(newbie) Trying to figure out this whole charcoal thing

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jmtyndall

Smoke Blower
Original poster
May 19, 2017
99
56
So my fiance got me a smoker for my birthday recently along with the book "Project Smoke".

This is what she got: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Dyna-Glo-36-in-Vertical-Charcoal-Smoker-DGX780BDC-D/206289004

I'm pretty excited to learn how to smoke some meats, as I've always loved the smoked-barbecue flavor. As an utter newbie, I read the book cover to cover (ok so mostly I read the how-to parts and looked at the delicious pictures), and opened up my smoker, got it built and decided to do a dry-run to see if I could nail the temps. I have some Kingsford blue and some natural lump charcoal sitting around for my Webber kettle grill. Not sure if I should be using lump or briquette, but I heard lump burns cleaner so I decided to use the lump for my initial burn.


The book describes the "Minion Method" for burning charcoal in the smoker, and being a Minion enthusiast (I've seen the movies, what's not to like) I decided to go for it. I started with both bottom vents and the top vent wide open, filled the charcoal tray with about 4 lbs of charcoal, and added a couple hand fulls of lit coals on top of that. Very quickly I my temperature started to spike so I started throttling down the bottom vents. Within a half hour the temp guage on the smoker had spiked to its max, and the over thermometer I put on the grate was reading over 500 degrees.

Okay so I'm up into oven/grilling temps. Not the smoking range I want to be in. At this point, the bottom vents are completely shut, and I add a water pan to the bottom rack. I also noticed 2 things, 1) a pretty hefty smoke leak from around the doors, and 2) all of my charcoal appeared to be lit (so much for a low-slow burn). I'm assuming the smoke leak around the top door is also indicative of a pretty good air leak around the bottom door. Perhaps the source of my soaring temperatures and quick charcoal burn? I'll be addressing this soon. I may also have a leak around the thermometer, I'll test it for proper calibration before sealing with high temperature RTV.


This past weekend, I managed to keep the temps stable around 225 by placing about 12 coals in the charcoal tray, and then placing 5 or 6 lit coals on top, with maybe 1 or 2 wood chunks with the charcoal (and chips in the tray). This works well, but needs pretty constant tending (I'm not sure if this is normal or not). Every half-hour or so I was going out to check on it and either add chips or charcoal. Both bottom vents were barely cracked open, and temps started to drop around the 1 hour mark, when I was able to add 4 unlit briquettes and get the temp back up where I wanted it to be.

 
With those limited successes, I am determined to address my temperature stability issues. So I ordered a replacement gasket for the Big Green Egg. It comes in a roll, and happens to include more than enough length to border the doors on my smoker. So I ordered some off Amazon, scrubbed down the doors to remove oils and stuck it on. Doors seal up nice and tight now. Have to wait 24 hours it says before use, so maybe this weekend I'll try it out again!


I'm hoping to start stepping up into smoking more complicated and longer-smoke time items in the near future (ribs, pork shoulder, brisket etc), and long-term I'm aiming to smoke my Thanksgiving turkey this year. 
 
Great gift from your fiancee!

She sounds like a keeper!

Looks like your getting the smoker dialed in & your Q looks darn good to me!

Al
 
Congrats on the new smoker and welcome to the madness. Looks like you have some good instincts and have done your homework. I'm sure once you have your firebox sealed up and have complete control of your airflow, you should be able to dial in the minion method just fine and be smoking briskets and butts in no time.

Lance
 
Looks like my instincts were on the money. I have a couple small smoke leaks at the top corners of the bottom door, but the top door is well sealed. Decided to try out some babyback ribs today. Set 20 briquettes in a ring and set 8 lit coals in the middle. Vents wide open. Came up to 200 in about 30 mins, shut the vents to halfwayand held about 225. Added the meat and it took a solid hour (temps were stable) before I saw the temps begin to creep down to 190. Tossed in 10 new briquettes and some more wood, and it came up to 245 within 15 mins. Closed the grates a bit and it is nice and stable again.

