Quote:
Most horizontal offset smokers have a similar construction—a lidded barrel-shaped or box-like smoking/cooking chamber with a firebox connected slightly lower to one end (hence the name “offset”) and a chimney rising from the other. In some models the firebox is in the back.
....
You build a wood or charcoal and wood-enhanced fire in the firebox, so the heat is next to (not directly under) the meat. The heat and smoke flow through a portal into the cook chamber where they circulate around the food and exit through the chimney. This flow of hot air and wood smoke is one of the defining features of the offset smoker, producing ribs and pork shoulders with deep red smoke rings and briskets with exceptionally crisp “bark” (crust).