Originally Posted by bensyd

The thing with smoking anything is keeping control of the temperature. Tiny adjustments = +/-10c. When you first start out you need to watch out that the heat doesn't get away from you. I usually prefer to use beads rather than charcoal for slow cooks because beads run a bit cooler and I can give it a bit more oxygen. With charcoal I have to really choke down on the fire which means any smoking wood starts to smoulder and create that big billowy white smoke that's no good on food.