It’s funny how quickly we grow complacent. I’ve been smoking about a year or so. I’ve never had anything terribly exciting happen. I light the charcoal, it comes right up to 225ish, and perks away.
A couple of Sundays ago, I had a pork shoulder going in and knew it would take a good part of the day, so I got it going before church, and off we went. No, my house didn’t burn down while we were at church. Quite the opposit, the smoker was almost smoked out. I loaded her up again, and got it going. Soon it was at 170 and time to wrap and crank up the heat to finish it off.
I now through some chicken thighs on as well. Normally, I don’t have water in the water pan. Instead I foil it for easy clean-up, and use a clay flower pot which seems to steady the heat, and let it come up to temp quickly. I had forgotten to put it in today. At some point, during the afternoon, I went out on the patio to check the smoker. Lo and behold, it was billowing thick white smoke. “That’s odd”, I thought. 45 seconds later, the smoker was engulfed in flames. I didn’t panic, but hurriedly went and grabbed a bucket of water to douse the charcoal.
I think the chicken fat had dripped down and added to the fat and drippings already in the water pan. Eventually it heated to a point where it burst into flames.
Everything turned out OK, including the meat, but it was a great reminder to not get complacent. Things happen. Lesson learned, for sure.
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