Wade

They look great. I love mussels but unfortunately they don't like me. Just looking at them made my mouth water... 🤤

We are all in the same boat I think... starting to get back into it now but mostly grilling at the moment at home. Some smoking for a 21st birthday for a customer but that was all done in the FEC.

If you position it on the patio then it should not cause a problem as (surprisingly) the bottom of the drum does not get that hot. At the competitions they are often placed directly on the grass. It is still better to place it on a couple of additional slabs though to make sure. Clearly, if you are using it on decking then putting slabs underneath will be essential.

Have just judged at Smoke & Fire in Essex but cannot make it down to Smoke on the Water this year due to SWMBO significant birthday celebrations . I hope that everything goes OK and the weather holds. It looks like they have had to cancel the Judging course there this year as not enough people registered. That is a pity as we need more judges in the UK. Have fun and enjoy the weekend.

Hi Philip - The answer is not as cut and dry as it may appear as it will depend on your smoker, the temperature you are cooking at, the meat you are cooking and the air temperature on the day. Having said that you need not worry. Firstly you should look to use the Minion method for burning your charcoal. If you are not familiar with this method it involves placing most of the briquettes unlit in your fire basket, leaving a hole in the centre. Place your smoking wood/pellets on top of these briquettes. Fill the hole with fully lit briquettes (about 15-20 lit briquettes). This will allow the smoker to gradually get up to the desired temperature as more of the unlit briquettes catch. As the temperature gets up to about 2/3 of the desired temperature begin closing down the bottom vents. The top vents should be fully open all of the time. Preparing the briquettes for Minion in a ProQ Frontier The Minion setup in a Callow (Cook4All) bullet smoker. This shows the use of both lump wood and pellets and was an example from one of my BBQ training courses. Be patient. The internal temperature will increase at an increasing rate. The trick is to manage this increasing rate of burn by closing down the bottom vents a bit at a time. As the temperature in the smoking chamber reaches the desired cooking temperature do not be surprised if the bottom vents are ALMOST completely closed. The internal temperature profile over time will look something like this. This cook was in a Callow (Cook4All) bullet smoker and my desired cooking temperature was 105-110 C. The two temperature lines are the temperature on the top and bottom cooking grates. The 2 Kg of Heat Beads gave over 8 hours of usable cooking time. The increase in temperature at about 20:40 was due to the wind picking up and allowing more air through the vents. Remember - it is easy to overshoot your target temperature than it is to bring it back down afterwards. Back to your original question... Fill your fire basket level using the Minion method and add 15-20 fully lit briquettes in the centre. The amount will depend on your specific smoker. Let the smoker reach cooking temperature - this will take about 45 minutes. Cook. As soon as your cook if finished, fully close both the top and bottom vents. This will cut off all of the air to the coals and they will extinguish. When they are cold, shake off any loose ash and keep the unburned coals in a sealed container ready for your next cook. These unburned coals are great for using as the lit coals in your next Minion smoke. This way you only use the amount of briquettes that you need - which will be the right amount for your specific smoker / temperature / meat combination.

You really don't want to be drilling holes in the curve of the chamber wall as it is important that the air vent fits snugly so that it can effectively manage the air flow. If you want to test whether it is the charcoal that is causing the problem buy a bag of Aussie Heat Beads. They are the hottest, longest lasting briquettes on the market. They are quite expensive but even if you don't continue to use them as your standard briquettes afterwards, they will certainly show you what your smoker can actually do. The ProQ Coco briquettes are a good quality briquette too.

They seem to have them here https://shopstarss.com/product/char-broil-oklahoma-joes-highland-smoker-black-finish/

They seem to have them here https://shopstarss.com/product/char-broil-oklahoma-joes-highland-smoker-black-finish/

The main problem is that for the past 18 months none of us have had a chance to meet, cook together and generally enthuse BBQ. @Smokin Monkey and I own and run the forum and have noticed a general lack of enthusiasm on many of the other BBQ sites too. Now that the world is opening back up and the confidence is returning I think we will see things pick up again fairly quickly. It was great to get back to competition BBQ this weekend and there is a lot of buz in anticipation for the 2022 season. I am trying to get back on the forum here at least once a day now and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ping me a message. Cheers, Wade

The importance of the metal thickness is more down to the type of smoker and it is more important in an offset smoker than in a bullet. With any garden offset smoker you will get quite a temperature gradient along the smoking chamber. This is a result of the intense radiant heat from the firebox at one end and the loss of heat through the horizontal chamber walls. This is why it is important to turn your meat regularly when using a small offset to allow it to cook evenly. On larger offset smokers this can be mitigated by using reverse flow and by using baffles within the smoking chamber. Thicker metal reduces heat loss through the walls and therefore reduces the temperature gradient. The heavier gauge metal also helps create a more substantial seal around the edge of the lid. With a bullet smoker the design actually minimises the temperature gradient in the vertical cooking chamber and the round pressed circular seals are very efficient. Some use thin metal for the side doors which can lead to a certain amount of heat loss through the door seal but this is often overcome by using stove rope. Bullet smokers are designed to be lighter. If you manufactured one using the same gauge material as an offset most people would not be able to lift it. 💪 The most important consideration regarding temperature when using any smoker is to keep it out of the wind and also out of direct sunlight - as these can have a significant impact on temperature stability.

