Smoking in Cold weather can be challenging, especially for people living the north woods. Your smoker’s interior won’t be happy if the exterior gets too cold.
The cold metal of the exterior absorbs heat from the warm air inside which lowers the cooking temp. To fight with this. You’ll need to burn more fuel to uphold the temperature, increasing the cooking cost. So smoking in winter is a bit expensive, for obvious reasons!
Though it’s a little expensive, it can be done! It can be done by adopting a bit. Here are some few tips for you to adapt to this situation and taste amazing dishes even in winter.
Winter Smoking: Getting the Temperature Right:
You already understand the main challenge of smoking in winter is getting the temperature right. To get the temperature upheld, you can do these things below:
Keep it closed: Don’t get tempted to keep a close eye on your food during cold-weather smoking. Hey you, Don’t! Trust me, you’re adding 15 – 20 minutes to your cooking time every time you open the smoker in cold weather to check your food.
So, how do you make sure if everything’s going right inside? Digital remote thermometer is the answer. Get two of them, use one to monitor the cooking chamber temperature and other to keep tabs on the food itself. And, I suggest digital, because you can watch food or smoker temperature from inside the house with a digital remote. And, get at least one if you can’t afford two!
Give Your Smoker a Shelter: Try to keep the smoker away from the direct wind and the snowfall. Look around your yard, try to find a spot which is sheltered from a good majority of the wind. You may also need to find more than one spot, depending on the wind direction.
You can build a smoker enclosure to add additional protection. It’s a simple three-sided structure constructed of brick or wood and about as tall as your smoker. Position it towards the direction of the wind to block as much as possible. Try not to make it tight fitting.
Buy your Smoker a Jacket: Consider insulating your smoker to help maintain an even smoking temperature. It’s crucial to have a fire-resistant material here. You can use flame resistant water heater blankets, cutting it to custom fit your smokers. Or you can use a welders’ blanket and fit in the same manner.
Keep it Simple: Normally, easy tasks tend to become a little more difficult when you are working in cold weather. Every single task becomes more difficult for that bitter cold. My first suggestion here, when you start cold smoking first start with something simple like Smoker cheeseburgers and Smoker chicken thighs.
And, have everything pre-staged to avoid hassle during the smoking process. Have all your cooking utensils handy, have your wood in a dry and accessible area, and your fuel in a safe location. And it’s better to have a helping hand for cold smoking. An assistant will make things much easier when working in cold weather.
Experiment: Finally, never be afraid of experimenting. Try to find tricks of your own. Because you know your situation best, more than any expert. So experiment, take steps according to your situation and find the best trick that works for you.
Suggested Best Smokers for winter: Smoker Hollow 44241G2 And Weber 73001 Smokey Mountain:
Why the Smoke Hollow?
Great heating unit. The smoker has 2 independently controllable inline gas burners with each burner providing 10,000 BTU’ s. So it can produce some real heat with 20,000 BTU combined power. This solves the main issue of cold smoking, temperature fall.
And, many people think gas won’t flow for coldness. No, that’s not the case. Gas stays in the liquid form in the tank and it have a melting point of -44 degrees. So, smoking with gas as fuel in winter is not a problem.
But, don’t forget to use my tips for winter smoking. No matter how powerful heating unit a smoker has, it can never fight that cold weather solely.
So, jacket your smoker up. And, if you need to keep your smoker outside during a snowfall, buy a cover for that as well. It will save your smoker from rough weather and will help it last long.
Why the Weber Smokey Mountain?
Same. Good heating. The Weber Smokey Mountain is also great in terms of producing heat. And other things it good build quality. For its great finishing and build quality, it doesn’t lose smoke, rather saves the heat inside. So ultimately it upholds the temperature well.
So, that’s it I think, and it’s time to wrap it up. I’ve tried to tell everything I knew about smokers and choosing a perfect smoker for an individual. Still, if I missed something, let me know in the comment section below, and I’ll update the article with your desired information.
And if you have any question, don’t hesitate to ask in comments. I’ll bounce back onto you within the shortest possible time.
Finally, Good luck picking the best smoker for you, and good-luck tasting that delicious meal you’re going to cook very soon.
