notfainthearted Food Journal

Santa has a habit of bringing a cooking gadget to Chez Journey every now and again.

The first year it was a electric chicken rotisserie oven. DS2 had seen them advertised on teevee that year and just thought that we HAD to have one.

The next year, it was a smoothie maker. Which, frankly saved the blender for more, uh adult beverage applications.

Last year, a toaster oven for making the hot-pockets and pizza rolls that the boys love so much.

This year, a smoker.

It's a big one. Big enough to hold a turkey and a ham.

Problem is, it only came with directions for assembly and a vague set of instructions for lining charcoal and water bowls and warnings about NOT LETTING OUT THE HEAT by checking too often. And a table of how long certain things will take to reach temperature.

But it doesn't seem too complete. I mean, it says "Ribs - 6 hours." Is that for one rack of ribs or 4? Or doesn't it matter?

How do you check the level of the charcoal or water without letting out all the heat?

Can I use my regular probe thermometer (which has a cord that comes out of the oven and connects to the LCD display on the counter) or do I need a different one?

It says to add an hour of cooking time if the outside temperature is under 50 degrees. what if the temperature is, like, 15 degrees? Would you expect to add more than an hour for that much below 50?

See. All I have is questions.

Well, questions and a rack of spare ribs in the freezer.

Weigh in on the comments, won't you?? Your own advice and learnings are most welcome but a recommendation of a cookbook won't be sneered at.