To be honest, my go-to smoker for grilling is the 67cm Weber (now no longer manufactured) with a vortex and for smoking I tend to use the FEC120. The ProQ still gets brought out from time to time though.

I am reducing the number of BBQ I own (at my wife's insistence) as I have kind-of retired now and no longer give BBQ courses. A couple of years ago I had 3x57cm Weber kettles, 1x67cm Weber Kettle, 2x ProQ Frontiers, 3xCook4All (Callow) bullet smokers, 2xgas BBQs, 1xDavy Crocket pellet smoker and a commercial FEC120 smoker. Now I have managed to keep a single 57cm Weber, the 67cm Weber, a ProQ Frontier and the FEC120. She is currently happy with that but I expect I will have to retire more in the next year or so

Yes I have watched that serier however I think she is mistaken. Other BBQ champions will tell you something very different. This claim has been tested by technical BBQ nerds on both sides of the pond and it has been shown to be a myth. What usually happens is that the wood produces most of its smoke at the beginning of a cook but then produces progressively less smoke as the cook goes on. This reduction in smoke production results in less smoke flavour and is often mistaken as a stop in smoke penetration. The depth and time of the development of a "smoke ring" is also sometimes mistaken as an indication of smoke penetration. Under the right conditions the smoke ring will develop quite early in the cooking process and then seem to stop. In reality the "smoke ring" has nothing to do with the smoke itself but is a result of the action of nitric oxide and carbon monoxide (from the burning wood) on the myoglobin in the meat. This only occurs while the meat is below a certain critical temperature and as the temperature of the inside of the meat increases the reaction stops. Some mistake this as evidence that the smoke has stopped penetrating the meat.

@SprigIf you are looking for a budget bullet smoker then the one from Callow/Garden Gift Shop and at ~£110 is a great entry level smoker. If you are looking for something larger and are prepared to pay more then ProQ Frontier (~£350) is a great all-round smoker. www.gardengiftshop.co.uk/bbq-smokers/premium-charcoal-bbq-smoker-grill www.worldofbbqs.co.uk/proq-frontier-charcoal-bbq-smoker-version-4-0.html

I can see the problem. Having only a single air vent in the centre at the bottom is not a great design feature. Most bullet smokers have more than one that are located slightly to one side to allow the ash to collect in the bottom. All is not lost though. It is hard to see what clearance you have between the bottom of the fire basket and the bottom of the body where the air vent is but you should be able to help protect the holes from getting clogged. Try making a dome using some fine wire mesh to place over the air vent and under the fire basket. Cutting the mesh from a cheap wire kitchen sieve should do the trick. Place several layers of tinfoil on the centre top of the mesh dome just above the air vent, keeping the sides of the mesh clear to allow for air flow. This should help the ash fall to the sides of the vend and not directly on top of it. Alternatively... I can see that there are holes around the edge of the fire basket - are there holes on the bottom too? If so you could simply place a heat resistant disk inside the fire basket over the holes directly above the air vent. This could be a small metal plate or even the bottom of a clay flower pot. Again this will help the ash from falling directly onto the central vent.

Yes I was judging there this weekend. It wasn't a KCBS contest and so we had a lot more creativity in the turn-ins. A lot of familiar faces judging as well as many new faces too. Mark and Ange did a great job of keeping everyone under control as usual. 15 teams competing Lots of fun for the family in the public field Celebrity judge Rob Jelly from Radio Essex enjoying a beef rib A selection of the plates that the teams presented

Which Bullet smoker did you buy? How many bottom vents does it have? I would not try moving the vent A couple of quick suggestions to be getting on with. If you are getting that much ash try swapping to a better quality briquette/charcoal. Not all are created equal. What are you currently using? Every half hour or so move your bottom air vent from side to side a couple of times to loosen the ash above it and let it fall through the holes.

It would be interesting to know who told you that.

