Cooking with wood fire is not an exact science. It’s more of a craft that you home in on, learning something new each time.
When cooking or baking inside, you are not at the mercy of the elements. When cooking outside, you can’t hyperschedule. You do your best to target times, to plan when dinner will hopefully be done. But the reality is that you are cooking with fire, and you are cooking outside. Each time the grill or smoker is used can present different elements, figuratively and literally, that will force you to realize quickly that you have to learn to go with the flow, adjust certain components of your cooking, and modify the day based on what has been presented to you. Our hope is that this section helps guide you through those things, from seasoning to techniques to understanding fire management. As you cook, you will learn how your specific cooker responds to these elements and understand how to modify and adjust to put forth the best results for your family and friends. Your cooker is like a musical instrument; the better you know it, the better you understand its quirks, how to troubleshoot, and how to fine-tune.
If there is one word we would use to describe cooking outside with fire, it is the word experience. To be outside with friends and family or to be alone for twelve hours during a brisket cook, everything about cooking outside with fire comes back to the experiences you have and the joy you feel with each and every cook. We hope you can discover not only great food and wine experiences but also the same joy and fun that comes from finishing your first brisket or teaching your child how to manage fire, or creating your own dry rub that wins a competition. Make no mistake; frustration will happen, such as when you feel like you nailed the cook, only to find that the food isn’t quite there or is slightly overcooked. That is OK too because you learn from every experience and you use that to improve the next one.
Understanding some basic fundamentals of cooking over wood fire will jump-start your learning curve. So please take the time to read this section and use it as a base of knowledge in your journey.
When we say grilling, we are referring to cooking hot and fast, over charcoal or wood. When we say barbecue (or BBQ) or smoking, we are talking about the low heat and slow cooking process that renders meat with amazing flavor due to a combination of heat and wood smoke. We mention this because it matters for technique. You don’t BBQ a hot dog; you grill it. You don’t grill a large pork shoulder; you BBQ or smoke it.
Your food is done when it is done, not based on an exact measurement of time. In typical recipes, you can generally target a time based upon sauté basics or baking rules. But in BBQ, every cut of meat is going to have slightly different marbling. Your flame may be slightly hotter, or your smoker may be running cooler due to temperatures outside. All these things mean that when grilling and smoking, there are general ranges of time for cooking, but the internal temperature of your meat is the most important indicator of recognizing when your food is done. As you explore low and slow cooking and grilling, your comfort zone will be pushed because you are forced to let go and work with, not against, what nature is throwing at you. That is why you hear the term pitmaster. It’s not so much what you are cooking on but instead how you have navigated that day and that cook and put out the best food given the conditions.
BRINES: There are two types of brines: a wet brine and a dry brine.
DRY BRINING: This is simply applying salt (or a salty dry rub) directly to the meat, letting it sit overnight, and allowing the process of diffusion to occur. In this process, the salt will be pulled into the meat, moisture pressed out, and then pulled back in, rebalancing that chemical reaction and spreading that flavor and moisture throughout the meat. Brining (dry or wet) is a form of curing.
WET BRINING: A wet brine is a basic mixture of salt and water in which you soak your meat. Through some fun chemistry, the brine is able to add moisture and flavor at the cellular level of the meat. Our base ratio is simply ¼ cup kosher salt to 1 quart water. We then add sugar (¼ cup). When making a brine, you may also add any other flavors you want to include. Taste your brine, as it should taste salty, almost like ocean water.
DRY RUBS: Dry rubs can be as simple as salt and pepper or as complicated as seventeen different ingredients. Dry rubs add a layer of flavor to the exterior of the meat, and if left on long enough and with a salt base, act as a dry brine.
When making a dry rub, we focus on four key elements: sweet, salt, savory, and heat. Each allows you to create a flavor mix that appeals to your palate. You can also use a dry rub as a flavor element in sauces. We will often use it to tie together another element like sauces, mayonnaise, or aioli or mix it into ground meat. Try adding a teaspoon of sweet rub to mayonnaise and see how it transforms the flavor. Throughout this book, you will see our general rubs referenced, but our hope is that you use some of these foundations to experiment and create your own unique combinations.
HEAT: There can be some overlap with savory, but the most common heat elements for our dry rubs will be coarse ground black pepper and cayenne pepper. We buy the coarse ground black pepper in bulk because it is not fun to use a grinder when you need ¼ cup to ½ cup pepper in a rub. Other heat elements can include red chili pepper flakes, although we tend to use those for marinades because they don’t dissolve into the meat as finer herb and spice elements do. Other fun heat elements include individual dried chili powders such as ancho and chipotle. We go light on heat to keep the flavors balanced, but if you love that extra kick, experiment with a combination of coarse ground pepper, cayenne, and dried chilis.
SALT: Salt can come in many styles and forms. For dry rubs, the salt we use most is kosher salt (see this page). Common table salt with iodine is something we just don’t use. When using salt, balance the savory and sweet through tasting so you get that salty feel on your tongue but without overpowering your entire mouth. Don’t be shy with the use of salt, and be sure to use good-quality kosher salt, such as Diamond Crystal.
