CEL555

Yes - I had noticed the temperature gauge on the BBQ is not too accurate! I bought a probe for the meat which I stuck in the main chamber while it was smoking. Big difference. Not sure I'm ready to commit to spending so much on a thermometer at the moment, will probably be more confident if I manage a successful ‘smoke’ Didn’t think too much about it last night, but of course it makes sense to not have too much smoke which obviously means less wood. Guess I got carried away with the whole ‘smoker’ thing and assumed loads of smoke was the right way to go. How do you keep the temperature up using just charcoal or briquettes, is there sufficient heat to keep the chamber at the right temperature?

Morning - thanks for your replies. :) Sorry there was definatley not enough info on my first post. Standard BBQ - using an open charcoal type for many years, never had one with a lid before. Always used charcoal on this. I was trying to smoke a smallish piece of Brisket. Dry rubbed with salt and black pepper, left in the fridge wrapped in cling film for a few hours before I started. I got the fire going in the smoking chamber by lighting some briquettes, wouldnt normaly use these at all, but cheap enough for using as an ignition source for the wook chunks and most of the info I'd seen before suggested this was the way forward. So, I got the fire going, closed the lid. Temperature up to around 110 degrees C. Put a tray of water under the meat in the main chamber and put the meat on the cooking area. Struggled to keep the temperature constant big time! Though became a little easier as time went on. There was a lot of white smoke all the time and couldnt do much about that really. I found the cleaner the wood was burning ( less smoke) the temperature was getting out of control. Up to around 180 degrees C Left the meat in the smoker for around 4 hours, then took it out, didn't look great so I cut a piece off the end and tried it. Not pleasant to be honest, way too smoky! I didn't get chance to wrap in foil and leave it for another few hours because it was getting into the middle of the night.. The wood I used - possibly not the right type. I bought it from a 'log shop'. Net bag of mixed (apparently) seasoned hard wood. I'm waiting for a delivery of oak chunks and am planning round 2 when they arrive! Cheers Chris

Just tried my first ‘smoke’ on a landmann Kentucky smoker. Done quite a lot of research before trying it and I’m quite good at standard BBQ 😃 but this smoking has got me completely stumped. 🥴 possibly not the right place to start with a post like this (apologies) but I need some help please 🙂