Hi Mike Yes, drilling holes in it would work, however the tray seems quite deep and you really need to raise the bottom of it a little further away from the inlet pipe to give the hot smoke a chance to spread. A flat perforated sheet/mesh at the height of the top of the tray would be better. It can be standard steel - it does not have to be stainless. A local steel fabricator would probably have something this size as an off-cut. Galvanised is fine for anything that is underneath the food. There is a lot of urban myth spread about not using galvanised in smokers **. The only restriction is that it should not come into direct contact with the food or juices/liquids from it should not be able to drip back onto the food. ** The only advice the EU/UK and USA food safety authorities give about using galvanised surfaces with food is not to allow the food (or juices from the galvanised surfaces) to come in direct contact. The only comments that warn that galvanised surfaces should not be used anywhere in smokers come from people posting quoting from other people posting - chinese whispers. There can be a problem from the inhalation of zinc vapour when welding zinc/galvanised metals - however this is only are at temperatures over 800 C. I think you would have bigger problems to worry about if your smoker reached anywhere close to these temperatures !! So long as the probe tips are inside the smoking chamber then any thermometer would work. Digital would be more accurate (and they are not expensive) however standard bi-metal rotary thermometers with long probes will give you a good indication of inside temperatures. Yes. The valves usually have a female connecter both ends so the existing pipe can be cut and the valve slotted in. The chimney valve should ideally not be galvanised as there will be some condensation dripping down from it. I would use a vitreous enamel coated valve here. If it has set then leave it but if it is still soft then try to remove it. In future use high temperature silicone sealant (available online or from stove shops). If it is exposed inside the smoker then just ensure that amy moisture cannot drip from it onto the food. There are plenty of silicone sealants available but here is an example. Just make sure that they are usable up to ~200 C https://www.cateringhardwaredirect.co.uk/products/silicone-sealant?variant=30892467028029 If you use a galvanised valve in the chimney or are worried about drips from the gutter sealant then fix a small removable tray directly underneath the flue hole. Cheers Wade

Hi Andrea and welcome to the forum

Hi Mike and welcome to the forum. You have built a great looking smoker there and is a classic old smokehouse design. This type of smokehouse was originally used primarily for cold smoking, using the warm smoke as a preservative and to dehydrate, however these were later adjusted for hot smoking when people realised that most meats needed to be cooked for safety. Your design is ideal for "cold" smoking as you have the long tube between your fire pit and your smoke chamber to help disperse the unwanted heat. This may work against you though when trying to "hot" smoke - but that can be overcome. Some design tweaks that I would suggest to help when hot smoking. As has been mentioned above, get yourself a twin probe digital thermometer and drill a couple of small holes through one of the side walls (1/3 and 2/3 of the way up) so that you can push the tips of thermometer probes through and know what is going on inside. It isnt clear from your photo whether the bottom "tray" is a drip tray or a heat deflector. Maybe you are thinking of using it as both. Having this so close to the heat input, if it is solid you will be deflecting most of your heat to the sides as soon as it enters the chamber. This will likely result in the the heat mainly flowing up against the side walls and then out of the flue, resulting in the wood getting hotter than it needs to be and creating a cooler zone in the middle of the chamber - where you are trying to hot smoke the food. I would suggest replacing the bottom tray with a sheet of perforated metal (or a coarse mesh) with a small round plate immediately above the intake. This will act as a baffle plate and spread the heat more evenly across the bottom of the smoke chamber and help avoid internal hot/cool spots. If you want to add a drip tray then make it thinner and smaller and place it on the bottom shelf - or the shelf immediately below the food that is cooking. A large foil cooking tray would be ideal for this. Alternatively place the food on a cake cooling rack that is resting over a roasting pan. To help too much heat from being lost through the connecting pipe make sure that it is sheltered from any wind and also have some insulation to wrap around/over it. Pipe lagging would work and so would a couple of cheap fire blankets (~£6 each) loosely wrapped around the connecting pipe. You seem to be using standard 4 inch (110mm) flue pipe. In addition to using the air intake on the stove, you can also use a standard in-line butterfly valve to give you finer control of the temperature. You could also add one into the top flue to manage the air flow through the smoke chamber. I hope this helps and we are looking forward to seeing it in action Wade

Hi Dave and Welcome to the forum. Yes I have also eaten some great BBQ in Texas over the years and drank many Margaritas in Texas too. It amazes me that pubs over here have not caught on to having a Margarita slush machine behind the bar in summer. Maybe they have but I just haven't visited them yet 🍹 🍸 It is a great idea to do large smokes and then freeze. You can certainly smoke a LOT of meat in two large WSMs. What do you usually cook and what type of vac packer do you use. Cheers Wade

Restricting the air flow to the smoke generator is a delicate balance and I have found that it isn't generally necessary. If you try to restruct the air to extend the burn then it is much more likely that the burn will go out before it is complete - especially as the air cools overnight. Providing a charge of dust/pellets lasts for at least 8 hours then that will be sufficient to get you through the night. You can then reload it in the morning if necessary.

They come in different sizes so make sure you order the large ones.