SAVORY: This includes dried herbs like sage, thyme, and rosemary, as well as dried spices like paprika, smoked paprika, dried mustard, and chili powder. Granulated garlic, garlic powder, and onion powder are other examples that can overlap and mimic salty flavors. There is a fine line between savory and salt, which is why these savory items and salt complement each other well. If you use chili powder be sure to taste your rub before adding any heat element. Chili powders are a combination of dried chili varietals that can have a heat element as well, and every brand will vary that formula.
SWEET: Sugar is the most common ingredient to add sweetness to a dry rub. Sugar helps to caramelize, especially on long cooks. You can choose from many forms of sugar, from turbinado sugar, which has larger crystals and a light brown sugar component, to dark brown sugar, which has molasses incorporated. When selecting a sugar, we often go to dark brown sugar because it adds more than just sweet; its added molasses deepens the caramelization and is a great offset to heat. When selecting sweet flavor tones, consider whether you plan to grill over high heat. Sugar especially will burn quickly, so for beef or lean cuts that we tend to grill, we avoid or minimize it to prevent flare-ups and a burned flavor.
MARINADES: Marinades are a way to introduce flavor to any cut of meat or protein. They are best as a combination of liquids with added flavor elements like herbs, vegetables, or dry rubs. The marinating process is important to balance the liquids so your marinade doesn’t come across as overly oily or overly acidic. Marinating tenderizes meats that may be tough and have a lot of muscle fiber. It also incorporates flavor into the protein versus a rub, which tends to simply flavor the outside of the meat. You want to be careful not to overmarinate because then you start to lose the flavor of the meat. This timing will vary from cut to cut. Fish, for example, barely needs an hour to marinate, while beef can handle a few hours and poultry can handle overnight.
SAUCES AND GLAZES: Sauce is often synonymous with BBQ, but the words sauce and glaze are interchangeable. It’s more about the application, so don’t get too caught up in one versus the other. We use a glaze to brush onto meat while it is still cooking, with the intent that it will caramelize as the meat continues to cook.
The BBQ sauce most people think of is a tomato and molasses style associated with Kansas City. But we think there are lots of ways to create sauce. It can have a berry or vinegar base, and it can contain mayo, or even relish. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we are surrounded by fresh fruit, berries, and wine, so our sauces are going to reflect the bounty around us. The key is that the sauce isn’t the main star; the protein is. Your sauce is simply that condiment you use on the finished product.
There are many amazing books that go into detail about salt, salt history, and salt techniques. One of our favorites is Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, which gives some great insight into salt use around the world. Another is Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, in which she highlights the science and process by which salt interacts with food for flavor elements. Here we want to highlight a few things to consider when reviewing our recipes based on a number of factors, such as: not all salts are created equal.
Kosher salt comes in many shapes and, more importantly, weights. When you see one of our recipes call for 1 tablespoon salt, you have to recognize that the density of that salt will vary from brand to brand. Lay out three brands like Morton’s Kosher, Diamond Crystal Kosher, and Jacobsen Kosher, and you will see the crystal sizes are very different. If you weigh them, you will also see that they weigh different amounts by volume. We like Jacobsen Kosher and Diamond Crystal and use them both. We suggest you find a kosher salt you like, stick with it, and feel comfortable in adjusting the salt measurement based on your flavor preference. The recipes in this book were created using Diamond Crystal.
Finishing salts are another great way to add a touch of salinity as we serve our food. Finishing salts tend to be sea salts that can vary in texture but most commonly have a grainy or squared crystal component. They are delicate and very light. Using a finishing salt allows us to go light on salt in the early seasoning when cooking for a crowd, so that those with more salt sensitivity can season to their taste. They are also great for topping appetizers or a simple slice of bread with butter.
We don’t use iodized or table salt. The flavor from kosher and finishing salts gives us everything we need with—what we feel—is a purer salt flavor.
Technique and seasoning are key ways to achieve great-tasting food. But we firmly believe where everything really starts is in the quality of meat you select. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspects meat. The decision whether to rate meat is made by the rancher. That is important to know as you select your meat because you can have incredible cuts of meat from farmers that aren’t officially rated by the USDA.
BEEF: Marbling is key with beef. Yes, the breeds of cattle can help, but no matter the breed, what you want to see in beef are the fine white striations of fat that interweave with the muscle otherwise referred to as intramuscular fat.
FREE-RANGE GRASS-FED: This is not a rating, but be aware that the lack of a grain feed and having been pasture raised only mean that the marbling and flavor will be slightly different. We tend not to use 100 percent grass-fed cattle for brisket, for example, because we want a lot of marbling. But for a grilled steak, it can be a nice option. Grass-fed cows tend to have a different flavor profile than feed-based cows. Some ranchers will raise on pasture and then finish with a grain feed as well to balance the two.
