Part of learning this was adjusting the air intake on the firebox and the cover on the smokestack. Which wound up being downright strange:
One day I'd gotten a good fire going, it was ready to put the meat on except it was running about a hundred degrees hot. Aha, says I, and fiddled with those adjustments, which had no results. More fiddling, and with the intake closed and the smokestack with just a little sliver open, it got to a perfect 225 degrees(assuming that gauge is correct) and sat there. The charcoal burned longer, lots of tasty smoke produced, and the brisket... oh, it was good.
I think there's enough air leakage around the intake and the doors that it takes that much restriction to get the temp I wanted, which is find now that I knew it.
One day I'd gotten a good fire going, it was ready to put the meat on except it was running about a hundred degrees hot. Aha, says I, and fiddled with those adjustments, which had no results. More fiddling, and with the intake closed and the smokestack with just a little sliver open, it got to a perfect 225 degrees(assuming that gauge is correct) and sat there. The charcoal burned longer, lots of tasty smoke produced, and the brisket... oh, it was good.
I think there's enough air leakage around the intake and the doors that it takes that much restriction to get the temp I wanted, which is find now that I knew it.
One more thing: guy I used to know had grown up in a restaurant family and done a lot of cooking, one day mentioned that with most meat 1-2 hours of smoking will give you all the smoke flavor you'll generally get; after that you can cover it tightly in a pan and finish it in the oven. Which seems to work nicely.
One last thing: I don't care for briquets, they leave a huge amount of ash, so some years ago I bought a bag of raw charcoal and never wen't back. Check around to find it, the best price I've had locally is at a big restaurant supply store, 40 pounds of mesquite for about $20 last time I bought(I'll probably be shocked next time, it's been a while).
2 comments:
If you have an Ace Hardware around, they carry good charcoal too. Not sure it's that cheap, but it clinks like glass when you shake the bag, which is what I'm looking for in my Japanese grilling, like yakitori.
Stop micro managing the fire. Let that sucker roll. I don't have time to cook at 225, 300 /350 is fine by me. I'll put the meat on & don't worry about it for an hour or so, the meat will bring the temp down & then the temp will stabilize. I'm using a Weber Smokey Mountain & it's mostly hands free after it settles down. Who can afford brisket?
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