I bought a charcoal smoker this weekend, along with a big bag of charcoal and
hickory wood pieces. It never occured to be that I might need lighter fluid,
so it was tricky getting the fire hot enough; I had to sacrifice most of the
hickory to keep the fire going.

I also bought a rack of ribs, some hamburger and hot italian sausage, and
smoked it all. I probably cooked the sausage too long (about 2 1/2 hours) and
it had the consistency of a large pork sausage link; next time I'll cook it not
quite as long.

The hamburgers came out suprisingly well, as I cooked those for about 3 1/2
hours.

I cut the rack of ribs in half so it would fit in the smoker, and used a dry
rub on them while smoking, although in the last half hour hit them with some
good barbeque sauce and they turned out great. The ribs cooked about 4 1/2
hours

Just to satisfy my curiousity I had a Granny Smith apple in my fridge and put
that into the smoker for about 2 hours and it came out pretty well cooked; next
time I will try cooking it maybe an hour longer and inject it with some melted
butter before I put it in the smoker.

I still have a lot to learn about getting the fire hot enough, and am already
looking forward to smoking some more hamburgers next weekend.

Michael O'Connor - Modern Renaissance Man

"The likelihood of one individual being correct increases in a direct
proportion to the intensity with which others try to prove him wrong"
James Mason from the movie "Heaven Can Wait".