LOCAL: It is important to know that your local ranchers may elect not to pay for a rating, although they will have been inspected. As you look at hyperlocal ranchers, look for that intramuscular fat, which may be Prime-worthy but just not rated as such. We have some great local ranchers in our area that we source meat from. Not all of them have meat that is rated, though the quality is easily on par with top-third Choice or Prime.
USDA RATING: You will see USDA quality gradings of Select, Choice, and Prime. These ratings identify levels of marbling, with Select having the least amount and Prime having the most marbling. Within the three ratings, there are top, middle, and bottom ratings as well. So, you can get a top-third Choice steak that borders on Prime. There is a big price difference in those gradients.
WAGYU: Wagyu beef represents specific breeds of cattle from Japan. When you see Wagyu in the United States, it is most likely American Wagyu or American Kobe beef, in which the Wagyu cattle were brought to the United States and bred with angus breeds. These cuts, while expensive, will represent some of the most marbled. Wagyu has its own rating system of three to twelve, with three representing little to no intramuscular fat and twelve representing the highest level of intramuscular fat. This rating system is separate from the USDA system. With various brands, the producers may market their Wagyu-style beef with their own system like five-star, gold, or reserve. But the marbling is key, and often those will reference back to the three to twelve rating.
LAMB: Lamb is juvenile sheep or sheep up to a year old. Lamb can be rated Prime and Choice. Marbling is again the key differentiator. When you hear spring lamb, that indicates the timing of when the lamb comes to market since all lamb would be less than a year. As lamb ages, it is referred to as mutton.
PORK: Pork is not rated in a USDA system. As with beef, the intramuscular fat in pork is important for flavor. Regardless of the breed, an eye on marbling is important. A Berkshire or Korubota pork tends to have higher marbling versus lesser-known pork breeds. You can see the theme: it’s all about the marbling and that you can see right away.
POULTRY: Poultry has a grading level, but it is uncommon to see anything other than A-level poultry in a store. Instead of a USDA rating, we tend to look for free-range organic poultry, in which the birds are allowed to forage as naturally as possible, are fed organic feed (with no pesticides), and are free of antibiotics or hormones.
BREAD CRUMB: Panko is our preferred bread crumb.
BUTTER: We use unsalted butter to control how much salt goes into a dish.
FLOUR: If using flour, we use all-purpose.
MAYONNAISE: Mayo with few ingredients is our preferred option. When making from scratch, it’s oil, lemon juice (or vinegar), and egg yolks. We try to make homemade whenever we can.
MOLASSES: We use blackstrap, given the flavor intensity.
MUSTARD: Dijon mustard originates from Dijon, France. We use Dijon-style mustard as it has good-quality white wine in it and great acidity. Grey Poupon is our preferred Dijon mustard.
OLIVE OIL: The flavor of olive oil can change with the variety of olive and the freshness of the oil. We use extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil as a starting place for flavor and better quality. We try to find the freshest oil we can, and use it within one year of pressing.
BLUETOOTH THERMOMETER: It is worth getting a two- or four-zone Bluetooth thermometer. By zone, we mean that you have two or four probes you can connect to one monitor. For example, on a brisket cook, you can measure the temperature of the grill and the brisket for two-zone measurements. For a big cookout, you can measure the smoker and monitor your chicken, brisket, and pork shoulder for four zones. This allows you to transmit to your mobile device the temperature of the meat as well as the ambient temperature of the smoker so you won’t have to open the smoker or grill and lose precious heat.
CEDAR PLANK: Planks of wood are a great way to add smoke to high-heat grilled meats. They’re great used on gas grills for almost any meat cooked, and add an incredible flavor to any fish.
CHIMNEY STARTER: Using a chimney starter is a fast way to concentrate heat and light charcoal without the use of lighter fluid. Simply add paper to the chimney starter under the charcoal and light it. Charcoal will be hot and ready for grilling in as little as twenty minutes.
Unlike the recipes in traditional cookbooks with clear timelines, in this book every cut of meat is going to cook a little differently. Even the smallest variation in the size or marbling of two rib-eye steaks (well-marbled versus lean) will make a difference in the exact time it will take for them to cook and come to perfect temperature. You have to let go of the traditional idea of how things cook in the oven (45 minutes in the oven at 375 degrees F and it’s done) and instead recognize that temperature is the truth for determining when meat is done. There will be some consistency in time; for example, we know a tri tip or salmon fillet will be done in about an hour. But the precision within that hour requires checking at 40 minutes and then monitoring the temperature until it’s done to personal preference and safe to eat.
The USDA publishes a target for the minimum cooking temperature for a variety of cuts. What is important to know is that the USDA has adjusted its targets over the years (pork is a great example), and it is generalizing the safe-zone temperature with little consideration of where the meat comes from. Over the years, we have realized that as we have built relationships with our meat butchers and suppliers, we have adjusted our own target temperature ranges because we know how the meat was raised and processed. If you want to be sure you are cooking to the minimum temperature per USDA or consider yourself at risk for potential foodborne illnesses, be sure to cook the meat to the USDA minimum.
