Setting Up a Weber for Smoking

Do you like BBQ? Do you only have a charcoal grill? With a few things and not much extra cash, you too can smoke whatever cuts of meat your little heart desires.

Now you'll need to pick up a few things to do this.

1. If you have the grill you should already have the charcoal of choice and a chimney makes lighting even easier.

2. Disposable aluminum pans, these act as both a water pan and drip pan. Filling with water or apple juice acts as both a heat sink and keeps the grill humid and the meat moist.

3. Apple juice (optional), helps add flavor and moisture to the meat.

4. Wood of your choice, this is also for flavor. Get whatever sounds good to you, the fruit woods are more subtle and sweeter in flavor, mesquite is quite strong. Remember, if you use chunks you don't have to soak the wood, but chips need to be soaked for a minimum 30 minutes prior to use or they'll just burn up with little smoke.

Sorry, no prior pictures, but this is how you want your grill set. Drip pan on one side, coals on the other. This creates the indirect heating we need to smoke our meat.

Pretty self explanatory, place your meat over the drip pan. If you have a smaller grill like I do, use some aluminum foil to create a wall the goes from under the meat over the top without touching on top. this helps one side from burning. About halfway thru cooking I turned the meat 180° so the side closest the heat was near the edge.

Check on your coals every 50-65 minutes, the goal is to keep as much heat inside as possible. I go by if I can't see as much smoke as when I put in the meat, might need to add some coals and more wood.

One your done, usually 5-7 hours, take the meat off the grill and let it rest. This helps the meat finish cooking and the juices settle into the meat.

If you did a shoulder or butt, pull it apart and put your favorite BBQ sauce on. Good luck, and happy smoking.