Smoke This!

Three pounds of pot roast goes into the smoker, and I start to get excited. We are trying two new things this time, and both seem to be working out quite well.

First, Denise got tired of my Kingsford charcoal complaints. So instead she bought Kingsford charwood. I've never played with charwood before, and I was skeptical after reading reviews. Even Kingsford says that the stuff typically burns to hot for slow cooking. Fortunately, I know a little chemistry.

You see, if you want to slow a fire, you simply restrict the oxygen. The less fire, the lower heat. The real key with slow cooking is the bed of coals. So the magic seems to be in the fast kickoff of the charwood, letting it burn down, then managing your heat by opening or closing the coal bed. We are an hour into cooking and my theory is holding up nicely.

One more note about the charwood, I like the smoke that comes off of it. It seems a lot more woody, and should impart some excellent flavor to the meat. I am still adding wet chips to augment smoke.

The second change is the addition of a talking thermometer. Oregon Scientific makes a wireless thermometer with some speaking functions. It is a great accessibility boost. A complaint is that there is no function to read the current temperature of the meat (you get a visual indicator only). It does, however, provide presets for different types of meat and doneness, and speaks when the meat is almost or at the target temperature. This thermometer was a Christmas gift from mom and dad, thanks!

So now I sit in the house, and have no worries about overcooking the meat. I walk out every so often, lay a finger on the lid to check the temperature, add charwood or play with the fire if necessary, and check the water. It does get easier than this, but easy isn't always fun.

Time to think about which wine to open.