Smoking Meat - The Complete How to Smoke Meat Guide

Welcome to Smoking-Meat.com!

You are here, no doubt, trying to find answers about barbecue and smoking meat and this website is my way of providing the answers to those questions for you.

 

When I started this site back in 2004, there was not nearly as much information on how to smoke meat as there is now and I felt a great need to freely share what I had learned over the years and what I continue to learn on a daily basis.

 

Lucky for you, barbecue and smoking meat is something that anyone can learn to do with a little patience and perseverance.

 

Give a man some smoked meat and he'll eat good for a day. Teach a man to smoke meat in his own smoker and he'll eat good for a lifetime. -- my version of an old Chinese proverb

 

I am your host, Jeff Phillips of Tulsa, Oklahoma (pictured as the handsome dude at the top left of this website) and on the following pages I will teach you how to smoke meat using successful methods that I have learned over the years.

 

I will also strive to show you how to successfully use various types of smokers such as the Bradley smoker and the Weber Smokey Mountain just to name a few of my favorite backyard smokers.

 

In order to get started in the venture, you will need a few things if you don't already have them.

 

You will need:

 

• a smoker (a grill will work but it's not ideal)
• supplies like charcoal, wood chips/chunks, etc.
• Some safety equipment like hot gloves and an apron
• A good rub and sauce (this is more important that you might have thought)
• and a notebook to keep notes in

 

The most important item is the smoker obviously and it can be an electric, charcoal, gas or a wood smoker.

 

All of these have their advantages and disadvantages but I am here to tell you that all of them will allow you to produce excellent smoked food if you are a good student and will follow my directions and recommendations.

 

My favorite and most recommended smoker is a wood smoker but it is also the hardest to learn since you have to learn how to build a good fire and how to maintain that fire so that it keeps the smoker between 225 and 250 degrees.

 

Speaking of wood smokers..

 

My buddy Lavern sells some of the best BBQ Smokers available if you are looking to buy something. I just got a Meadow Creek TS120 wood burning smoker from him and I am loving it.

 

It's a reverse flow, burns wood at a very slow rate due to it's insulated firebox and fits my needs perfectly!

 

I started out with a small upright brinkmann smoker and it served me very well for many years. You can pick up one of these for less than $50 at your local shopping center, through Amazon online or you may even be able to locate a used one at the local flea market or garage sale for just a few dollars.

 

As I said earlier, if you have a grill then it can also be used with a few modifications.. if it's a charcoal grill, you will need to build the fire to one side and place your meat as far from the fire as possible since smoking meat is all about cooking the meat low and slow (indirect) unlike grilling where steaks and burgers are seared at very high temperatures

 

To help with the learning process, I have hundreds of pages of information on this website which I highly recommend that you read and study.

 

I also have some other resources which will take your education to the professional level if you want it to. Below is the actual step by step roadmap that I recommend you follow to make the most of this education..

 

Your Roadmap to Smoking Meat Success

1. Get a smoker (locally or you can find some good deals with free shipping on Amazon.com or the Smoking Meat Store)
2. Acquire supplies locally or at the Smoking Meat Store (some great places to find stuff locally is yard sales, craigslist.com, Ace Hardware, Lowes, Home Depot, Academy Sports, even your local grocery store)
    
3. Purchase the recipes for my rub and sauce (it's so amazing, you'll be supporting the website, you won't have to use the storebought stuff, these are low on salt and high on flavor, I recommend it, the list is never ending so just get the recipes and you will thank me later)
    
4. Subscribe to my FREE eCourse on smoking meat (this will teach you the basics and is sort of like boot camp for smokers. You will get a chapter each day for 5 days directly to your email inbox.)
    
5. Subscribe to the FREE Smoking Meat Newsletter (I send these out fairly often and it contains detailed instructions for smoke cooking various things, tips and tricks for using the smoker, product recommendations, and a lot more. Every newsletter is archived right here on the site for reading later.

 

Complete these 5 steps and, like so many others, you will rapidly progress in the art of smoking meat. Remember that you are only limited by the sky itself in how far you can go once you have the tools and the knowledge.

 

I have had many folks email me to let me know that they are now catering or they have opened up a barbecue restaurant in their town or city and that they had never thought that was possible before coming to this website.

 

That can be your story as well and when it happens, I want to hear about it!

 

Other Resources

• The Forums - SmokingMeatForums.com is a forum that I started way back due to my inability to answer the tons of questions that were coming in via email. We now have more than 58,000 members and over a million posts on every imaginable topic of smoking meat. It's a FREE resource and you owe it to yourself to give it a look.
   
• Our Facebook Page - We have more than 43,000 likes and it's growing by leaps and bounds. We post interesting stuff about smoking meat multiple times each day and you will love all of the drool worthy pictures that we LOVE to post;-)
   
• The Smoking Meat Book - I was asked to write a book on the subject of smoking meat a few years ago and that's exactly what I did. There's a lot of information in there about smoking meat and a ton of recipes for meats, sides, desserts, marinades, etc. Everyone that reads it seems to love it and I have no doubt that you will to. A must for your cooking library. Get it at amazon.com or anywhere books are sold.