Smoking Food

I just got a charcoal smoker and am antsy to try it out.  This smoker includes a water pan, which keeps the meat moist and tender by steaming and smoking consecutively.  There are several different types of smokers out there, but this post is going to be specific to the charcoal smoker.

To get going load your smoker with charcoal and soak them with lighter fluid.  Let the lighter fluid soak in for several minutes to fully saturate the charcoal.  Once the lighter fluid has sufficiently soaked in, you can light it up and let it burn for roughly 20 minutes to build up the heat you need.  An important thing to keep in mind when using a charcoal smoker is the temperature needs to stay around 175 - 200 degrees.

Once the charcoal has burned down into ash, put the water in the pan. I recommend boiling the water beforehand; you wont have to wait for the water to heat up, or for the smoker to start working.  Once the water is in the pan, place your meat on the racks and add wood chips to the charcoal pan.

It's best to pre-soak the chips for a couple hours, which will cause it to smoke longer and release more flavor.  Also note that the more chips you put on the heat, the stronger the flavor will be.

If you need to raise the temperature, try adding dry chips. Just know that while they will burn hotter they will also burn faster.