New Smoker Here.... just introducing myself


 
B

BWalker

TVWBB Member
Folks-

I've been grilling for quite a few years but ventured into smoking on my trusty ol' 22.5" Weber Silver One Touch yesterday. I used the snake method (2 on bottom, 1 on top) halfway around the grill and smoked 5 chicken thighs. With the bottom vent half-way open and top most of the way open, it held between 250* and 300* for 4 hours. The thighs only took about 75 mins to finish, but they tasted great. I'm planning on doing another trial run with the snake tonight (2x2 or 3x2 3/4 way around the grill) and play with the vents to get a better feel for time/vent placement and am thinking of smoking a pork butt and maybe some fatty's this weekend. Any advice you can give me using the snake method or vent position on the OTS would be greatly appreciated, but I'm sure I'll be posting/lurking a lot in the future. Cheers!

Beau
Louisville, KY
 
Welcome to the board! You will become addicted to smoking and this board. Lot of great people here, and lot of great advice. I would say stick that same method. It sounds like it work well, and you were at the right temps. TRY IT AGAIN, I say...
 
BWalker;
Here are a couple of references (links) to help you. The second link shows you how to set up a One Touch Gold to adjust the temperature. Your One Touch Silver doesn't have a convenient ash box to mark the position of the bottom damper. However, absorb the idea pictured and maybe you can rig up something to allow you to do the same with your OTS. All you need is some heat resistant material positioned in such a way that you can mark it with a "permanent" marking pen (I have to keep renewing the marks on my OTG as the weather and heat eventually removes them.

http://www.amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/charcoal_grill_setup.html

http://www.amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/controlling_temperature_with_vents.html



When I did ribs and Boston Butts (for pulled pork) on my OTG, I used a modified Minion Method (I would place two fire bricks in the bottom and dump a chimney of UNLIT briquettes behind the bricks, then remove about 12 briquettes and light them, then dump the lit on top of the unlit). This gives a progressive burn and allows me to do ribs or a Boston Butt without adding additional coals later in the cook (they are not needed). Here is a link - my post is several posts down the thread with pictures showing the set up I have described:

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?43770-22-5-OTG-set-up&highlight=Robert+McGee

The Weber Kettles are about the most versatile piece of grilling/smoking equipment available at any price. I now have a WSM for most of my smoking but my son, who is a very accomplished griller/smoker does it all on his Weber Performer. AND-D-D, he turns out wonderful BBQ.

Dale53
 
Welcome to the board Beau!

I too recently learned the beauty and simplicity of the snake method for longer cooks (and smoking) on a kettle. I think you got a good plan of attack. Keep doing what you're doing! Just be careful, you might get so addicted to smoking that you end up going out and buying a Smokey Mountain Cooker. That's what happened to me, of course I don't regret it one bit... though I suspect my grocery bill has gone up a bit.
 
Thanks for the responses. I'm doing a mock smoke tonight just to see what kind of time I can get out of the snake set-up and get a better handle on managing temperature. Depending on how it goes I may give the indirect method using fire bricks a try. I assume you can get the fire bricks at a Home Depot or something like that? Also, as far as temp control, do you folks prefer using the top or bottom vent? I played with both a bit last night but mainly used the bottom vent with the top mostly open. Thanks!
 
Welcome to the site...be sure to give us some pictures of your cooks, sort of like food p@rn!
 
Beau, I hardly ever touch the lid vent, unless I want to shut it completely down, I leave it wide open all the time when smoking. I use the bottom vents to obtain the temp I wish to smoke at. 250 degrees is a generally good temp for anything other than chicken. I like to smoke chicken around 325-350. You should be able to control your temps with the bottom vents whether you use the snake method or not. Hope that helps, it certainly works for me.
 
BWalker said:
Also, as far as temp control, do you folks prefer using the top or bottom vent? I played with both a bit last night but mainly used the bottom vent with the top mostly open. Thanks!
Click to expand...

When using the kettle, I've only ever used the top vent for temp control. I usually have a candy thermometer stuck in it so it never gets closed down all the way while I'm cooking (unless I'm grilling and there was a large flare up I'm trying to get under control). I usually get pretty decent temperature control that way, though I've never really tried to be very precise.

While I have recently marked the bottom vent positions on my OTG, on longer cooks I have always been paranoid about sweeping up ash while messing with the bottom vents.
 
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