Carryover cooking refers to when the meat is removed from the heat source and the meat continues to cook. For smaller cuts, this can be 3 to 5 degrees F, for larger cuts, 5 to 8 degrees F. We remove the meat at the lower temperature so it can come up in temperature while resting.
How you take the temperature of the meat is also important. When using a thermometer, you need to take the temperature in multiple parts of your meat, recognizing the exterior will cook the fastest, while the center and general interior will take the longest. In chicken, insert the probe into the center of both breasts and the thigh. For prime rib, measure the temperature in the center and from the side. For a small steak, bring the probe in from the side, watching the temperature from the entry point and then seeing how it changes as the probe gets closer to the center of the cut. Just coming in from the top in one place won’t give you the whole story. You have to insert the probe in multiple locations.
Many, if not all, grills come with their own fixed thermometer to measure ambient cooking temperature. That is helpful as a guide, but that thermometer is measuring only one point in the cooker, which is typically farther away from the heat source. Supplementing that with a probe you can attach to the grill grates is a great way to get the most precise temperature you want for that cook.
IMMERSION BLENDER: Using a blender is a great way to get smooth texture to a homemade sauce or glaze. An immersion blender is a small handheld unit that can be used directly in the sauce pan.
INSTANT-READ THERMOMETER: If there is one single most important tool you should invest in when it comes to cooking over a wood fire, besides your grill or smoker, it is a quality instant-read digital thermometer. A good thermometer takes the guesswork out of it. We use the ThermoWorks’s Thermapen Mk4 for general use. It measures the temperature almost instantly (in less than a second), which means you get a precise temperature and can use it to find the coolest part of the meat. Avoid dial thermometers, as they are not as precise.
LARGE SPATULA: We use the Weber Original Wide Spatula. It’s great for fish or even large cuts of meat.
LONG TONGS: We use the Weber 6610 Original Tongs, a 20-inch workhorse that allows you to avoid burning yourself over high heat.
MEAT INJECTOR: We use a stainless steel–style meat injector. When looking at options, be sure it comes with replacement O-rings (to keep a strong seal) and is all steel for cleaning easily. There are different head attachments that allow for injecting various marinades or liquids.
NEOPRENE OR NITRILE FOOD-SAFETY GLOVES: When preparing raw meat, be sure to sanitize your prep area after you are done and before moving on to other items to cook. Wearing neoprene food-safety gloves will help avoid cross contamination when handling raw meat.
WATER PAN: We use a metal pan in some of our smokers, which helps keep moisture in the cooker. Not all grills need a water pan, and this is based on personal preference.
SEARING or MAILLARD REACTION: The term Maillard (may-ard) reaction refers to the chemistry of browning. This is important in grilling because when we use the word sear, we are referring to that reaction not just for color but also for texture and flavor. The key to getting that Maillard reaction when grilling is to be sure that water or excess moisture is eliminated. You will see in the recipes that we will add oil to steaks to grill, but it should be a very light coating for allowing the rub to stick to the meat.
REVERSE SEAR: We consider this to be one of the greatest methods to enhance the flavor of any protein. Our reverse sear is modeled after a technique by restaurant chefs who blast a high-heat sear in a pan or flame and then finish the steak in an oven. This prevents burning the meat but still allows it to cook to the perfect final temperature while maintaining a great sear on the outside.
For the reverse sear, we are doing the opposite. We start by smoking the protein at a low heat, allowing the meat to infuse with that sweet smoke, then slowly bring up the temperature in the meat until we get close to the finished temperature. At that point, we remove the protein from the lower heat and finish over a high heat, getting that sear at the end.
RESTING: When you have achieved your desired temperature for a finished meat and removed it from the heat, a couple of things occur. The meat will keep cooking (carryover cooking) and continue to rise in temperature. In addition, the resting period gives the meat (and more specifically the cells in the meat) a chance to cool down. When applying heat, cells expand and push out moisture. If you cut into unrested meat, it will appear moist, but it is like popping a bubble in which the meat will dry out as the moisture is lost on the cutting board. Resting times are a common and important instruction in our BBQ recipes.
Letting a steak rest for ten minutes before cutting into it allows these two things to occur: to finish cooking, usually rising in temperature an extra 5 degrees F, and to start cooling. After the meat finishes cooking off the heat source, the moisture is pulled back into the cells, producing the perfect texture and juicy flavor. This is especially important for long cooks like brisket and pork shoulder, where the resting period is ideally an hour to slowly bring that meat to a good resting temperature. We generally apply a rule of the longer the cook, the longer the resting period.
When using a grill or a smoker, you have to get used to your cooker and develop an understanding of how to set up and maintain your fire. If you have a gas range in your kitchen, you probably have a simmer burner and a boil burner. In the oven, you have the broil and bake functions. On a grill, you have to think of your cooking zones in the same way. Throughout this book, you will see references to these methods.
