How To Use A Offset Smoker Grill

The Offset Smoker Explained

What is an beginning smoker?An offset smoker is a barbecue smoker with a horizontal cooking chamber and a firebox on the side, designed to cook with indirect estrus for "low and wearisome" charcoal-broil.

How does an offset smoker piece of work? The air drafts into the firebox, through the "oven", and out the stack. Temperature is controlled by maintaining a charcoal or wood fire in the firebox and adjusting the flow of oxygen into the firebox and out the stack using adaptable vents.

We open up the vents wider to requite the fire more than air and therefore raise the temperature, and nosotros give the burn down less air to lower the temperature. Wind, barometric pressure, and outside temperature affect how hot the fire burns and how hard the fire has to piece of work to keep the temperature steady, so while guidelines aid, maintaining a consistent temperature and a "clean" fire in an offset smoker relies on a flake of experience and intuition, which come past practice and dedication to the sport.

The Downside:
Common Challenges With Offset Smokers

Frequent refueling. An offset BBQ smoker takes more incremental fire maintenance than some other types of charcoal-fired smokers, such as a Meadow Creek Box Smoker, Meadow Creek Pig Roaster, or Big Green Egg. Equally a dominion, offset smokers need more fuel every thirty–60 minutes (more on this below).
Frequent adjustments. The really cheap mass-produced first smokers are made of thin steel and leak a lot of air, making information technology hard to maintain a consistent temperature, which gets tiring on a long cook. (Notation: This generally isn't a problem on those in the $1,000+ range. A heavy-duty get-go smoker will hold a steady temperature quite hands if you sympathize airflow and fire management.)

Offsets wait absurd, but the cheap ones have turned more people off barbecue than whatever other smoker. Later on ane season of frustration, owners dump them and often never render to smoking. They kill the curious.Read unabridged commodity.

The Upside:
Who the Outset Smoker Is For

Those who beloved to play with fire. Instead of being a hassle, successful burn down direction becomes an enjoyable office of the experience and carries with it the honorable status of "pitmaster". The design of an offset smoker makes it easy to stoke the dress-down and add more fuel without opening the cooking sleeping room. If you find satisfaction in mastering a live fire and are cooking for the experience, you lot'll beloved running an offset smoker.
Those who similar the cool factor. Chiffonier smokers and open pits certainly accept their identify, but in my opinion, an offset smoker is the coolest of them all, particularly a BBQ smoker trailer, such every bit Big Black.
Those who want to cook authentic barbecue with wood. This applies more often than not to the more heavy duty offset smokers with 1/4" steel fireboxes and especially those with contrary menstruum draft for excellent oestrus retention, merely an showtime smoker is the best type of smoker for burning log splits. Having said that, wood generates a more than sporadic heat than briquettes, and also makes it piece of cake to over-smoke your meat, then if you're new to starting time smokers, y'all'll want to start the cook with a nice base of charcoal briquettes, and then feed it wood chunks or splits each time the fire starts tapering off (drops by about 25 degrees F), but while the burn is still hot enough to quickly ignite the wood. If you're worried about over-smoking the meat, refuel with a mix of forest and charcoal.
Those who like quondam school. What is more traditional than a "hunk of steel" smoker, a pile of seasoned wood splits, a fire and a shovel, a pair of leather gloves, and a hunk of meat? This is some other reason I love starting time smoking, and there are no moving parts or electronics to supervene upon or maintain.
Those who like to melt a lot of food. Almost offset smokers are designed to hold plenty meat for a crowd or plenty of leftovers.

A note about using wood on a cheaply-made first (less than $500 range): You may have better results using mostly charcoal because of how hard it is to control the fire in some of the cheaper offsets. Beginning, main using only charcoal and refueling with pre-lit charcoal. Supplement with a couple of wood chunks or a handful of smoking pellets tossed on tiptop of the fire. It's much better to have a light smoke flavor than to over-smoke the meat.

Can yous grill in an offset smoker? Kickoff smokers are designed to cook with indirect oestrus, but many of them as well allow you to cook with straight oestrus. Some have a door in the top of the firebox and a cooking grate straight over the burn down. Others can be set up to build a burn down nether the cooking grate in the cooking bedroom.

Charcoal-broil doesn't get more than real than cooking over a wood fire.

My Experience With the SQ36 Offset Smoker

I've been cooking on a backyard offset smoker for more than 10 years. My smoker is a Meadow Creek SQ36 offset smoker. Here are several of the cooks I've done on this model.

Examples of Heavy Duty Offset Smokers

At Meadow Creek Welding, we believe it takes more than raw steel and cool machines to build a BBQ smoker. That'due south why every smoker we build is handmade in a culture of integrity. Our delivery to integrity shapes the durable design of each smoker and the kindness we strive to show our customers.

Our commencement smokers are made with one/4" steel fireboxes. Their heavy duty structure helps them cook more evenly, makes them easier to use, and lets them hold up much longer than the mass-produced smokers made overseas. In summary, these are the kind of smoker you'll purchase if you're looking to invest in an outset smoker that will be a pleasure to use and serve the hereafter generation.

Can I customize my offset smoker? Meadow Creek get-go smokers are bachelor with a sweet list of available options, including extra grates, insulated fireboxes, stainless steel exterior shelves, trim packages, grilling pans, and more! View ane of our barbecue smokers below to see the list of features and upgrades for each model.

Virtually of our offset smokers are also opposite flow smokers. Learn what a contrary period smoker is and how information technology cooks differently here: