Been lurkin in the posts for while but havent been involved until now,
I have had a weber kettle for a few years and regularly bbq but was getting a little stale, that was until my fire was re ignited by introduction to smokin by friends on wood fired oven forum (WFO build in progress)
Anyhow considering options to buy or not to buy a dedicated smoker and chekin all the kit you have as well as the sound advice you give..... i jumped in at the very deep end and modified the kettle to see what could be done and give me some idea of my capcity........
1st attempt below (Be gentle with me);
Headed off to the BBQ suppliers and bought myself some kit to turn the Weber kettle into a smoker (well kinda....never be as good as the pukka kit but worth a go)
Anyhow bit of drilling later hey presto i can see just how cremated my meat is...........
My meat of choice for this experiment was rolled lamb...hmmm maybe not a great choice for smoking but was only £3 so no worries if it turned to ash.
Wood chips i decided on apple.......i am told this has a nice sweet taste, is pretty forgiving and hard to overpower anything.
Soaked the chips, lit the coals, foil tray in bottom of BBQ filled with hot water and away we went.
Temps difficult to maintain but for the 1st hour managed 250 degrees with a little variance between 230 - 270. Next hour hovered around 270-300 just a tad too hot so closed all the vents and wathced temps fall back to 230.....this is where i cocked up .......i panicked and put more coals on..damn! temp getting way too hot so closed it all off again........cock up no.2 i killed the fire
......ain't easy this smoking lark.............
long story short, basting every so often with watered down mint jelly i ended up 4 hours later quite happy with the result
Got a pork belly to try next.......... thanks Marcus!!!!!!