ONE ZONE OR DIRECT: As the name suggests, this is one cooking zone. Imagine charcoal scattered in one even layer across your grill. This method is great for searing or for fish, vegetables, or anything that cooks hot and fast. But for precision and anything that requires time, the one-zone or direct method can char or burn your protein, especially if there is sugar or high-fat content that can cause flare-ups.
TWO ZONE OR DIRECT/INDIRECT: This is our most common style of setup and you will see it referenced throughout the book. You deliberately have half of your cooking chamber set up with charcoal in an even layer and the other half has nothing. This is important so you can regulate that sear over the hot coal, just like a broiler in the oven, and then quickly move that same piece of meat to the indirect side, which will not flare up or create the potential for the heat to burn your protein. When using a gas grill, the direct or direct/indirect method can be replicated using the burners. If you turn them all on, you have direct. If you turn one or two on and leave a burner off, you replicate the direct/indirect method.
INDIRECT OR OFFSET: This is specific to smoking in which you have a separate chamber, or plate, that will keep the direct heat from searing. It allows you to control lower temperatures so you can focus on smoking, versus grilling, the meat.
GRADIENT: A variation of the direct/indirect method, this is where you have a gradual leveling of your charcoal with one side almost to the grill grates, the center closer to the grill floor, and the far side indirect with no charcoal. This is a great way to maximize space when cooking multiple styles of meat like chicken and beef.
SNAKE: This is a form of indirect cooking that is most commonly used in a kettle grill. Charcoal is the primary heat source, and wood is the flavor. In this case, you line up your charcoal along the outer wall opposite of where the meat is cooking, two or three charcoal lumps stacked. You light one end of the snake with a small number of prelit embers. On top of that charcoal are wood chunks or chips that will combust as the charcoal embers ignite and move down the snake. This allows you to smoke at a low temperature on a kettle grill and is more precise for 200 to 275 degrees F than the standard two-zone or direct/indirect method.
Heat source can be a number of things. The gas grill is one, in which the heat source is the combustion of propane into flame. What we use most often is charcoal, which burns hot and provides a consistent source of high levels of heat.
Another is wood. Think about the campfire that is lit on a cold night as everyone stands around it. Smoke is a by-product of burning the wood. When smoking a brisket, for example, you are making sure to burn wood in such a way so as to release enough smoke to cause the reaction of smoke binding with the cells of the food for imparting flavor. This can be done by combining charcoal with wood, burning wood logs, or feeding wood pellets into an auger with a flame.
CHARCOAL
Charcoal is the most common heat source we use for grilling and smoking. Charcoal comes in a few styles, the most common being lump charcoal and briquettes. Lump charcoal is the most natural form of charcoal and our preferred style, so every recipe you see in this book will assume lump charcoal. It’s rough, uneven, and comes in all shapes and sizes. But it burns clean and has a distinct and subtle flavor that you can smell.
Lump charcoal
Briquettes are a form of charcoal that commonly are machined with the use of tools and binding compounds to keep a uniform look and size. Briquettes tend to burn longer than lump charcoal due to their uniform size, but they can transmit unwanted flavors that come from binding and igniting agents.
Briquettes
Whatever you smell coming from the grill or smoker will be imparted into your food. We encourage you to sample and find the charcoal brand that you like best and that is composed of natural ingredients. Avoid chemical additions because you’ll likely taste them in your food.
LIGHTER FLUID: Simply put, we don’t use it. To us, it is like pouring gasoline on food and lighting it on fire. There are a lot of ways to ignite your charcoal without it. Small starter bricks (not the kind you put into your fireplace), which are often compressed sawdust and wax, are the most common helper we use. The other is a charcoal chimney, in which a cylinder about 12 inches tall is used to focus burning paper or a starter brick under the charcoal and light the charcoal quickly, usually in less than twenty minutes.
Because smoke is the key flavor element in BBQ, the choice of wood is important. But where to start? Try the woods that are local to where you live. In Texas, there’s post oak and mesquite (among others). In Kansas City, it may be oak and hickory. In the Pacific Northwest where we live, fruitwoods (hardwood) like cherry, pear, and apple are abundant. There are a variety of wood options with specific flavor elements to consider.
FRUITWOODS: Apple, cherry, orange, and pear are examples of fruitwoods that are great for smoking. We love how they pair with fish, pork, and poultry because of the sweet character they offer.
NUTWOODS: Pecan, hazelnut, and almond impart a distinct savory nose that complements fish and wild game like duck.
GENERAL HARDWOODS: Alder, oak, hickory, and mesquite are examples of hardwoods. Use these for beef. The bigger flavor profile lends itself to more campfire characteristics. These we typically use for shorter cooks like tri tip. Some regions love mesquite for long cooks (more than six hours), but we find it adds too much campfire characteristic for our palate and we tend to avoid it.
