Struggling with Wood

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I've been smoking for a while now. When I first started I was always trying to maintain the perfect smoker temp. After driving myself nuts trying to maintain the "perfect temp". I got frustrated and stopped smoking for a while. After doing some more reasearch and realizing that internal temp was way more important than I started smoking stuff again. Meat smoking is really dynamic. There is a lot of stuff that changes how fire reacts. The air temp and humidity. Wind speed and direction. Learning how do deal with it and make adjustments accordingly was fun for me. You will get your smoker tuned in and start pouring out some of the greatest food your mouth has ever tasted. The people on this forum have tons of information. Ask questions. Take notes on your smokes. Find the patterns and enjoy it. Welcome to the addiction.
Jason
 
 
Thanks Bear!  How about I just come down there and learn from you directly? LOL
LOL----I'd be totally lost with any kind of smoker except an electric.

You could actually teach me, but I'm not interested in anything but electric due to not getting around real good.

However, if you never saw this, check it out---You can get a lot of info from these:

Just click on "Bear's Step by Steps".

Bear
 
Thanks for all of the replies, fellas.  I've been under the weather and didn't receive any notification that anyone had responded anyways.

Health permitting, I'll try to post up some pics of my set-up and answer your question.

Thanks!

Shawn
 
im new to the whole stick burners too i used to have a weber  smoky mountain.  but i had similar problems  but i experimented a lot without cooking anything just making and maintaining the fire. what i found was i reduced the size of the wood i was  burning. you need to "match the hatch"  so to speak  with the size   of your smoker.  what i did was i  bought some fire bricks  put   them in the base of the firebox,  then i put a bunch of lit lump  charcoal as the base then i stack a couple  small pieces of wood  like a log cabin   to get them going once  the coal bed is hot enough and going you wont  have any issues  keeping the fire lit and the wood burning.  i use white oak well seasoned for a year  plus i keep my firebox door wide  open for good airflow with the smoke stack wide open  
 
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Thanks for the ideas, fellas.

I had some luck placing my next chunk on the firebox until it was time but that still didn't cut it.  Last Sunday, I was able to get it to run right around 300* for just over an hour and, just like that, it went out and I killed my kitchen torch trying to fight it so I just finished the pork in the oven.

Some of you guys mentioned sourcing wood from local orchards and it dawned on my lightning-fast mind that I'm surrounded by pecan orchards.  Can you use that stuff right away or does it somehow need to be seasoned?

Here is my little set-up, although the damper stays wide open now...







Shawn
 
I'm new at this too and some may think that this is trivial, but the first thing that I noticed when looking at your pictures was that the grate in your firebox is pretty much sitting in your ash. The wood/fire isn't getting any air flow.

I noticed the same thing in mine and turned the grate 90° to allow more air and have had better success.

Also, you may want to think about getting yourself a box for in your firebox to hold your fire in instead of on the grate.

Chad
 
You're correct and I didn't realize it was a problem until after I had snapped those pics.  Another thing that helped with ash content was starting the fire from kindling instead of on a bed of coals. Good catch, though and thanks.  I sure appreciate you guys offering your help!

Shawn
 
i wouldn't worry about the ash  a good coal bed is a must though , i  used to elevate  my coals with a grate but always had trouble  keeping temps up. then i saw  a video on frankins bbq  he cooks right on the coals and doesn't elevate  his fire. so i tried it  and it really works better i can  maintain 275  temps the whole cook now with ease, as long as you have good airflow  into the  firebox  you wont have any trouble im always poking and adjusting the fire every 15-20 min now  maintaining temps 
 
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i wouldn't worry about the ash  a good coal bed is a must though , i  used to elevate  my coals with a grate but always had trouble  keeping temps up. then i saw  a video on frankins bbq  he cooks right on the coals and doesn't elevate  his fire. so i tried it  and it really works better i can  maintain 275  temps the whole cook now with ease, as long as you have good airflow  into the  firebox  you wont have any trouble im always poking and adjusting the fire every 15-20 min now  maintaining temps 
Like I said before, I have raised the level of my grate so that it gets more air flow underneath and doesn't smother from the lack of air.  But now I'm running into the problem, that I believe is a result of this, that it's almost too high because I'm having to burn the box pretty hot so that my cooking chamber heats up.  I also have to leave the firebox door open quite a bit for air flow or my fire will smother in it's own smoke.

Why didn't I just buy an electric smoker? LOL
 
 
Like I said before, I have raised the level of my grate so that it gets more air flow underneath and doesn't smother from the lack of air.  But now I'm running into the problem, that I believe is a result of this, that it's almost too high because I'm having to burn the box pretty hot so that my cooking chamber heats up.  I also have to leave the firebox door open quite a bit for air flow or my fire will smother in it's own smoke.

Why didn't I just buy an electric smoker? LOL
sounds like you're losing a lot of heat somewhere if your firebox is super hot but the cook chamber isnt ,  but looking at your smoker maybe one issue is your not getting enough  of a draw  through the smoker.  id suggest maybe trying to extend the size  of your smoke stack  so you increase the convection  through the chamber ( id say  at least another foot)  also trying to get a better seal on the  smoke chamber door so there is less heat loss  might be a option  too, also if the  wood you're using is kiln dried  its going to burn way hotter  then  naturally seasoned wood because  its dryer. if you're surrounded by pecan  wood thats great if you can get your hands on some thats been seasoned  for prob at least a year  even better 
 
Are the coals falling down between the grates so the sticks arent getting enough heat? Maybe lay some expanded metal over the grate to create a tighter grid that holds coals but allows the ash to fall through.
 
At least a piece of expanded metal. Better would be a charcoal basket. Start your smoker with lump charcoal to establish a good bed of coals. When the coal bed is established, put in a couple of pre-heated wood splits. When the splits are going good, close the CC doors and let the CC heat to just above your desired cooking range. Add a couple more heated splits, your flavor wood and your meat. When the temp approaches the lower end of your cooking range, add 1 or 2 more splits. Then the temp should quickly go up to your upper range again.

The two main things needed for good fire management are a good bed of coals and pre-heated wood. Keep plenty of fresh air and adjust the heat with your fire. Learning good fire management takes lots of practice.

Good luck and good smoking, Joe
 
I was doing the coal bed thing for awhile and it worked well for the first hour or so.  Then they would start dying down and I had to transition to straight wood and that caused problems and I still had five hours to go
102.gif
.  I bet that problem goes away with some decent wood to burn.

And yeah, my grate is wide enough for the coals to fall through so I was taking a long screwdriver through the damper and clearing a trough.  That definitely helped but I could surely use a better grate or something.

If I was able to get my mitts on a pile of pecan wood from the orchard, is there anything I can do at home to make sure it burns well, "seasoned"?

Shawn
 
 
I was doing the coal bed thing for awhile and it worked well for the first hour or so.  Then they would start dying down and I had to transition to straight wood and that caused problems and I still had five hours to go
102.gif
.  I bet that problem goes away with some decent wood to burn.

And yeah, my grate is wide enough for the coals to fall through so I was taking a long screwdriver through the damper and clearing a trough.  That definitely helped but I could surely use a better grate or something.

If I was able to get my mitts on a pile of pecan wood from the orchard, is there anything I can do at home to make sure it burns well, "seasoned"?

Shawn
 try to get your hands on  some aged pecan wood  not green wood. if there is that many pecan orchards around you id check the local firewood  dealers  im sure if pecan is plentiful in that area  they will have seasoned pecan  also check craigslist  etc 
 
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Yeah, there's got to be something around here besides that garbage from the grocery store.  I just need to get off my lazy arse and look.  Thanks for the tip.

Shawn

Edit:  I rarely see pecan as the recommended wood and I don't believe I've ever had anything smoked with it.  How is it, flavor-wise?
 
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Yeah, there's got to be something around here besides that garbage from the grocery store.  I just need to get off my lazy arse and look.  Thanks for the tip.

Shawn

Edit:  I rarely see pecan as the recommended wood and I don't believe I've ever had anything smoked with it.  How is it, flavor-wise?
 yeah  there are tons of guys selling wood in online classifieds like craigslist,but some are sketch  but just take your time  10-12+  months  or more is usually good for well seasoned aged wood. 

 we dont have pecan  in my area  but its supposed to be a real nice sweet  wood,  its actually a member of the hickory family so its  good stuff real good on chicken and pork from what i hear people say 
 
Cool, thanks.

I just spent an hour trying to reach our local orchards and they either had phone numbers that didn't work (typical of this town) or, in one case, "the owner takes it all up to his cabin in the mountains."

So I called our most popular smoke house and he laughed at my pecan orchard experience like they'd already been down that road.  He said they work with a couple of tree-trimming outfits in town. They buy three or four cords at a time and let it sit for six months before using it.  Their website says they use pecan only so I suppose it's good enough for me!

I'm also surrounded by mesquite (which I love!) but I'll be damned if I'm going to walk around with the snakes, scorpions and cactus to bag it up.  I'll give craigslist a try next.  Maybe we're making progress...

Shawn

Edit: Now here could be a really dumb question: if all I can get my hands on is green pecan, can I split it up and "season" it up in the oven at, say, 180* for awhile and get where I need to be?
 
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I was doing the coal bed thing for awhile and it worked well for the first hour or so.  Then they would start dying down and I had to transition to straight wood and that caused problems and I still had five hours to go :102: .  I bet that problem goes away with some decent wood to burn.

And yeah, my grate is wide enough for the coals to fall through so I was taking a long screwdriver through the damper and clearing a trough.  That definitely helped but I could surely use a better grate or something.

If I was able to get my mitts on a pile of pecan wood from the orchard, is there anything I can do at home to make sure it burns well, "seasoned"?



Did you have wood on during that "first hour or so"? You need to be burning wood as soon as your bed is fully involved. Always pre-heat your wood and don't let the coals get too low before you add wood. As far as the seasoning for the pecan, I would let it cure for at least 6-8 months. A year would be much better.
 
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