PLEASE HELP. Ready to give up

[ammaturesmoker]

Is your wood freshly cut alive? Also sounds like you are smoldering and not burning.

 

[dannylang]

cheewik1 you may need to update your profile, maybe someone here lives close to you, maybe they will invite you over to a helping smoke class. huh just a though

dannylang

 

[chefwik1]

image.jpeg

• chefwik1
• Jul 11, 2016

Took everyone's advice and I have dynamite pulled pork now! Has kind of a kahlua pork flavor, but it is oh so good! Thank you everybody!

 

[northgaq477]

Looks good. Glad we could help out.

 

[ammaturesmoker]

I don't believe you.....send me a sample!!

 

[donarkie]

for me, I only use Kingsford charcoal. I start with chimney, news paper & Kingsford charcoal. Once lit, I burn the charcoal to glowing reddish orange and dump in the firebox. Then I add good aged seasoned wood on top of my charcoal. I start off using post oak & white oak mixture, then slowly I add my hickory. I know my wood is season correctly, because i cut myself off my farm. I 'm using a actual stick burner offset. I leave my door open to achieve as much air to the fire I can get. This will assure me my fire hot enough to get my season wood lit with little greyish white smoke coating the inside of my cooking chamber. Yes my lid is open on my cooking chamber. You should see a huge change of your smoke from a solid greyish white quickly to a nice semi to transparent bluish color along with the heat waves exiting your cooking chamber & stack.

I agree with you on a good washing. I would take the cooker to the car wash and use their hand held power washer wand to clean the cooking chamber & racks. IMO dump Royal Charcoal, and use good ol' Kingsford. I would get in the habit of using chunks of hardwoods to keep your fire going. (non soaked), them cookers you have, are small fireboxes and can handle a chunk or two every so often to keep your fire maintained. Cooking with wood is only going to assure you keep them coals & smoke true to what your achieving for smoke flavor.

Lastly, BBQ'n take practice, it doesn't happen over night or in a year or 2. It's continuous learning & educating yourself on being a good BBQ'er. I'm 56 yrs old, I've been doing this for over 20 yrs, and upgrading your cooker is a big part of having great tasting BBQ. I started off with an ol' tin can offset cooker from K Mart. Learnt from a group of old timers that had NO mercy on me. They cooked off a huge trailer traditional direct flow offset pit. They told me...... "Don, the only way to achieve great BBQ is to keep your mouth shut, and listen. To get rid of that pop can cooker & invest in a good  pit. Their difference in OK, Good, & Great BBQ." I have to say them old farts were spot on. I scrap that tin can cooker, and learnt what I can & invested in a better cooker. I was blessed and 4 yrs into learning one of them old fellers sold me his 8ft off set traditional direct flow stick burner on a trailer. 4 plus yrs ago I took it to a welder and had it converted to reverse flow. I had a learning curve to deal with from direct flow to reverse flow and to get reacquainted with it. Understanding your pit is important, IMO they have sweet spots for optimum cooking temps. But that's my opinion & beliefs. I have a small smaller pit I bought 2 month ago, Old Country Wrangler Pit. After making my modification's and seasoning it correctly, its a great 500.00 plus pit. Puts out great BBQ. The nice thing about learning BBQ is?..........the more you do it, the more its gets into your blood. The more your success you have, the more you drive for perfection. This only makes you upgrade your equipment to put out the best BBQ you can.  Good Luck.