There are a number of bullet-shaped charcoal smokers out there and they are pretty easy to use. The best, by far, is the Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM). Brinkmann makes another popular unit, but it is not as good.

Click here for more about the WSM and where to buy one. Below, in brief, is all you need to get started. Use this method to get started and later you can play with more or less wood, more or less coal, vent opening, etc.

1) Wipe your ash from the bottom of the smoker. If you can, buy another spare bottom grate and lay it on top of the one that came with your WSM with the bars perpendicular, creating a checkerboard pattern. This will prevent coals and wood from falling through.

2) Open all the vents on the top and bottom, then fill the charcoal ring halfway with unlit charcoal. For a large hunk of meat that will take a long time to cook, like pork shoulder for pulled pork, fill the ring all the way. For ribs, halfway is fine. Use hardwood lump charcoal (at left) for reasons explained below. Bury about 6 ounces of wood in the coals. You can use chips or pellets, but I prefer chunks, so that would be two chunks a little larger than golf balls. No need to soak the wood. Click here to read more about wood.

3) Measure enough coals to fill a two-liter bottle of soft drink. Use a chimney to start the coals. When the coals are completely white, pour them over the unlit coals in the bottom of your cooker and spread them out evenly on top of the unlit coals. This is called the Minion Method named after Jim Minion, a caterer who invented the technique. It is better than the method recommended by Weber. If you light all the coals at once as Weber recommends, they will burn hot at first and then cool off. The Minon Method is much better at keeping the temp steady because it lights new coals as the old ones burn out. If you use the Minion Method you should also use hardwood lump charcoal. It has no additives or fillers. Some people say they can taste an off flavor from igniting briquettes when they are used in the Minion Method.

4) Put together the rest of the smoker. Insert the water pan and fill it with hot water.

5) Leave the top vent open all the way and resist the temptation to close it. Regulate the temperature with the bottom vents. Closing the top vent only encourages soot and creosote formation. Yuk! When the temp gets up to about 200F, and it will get there quickly, throttle back the lower vents to about 1/3 open and keep twiddling with them until you stabilize at about 225-250F. Drop another 2-4 ounce chunk of wood on top of the coals.

6) Add the meat. If you will need only one grate, use the lower grate, just above the water pan. The moister air there is critical to tenderness and juciness. Place an oven thermometer probe near the meat but not touching the grate. If the meat is on the lower grate, do not meter the temp at the top grate or on the dome. It is different. I use the Maverick ET-73 and thread the cables for the oven probe through a top vent hole. One of the problems with bullet smokers is that they have 15.5" grates and many slabs of ribs, especially St. Louis cut slabs, don't fit. Well you don't have to cut them in half. The picture here shows one way to get two full slabs on a single rack in a Weber Smokey Mountain: Use rib racks and bend the slabs to fit. If you do this on both the upper and lower grate on a WSM you can get four slabs on. Another technique is to roll the slab in a circle and run a long skewer through the place where then ends overlap. Works great and keeps the ends from burning.

7) Now go drink a beer. After the smoke stops, you can add more wood if you know what you are doing. There's always the risk of oversmoking, so until you really know your machine, don't add any more wood.

8) Every two hours check to make sure the water pan has not dried out. When it gets low, carefully add hot water.

9) Follow my recipe for the best ribs ever or pulled pork or brisket.

10) When you are done, close all vents to smother the coals and preserve them for the next cook. Just make sure you shake off the ash before you use partially burned coals, and wipe your ash again.

And that's all there is to it. Go drink another beer.

This page revised 5/18/08