What are the tools I need to get started in smoking food?
A 22.5” Weber Kettle, either Silver, Gold or Performer with slotted lower vents or the older ones with three separate controllable vents either will work.
Good set of tongs.
1 or 2 pair of oven mittens or OvGloves
Wood chunks for creating smoke flavor.
Container to hold a couple of quarts of water.
A candy thermometer Taylor 1159n or the thermometer in the Kettle Dome handle of the Performer. Periodically check your thermometer in 3" of boiling water for 5 minutes!
What is the best way to load fuel?
Set the lower vents to full open, the absolute minimum is 3/8"
Set the Smokenator in the Weber securely resting on the charcoal support grill.
Remove the pan
Load the Smokenator cavity through the large middle rectangular hole.
The Smokenator cavity will hold up to 60 briquettes and about 4 to 5 ounces of wood chunks. 50 briquettes pack quickly!
Remove 12 coals and place in a chimney lighter.
Light the 12 coals - about 20 min or until they are glowing.
Lay the lit coals in the cavity through the big hole used to hold the pan.
Stir the lit coals to arrange them in the cavity, use the skewer that is provided. Sometimes in pesky situations, wear an oven mitt to hold the Smokenator in place while you arrange the coals.
Set the pan in the hole. If it sticks up ¾” to 1” above the top it is ok, the grill will rest on it and eventually it will settle into place.
Set the grill over it if you are using the food support grill.
Or set your 3” risers on the coal support grill to set the turkey roasting pan on.
Fill the pan with water to about an inch or ¾” below the lip of the pan.
Cover the kettle with the lid. Put your thermometer in the top vent, after adjusting the top vents to what it says in the manual.
Let the whole unit come up to between 170 to 200 degress F or so.
Set your food on the top grill and cover
This packing method will fuel your Weber for between 5 to 6 hours at 230-240°F Dome , plenty time to do ribs or 4 chicken halves. If the dome temperature runs at 250-260°F burn time will be considerably less!
I was wondering if it would be ok to use hardwood charcoal instead of Kingford?
In the manual you will find a whole section on how to use lump charcoal. I recommend carefully breaking the huge chunks into more briquette sized pieces. Pack the cavity with the processed hardwood charcoal and wood chunks. You will have to pinch the upper vents a bit, but by and large there is no problem running the Smokenator with hardwood charcoal.
How do you light coals under the Smokenator?
The cavity of the Smokenator is filled with coals and wood chunks. 12 coals are taken out of the cavity and put into a charcoal chimney lighter and lit until glowing, with typical Kingsford about 20-30 minutes. These are placed in the middle of the Smokenator, the pan placed, filled with water, and kettle lid set in place. The kettle is brought up to 200-230 °F dome before food is placed in the kettle. If more than 12 to 15 coals are lit, the temperature in the kettle will tend to go to 250 to 260°F at the dome and will take over 30 minutes too cool off. The technique is to start with the right amount of coals to bring the kettle up to the 230-240°F Dome temperature range.
My question is will this work in cold climates?
I live in Michigan and it gets pretty cold here.
I live in Northern California; I recently had a 30°F morning. I started and ran the kettle at a 230°F dome temperature with no problem the upper vents were open about 1/16” more than normal. It’s very wise to shield the kettle if weather is bringing, wind, snow or rain.
My best guess is that the kettle can be successfully in the 20’s.
If it gets windy or in the teens I recommend that you get a big refrigerator cardboard shipping container to isolate the kettle from the environment.
Temperature Gradient in the Weber Kettle
If the Dome temperature is 230-240 degrees F what is the temperature at the food support grill? The instructions provided give you exact instructions to achieve 210 °F to 225 °F
at the food support grill. This is the ideal temperature range for low and slow cooking.
Dome. 230-240 °F Grill 210-220°F Coal support grill 175-185°F
As temperature gets above 260°F to 270°F at the dome vent the food support grill temperature is usually about 10°F less.
Capacitys of the Weber with Smokenator
Food support grill holds 4 split chicken halves. Hovergrill supports 4 chicknen halves. Total eight halves.
Food support grill holds 2 slabs of spare ribs laid flat. Hover grill supports a third slab plus.
Food Support grill can hold three to four standing rib roasts.
Food Support grill can hold two briskets. Hover grill can hold one decent sized one or two small ones.
If the Weber is loaded with cold food dome temperature will drop 40 degrees at stock settings that normally maintain dome temperature at 230 degress F.
How do you clean up the ashes under the Smokenator?
My Weber has the three slots in the lower and the aluminum ash catcher. I pull off the coal support grill and push the ash down the slots. Using the Weber with the Smokenator has so much less clean up time than the Vertical Water Smoker which can take 30 minutes to just clean the water pan that catches all the drippings.
When you use the Smokenator to smoke a turkey do you use both charcoal and wood?
Yes, do the “Minion Method” described in the manual. Get some wood chips or chunks, Pecan, apple are good for turkey. I put smoke to the bird for about 4 – 5 hours. 4 to 5 oz of wood chunks will smoke for about 1.5 to 2hours. A 20 to 24 pound turkey takes about 7 hours to cook. Typically, it doesn’t need to be brined to retain moisture.
Notes on a smoking a spiral cut baked ham
Over the Superbowl weekend the wife bought a ham that was cooked and had the spiral cuts in it. One would think that this would dry up in a kettle cooker, not with the Smokenator working in humid mode!. I smoked it at about 240 deg F dome temperature for 5 hours and keeping water replenished in the pan. The whole ham had a very rich traditional smoked flavor, yet it was still very very moist.
