Brand new to smoking

[RookieSmoker91]

So my wife wanted to buy me a smoker and she got an offset one, now my question is can I use charcoal to regulate the temperature and throw wood chunks on for the flavour? Getting my hands on larger chunks of wood is turning into a much harder task than I had thought it would

Any tips would be greatly appreciated

 

[smokerjim]

welcome to smf, nice wife ya better keep hergreat forum here with lots of great people full of knowledge, yeah some people use charcoal for heat and add wood chunks for smoke, do you live around any type of woods you could pick up dead trees or orchards, sometimes when they prune trees they'll let you take the wood. good luck in your new adventure but be careful it's addictive!

 

[Blues1]

I second the addicting part...welcome from South Carolina!

 

[Kevin DeShazo]

Heres your second welcome from SC. Stores such as Lowes, HD, Walmart sell wood chunks esp if you dont live near the woods, or theres places you can order wood from on line

 

[RookieSmoker91]

Unfortunately most of the wood around me is pine and birch (Alberta, Canada) sofar I've got a bunch of bags from Lowe's of mesquite and pecan wood.

 

[D.W.]

Places like cabelas, bass pro, sportsmans, ranch supply stores, etc. will carry splits, chunks, chips and the like. Also, welcome from NorCal, and have fun cooking!

 

[bbqbrett]

That is what I do. Use charcoal for the main heat source and wood chunks for smoke flavor. It can be tricky to get used to using the offset but once you learn how it operates you can keep it dialed in pretty good. Best advice I have is just be patient and use this site as a resource. Lots of great people to help you out on here.

 

[Motorboat40]

yes you can absolutely use charcoal as your heat source and just throw in a few wood chucks for your smoke. Of course if you can get full size peices of wood thats give you even better smoke flavor but it will still turn out tasting great. Stick burnes are my favorite but they also require the most work maintaining the pit temperature just stick with it ( haha stick with it) and you get it down and be giving other new comers advice before you know it. And welcome to the forum from VA

 

[civilsmoker]

That is a great way to start off your smoking experience with. Just remember its OK to have the chunks flame and burn, ie don't wet them in water. You want nice clean smoke from clean combustion.

As an FYI, I was primarily a wood burner on my smokers but have gravitated to almost always starting with a chimney of coals first and then I add splits/chunks. I have found that having a nice stable bed of coals really aids in keeping the temp more consistent as well as the added wood fires up faster. On longer cooks I always add a few more unlit coals with the wood just to maintain a nice hot coal base.

That said the best flavor is 100% wood (IMO) but I'm also a consistency guy, ie I want to be able to have repeatable success for each cook and its hard to beat the consistency of a chimney coals as the base. However, a note of caution, not all brands of coals are equal across the board and they all cook slightly different so I stick with one brand. Additionally, when I was burning 100% wood, I really preferred oak because it produces a nice long lasting coal bed. I love cherry and apple but they burn hotter and faster (& more complete) than oak so more maintenance of the fire.

Good luck and enjoy the experience!

 

[RookieSmoker91]

I really appreciate everyone's response I've got my chimney going and just doing a seasoning on my Oklahoma Joe Highland and gonna practice and see if I can keep the temperature around 250-275

 

[smokerjim]

a couple beers always helps

 

[1MoreFord]

When using a offset cooker with charcoal, I'd recommend getting a charcoal basket to use. You can still add wood but the basket will keep the coals together, away from the smoker walls and allow for longer cooking times without tending the fire.

 

[jcam222]

Congrats on both picking a great wife and your new smoker!! Welcome from Ohio.