There are several factors that affect the cooking temperature of an offset smoker. The amount and type of wood you use is the first step in controlling the temperature of the fire in the firebox. Species of wood like oak, hickory, and mesquite burns hotter and for longer than milder fruit woods. Due to the variability of different types of wood, it may take some experimentation to determine how much wood you need to add to the fire in order to reach a certain cooking temperature.

 

It is important to consider the size and placement of the wood splits as well, ensuring that they are small enough to fit in the fire management basket but large enough to maintain a consistent temperature. In order to ensure that your fire keeps burning continuously and newly added splits light easily, it is important to maintain a good bed of hot coals. This should happen automatically as the wood burns down to form natural coals, but it’s often easier to build the initial fire with a bed of lump charcoal underneath the splits of wood, as opposed to burning only wood from the start. As a general guide, you will need to add new splits of wood to the fire every 45 to 90 minutes to maintain pit temperatures.

 

We recommend starting your fire with a high-powered propane blowtorch to get the pit up to temperature quickly. Alternatively, you can use natural fire lighters, but this comes with the downside of waiting up to an hour for the pit to reach cooking temperatures.

 

The amount of oxygen that reaches the fire is the second step in dialling in your desired cooking temperature. To increase the temperature, you can open up the vents on the firebox to allow more air to flow in. To decrease the temperature, you can partially close the vents to restrict the flow of air. The adjustable chimney damper can also be used to restrict airflow, which slows the speed of air moving through the smoker by reducing the draft effect of the chimney. This can often be desirable as more heat is retained in the cooking chamber, reducing cooking times, however, it can also diminish bark formation. Airflow should not be restricted too much as it can lead to a smouldering fire, resulting in a large amount of smoke and bitter-tasting food. It is important to find a balance between supplying too much or too little oxygen to the fire. Temperatures in the cooking chamber will drop after opening the door due to the loss of heat, don't try to compensate for this by adjusting the airflow controls; temperatures will return to normal after a few minutes.

 

Items within the cooking chamber can be exposed to different temperatures depending on their location. Our pits have been designed to divert the the radiant heat of the fire from food close to the firebox opening, but items placed closer to the firebox opening will still be exposed to a slightly higher temperature than those positioned closer to the chimney. This is due to the inherent functionality of offset smokers, which promote maximum convective airflow. Additionally, due to the natural rise of smoke and heat, food on the upper grates can be exposed to temperatures that are 30-50 degrees Fahrenheit higher than food on the lower grates. The speed of the airflow through the pit will also have an effect on the evenness of temperatures within the cook chamber. The fire can be moved closer or further away from the cooking chamber using the Materia fire management basket to further fine-tune pit temperatures. It is important to consider these factors when deciding on the placement of food within the cooking chamber to ensure optimal results.

 

Try not to worry too much if you can't get the fire or temperature exactly right. Cooking with a live fire is a balance of both art and science. During longer cooks, you have the opportunity to experiment with different factors without compromising the quality of the food. For shorter cooks, you might actually want the fire to produce larger amounts of smoke due to the shorter exposure time of the food to the smoke.