Read Low & Slow: Master the Art of Barbecue in 5 Easy Lessons for Free Online Page A

temptations. Unless instructed or unless something is going terribly wrong—flames are shooting out of the sides or you get a whiff of burning meat—leave your cooker alone. Wrap barbed wire around the handle of the lid, or better yet, just wire the lid shut, so opening and closing it becomes a tedious chore and a reminder of the strict no-peeking policy. Every time you open your cooker, the blast of air burns the charcoal hotter and that precious, stabilized heat is lost. The temperature drops, and you extend the cooking time by about fifteen minutes.

LOW AND SLOW INTUITION
     
    IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS BY NOW that this is a really low-tech program. A cheap oven thermometer and metal tongs are as fancy as it gets. Anyone who relies on gauges and gadgets or exact temperatures and times will always be disappointed because there are too many variables in low and slow. Everything from the temperature outside and the marbling in the meat to the orneriness of the animal and the condition of your lump charcoal affects the outcome of a cook. That’s why it’s important to stay low-tech and hone your barbecue reflexes. You want to be able to sit in your chair with a beer in your hand and a dog at your feet, knowing that some instinctive response will tell you when everything is right or when something has gone wrong. Like any skill, this takes time. These are some of the cues that will help you read a cook with your senses.
     
    SIGHT: Yes, you’re smoking, but you really don’t want to see a lot of thick smoke billowing out of your cooker. It’s counterintuitive, but a proper, clean-burning fire doesn’t produce much superfluous smoke. If the cooker is running right, you should see only the occasional wisp of thin, blue smoke coming out of the top vent. The smoke will be heavy for the first ten minutes after the charcoal is added to the firebox or grate—which is why you should leave the lid open until it dies down. But if the smoke is heavy and cloudy at a later point in the cook, something is wrong.
     
    SOUND: The crackling sound of lump charcoal burning is normal. It usually happens when smaller pieces and the dust from the bottom of the bag ignite in the chimney starter. You’ll also hear the occasional pop in the cooker. What don’t you want to hear? The hissing sound of water hitting hot charcoal. It could be an accidental sloshing of the water pan, or it might mean water is bubbling out—a sign that the fire is too hot, the water level is too high, or the water has seeped under the foil (if you foiled the WSM water pan).
     
    SMELL: You know when it smells good. That’s easy enough. So pay attention when it smells bad, like right after you light a chimney starter or pour charcoal in the firebox or on the grate. That smell shouldn’t last long. When the cooker is closed, waft your hand up from the top vent and take a sniff. Does it smell warm, lightly smoky, and meaty? Or is there a sooty, dark quality to the aroma? If you smell something off mid-cook, there’s a problem with the fire.
     
    TOUCH: Your hand is a good tool for gauging how high the cooker is running. Please do not put your hand directly on a hot cooker or grate. When you open the lid to check the water pan or restock the charcoal, hold your hand about five inches above the cooking grate. If you can only hold your hand over the grate for two to four seconds, the fire is in the 450°F to 550°F range and far too hot. If you can hold it there for five to seven seconds, it’s about 350°F to 450°F. The ideal range is 250°F to 300°F, and you should be able to hold your hand near the grate for eight to ten seconds at that temperature.

3.
     
    LESSON N°1 CHICKEN MOJO CRIOLLO
     

DEAR STUDENT,
     
    NATURALLY, YOU WANT TO MAKE RIBS, NOT CHICKEN. POULTRY ISN’T WHAT MOST of us are hungry for when we fire up the smoker, but this first cook isn’t about the meat. It’s about learning how to operate your equipment as a low and slow cooker and, more