November smoking notesshort days, wet leaves and four new tools

November is when most smokers in Britain get a cover thrown over them and forgotten until April. That's a waste. The weather is often still mild, the butcher's counter is at its best, and a short cook on a Saturday afternoon is one of the nicer ways to spend a grey weekend. The only real problem is the dark.

Plan around the light, not the clock

In much of the UK the sun is down by half past four this month. That changes how you plan a cook. A twelve-hour brisket that would finish at a civilised hour in July now has you checking the fire by torchlight for the last few hours, in the cold, with damp grass underfoot.

Two ways round it:

• Cook shorter. November suits cooks that are done in an afternoon: a rolled brisket joint, a whole chicken, pheasant or a venison haunch. Light after lunch, eat at teatime.
• Start in the dark instead. If it's a long cook, put it on early, so the uncertain middle of the cook happens in daylight and the meat is resting in a cool box by the time it gets dark. The cook planner works backwards from when you want to eat and shows you the light-up window.

Either way, keep a head torch by the back door. It frees up both hands for the lid and the probe.

What's worth smoking this month

Game. Pheasant and partridge are in season and cheap, and late autumn is when many butchers have the best choice of venison. We've just added guides for both: see our game season note.

Supermarket brisket. The small rolled joints in most supermarkets are made for a November Sunday. Smoke, then braise, and it's ready by teatime.

Edible gifts. Early December is the time to make smoked salt and smoked nuts for presents, but buy the jars and salt now.

Wet leaves and the ash pan

Autumn adds one job to the cook: clear the leaves. Wet leaves blocking a bottom vent starve the fire of air and are a common cause of a smoker that won't come up to temperature. Dry leaves blown against a hot firebox are a fire risk. Sweep around the smoker before you light it, and keep it on a hard, clear surface away from fences, sheds and hedges.

Empty the ash after every cook too. Damp ash sitting in a steel smoker over the winter is a quick route to rust. Our smoker care guide covers the rest.

A pre-Christmas smoker check

If you're planning to smoke something at Christmas, do a practice cook in November. It's the best chance to find out, with nothing at stake, that a gasket has gone, the thermometer reads 20°C out, or the turkey crown you've ordered won't fit on the grate. Check:

1. The thermometer. Test your probe in iced water. Our temperature chart shows how.
2. Fuel. Buy it now, and keep it dry and indoors. Some garden centres and supermarkets stock less barbecue fuel over the winter.
3. Fit. Measure the grate and take the measurements to the butcher.
4. Your timings. Cold, wind and drizzle all slow a cook down. The weather check tells you how much to allow for.

New on the site

We've added a few things this month aimed at making the site quicker to use:

• US recipe translator. Paste a line from an American barbecue recipe and get it back in Celsius, kilograms and UK cut names, with every change explained. Pork butt, packer brisket and US gallons all sorted.
• "Inside the meat" probe. On the temperature chart and the stall, drag a thermometer to see what's happening in a big joint at each stage of the cook.
• Wood pairing grid. In the knowledge base, tap a food to see which British woods suit it.
• A faster guides page. The guides list now has a filter and jump links, so you can find a guide in a couple of keystrokes instead of scrolling past sixty.

We've also put the calculators inside more guides. The brisket and pulled pork guides now tell you how much meat to buy for your headcount, and the winter and snake method guides include the fuel calculator.

Your first step this November is the boring one: sweep the leaves away from the smoker, empty the ash and check the thermometer. Then pick a short cook for a grey Saturday.