New to smoking, and someone referred me to this gadget..

havent heard of the smoke pistol. my smoker had a similar problem with a simple solution.. as soon as your wood starts smoking, drop your temp way way down. if you have vents, adjust to about half open. watch and see what happens. if the wood still burns up quickly, lower the temp or close the vents more. if the wood stops smoking, raise the temp and/or open vents slightly. different units will require different settings. also different woods will require different settings(depending on the dryness of the wood, and the density). heres what works for me...... gas wide open and vent open for air til at least half the wood is smoking. then i turn the gas almost completly off, and close the vent to a slither of an opening. then she smokes for hours! keep in mind the wood will add heat, so it doesnt take that much extra time. depending on what i am smoking, i will do this 2 -4 times. 2 for chicken and ribs, 4 for butts. then wide open gas, with a little burst of smoke each 1.5 hr til done...
hope this helps, not confuses.....

If you are seeing smoke coming out of that pit through out the whole cook them chances are you have over smoked. With a good clean fire the smoke will be transparent and there is no need to putting smoke more than a few hours at the start of the cook.
If you find that you like smokier Q them add more wood at the beginning or go to a stronger flavor. Hickory, pecan and oak are stronger with fruit woods on the mild side.

If you are using gas as the heat source then add a chunk or two of charcoal along with the wood and you will produce a better smoke ring.
Jim

I think Jim Minion is right....as usual. Seems to me there is a rule of thumb that most of the smoke is absorbed early on in the cooking process, to begin with. After that, you're just trying to finish the thing; get it cooked.

Smoke pistol? Smoking gun? Sounds risky.

ok, still a bit confused, smoke first, then cook? or cook first then start the smoke and shut off the heat?


Btw, ordered a smokepistol to test it out.. I will give ya my thoughts as soon as I get it and try it.. Hell its only 30 bux, what have I got to lose?

I'm not sure about the gadget, so maybe you can give us a report.

What you're trying to smoke on, that Brinkman, isn't real good for smoking, and you will run out of smoke as you're just using chips. They're made to be an all in one, but they're not a real smoker. Opening up and losing heat isn't a big deal, it will add a little cooking time.

Jim's spot on about the wood and wanting a clean smoke

As far as the pistol, think about how much you'll spend on cartridges over a long time and maybe you'd be better off buying a smoker.

Then again, maybe it's just what a grill needs to turn it into a smoker

Let us know what you think.

Smokin'

At $10.50 + 6.95 shipping for six 1-3 hour smoke bullets, operating cost might be the big disadvantage of the smoke pistol. Plus it's a bit hard to get a really low, steady temperature with a gas Brinkman or the like.

Still, the smoke pistol might be a great cold smoking solution - just hook it up to a grill or garbage can or whatever. Not sure if the amount of smoke is at all controllable, tho.

I can't believe that somebody said that you can smoke meat in 15 min. I worked at Gilcrest sausage for 12 years and I can tell you that is NOT true. The first 15 min is about useless because the meat is still cold. It takes a lot longer to cold smoke than hot smoke. We smoked turkeys for about 4 hours (smoking continously), hams 6-12 hours and sausage about 3 hours.
Meat aquires smoke flavor by osmosis, a very slow process. It si kind of like using a marinade except with flavored smoke instead of flavored liquid. You know that takes overnight.
If meat really aquired its smoked flavor in 15 min then the barbeque spots would smoke it quick then throw it in the microwave.
The truth is that to smoke meat you need continous smoke for a long period of time. The flavor has to have time to permeate the meat and that just won't happen in the first 15 min when the meat is cold.

I have never seen that smoke pistol before but it sound like the right idea.

PS If you don't belive me, try smoking a turkey for 15 min then microwave or bake ... and enjoy.

Shazam
Heat is for cooking and smoke is for flavor.
More smoke is not better, normally it's the reverse. A Smoke Pistol is just not needed to produce good BBQ. Small amounts of wood will do all the flavoring you need.
Two things you can do use chunks of wood instead of chips or make a foil bag and place the chips in it. Seal the bag and put a few wholes in it. Throw it on the flames. It will burn long enough to give you all the smoke you need.
Jim

Awesome information all.. I recieved my Smokepistol this weekend and was pleasantly surprised. I am going to put the pistol up against the enclosed smoke chips in foil to see how it compares..

I love the ideas, please keep em coming, its a big help!

(So far the smoke pistol kicked butt, smoked a great slab of beef on it.. omg good)

Ok, I did it and wonder if I did it wrong..

I took your advice about the tinfoil and woodchips, the smoke happened quick and went out in the first 20 minutes of cooking, and what i was left with was charcoal and no smoke..

I gotta say this, the smokepistol is definatly worth looking into.. believe me when I say this, I the creator of this product, but I'm interested in buying their stock if they have any..