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If you get into smoking meat, you should probably buy a copy of the Kutas book, "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing". Look around. You can get an inexpensive copy. Even if you buy new, try Cabelas.com. There are other info books, too, and lots of online sources. If you just want to get your...

Ground 265 lbs of pork butts and feral hog a month or so ago, stuffed it in casings (6 different kinds of sausage) and added cure to 50 lbs for smoking. Wish now I'd done more with cure. Smoker is very versatile. Cheap to build, too--larger and cheaper even than the ones that sell for 1300...

Another virtue to sand is that if you want to lift the unit apart to get to the charcoal to knock off ash and add more briquets, you don't have to worry about spilling water.

Glad to help, Rick. My freezer carcase became available when I drilled a hole through a refrigerant coil while installing a hasp to keep the door from springing open. Basically, I gutted the thing. Took out all the shelves, everything inside that I could dismantle. Even cut out the molded...

Here is a blackbean soup recipe of my own creation. It's something to do with leftover pulled pork, and will change your religion, or give you some if you ain't got it. I believe you can't make soup in small lots, so . . . Sort and soak two pounds of black beans for 12 hrs. Bring to boil and...

Thanks for the effort, Chris. Entertaining, imaginative and informative.

Interesting information, Chris. I just assumed that hotplate plug would pass through vent hole. Also, if you go into the 2000 watt range on a single burner, as recommended, you have to use a hot plate wired for 220 volt. I don't think that bother would be necessary. You are only some 15 to 20...

PS, I've never used the WSM for smoking, but I doubt that the domed vent is sufficiently large to allow the air flow you need initially for an efficient job. Just guessing. It could be. But you might want to experiment with leaving the lid ajar. Principle would be to maintain your initial temp...

Heresy, perhaps, but if I were using the WSM for a true smoker, I would lay a 110 volt 1000 watt (thereabouts) hot plate in the bottom and control the temps thataway. Smoking usually takes too long to give it the attention charcoal would require. Use a ss or small cast iron skillet for your...

Fanny Farmer invented the modern cookbook: "A teaspoon of this, two cups of that, a quarter pound of &c." Before that, everyone communicated recipes like my mother cooked: "Some of this and just enough of that." Question: How do you approach your WSM as revealed through your method of...

I'm heading for SC early Sunday morning for a week of wading the swamps along the Savannah River hunting feral hogs with the bow and arrow. Taking along brisket, pulled pork NC style (already cooked), a killer moose stew with home canned tomatoes, and an 18 pound sugar-brined ham that is still...

Wait a minute. Isn't the game over? Didn't Ohio State win?

Chris, man don't need a reason to do something stupid, and he can always think one up afterwards, anyway. Heat source is an 1100 watt hot plate wired into a sensor from Plaktronics. I've been smoking for about 5 years inside a Luhr-Jensen Big Chief with satisfactory results, all the while...

Best I have been able to find out wrt galvanization is that smokers never get hot enough to create zinc vapors. I mentioned that Kutas used galvanized mesh for jerky, and I also talked with the folks at Butcher-Packer, and they assured me that galvanized would work fine at these low temps, but...

Much beholden to you, Ray. Very informative. Thanks for taking the trouble. Will call around Columbus tomorrow and locate some stainless bakery cooling shelves or somesuch.

Empty on search for temp at which galvanization becomes hazardous. I've also thought of using ss wire (which I have in abundance), bending into double fish hooks, and hanging them over the smoke poles, smoking meat vertically. Lotsa trouble and impractical in this instance. Some of these meat...

Thanks for the heads up, Ray. This is not a water smoker, though, like my WSM. It's an actual smoker. Jerky does not require a temp much above 100?F. I've wired a thermostat into this smoker and can pretty much keep it pegged there. I wouldn't think there's much danger of it fuming then. Still...

Cleaning out the freezers for jerky meat. More pkgs of moose, venison and elk than I figured on finding, and it's all trimmed and marinating now in preparation for the smoker. Smoker is large, a converted upright freezer carcase, a casualty of home improvement (I drilled a hole through a...

Amazing. I was walking in the wrong direction with this puppy, among other things half-certain the paprika made a difference--based solely on my own limited experiences. Makes me very appreciative of this site and your willingness to ease my climb up the learning curve. Thank you each one for...

What determines the depth of the smoke ring on meats such as butts and briskets? Seems like it's multiple factors. Would those of you with experience prioritize the following variables and add any more you consider influential? 1) proportion of paprika in the rub, 2) duration of rub on meat...