AmazingRibs.com is supported by our Pitmaster Club. Also, when you buy with links on our site we may earn a finder’s fee.
Click to see how we test and review products.
Grill And Smoker Setup And Firing Up
What’s the best way to set up your grill or smoker? The secret is to have temperature control, and for grills, that almost always means using a 2-zone setup. For smokers, the secret is to get a small hot fire that makes clean “blue” smoke rather that billowy white smoke. And yes, you can use a plain old grill, gas or charcoal, as a smoker.
How to Set Up a Charcoal Grill for Smoking or Grilling
Get the most out of your charcoal grill by setting up 2 heat zones, direct and indirect. This set up allows you to add wood chunks to the coals for smoke, to cook low and slow barbecued ribs and pork shoulder, and to better control your temperature. It also helps prevent flareups and burnt food!
Using the Vents to Control Temperature on Charcoal and Wood Burning Grills and Smokers
Here's how to use the two vents to control temperature in a charcoal or wood grill or smoker.
The Best Setups For Gas Grills, Maintenance, And Troubleshooting
You can set up a gas grill to get excellent smoke roasted barbecue if you know how. Here's how gas grills work, the best setups, and how to maintain them.
How to Set Up and Modify Offset Smokers And Barrel Smokers
Find out how to setup and modify inexpensive offset smokers such as the Brinkmann Pitmaster, Brinkmann Smoke'N Pit Professional (a.k.a. SNPP), and Char-Broil Silver Smoker to get the best possible BBQ with the least possible expense.
The Thermodynamics of Cooking and How Different Cooking Methods Work
Learn about thermodynamics: the basis of all cooking! Find out how heat transference works by conduction, convection, radiation, induction, and infrared heat in your grill, bbq, and smoker.
What You Need to Know About Wood, Smoke, And Combustion
Learn all about wood smoke and how it adds flavor to BBQ. Find out whether you should be using wood chunks, chips, pellets, logs, or sawdust in your cooker. Discover the truth behind the claim that different woods have different flavors.
Charcoal Science: How Charcoal Is Made And How Charcoal Works
Ever wonder how barbecue charcoal is made? Here's an inside look at the manufacturing process for pillow shaped charcoal briquets, hardwood lump charcoal, bone charcoal, and other forms of charcoal such as binchotan. We also explain which kind of charcoal is best and how to use it.
BBQ Season Checklist
Getting ready to fire up for BBQ season? Check out our must-have checklist of tips to kick things off right. You'll find out how to get rid of built-up grease, clean the grill grates, and improve your cooker's overall performance so you're barbecued food will taste its best all season long.
Cleaning And Maintaining Your Grill Or Smoker
Keep your barbecue grill clean. Greasy grill grates make food taste bad and gunk on the inside of a grill can reduce heat transference. Here's how to clean and maintain your grill.
How to Fight Mold in Your Smoker or Grill
Mold in your BBQ grill is a common problem. Learn how to quickly and safely remove mold that has built up on your grill grates or elsewhere in your grill or smoker. We also show you how to prevent mold from building up in your cooker in the first place.
How to Calibrate Your Grill or Smoker with Dry Runs
Calibrate your cooker. There is often dust and grease under the hood from the factory on new grills and smokers. Here's how to prepare your cooker with a dry run so you can control its temperature when it's showtime.
When To Put A Lid On It
Lid up or lid down? It's a question that comes up on the patio as often as it does in the bathroom. Answer: it depends. Sometimes you want to cook with the grill lid on, and sometimes you want it wide open. Read on to find out why.
How to Grill With Wood and Master Campfire Cooking
Discover the secrets to grilling with wood and mastering campfire cooking. Once you cook with wood and enjoy the high heat and incredible smoke flavors, you will want to cook this way again and again.
Stickburning: Smoking With Wood
Here's everything you need to know about smoking meat with wood logs, including working with different styles of barbecue pits and wood ovens and using different types of wood logs.
