Briquettes are a manufactured fuel consisting of charcoal dust bonded together, the quality of briquettes vary and its vital you choose the correct type for smoking. When choosing a brand its important to find out if any chemicals are used in the process of making the briquettes, we want to ensure only natural ingredients are used. A good telling point is to light some in a starter and see how much soot and chemical smell is let of, remember when smoking, that smoke will be around your food in the smoker.

As per briquettes, Charcoal can also vary in quality. For smoking you will need large chunks to try and slow the burn and reduce the heat. I have only used local Charcoal from Dorest in my smoker but I would be happy using any Restaurant grade Charcoal which is readily available online.

I did find it difficult to maintain a consistent temperature, I found the temperature was up and down but the results were still very good. I would suggest tackling Charcoal once you have mastered Briquettes. all smoking recipes on this site use Briquettes for their smoking times.