SOFTWOODS: Cedar is the most common, typically used as grilling planks. But often softwoods do not burn well and when burned have an unpleasant resin flavor that does not lend itself to food. Cedar planks are great for cooking fish, crustaceans, vegetables, and chicken.
Wood is available as chips (small bits of wood, which are best for gas grills), chunks (fist-sized wood chunks you place on top of charcoal to burn), or logs or sticks (split logs often similar in size to what you may put into your fireplace).
There are so many variations of grills and smokers on the market. Understanding the pros and cons of each style of grill or smoker will help identify the one that’s right for you.
KETTLE GRILL: Let’s start with the multitool of grills. The kettle grill is one of the most versatile grills on the market and incredibly affordable. Most don’t really think of it as anything other than a grill, but the reality is that it can smoke, grill, and do something in between. We started this journey many years ago on a kettle grill. We mention this because that is truly all you need to get started. Expensive grills and smokers may offer a lot of upgrades to the cooking experience, but fire and heat control, once you’ve mastered the technique, can be done at an affordable price with a 22-inch kettle grill.
PROS: Affordable; versatile; comes in multiple sizes.
CONS: Heat control not as precise for smoking; may not offer enough room if smoking a large piece of meat.
PELLET GRILL: The pellet grill has evolved over the years. Some don’t consider it a “real smoker,” but don’t let that frighten you. A pellet grill requires the same cooking techniques as any other grill or smoker. It uses food-quality wood pellets as the fuel source, which are stored in a pellet hopper. A motorized auger then pulls the pellets into a firebox, where a hot rod ignites the pellets. Those pellets continue to burn to create smoke and heat. No charcoal and no other wood are needed. Some better manufacturers have setups to do high-heat grilling, although a majority are best for smoking.
PROS: Versatile option for grilling or smoking; no need to manage the fire as you set the temperature on an electric pellet display.
CONS: Wood flavor not as pronounced; difficult to get high-heat searing; cannot use without a power source.
GAS GRILL: Our recipes can be replicated on a gas grill. The direct/indirect method still applies, and you have more control over the burner size for direct grilling.
A gas grill can also smoke. Look for one that has a smoker box built into the unit. Otherwise you will have to use an aluminum foil pouch or an aftermarket cast-iron smoker box to burn wood chips. As a fuel source, use wood chips only, not chunks. If you have a smoker box, put the wood chips into the box, then place the box on the grate directly over the burner. If using an aluminum foil pouch, place the wood chips on the foil and fold to enclose the wood chips. With a fork, poke holes in the pouch to release smoke. The burner will heat up the foil pouch or box, burn the chips, and produce smoke. It won’t be as easy as using a smoker or grill, but it will add some smoke element. Wood chips can be soaked in water, but that is not necessary.
The other challenge with a gas grill is it isn’t built for smoking. A gas grill has a lot of vents, so it is not efficient at holding smoke. This is why it is better to use a cedar plank or consider shorter cooks when smoking.
PROS: Easy to use for high-heat searing; warms up quickly.
CONS: Difficult to use for low and slow grilling and BBQ; not suited for wood burning.
KAMADO-STYLE GRILL AND SMOKER: These are based upon a Japanese style of grill. Typically made of ceramic but also made of steel, these smokers are the most efficient in terms of fuel and wood consumption. The kamado has the balance and ease of a pellet smoker, once you feel comfortable with how to control temperature, as well as provides the natural wood smoke flavor of other more traditional wood cookers. These are so efficient that when you shut down the smoker, the fire is smothered and you can actually reuse the charcoal and wood that has not burned.
PROS: Efficient use of fuel; consistent; can be a smoker or a grill depending on accessories.
CONS: Expensive; very heavy; grilling space can be limited.
OFFSET SMOKER: Offset smokers are just as the name implies. The heat source where charcoal and wood are placed is set off of the main cooking chamber. So it really is built for smoking low and slow, or at temperatures less than 400 degrees F.
PROS: Great flavor profile; a lot of cooking space; great convection.
CONS: Inability to grill at high heat; affordability; the cheaper versions can rust quickly; least efficient in use of fuel source.
ELECTRIC SMOKER: Not be confused with pellet smokers, electric smokers use a heating element to burn wood chips or chunks or sometimes use a gravity-fed fuel system with a heating element. These are affordable and often come in a setup almost resembling a refrigerator.
PROS: Affordable; easy to use for many apartments or smaller spaces.
CONS: Not as much cooking-surface area; does not tend to get hot enough for grilling.
BULLET SMOKER: Bullet smokers offer a little more surface area than kettle grills and often have multiple racks to stack levels of cooking surface. What is nice about a bullet smoker is the ease of access to the fuel source. On a kettle grill, you have to remove the grate. With a bullet grill, you simply open a door and add wood or charcoal without disturbing the meat.
PROS: Easy access to charcoal or wood basin; can stack multiple shelves in larger units; affordable.
CON: Multiple shelves not as easy to access versus other styles.
As a general rule, think of the charcoal as the heat source and the wood element as the flavor source. The more charcoal you have lit and turning to ember, the hotter the fire will be. A large pile of charcoal lit very quickly will generate 400 degrees F or higher of heat; a handful of lit charcoal may only rise to 200 degrees F. Controlling the temperature is important for successful smoking and grilling.
Too often we see people with grills right along the side of their house. Be sure to consider the worst-case scenario and potential for a grease fire. You want to be sure that the grill is at least 12 inches from the house or, better yet, sitting on the patio or porch away from the home.
Clean your smoker regularly. Pay special attention to grease trap buildup, as that can back up and catch fire. Keep ash out of the firebox—or auger, in the case of pellet smokers—by cleaning after every cook. The best time to clean your grates is after the food is done and the grates are still warm. We clean with a wad of aluminum foil and tongs versus a wire brush, which could lose its bristles in the grill and end up in the food. Simply run the foil along the grill grates to knock off any food residue. Then for the next cook, it is clean and ready to go.
Consider having a fire extinguisher handy, and have it serviced regularly so it’s charged.
In the case of a grease fire, the best approach is to smother the oxygen flow to the fire by closing all vents and closing the cover on top of the grill. And of course, call the authorities as needed.
There is a danger zone to be aware of. When smoking, be sure the temperature of your grill is above 140 degrees F (with the exception of cold smoking, which is under 80 degrees F). Per the USDA and most health departments, 140 degrees F is the minimum temperature to avoid the growth of bacteria. This is also important when you are holding cooked food for a long time, waiting to serve. You want to keep that meat in an oven (or in a cooler with no ice) that will maintain the temperature at or above 140 degrees F.
When determining your target cooking temperature, it is difficult to remove heat, so start off with smaller amounts of charcoal. You can always add more to fine-tune or you can adjust the airflow.
Most smokers have dampeners or vents that allow you to control how much air gets into the cooking chamber or firebox. The more air available, the hotter the combustion will be; the less air, the slower and lower the fire will burn. If there is no air, the fire will smother out. Understanding your dampeners and vents is important so you know where to set them for various temperature ranges, especially when smoking at lower temperature. The ideal way to manage dampeners is to allow just enough airflow to create a convection current of air so it circulates in the cooking chamber and draws that smoke around what you are cooking. One general rule is to start your grill with all vents wide open. Then as you see the embers develop and if you add a wood component, you can dial in the vents and close them until you find the right temperature. Be sure to prevent the temperature from going over the desired range; it is much harder and takes longer to pull the temperature down. Instead, look at the temperature gauge; if the desired goal is 225 degrees F, dial those vents almost fully closed as the temperature approaches 180 to 200 degrees F so it slowly comes up to the desired temperature and stays there.
The fire is seeking oxygen to fuel itself, pulling air in and then venting out the smoke, the by-product of the combustion. So, you want to make sure step one is controlling the vents that allow air in. For a kettle grill, these are the vents on the bottom. Then the smoke and heat need to go somewhere to get out. Following this path means there is likely a second stack or vent that pulls or draws the air out. As you control these openings, the air always travels one way or the other. Your goal is to make sure the right amount of air gets to the fire and then out. That’s it. As you dial in on your cooker, you will know those ideal settings as you will see the smoke come out. If you see the smoke coming out the wrong end, you aren’t opening enough of the exit dampener to pull that air through; it is getting stuck and you get a back-draft. As a general rule, we like our exit dampeners to be open wider than our intake dampeners and then we can dial back from there.
Our recipes always state a target temperature at which to set your grill, even if direct grilling. Let’s talk the reality of a grill. You are at the mercy of a lot of factors when maintaining heat and a desired cooking temperature. There will be temperature swings up and down for a host of reasons, such as how hot or cold it is outside, whether it is raining or a sunny, 80-degree day, and what type of fuel is used. All are examples of the complexity of maintaining a desired temperature of the grill. A grill that suddenly spikes from 225 to 250 degrees F is not going to ruin your meat. It just means it will cook a bit more quickly.
Conversely, if you planned for something to be done in two hours at 225 degrees F and it isn’t close, do you increase the temperature? Does that influence the meat and flavor? When do you panic? As you get to know your cooker, you will know the best way to dial in temperature. But let’s be clear that if you are an hour away from your dinner party with your boss and the meat just isn’t close to being done, you can increase the temperature at any magnitude. Want to smoke at 250 degrees F instead of 225 degrees F? That is OK too. It just means the meat will cook faster (most of the time). The key is knowing that once you cross 300 degrees F, you move away from low and slow and enter into grilling territory, losing some of that added smoke flavor.
When considering ranges for smoking versus grilling, we use the following guide. Fahrenheit is also our preferred standard of measurement. Yes, we are based in the United States, but the Fahrenheit scale also provides a little more precision for when to pull your food versus the range in Celsius.