Now we're getting somewhere!

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Good stuff, how did the ribs come out? Make sure to post the pics, not only are they worth a thousand words, for que they're worth a hundred bites.
 
I tried the minion method and had the same results you did....all the charcoal went up quick!  next time, I just put a ton of charcoal in there, and lit the corner with my weed burner, instead of putting the lit coals in the middle.  I kept the vents wide open till it got to about 190ish, then dialed it back to about half. Once it got to 215ish I closed them down even more, almost shut.  So much better than adding new/more charcoal every hour or two.  Now, I can get about 7hrs at 225ish without hardly touching it.  No adding of charcoal.  My smoker is homemade, and holds a lot of charcoal, but I don't see why you couldn't do the same thing in yours, just a slightly smaller scale.  Good luck and sounds like you're figuring it out!
 
Good stuff, how did the ribs come out? Make sure to post the pics, not only are they worth a thousand words, for que they're worth a hundred bites.
Ribs came out alright. Temps were in the right zone for the whole cook, except when I added wood to the charcoal instead of the chip container. The wood caught and my temps spiked. In the end the ribs were mostly tender, but the "skin" (they don't really have skin) was a bit tough, and the meat was a bit overcooked. I ordered a two-probe thermometer which should help prevent me from overcooking again. One last thing with them, I was a bit heavy handed with the rub, thinking I needed a good coating all over, almost a crust. McCormicks pork rub and KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce. Don't ridicule the flavors, making my own will come AFTER I figure out how to cook things right!


I did chicken wings last night, and tried out some of the natural lump charcoal. I think I'm going to save that for the  BBQ instead of the smoker because I had high-temps again that I couldn't quite get under control with the dampers. Though adding the water pan did help keep a pretty stable 250. The chicken wings were FANTASTIC and very juicy. However the skin was a bit chewy. Not sure how to fix that yet. Smoked Tequila-Lime wings.

 
I tried the minion method and had the same results you did....all the charcoal went up quick!  next time, I just put a ton of charcoal in there, and lit the corner with my weed burner, instead of putting the lit coals in the middle.  I kept the vents wide open till it got to about 190ish, then dialed it back to about half. Once it got to 215ish I closed them down even more, almost shut.  So much better than adding new/more charcoal every hour or two.  Now, I can get about 7hrs at 225ish without hardly touching it.  No adding of charcoal.  My smoker is homemade, and holds a lot of charcoal, but I don't see why you couldn't do the same thing in yours, just a slightly smaller scale.  Good luck and sounds like you're figuring it out!
Thanks for the advice, I'll give that a try. Are you only lighting a handful of coals? How long does it take to light the coals with a propane torch? I actually happen to have one, but I've been using an upside-down charcoal chimney, then just pouring those coals into the smoker.
 
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I only light the corner of the big pile, maybe 6 or 8 get lit in my initial burn with the propane.  It doesn't take long, only a minute or so to get them lit.  It takes about 30-45 minutes to get my smoker up to temp, but your's will probably be different.  The first couple times I did it this way I also used a chimney, but I had to take out my whole bin of charcoal to be able to pour the hot coals in there.  It was just easier to use the propane weed burner to light the edge.  I also figured I might as well let them get good and started in the smoker, no sense in wasting heat to the air when I can begin heating my smoker.
 
Not much ridicule to be found around here. Sounds like you're finding your way. You might try pork shoulder/butt next. It is the most forgiving and a good way to work out your temp control while still ending with edible results. With chicken your looking for temps of 325-375 to get a nice crisp skin. Spatchcocked whole chickens and kielbasa are a favorite weekday smoke at my house and typically take about an hour and a half. Keep at it, you're doing fine!

Lance
 
Lance,

Would putting the chicken on the grill or under the broiler for a couple minutes get me crispier skin, or should the whole smoke be at higher temps?

