Helping you to get the best from your
Weber Smoker
Widely
used, the Weber Smokey Mountain is often used incorrectly,
and with a few simple steps you can improve the performance of your
Weber Smoker and enjoy the culinary wonders that this little marvel can
produce.
The best way to start off with your Weber smoker is to use a chimney
starter and fill the outer dish with flavored wood
chips to a tall mound that sits around 2 inches above the ring.
Using
a Wax lighter available from most DIY stores can be used to good effect
by lighting them around the outside and in around half an hour or so
you are ready to start cooking.
Cooking temperatures are a
matter of personal preference according to what you are cooking, and
how you want to cook them in your Weber Smoker.
Around 240
degrees works well in most cases, and you can open the lower vents open
during the first couple of hours along with the top vent which should
be opened as well.
This keeps the temperature inside the smoker stable,
and unless your external temperatures are particularly extreme, you
shouldn't have to adjust the vents any further during smoking.
If
you are cooking large joints of meat, when it comes to adding the
second load, remove the top of the chimney and shake it off welll
making sure that the remnants fall under the grate. When doing this,
wear heat protective hand-wear to make sure that you don't burn
yourself.
Weber
Smokers and Accessories
Now it is time to add the water to your Weber Smoker,
just add very hot water to the water bowl and wait until you hear it
steaming.
Now you can add a chunk of your favorite hardwood to
the stack and this usually enables you to leave the smoker for around 6
hours or so, making it ideal to late evening ready for you to wake up
and check your food.
To drop the temperature down for even
slower cooking, you can remove the lid of the smoker and tilt it around
a few times to disperse the heat and then replace the lid. Keep an eye
on the temperature, and adjust the vents as required to maintain the
heat.
If you want to cook on a higher temperature, move the lid
off center so there is a small gap and this should allow enough air to
get in a increase the heat substantially.
Be careful when doing this as
it can raise the temperature very quickly, so keep an eye on your
smokers temperature guage and check it initially every 10-15
minutes to avoid burning your food.
To get the best performance
and keep your Weber Smoker more hygienic, give the grates and bowl a
quick clean before every use removing the larger pieces of residue.
There is no point getting too carried away, removing the
worst of
the mess will make a difference.
When you are finished,
close the vents and you will notice that there will most likely be
plenty of pieces of wood left which is ideal for storing and using on
camping trips to start fires, or re-use in your Weber smoker.
It
is worth investing in a pair of heat protective gloves to make the
handling of your Weber smoker easier, you can pick them up from almost
anywhere, Walmart, DIY stores and so on.
For accurate
temperature reading you can easily install a temperature guage by
drilling a suitable sized hole in the upper vent, or in the lid.
When
doing so, apply a piece of sticky tape to the area where you are going
to drill as this helps to stop your drill from sliding across the lid
when you are drilling the hole.
