Finally, the smoke begins

I started my smoker around 9:30 or so on January 16, 2012 (putting that date in for myself as much as for anyone reading this) with the outdoor temperature of about 40 degrees F and low humidity (25 to 30% range). I began with the Stubbs briquettes in a charcoal chimney and lump charcoal inside the firebox. I used a method called the Minion Method to start my fire. http://www.homebbq.com/index.php/archives/82. Every time I hear that name, it makes me think of these guys:

But I do like the way this method works. I ended up building a small fire (too small in retrospect) inside the firebox and I tossed about four or five of the hickory chunks on top. I read that meat gets most of its smoke early in the cooking process, so don't wait to add your smoking source until later in the process.

My fire heated up nicely and quickly and I was right around 200 degrees F, dipping to around 180 occasionally, but rarely ever going above 225. Low and slow. I had plenty of time. Low and slow. Be patient.

The ribs (cool, but not cold because I'd taken them out of the fridge when I started the fire so they'd come up to room temp) went on the grill about 10:15. The pork loins went on around 12:30 and the sausages went on around 2. 

Occasionally I stoked my fire, kicked around the ash with a stick, I'd throw some more lump and briquettes on every hour or so, and I fiddled with the damper on the fire box (more open = more oxygen = more fire, by the way). I was careful not to open the smoke box except to add meat. It was then that I'd move things around to ensure an even cook.

But I was never able to keep the fire around the 225 I desired. My meat was looking good. The smoke smelled amazing, but as afternoon approached, I was getting a little bit worried that my meat wasn't cooking fast enough and that my 5 p.m. dinner invite might leave my guests sitting until midnight.

So I did what any red-blooded American make would do, I added a half-log of fireplace oak on around 2:30. That brought the temp up nicely -- for awhile -- but I didn't want to overwhelm with oak, so the fire died back a little.

Around 3 p.m., I began to check temps in the meat using a standard meat thermometer. It was then that panic set in. While everything looked tasty from the outside, the internal temps were running between 110 and 120 degrees F -- far from the minimum 150-160 I needed. Another half-log of oak and a lot of prayers began then.

Around 5 or so, my buddy Dave gets over (armed, thankfully, with a copious quantity of beer) and made two observations -- it's cold outside, and my fire was too small. Both were keeping from actually cooking the meat.

We added a bunch more lump charcoal and two full logs of oak which immediately jumped the smoker temp up to 400. From there we started closing down dampers until the temp reached about 300F in the smoke chamber. We used that for the last hour or so to fully get the meat cooked.

Lesson learned -- get the smoke, but cook the meat first. The smoke by itself is nice, but won't cook the meat. Temperatures cook the meat, so work on temperatures first. The smoke will take care of itself.

Finally, as my temps reached around 160, I began pulling the meat and wrapping it in heavy aluminum foil and let it sit for 15 to 30 minutes. The food sitting in the foil was 1000x better -- ribs were more tender and meat easily came off the bones. The first rack off the grill (which hadn't sat as long in the foil) was still chewy and hard to pull from the bone -- even though it had a great smoky flavor.

Cook the meat!