All,
Any good advice on how to smoke in frigid weather?
The cold has been in the low teens near chicago and I'd like some
advice on how to handle this to get smoking go "normal". I know that
the
ambient temperature plays a lot in getting good smoke and appropriate
heat,
and the last thing I want to do is re-freeze a piece of meat I want
smoked.

Thanks in advance! It's funny because this time 2 years ago when I
got my
R2-D2 I was cranking out loins and butts - but now nothing mainly
because
of the cold.

skeeter wrote:
All,
Any good advice on how to smoke in frigid weather?
The cold has been in the low teens near chicago and I'd like some
advice on how to handle this to get smoking go "normal". I know that
the
ambient temperature plays a lot in getting good smoke and appropriate
heat,
and the last thing I want to do is re-freeze a piece of meat I want
smoked.

Thanks in advance! It's funny because this time 2 years ago when I
got my
R2-D2 I was cranking out loins and butts - but now nothing mainly
because
of the cold.

By R2-D2 I'm "assuming" you're talking about a WSM? I
don't know what you consider "frigid" but I just did ribs in
my WSM over the weekend and the high was around 17dF. The
biggest problem is any wind. We had 10-20mph winds Sunday. I
have a plywood wind break rigged up in a v-shape to block my
WSM from the wind.

Had no problem maintaining 250dF for the cook. Ribs came out
great. If you're doing butts/loins etc that are a longer
cook you may end up needing to add some lump depending on
your fire method and initial "load" of lump.

Cold cooks shouldn't be a problem if you can block the wind.

--
Steve

"Steve Calvin" wrote in message
...
skeeter wrote:
All,
Any good advice on how to smoke in frigid weather?
The cold has been in the low teens near chicago and I'd like some
advice on how to handle this to get smoking go "normal". I know that
the
ambient temperature plays a lot in getting good smoke and appropriate
heat,
and the last thing I want to do is re-freeze a piece of meat I want
smoked.

Thanks in advance! It's funny because this time 2 years ago when I
got my
R2-D2 I was cranking out loins and butts - but now nothing mainly
because
of the cold.

By R2-D2 I'm "assuming" you're talking about a WSM? I don't know what
you consider "frigid" but I just did ribs in my WSM over the weekend and
the high was around 17dF. The biggest problem is any wind. We had 10-20mph
winds Sunday. I have a plywood wind break rigged up in a v-shape to block
my WSM from the wind.

Had no problem maintaining 250dF for the cook. Ribs came out great. If
you're doing butts/loins etc that are a longer cook you may end up needing
to add some lump depending on your fire method and initial "load" of lump.

Cold cooks shouldn't be a problem if you can block the wind.

--
Steve

Don't let the cold temps keep you from using your smoker. Wind will be your
biggest problem, so once that is taken care of you should be all set. I
have noticed that on colder days that I tend to get more moisture buildup
inside my smoker cabinet. Opening any vents further than normal seems to
elimate this problem.

Cold OK. Wind bad. Plywood screen good.

-Zz

On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:59:27 -0800 (PST), skeeter
wrote:

All,
Any good advice on how to smoke in frigid weather?
The cold has been in the low teens near chicago and I'd like some
advice on how to handle this to get smoking go "normal". I know that
the
ambient temperature plays a lot in getting good smoke and appropriate
heat,
and the last thing I want to do is re-freeze a piece of meat I want
smoked.

Thanks in advance! It's funny because this time 2 years ago when I
got my
R2-D2 I was cranking out loins and butts - but now nothing mainly
because
of the cold.

Zz Yzx wrote:
Cold OK. Wind bad. Plywood screen good.

Posting good, top-posting bad :-)

Scrolling bad.

-Zz

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:28:45 GMT, "Dave Bugg"
wrote:

Zz Yzx wrote:
Cold OK. Wind bad. Plywood screen good.

Posting good, top-posting bad :-)

Zz Yzx wrote:
Scrolling bad.

Not when proper and judicious trimming is done. Besides, scrolling is done
with top-posting, too. The normal way of reading is out of context with
top-posting ..... Oh, to heck with it. (plonk)
--
Dave
www.davebbq.com

Sorry I've angered you.

-Zz

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:40:29 GMT, "Dave Bugg"
wrote:

Zz Yzx wrote:
Scrolling bad.

Not when proper and judicious trimming is done. Besides, scrolling is done
with top-posting, too. The normal way of reading is out of context with
top-posting ..... Oh, to heck with it. (plonk)

Zz Yzx wrote:
Sorry I've angered you.

-Zz

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:40:29 GMT, "Dave Bugg"
wrote:

Zz Yzx wrote:
Scrolling bad.
Not when proper and judicious trimming is done. Besides, scrolling is done
with top-posting, too. The normal way of reading is out of context with
top-posting ..... Oh, to heck with it. (plonk)

Keep top-posting and you'll probably be plonked by the
majority of the group.

It's good to spend some time learning the etiquette for
areas which you would like to participate in.

'nough said. Please abide by the long standing wishes of
usenet and more specifically, this group. This ain't the web.

On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:40:57 -0500, Steve Calvin
wrote:

Zz Yzx wrote:
Sorry I've angered you.

