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the pan. If water spills onto the lit fuel, very hot ash
and steam will rise very quickly.
d. Reassemble the remaining parts of your smoker.
4. Setting the vents and monitoring the temperature
When cooking low and slow, factors like wind, rain,
and ambient temperature can all affect the smoker's
temperature. The vents on the lid and base of your
smoker can be used to increase or decrease the
cooking temperature. By opening the vents you
allow more air to reach the ire, and the temperature
will increase. By closing the vents you restrict air to
the ire, and the temperature will fall.
The ideal temperatures for most low and slow
smoking is 110°C to 135°C. Use this reading on your
lid thermometer as your target temperature range.
We recommend that you start with all vents set
open. Allow at least 15 to 20 minutes for the smoker
to warm up and then check the temperature on
the lid thermometer. Once the smoker has reached
the temperature close the vents approximately
halfway to maintain that temperature. If the
temperature rises higher than desired, slightly close
each vent, wait another 15 minutes and recheck the
temperature. Alternatively, if the temperature falls
lower than desired, slightly open each vent. Repeat
the process until your smoker reaches and maintains
the desired temperature.
Important: ensure you always wear heatproof
gloves when handling the vents or other parts of the
Smokey Mountain Cooker™.
5. Adding smoking wood and food
Once the smoker has reached your desired
temperature, it's time to add the smoking wood.
When smoking meat, the smoke lavours added by
wood are absorbed within the irst couple of hours
of the cooking process. For maximum effect, add the
meat shortly after the wood has started to smoke.
The amount and type of wood you use will
determine the strength and lavour of smoke in
your food. For each of the recipes in this book,
we recommend a type and quantity of wood. You
will ind a recommended smoking wood guide on
page 7 of this booklet. As always, we encourage
you to experiment and be guided by your taste.
Combinations of different woods can be a great way
to create your own lavours.
To add wood to your smoker:
a. Open the front door to access the ire.
b. Using tongs, add the wood chunks directly onto
the lit coals.
c. Close the front door. In just a few minutes the
wood will begin to smoke .
We recommend that you use Weber® Firespice™
smoking wood chunks in your Smokey Mountain
Cooker as there is no need to soak the chunks before
use.
Once the smoking wood has been added, it's time to
put the food on.
a. Open the lid.
b. Using tongs and heatproof gloves, remove the top
grill and place the food on the lower grill (if you are
only using one cooking grill, we recommend you skip
this step and only use the top grill for ease of access).
c. Replace the top cooking grill.
d. Place food on the top grill.
e. Replace the lid.
6. Monitoring and adjusting your Smokey Mountain
Cooker
Your smoker will maintain low temperatures needed
for low and slow cooking for hours on end. It is a
good idea to monitor the temperature throughout
the cooking process, once every hour if possible. If
you notice that the temperature starts to change
signiicantly there are a few things to do:
a. Open the front door and check the water pan. If
all or most of the water in the pan has evaporated,
the temperature of your smoker will rise. Add more
warm water to the pan if necessary. A check every
to 3 hours is advisable.
½
2
b. Open the front door and check the fuel. If the
temperature is falling, it could be because the fuel is
running low. Add more unlit briquettes to the ire if
necessary. Start with 5 to 10 briquettes and recheck
the temperature in 15 minutes.
c. Adjust the vents. Over the course of a long cook,
outside weather conditions will inluence the
temperature in your smoker. Adjust the vents as
necessary to maintain the desired temperature.
5
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