[why_me]

Originally Posted by BillyB

I know everything that I've watched and done myself that I wait for the smoke to thin out a little before putting anything on. Blue smoke I think it what it is called?

With my particular smoker, I'll light the pit with all my vents wide open and let it go until it hits 250-275*, usually with a lot of smoke coming out. I'll open it up and put the meat on the grill and close it up. By this time, the temp at the dome usually shows about 200* ish, plus with the introduction of the cooler meat, the temp really goes down. I'll close 2 out of the 3 bottom vents at this point and let the temp slowly get back up to about 250* and then start quenching the last vent to get it close to 225*. By this time, the smoke is very thin and wispy. Then, don't open it again until the remote thermometer says it is done. Every time you open it, you introduce oxygen and can make trying to maintain temp a pain.