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TYPE |
GREAT FOR |
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|
< 80 |
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Smoking |
160 to 300 |
|
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Grilling |
300 to 500 |
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> 500 |
Pizza, high-sear lean fish, and most steak cuts |
For the Kettle Grill
Maintaining a low and slow temperature for multiple hours can seem intimidating. But a few techniques are important to know. Let’s focus on a kettle grill as the perfect example. To keep the temperature under 250 degrees F and to get smoke flavor, a steady but small stream of lump charcoal (heat) and wood chunks (smoke flavor) are needed. Adding a small handful of charcoal at a time is inefficient. So the best way is to use the snake method and a charcoal chimney starter.
To do this, create a line of charcoal along the edge of the grill on the opposite side of where the meat will go. Line it right along the metal, and pile three pieces next to each other. Since lump charcoal is not uniform in size, pick pieces that are large and small so they fit together. Continue laying out the charcoal with roughly three next to each other until you have a line of charcoal all along the side of the grill. On top of the charcoal, add the wood chunks every inch.
Adding a small water pan is another opportunity for a kettle grill or offset smoker. Using an aluminum pan or a hotel pan purchased at any restaurant supply store, fill it with water and place it under the meat being cooked. This will add humidity and moisture to the smoker but not take up precious grill space. Moisture is good as it encourages the smoke molecules to bind to the moisture on the meat.
In a charcoal chimney starter, add six to eight coals and light them. Once the coals are all lit or white, dump them in front of the line of charcoal so the lit charcoal is resting on the first set of unlit charcoal. This will light up the snake and be the initial heat element. Place two pieces of wood chunk on the lit charcoal. Add the grill grate and place the lid on the grill.
Now is the time to dial the vents, which are on the top and bottom of the grill. If they are all fully open, it will create the most airflow, making the flame hot and burning the coals faster. If the vents are closed halfway on both the top and the bottom, the airflow is more constricted and the temperature is lower and burning is slower. Get to know the grill and play with the vents. It is always easier to start with the vents nearly closed and then slowly open them to heat up the grill. You can then adjust based on preference. Airflow is still needed to keep the flame going. Is it windy? Then less opening is needed on the grill, or the bottom vent may need to be open more and the top vent almost closed. This is why every cook will be slightly different and it takes practice.
The grill likely has a thermometer built in, but note where it is positioned: at the top of the grill. It is important to have a wireless thermometer that sits on the grate on the indirect side of the smoker. This will give a more accurate reading of the cooking temperature for the meat and can be monitored without removing the top of the grill.
It will take twenty to twenty-five minutes to dial the temperature in the beginning, but as you build comfort with the grill, it will take less time. Mark off the top and bottom vents so there is a reference to the temperature. With the snake method, the grill will last two to three hours with the charcoal and wood chunks. As the charcoal combusts, it slowly reaches the wood chunks, which in turn will combust. This is evident when the smoke comes out of the vent. If cooking longer, simply remove the grill cover, rotate the grill grate, and continue adding charcoal and wood to the unlit side of the snake. For ease, consider grill grates that open along one side to get access to the charcoal.
If high heat is desired later in the cooking process, simply fire up another full charcoal chimney and place the coals into the smoker for grilling. This is great when smoking and then searing at the end.
Line up charcoal and wood in preparation for snake method
For the Pellet or Electric Grill
Pellet grills are controlled by the electronic unit. The colder it is outside, the more pellets are needed to maintain the same temperature. Consider using an insulating blanket when the outside temperature is below freezing, it is made for smokers to increase the grill’s efficiency during subfreezing temperatures. Keep the thermometer probe clean. For grilling, it is best to set the pellet grill temperature to high and add grill grates designed for heat distribution, or use cast-iron pans to sear. Water pans are still a good idea.
For the Kamado or Bullet Grill
Kamado grills are very efficient, and bullet grills are more user-friendly for smoking than kettle grills. For either of these grills, you fill the basin with charcoal and wood chunks, light them, and dial the two vents (top and bottom) for a consistent temperature. One kamado cook can last twelve hours without having to replace any charcoal or wood chunks. Bullet grills are not as efficient but still burn nicely. A water pan isn’t needed for kamado grills given how efficient and sealed they are, but bullets do benefit from one.
The offset is a firebox separate from the cooking chamber. A charcoal basket (literally a basket of charcoal) can be used to maintain the heat with wood chunks. Our preferred method is to start the offset with a healthy load of charcoal from a charcoal chimney starter and then add small log splits to the charcoal. As you continue to add logs as the fire burns down, the logs will burn into ember, keeping the heat component without needing more charcoal. The keys to using an offset are to make sure a flame is always burning in the firebox and to pay attention to the smoke color as a measure of success. Bad smoke is black (such as in a grease fire) or white (such as smothered fire.) Good smoke is light blue or barely visible smoke, meaning the fire has the most efficient combustion. Another important tip is to use warm wood. Place wood on top of the firebox to prewarm it; it will then burn faster when put into the firebox, preventing inefficient burning and producing a clean flame. This will result in the smoke flavor you are looking for. Water pans are great in an offset.