The Amazing Pit Barrel Cooker: Setup, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Take a look at the Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC), an amazing smoker and grill. We give you all the tips, tricks, and techniques you need to get the best bbq out of it.
How to Build a Hog Pit from Concrete Blocks
How to build a barbecue pit for cooking a whole hog from concrete block (cinder block), including illustrated plans with dimensions and various designs
How to Grill and Smoke in Cold Weather
Learn some nifty tricks for insulating and protecting your cooker so you can beat the cold, rain, snow, and wind. These handy tips will keep you grilling and smoking successfully on any cooker, at any time, in any weather.Related articles
- How to Grill and Smoke Everything
- How To Use Drip Pans And Water Pans, What To Put In Them And How To Clean Them
- How To Make “Close Proximity Smoked Fish”
- The Slow N Sear Transforms Kettle Grills Into Low And Slow Smokers
- Tailgating And Camping Checklist
- Parts To Repair, Modify, And Upgrade Your Grill Or Smoker
- BBQ And Kitchen Tools, Toys, And Accessories Rated And Reviewed
- Ratings And Reviews Of Hundreds Of Grills, Smokers, Hog Roasters, And More
Related reviews
Published On: 5/6/2019 Last Modified: 4/23/2021
Grilla Pellet Smoker proves good things come in small packages
We always liked Grilla. The small 31.5″ x 29.5″ footprint makes it ideal for use where BBQ space is limited, as on a condo patio.
Click here for our review on this unique smoker
GrillGrates Take Gas Grills To The Infrared Zone
GrillGrates(TM) amplify heat, prevent flareups, make flipping foods easier, kill hotspots, flip over to make a fine griddle, and can be easily moved from one grill to another. You can even throw wood chips, pellets, or sawdust between the rails and deliver a quick burst of smoke.
Click here for more about what makes these grates so special
The Cool Kettle With The Hinged Hood We Always Wanted
Napoleon’s 22″ Pro Cart Charcoal Kettle Grill puts a few spins on the familiar kettle design. In fact, the hinged lid with a handle on the front, spins in a rotary motion 180 degrees. It’s hard to beat a Weber kettle, but Napoleon holds its own and adds some unique features to make the 22″ Pro Cart a viable alternative.
Click here for more about what makes this grill special
Finally, A Great Portable Pellet Smoker
Green Mountain’s portable Davy Crockett Pellet Smoker is one mean tailgating and picnic machine. But it’s also gaining popularity with people who want to add a small, set it and forget it pellet smoker to their backyard arsenal. And with their WiFi capabilities you can control and monitor Davy Crocket from your smart phone or laptop.
Click here to read our detailed review and to order
Comprehensive Temperature Magnet With 80+ Important Temps
Winner of the National BBQ Association’s product of the year award. This 8.5″ x 11″ magnet contains more that 80 benchmark temperatures for meats (both USDA recommended temps as well as the temps chefs recommend), fats and oils, sugars, sous vide, eggs, collagens, wood combustion, breads, and more. Although it is not certified as all-weather, we have tested it outdoors in Chicago weather and it has not delaminated in three years, but there is minor fading.
Click here to order.
The Efficiency Of A Kamado Plus The Flexibility Of The Slow ‘N Sear Insert
Built around SnS Grill’s patented Slow ‘N Sear charcoal kettle accessory, this 22-inch kamado is a premium ceramic grill that brings true 2-zone cooking to a kamado.
Click here for our article on this exciting cooker
The Pit Barrel Cooker May Be Too Easy
The PBC has a rabid cult following for good reason. It is absolutely positively without a doubt the best bargain on a smoker in the world. Period. This baby will cook circles around the cheap offset sideways barrel smokers because temperature control is so much easier.
Click here to read our detailed review and the raves from people who own them
If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and much more!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 4,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner like TV network or a magazine publisher to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club, but please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get 21 great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial membership, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators