

When you reach this stage you can batten down the hatches and start to regulate the temperature using the dampers. You'll be hardly able to see the smoke and probably question whether this is right.but it is, it's perfect.

Your fire is ready when the all the exposed wood has charred and the thick white smoke has turned to a wispy blue colour. In the first instance get everything open (dampers, doors lids) and get as much air to your fire as possible. To get you're fire going I use hardwood kindling and an odour-less firelighter. I find that I normally have the flue damper fully open and my heat regulations is purely regulated by the firebox damper. Regulate this using the damper on the flue and the firebox. The heat is controlled by the intensity of your fire which in turn is controlled by air flow through the smoker. Wood is fantastic, I think it's probably the most difficult to control but there's something rustic about it. the firebox is set to the side of the food chamber. Typically a wood fired smoker will be an offset smoker ie. For more details on your choice of hardwood, use my section on barbecue wood chips. One other point general to this smoker instruction manual is that whenever I refer to wood I'm referring to hardwood and never softwood. Note:- As you read on you'll notice that there's a lot more detail for wood and charcoal fired smokers because these are generally the more difficult to control but don't be put off if you're using this article as part of your research for buying a meat smoker because at the end of the day, these units (in my opinion) offer the most fun. This will get you going and no doubt as soon as you've started you'll want to learn more so I'll put some links through the page where you drill down into more detail about each subject.
