How to make a home barbecue smoker – in pictures

Tom Adams of Pitt Cue restaurat in Soho demonstrates how to turn a standard BBQ into a smoker. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian Photograph: Teri Pengilley/Guardian

Meanwhile, light a fire in your “chimney starter”. This is a cheap but useful piece of kit, basically a small metal drum to house a second fire, so that you can top up your barbecue with cooked-down charcoal. You can buy a chimney starter online or from local outdoors/DIY shops. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian

Prepare your smoker: When the fuel is cooked down in your barbecue, shovel it over to one side. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian

Add two or three chunks of hardwood to the coals: soaking them in water first means they won’t burn away too fast. Pour water into a small heatproof container (a foil takeaway box will do) and place on the grill above the hot coals. This will help to regulate the temperature in your barbecue. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian

Add meat: You can smoke any meat, but pork belly, ribs, shoulder and jowl work especially well (here is Cornish Cop belly). Place your meat on the opposite side of the grill to the hot coals. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian

Put the lid on, with a vent open on the side where your meat is cooking, to create a con­vection current of smoke around the meat. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian

The chimney starter smoking. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian

Feel the heat: A digital thermometer will help you maintain the temperature inside the barbecue at an optimum 110-130°C. If it gets too cool, add more cooked-down coals. If it gets too hot, the evaporating water will bring the temperature down. The thermometer on the Drumbecue shows the temperature is perfect for smoking. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian

Don’t open the drum too often – the general rule is to add six pieces of coal an hour. You are aiming to slowly get your meat up to 85-90°C – use a meat thermometer. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian

Dig in! Once your meat hits 85-90°C, it’s time to eat. Add good bread, pickled gherkins or endives, sauces (we use our Pitt Cue Co. Mother sauce and apple ketchup) Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian

...and, of course, a pickleback cocktail (see recipe). Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian