday to the fellow from overseas. White Meat 150 degrees,
Dark 175-180 degrees. One thing you'll find out about me, is
that I always got an instant read
digital thermometer in my shirt pocket. I even poke rib and monitor
to a finish temp! Temperature of both the oven and the meat must
be known at all times and finished temperatures are the most important
to tenderness. Practice makes perfect, my first year of competitive
BBQ'ing I cooked 231 days, something, getting to know my cookers,
meats,
seasonings, and smoke woods! And I logged all of my results. But
then not too many people are as crazy as me, and obsessed with
being as competitive as I've come to be!
Good luck on Christmas dinner!