-Zz

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:40:29 GMT, "Dave Bugg"
wrote:

Zz Yzx wrote:
Scrolling bad.
Not when proper and judicious trimming is done. Besides, scrolling is done
with top-posting, too. The normal way of reading is out of context with
top-posting ..... Oh, to heck with it. (plonk)

Keep top-posting and you'll probably be plonked by the
majority of the group.

It's good to spend some time learning the etiquette for
areas which you would like to participate in.

'nough said. Please abide by the long standing wishes of
usenet and more specifically, this group. This ain't the web.

Again, my aplogies.

-Zz

"skeeter" wrote in message
...
All,
Any good advice on how to smoke in frigid weather?
The cold has been in the low teens near chicago and I'd like some
advice on how to handle this to get smoking go "normal". I know that
the
ambient temperature plays a lot in getting good smoke and appropriate
heat,
and the last thing I want to do is re-freeze a piece of meat I want
smoked.

Thanks in advance! It's funny because this time 2 years ago when I
got my
R2-D2 I was cranking out loins and butts - but now nothing mainly
because
of the cold.

don't much worry about the cold anymore but when I cooked on the bullets
just set a 55gal drum right over the cookers--somewhere on the web there are
pics of buzz's cold weather smoking

buzz--in the middle of Wisc

On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:10:56 -0500, Steve Calvin
wrote:

By R2-D2 I'm "assuming" you're talking about a WSM? I
don't know what you consider "frigid" but I just did ribs in
my WSM over the weekend and the high was around 17dF. The
biggest problem is any wind. We had 10-20mph winds Sunday. I
have a plywood wind break rigged up in a v-shape to block my
WSM from the wind.

Had no problem maintaining 250dF for the cook. Ribs came out
great. If you're doing butts/loins etc that are a longer
cook you may end up needing to add some lump depending on
your fire method and initial "load" of lump.

Cold cooks shouldn't be a problem if you can block the wind.

Also, if one has sand in the 'water pan' it might be a good idea to
bring said pan inside for a few hours (overnight?) before the cook,
so's to have it already above the c-c-c-old ambient temp.

Heck, might even heat the sucker up in the oven, IF you've got a safe
way to handle it.

I personally think that a thermal mass such as a sand-filled waterpan
is a lot of help in colder weather, *once it's reached cooking temp.*

I cooked on Saturday in mid-30s and once the sand warmed up, no
problem maintaining the 225-250 range I like to use.

"Every single religion that has a monotheistic god
winds up persecuting someone else."
-Philip Pullman
--
-denny-
(not as curmudgeonly as I useta be)

On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:45:24 -0800, Zz Yzx
wrote:


Again, my aplogies.

Thank you. Not so much for the apology, but for the in-line post.


(purely personal opinion, but I know a lot of it is shared through
this newsgroup)

I don't mind a top-post reply *when it's short, simple, and there's no
doubt to what it refers.*

But when one addresses more than one point in the response, it's one
hell of a lot easier to follow (and involves LESS scrolling, by the
way) if the reply is interleaved. Example follows:

A is A (stated in a 20-line paragraph)
but B is B

apples are often red (in a 7-line paragraph)
oranges, though, are not red

(end example)

See, done this way, you scroll down once. If the reply bits were top
posted, you'd have to scroll down first to read the A is A paragraph,
then up to reply, then down to read the apple paragraph, then up to
reply. ICK.

"Every single religion that has a monotheistic god
winds up persecuting someone else."
-Philip Pullman
--
-denny-
(not as curmudgeonly as I useta be)

"Steve Calvin" wrote in message
...
skeeter wrote:
All,
Any good advice on how to smoke in frigid weather?
The cold has been in the low teens near chicago and I'd like some
advice on how to handle this to get smoking go "normal". I know that
the
ambient temperature plays a lot in getting good smoke and appropriate
heat,
and the last thing I want to do is re-freeze a piece of meat I want
smoked.

Thanks in advance! It's funny because this time 2 years ago when I
got my
R2-D2 I was cranking out loins and butts - but now nothing mainly
because
of the cold.

By R2-D2 I'm "assuming" you're talking about a WSM? I don't know what
you consider "frigid" but I just did ribs in my WSM over the weekend and
the high was around 17dF. The biggest problem is any wind. We had 10-20mph
winds Sunday. I have a plywood wind break rigged up in a v-shape to block
my WSM from the wind.

Had no problem maintaining 250dF for the cook. Ribs came out great. If
you're doing butts/loins etc that are a longer cook you may end up needing
to add some lump depending on your fire method and initial "load" of lump.

Cold cooks shouldn't be a problem if you can block the wind.

This is where a good ceramic cooker earns its spurs. Once you fire it up,
it's good to go regardless of wind and such. I did the Christmas turkey at
Minus 19F. [back in my last Calgary winter]. It came out well.
Harry

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
Zz Yzx wrote:
Sorry I've angered you.

May the Gods of 'Q quench your fire in the middle of the night.

:-)


--Brett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-posting

P.S. If you use Outlook Express, the tool Quote-Fix does wonders for ya.