Controlling heat with my smoker

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OscarBoots
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 09, 2018 8:18 pm

Controlling heat with my smoker

Post by OscarBoots »

Hi Forum,

I'm a keen newbie with little idea how to use my new smoker.

I watched a couple of You Tube videos to get an idea what to do but found I was not getting up to the right temp to cook Brisket or Beef Ribs or the opposite, burning them to a crisp in a couple of hours.

My smoker is an upright smoker split into 3 parts, a link to the smoker is at the site below so you know what I'm working with;

https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/black-3-in ... VCEALw_wcB

Can anyone help me with controlling the heat? I'm using charcoal & I have no idea how much to use & probably use too much as I don't want to run out before the meat is cooked.

I've got a meat thermometer which is supposed to be around 65 celsius for beef ribs (I've read) but I find the heat from the charcoal can fluctuate burning my meat if I leave it for the 6-7 hours I thought it would need.

I'm mainly cooking big beef ribs about 4-6 centimetres thick.

Can anyone give me a run down on the steps I should take & what to watch out for to get nice slow cooked ribs from my smoker?

Thanks
titch
Posts: 5868
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 12:51 pm
Location: Sth East Melbourne

Re: Controlling heat with my smoker

Post by titch »

Your Link is not working for me, but!
if your smoker is a kogan , try and ask them for advise.
Good luck and maybe someone can help, because History says Kogan will not
Cheers
Titch
Davo
Forum Administrator
Posts: 5330
Joined: Sun Jun 15, 2008 2:44 am
Location: Albury NSW on the mighty Murray River

Re: Controlling heat with my smoker

Post by Davo »

Hi and welcome to the forum Oscarboots,

The link you provided didn't work but I think I found the unit you're talking about. It's an upright water smoker for about $70?

Not being able to see the inside of it makes it a little difficult to check out the size of the charcoal basket.

Now if this has a water pan as I think it might....here's what I would do. The object of a water smoker is to take the smoke from the fire which is heating up the waterpan overhead to make steam so that steam will mix with the smoke to help impregnate deeper into the meat as well as act as a heat sink to keep temps stable. Remember water boils at 212F (100C).


To become accustomed to using a live heat source, I suggest using Heat beads in the red bag 4kg/ brown bag 10kg/ Grean bag about 5kgs. Due to the variations of lump charcoal, I suggest to get used to briquettes instead as they are more steady in their burn/ heat capability.


Firstly dump 70% of your charcoal capacity of unlit briquettes, place about 3 fist size chunks of smoking wood ontop of the unlit, kind of bury them a bit in the unlit coal heap, then you'll need to heat a half full charcoal starter chimney untill all the coals are covered with a white ash, then pour evenly over the unlit coals. This is known as the burn down method or Minion Method named after American Champion Comp. BBQer who developed this method for constant longer burn time and a lower overall temp. Then chuck a couple more smoking chunks on top if you have enough clearance under the waterpan.


Keep an eye on the lid temp guage and when it gets to about 180F, close all bottom vents but keep top vent fully open....when the guage stops rising then open up the bottom vents about 20%. When you have a fine smoke coming out of the top vent, then it's time to open the lid and put on your food.now all you gotta do is sit down...crack open a tinnie and relax...just keep an eye on the inside temp of the smoker every 30 minutes at first just to see if you need to make any further adjustments. If the temp goes up...just close the bottom vent just a touch...do the opposite if temp not holding up to the desired result.


Usually one aims for 225F but don't stress if it goes up to 250F.....you're still in the smoking temp zone. 250-300F and you're in slow BBQ mode......300-350F slow roasting mode.....350F380F high roast temp range.....380F and beyond is grilling.

We work a bit with the Farenheit scale due to being a bit easier to work with American techniques and recipes but you can work with the Celcius scale if you want.


Anyway..hope this is useful for you and it's a good base to work from.


The techniques above is how i used my Weber Smokey Mountain water smoker when i had it.


Cheers and Happy BBQing.



Davo
Moderator/ Admin

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OscarBoots
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 09, 2018 8:18 pm

Re: Controlling heat with my smoker

Post by OscarBoots »

Thanks Davo!

That's the sort of advice I'm looking for.

The Smoker has 3 pieces that can each hold a 'Dish' & I have grills to sit on top so I guess they are for the water?

Let me add some photos of what I'm dealing with & hopefully you can steer me in the right direction.

Thanks Again

Pete (Oscar is my dog & 'Boots' is his nickname)
titch
Posts: 5868
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 12:51 pm
Location: Sth East Melbourne

Re: Controlling heat with my smoker

Post by titch »

Ok
See if this site may help you.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-us ... ker-333607
have never used one of them
Cheers
Titch
Angryman65
Posts: 397
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2013 3:47 pm
Location: Batemans Bay

Re: Controlling heat with my smoker

Post by Angryman65 »

Oscarboots,

This link may also help. It's the instructions for the ProQ which is a three part upright charcoal smoker. They all work on the same principle. The one in this manual is possibly closer to the style of the one you've got.

https://www.barbequesgalore.com.au/medi ... smoker.pdf

Practice makes perfect and don't be disheartened by a couple of cooks that don't go to plan in the early part of the BBQ journey, we have all had them.
Vegetarian is an old Indian word for bad hunter.
OscarBoots
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 09, 2018 8:18 pm

Re: Controlling heat with my smoker

Post by OscarBoots »

Thanks Titch & Davo,

I've got some pics of my 4th attempt with beef ribs.

I think I controlled the temp better by watching it & opening the doors as necc.

Mine is a 3 piece stack so I had them in this order:

The bottom holds a pan with the charcoal

The second piece doesn't hold anything

The third piece holds the water pan with a rack of the ribs

Then there's the lid.

Have I built this stack in the proper way?

The ribs had a rub on them & I started basting them with sauce after about an hour.

I noticed the water didn't boil away even after 6 hours.

The end result was the ribs were still a bit chewy but the meat had pulled back from the bones.

At some point, should I have wrapped the ribs in foil & put them back in?

Any suggestions welcome.

I have pics but can't upload due to size, am I able to upload JPGs to the forum?

Thanks
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