Winter Smoking

Several years ago, shortly after we had begun smoking, the guys were home for the annual Andolina Christmas party, and the weather that weekend was mild -- warm enough to inspire us to spend an afternoon smoking fish in the pit. Having fired up the old smoker, we were just about to sit down with a glass of whisky when one of the kids recalled that there were NFL games that Saturday. So we plugged in a little portable TV from the basement; the guys ran to Radio Shack for some rabbit ears; and we all sat in the pit, drinking whisky, watching football, and keeping an eye on the smoker. Some of the neighbors, having seen us sitting out in the backyard in front of a TV, came by to find out why we would choose to sit out in the cold, instead of watching football in the comfort of our family room.

This year, the weather wasn’t quite nice enough that one would want to sit outside all afternoon; in fact, we had our first winter storm the other night. However, the big difference now is that the Bullet does not need tending every fifteen minutes. So when Susan went to Wegmans the other day, and found Steelhead trout, plans were made to fire up the smoker. We smoked scallops, which we’ll take to the Andolina’s for Christmas Eve; and the aforementioned Steelhead, which we’ll take to Great Barrington to share with everyone on New Year’s Eve.

I used more wood chips than usual this time (hickory, for the record), tossing an extra handful onto the fire box after I had placed the hot coals. Whether it was the extra handful of chips, or perhaps the fact that I had mixed in a bigger quantity with the briquets to begin with, but the bullet was generating smoke the whole time. In fact, as I sat down to write this post, it was over four hours since I had fired up the bullet, and I could still see smoke pouring out of the vents.

For those of you who care -- we smoked for two hours and forty minutes, never getting hotter than 160. However, I’m starting to think that the lower tray cooks hotter than the temperature registering on the thermometer, which fits into the lid of the bullet. The conventional wisdom has been that, since heat rises, the thermometer registers hotter than either of the trays where the food sits. Plus, the lower tray sits only an inch or so above the water bowl, which is supposed to moderate temperature. So we have always assumed that the lower tray cooked cooler than the upper one. I’m not so sure any more. Maybe we’ll have to run it with a couple oven thermometers on the two trays.

Lastly, what to drink after running the bullet on a winter Sunday morning? Van Winkle 15. What else??