Re: Brinkman Charcoal Smoker instructions for Doug

Hi Doug :-) I'm not sure that this will be of any help to you but I did find some advice for you on the internet but not detailed instructions for the Brinkman. We actually have a Brinkman Charcoal smoker but DH is the person who uses it and he is out of town. We have had it long enough that I'm not sure we could find the instructions for it but when DH comes home and if he knows where they are, I'll try to give you some more specific pointers or maybe he can answer some of your questions. Meanwhile, here are some sites for you to check out. They may be enough to get you started. Good luck and happy grilling/smoking :-) !!

http://www.texascooking.com/features/nov97ravenbbq1.htm (Be sure to read Barbeque 101, 102, and 103. I think they are very informative regarding barbequeing and smoking meat.)

http://www.barbecuehut.com/barbecue_smokers.html

Next is a review of the smoker but it does give some advice about using it.

"I have used my Brinkmann Gourmet smoker twice over the last two weeks and had acceptable results both times. Smoking/BBQing food is different from grilling, even indirect heat grilling, and takes some practice.

I found the Gourmet grill easy to assemble. My son and I had it ready for charcoal in about 30 minutes. We actually read the instructions!

I use a charcoal chimney to start my coals. For my first fire in the Gourmet I lit up a full chimney of coals and put an additional chimney-worth of charcoal in the firepan. When the coals in the chimney were getting ashey I poured them over the cold charcoal and then added about three handfuls of soaked hickory wood chips.

As the smoke started I put my first load of meat in to the smoker. For my inaugural smoke outing I did two slabs of pork spare ribs. I used a rib rack and cut the slabs into two pieced each for a total of four pieces of meat in the rib rack. I put the rack with the ribs on the lowest grill rack - right over the water pan. I had filled the water pan with hot water to within about 1 inch of the top of the pan.

I put the lid on the smoker and then monitored the heat for the next 30 minutes or so. The heat came up to "ideal" on the provided thermometer. I checked this heat with an oven thermometer on the rack next to the meat. "Ideal" range is approximately 200-275 degrees according to my test with the oven thermometer.

After about 1 hour of cooking I lit off another chimney of charcoal and then added it to the firepan. I, unfortuately, added more hickory chips at the same time. I have come to find out that adding smoking wood after the first hour or so is not condusive to good BBQ. Also, I have seen mixed reviews on soaking or not soaking the chips or chunks.

As the ribs cooked I basted them with a simple oil/worchestershire sauce/vinegar baste about every 30 minutes. After about 3 hours of cooking I wrapped my ribs in foil and then returned them to the cooker for another two hours. At the end of two hours (5 hours total) I checked the ribs and determined that they were ready to eat. The meat had pulled nicely back from the ends of the bones and the meat was almost ready to fall off the bones.

I collected comments from my wife and guests and they concluded that the ribs were very good. I thought they were a little heavy on smoke flavor but then I added no additional sauce to the meat."

And, lastly, a reply to you or someone else here at recipelink from Dick, Charlotte regarding the Brinkman smoker.

From: Dick in NC 4-7-2004
In reply to: ISO: How to use Brinkman smoker

Yes the water pan goes just above you charcoal pan. Always completely cover your water pan and the inside of your charcoal pan with 2 layers of aluminum foil, will help them last alot longer.
Try apple just instead of water, a cheap store brand will work. I have 3 smokers, I smoke alot.
Good luck

Dick in Charlotte