Tips For Using Your Smoker For The First Time
If you love the flavor of smoked food, you probably can't wait to use your very own smoker! The first time is always a little touch-and-go as you figure out how to use your smoker to its fullest. However, you can smooth the whole process out and get better results if you follow these tips the first time you use your smoker.
1. Choose meat with a medium smoke time.
Eventually, you may love making a 24-hour smoked pork butt or a 36-hour brisket. But for your first cook, you are better off starting with something that has a somewhat shorter smoke time. Ribs, which are great when smoked for 6 to 12 hours, are a good choice. You could smoke half chickens for about 6 to 10 hours, depending on your recipe. Pork chops are a good choice, too. This way, you can hammer out the little details without having to wait quite as long.
2. Pick a milder wood to smoke with.
Your first time around, you won't be sure how many wood chunks or pellets to use in order to give your food the desired level of smokiness. If you use a wood known for its milder smoke, you'll have more room for error. Stay away from mesquite and hickory for now; it's really easy to use a bit too much and end up with food that's too smoky. Applewood, alder, and cherry wood are all milder woods. If you use a bit too much, your food might be a bit smokier than you'd like, but it will still be delicious and quite edible.
3. Take the time to moisten your wood chunks.
Some experienced smokers don't bother to soak their wood chunks. They know how to control the temperature and keep the wood from burning up even when it's dry. But as someone who is new to using a smoker, you probably don't have these skills yet. So, take the time to soak your wood chunks. Soaking them for an hour or two is enough. But if your schedule makes it easier for you to smoke them a bit longer, then that's fine. The water will help ensure your wood chunks do not catch flame and instead generate lots of tasty smoke for you.
4. Calibrate your thermometer.
Ideally, a smoker would come with a properly calibrated thermometer. But you never know if the thermometer may have been bumped during shipping or if it may have fallen out of calibration while you were assembling the smoker. So, check your thermometer to make sure it's accurate before you begin smoking. The easiest way to do this is to submerge the thermometer in a container of ice water with lots of ice. If it does not read 32 degrees F, adjust it until it does. This way, you can keep an eye on the temperature of the smoker as you cook and trust that the temperature you're seeing is accurate.
5. Don't check it too often.
When you're so excited to use your smoker for the first time, it is really tempting to keep checking on your food, over and over again. But each time you open the smoker, you let out the heat and ruin the temperature. Make a rule to only check your food every 2 hours. Any more than this does more harm than good.
If you follow the tips above, you will get better results when using your smoker for the first time. Before long, a delicious meal will be on your table, and you can sit back and enjoy it with those you love.
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