Do you guys bbq/smoke when the temperature is in the negatives?
If you do, what is done differently from a your regular routine? How about if you want to cold smoke?
Posted Jan 14, 2017, 5:03 PM UTC
721
Never tried in the negatives, but can't see why not. Hot smoking might just need some more fuel. Cold smoking might have to throw in a few lit coals of charcoal to get the temp up a little.
3
I do not. Because I live in Texas. It was in the 80's a few days ago.
3
I'll take winter over seven thousand percent humidity any day.
5
Houston winters can be amazing. Houston summers are the worst.
4
It's really only east Texas and the Gulf coast that is humid. Most of the state is classified arid or semi arid.
2
Also, if Houston ever got below 0..... it would literally shut down. Panic would ensue, people would actually die, and I'd probably try to smoke something so I could answer your question.
2
haha, when temps are at 80's i find it a bit difficult to cold smoke :) Right now it's -5F and i was planning to cold smoke some trout i caught. I'm thinking though with temps this low i might end up with frozen fish instead of cold smoked.
2
Yea just threw a big shoulder on with the ice storm about to hit.. Only weather to stop me is wind, and most of the time i can combat it with tarps if I really want to cook.
3
I live in the Texas panhandle. I have some big sheets of plywood that I can set up a wind block. However, when the sky turns brown because of our 40+ mph winds, it can bee too much for even the most daring BBQ fan.
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I hear you man I'm up in Kansas and there's those days that it's not that tarps and plywood won't work, it's the problem that you can't put them up without losing your mind from the frustration of the wind..
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We have very similar weather. We may get a bit hotter and you a bit colder but we both get the wind.
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I grew up in Oklahoma not an hour from the Texas panhandle. Can confirm the wind. Dirt devils are really fun to see, though.
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More charcoal because it's tougher to keep the heat up on my little smoker. That's about it.
3
Yes. If i have meat. It's smokin.
2
yes, no issues, might take a bit longer or have to build a thicker snake to keep temps up.
2
No real issues. But if the wind is crazy, I do recommend having some kind of wind barrier or placing the smoker somewhere where it will not see a lot of wind. This makes maintaining temps easier. Once I did a cook that was in single digit temperatures and the wind was crazy. Wind would die down and my temps would spike. Wind would pick up and my temps would drop. My temps were all over the place and my brisket seemed drier. And it makes a lot more work for me monitoring and adjusting the fire.
2
That makes allot of sense. Which is my concern with keeping a stable temperature and not to over cook. I might have to look into a ceramic smoker as u/3rdIQ mentioned they keep a stable temp.
1
Yeah, perhaps I should have prefaced my statement - the effect of wind will certainly depend upon your cooker. A Kamado style cooker will certainly fare better than a WSM, or something else that is thin walled. However, if your only reason for getting a Kamado is wind, there's other factors that I'd consider. Wind has really only effected 1-2 cooks for me ever so it's really not a huge deal, and you can get around it easily. Don't get me wrong, Kamados are awesome, but don't let wind be the only factor when deciding on a cooker.
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Sure. I have a couple of Big Green Eggs and any of the ceramic cookers are 4 season cookers. My coldest all night cook was more than -20°F. All I do differently is light a smaller spot of my lump charcoal and let the pit come up to temp slower that I would if the temp was in the 40°'s.
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Nope, I do it as a seasonal thing right now. But that's because I have to use a friend's grill and he refuses to pull it out before March.
1
Yeah, I've honestly never understood the correlation between smoking and the weather. 99% of the cook time is inactive and spent indoors, why is it a big deal to step outside for 1 minute at a time? It not like an outdoor party where you're grilling relatively quick things and hanging out outside.
My most extreme example was before I had my WSM, I did a 9hr cook on my kettle at a windy -10F. Never had a problem with temp and actually slept for several hours in there.
I have never cold smoked, so I can't comment on that.