Method · Hot and dry
Smoke
Turn a cheap, tough cut into the best thing you have ever made.
Smoking is low heat, clean wood smoke and a lot of patience. A pork shoulder takes most of a day, and almost none of that is work. The cook’s job is to keep a steady fire and leave the lid shut.
This lesson is free, start to finish. So is every other one.
At a glance
- Best for
- Pork shoulder, brisket, ribs, whole chickens, turkey
- Heat
- 225 to 275°F, indirect
- Time
- 2 to 14 hours
- Level
- Advanced. Not hard, but long.
What you need
- A smoker, or a kettle grill set up for indirect heat
- You don’t need a dedicated smoker to start.
- Wood chunks
- Hickory, oak, apple or cherry. Chunks, not chips, for long cooks.
- Two thermometers
- One for the air at grate level, one probe in the meat.
- Butcher paper or foil
- For the wrap.
- A water pan
- Steadies the heat and keeps the air moist.
Why it works
Tough cuts are full of collagen, the stuff that holds muscle together. Held at a low heat for hours, collagen melts into gelatin and the meat goes soft and juicy. Rush it with high heat and the meat dries out before the collagen gives up.
Smoke is the seasoning. Meat takes it best when it is cold and wet, in the first few hours. After that, more smoke adds little.
Clean smoke
- Good smoke is thin and almost blue. You can barely see it.
- Thick white or gray smoke means the wood is smoldering without enough air. It tastes bitter. Open the vents.
- Two or three chunks at the start is plenty. You are seasoning, not fumigating.
- Control the heat with the air vents, not by opening the lid. Every look adds time.
The cook, step by step
- Salt the meat the night before. Add your rub in the morning.
- Bring the smoker to 225 to 275°F and let it settle for 20 minutes.
- Put the meat on the cool side, fat toward the heat. Probe in the thickest part. Close the lid.
- Hold the temperature. Add fuel when it drops. Leave the lid shut.
- At around 150 to 170°F the temperature stops climbing, sometimes for hours. That is the stall. It is normal.
- When the bark is dark and set, wrap the meat tight in butcher paper or foil and put it back.
- Pork shoulder and brisket are done at about 195 to 205°F, when the probe slides in like it’s going into soft butter.
- Rest it wrapped, in a dry cooler, for at least an hour. Then pull or slice.
The stall and the wrap
The stall scares everybody the first time. The meat is sweating, and the water leaving the surface cools it as fast as the fire heats it. It ends when the surface dries. Wrapping stops the sweating and pushes through it faster. Paper keeps more of the bark. Foil is faster and softer. Or don’t wrap, and wait it out.
Chicken and ribs
- Chicken: smoke it hotter, 275 to 325°F, or the skin goes rubbery. It’s done at 165°F in the breast.
- Ribs: done when the rack bends and the surface cracks as you lift one end with tongs. About 4 to 6 hours.
- Poultry takes smoke fast. Use less wood.
When it goes wrong
- Bitter, harsh taste
- Dirty smoke, or too much wood. Open the vents for a clean fire and use less wood.
- Dry meat
- It ran too hot, or it didn’t rest. Hold the temperature down and rest it wrapped for an hour.
- Tough meat
- It came off too early. Tough means undercooked here. Keep going until the probe slides in.
- Rubbery chicken skin
- The smoker was too cool for poultry. Run it at 300°F or finish the skin over direct heat.
- The temperature won’t stay put
- Change one vent a little, then wait ten minutes. Chasing it makes it worse.