I'll see if I can get a pork shoulder this week

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Lots of folks use a hot grill or broiler with great results. Personally, I prefer to use one device and one fire. Some cookers, however, can't reach those temps. I also like that I can do chicken anytime I want because it's fast!
 
Lots of folks use a hot grill or broiler with great results. Personally, I prefer to use one device and one fire. Some cookers, however, can't reach those temps. I also like that I can do chicken anytime I want because it's fast!
The "lid thermometer" only goes to about 350 for me, though the water test showed it to read ~10 degrees high which is good. Anyways, I'm managed to get the needle pegged a couple times, so I'm pretty sure I can hit the range you're talking about. But with a limited gauge reading, how do I know for sure if I'm in the range or over it? When faced with a problem, throw money at it!

I just ordered a dual probe thermometer off of Amazon. This will kill two birds with one stone. Well 3 really. 1) Hopefully I won't be overcooking meats because I can have a probe in them, 2) I'll be able to tell the smoke temperature as long as I can manage to keep it below 572F 
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, and 3) Now I can check on the smoker while I'm reloading out in the garage, without having to run out to the back yard all the time!


The other thing I'm chasing is the "thin blue smoke" I keep hearing about. Right now I get white pillowy smoke mostly. After doing some reading, I think I'm probably using too much wood. Usually when I fire up the smoker I throw 2-3 chunks in with the coals, and then fill the chip tray all the way up with the smaller stuff from the chunk bag. All dry, not soaked. Maybe this is also contributing to my temp spikes. Many suggest starting with just one chunk at a time. Should I take out the chip tray and just put a chunk in the charcoal? Usually they just light on fire when I do this. Or should I put it up in the chip tray?
 
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Mix 2-4 chunks in with the unlit charcoal. Once you add your lit charcoal throw 1-2 on top. Then wait! You'll usually get thick white smoke at first but after about 30-45 min it will thin out and you can put your meat in. Make sure you exhaust vent/damper is wide open and use your intakes to control temp. And yes that therm should help immensely.
 
My first attempt at the minion method went about the same. I think I started with too much lit charcoal and should have shut the vents sooner. Clearly it takes some delicious testing. Were you happy with the way the BGE gasket sealed the doors? I don't have a lot of smoke escaping but fear it could be having an unseen effect on my fire. 
 
Mix 2-4 chunks in with the unlit charcoal. Once you add your lit charcoal throw 1-2 on top. Then wait! You'll usually get thick white smoke at first but after about 30-45 min it will thin out and you can put your meat in. Make sure you exhaust vent/damper is wide open and use your intakes to control temp. And yes that therm should help immensely.
Sounds good, I'll give that a try next time. I must say, I don't find my food to be coming out bitter or acrid tasting, but the billowing white smoke does sting the eyes. To me, everything has come out with great smoky BBQ flavors.
 
My first attempt at the minion method went about the same. I think I started with too much lit charcoal and should have shut the vents sooner. Clearly it takes some delicious testing. Were you happy with the way the BGE gasket sealed the doors? I don't have a lot of smoke escaping but fear it could be having an unseen effect on my fire. 
The gasket seals really well. I had to adjust the latches, and I still have two small smoke leaks (one on each side) coming from where the bottom door meets the center support. I thought it wasn't flat, so I tried bending it out a little. Doesn't seem to have had any effect, as I still have the leaks. It doesn't seem to be giving me problems, so I think I'll let the few remaining and minor leaks alone. I'm really glad I went with this style gasket instead of doing the whole door with RTV as some do. I know my talent levels, and this looks far more professional than I could have done with RTV.
 
Looks like you are well on your way to making some great que!! And keep the GF, she is a real keeper!!
Thanks! Already locked her up with one of them expensive finger-cuffs. The other day I told her to let me know if I was smoking too much food and she was getting sick of it. The answer? "If you want to smoke something for dinner every night, PLEASE DO!"
 
So my thermometer came. I think I'm going to need to drill a hole for the probes. Any particular advice where I should drill? Side, back, door?

Also picked up a pork shoulder to smoke over the holiday weekend

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