Cold Weather Smoking
Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 1:47PM 
How versatile a BBQ chef are you? I got to find out this holiday weekend. My brother-in-law asked me to "make some magic" (his words not mine) with his CharBroil H20 smoker. Now it's been a good long while since I've cooked on one of these but we set out to give it a shot.
It was a cold and windy 25 degrees in Pittsburgh and I knew that keeping the temps up with this thin-walled smoker would be an issue. I decided to forego the water in the water pan and instead filled it with some small gravel in hopes that it would hold more heat than water.
We started a full pan of charcoal and realized that we'd need to keep pouring the coals to it and keep it out of the wind to keep the temps up in a good
cooking range. Unfortunately, my BIL didn't have a chimney starter but was able to fashion one out of a piece of stove pipe he had in the garage. This worked out better than I had hoped.
In the end, we were able to serve up 3 dozen ABT's, 3 lbs of chicken wings, and a couple of salmon fillets. They were very tasty and I'd say that in spite of a cooker with a few limitations, we proved that you can cook decent food if you're patient.
So don't let this cold weather stop you. Get out there and get cooking!
Cheers,
Braddog
Reader Comments (2)
Impressive! I have this very same smoker, and was searching for some reassurance that I could use it effectively in cold weather...thanks for the confidence!!!
CH
Craig,
It may take longer and burn more fuel than normal, but give it a shot. I also think that filling the water pan with something other than water (sand, gravel, etc.)is almost a necessity.
Good Luck!
Braddog