Charcoal Consumption Questions

[flowercitysmoker]

I smoked a pork but this weekend for about 15 hours, plus about 1 hour for my SnP to get up to temp. I went through about 18# of lump charcoal, plus smoking wood. I'm just curious how that compares to others out there?

 

[nate_46]

How much charcoal did you use? What kind? What was the general weather conditions?

 

[rivet]

Hi there,

Your poundage didn't type in but I'm sure it was over 10

The SnP can be a fuel hog without mods. The chimney extension helps a bit, but the manifold makes all the difference in the world.

Check out this thread on all the mods you can do to make that baby purr like a cat and cruise on autopilot.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=75087

Good luck to you!

 

[geek with fire]

As the others mentioned, we missed how much you used. But I will tell you that charcoal use is very much linked to "leakiness" of your smoker. If I cook a butt in my drum, I will put a 10# bag in the basket and usually have leftover when it's done. If I do the same butt in my horizontal, I'll go through 2 bags and sometimes more if it's windy.

 

[taterdavid]

I'm off charcoal almost completely, getting to expensive for me. I been preburning my wood in either the chimmny or the firepit if we are having a fire. I got lots of wood which others may not but if you look on craigs list or just around there is wood everywhere for the getting. Adding $8 bucks or so to the price of every smoke would have the wife not to happy with my new hobby. She loves the food but she not real big on spending money so i have to make do with wood for now. I actually enjoy tending the fire and even cutting up the wood and it makes for a fun activity, nothing like chasing the dog around trying to get your firewood back

 

[flowercitysmoker]

Sorry about that. I used most of a 20# bag, there's probably about 2 or 3 pounds left, so I call it 18#. I grabbed a bag of Fire King at the meat market as it was one less stop to make. Wind was relatively mild, and temps were mid 70s. No rain, though wife said it rained at work a mile away

 

[tasunkawitko]

your charcoal consumption sounds about right and actually pretty good for a non-modified smoker.

take a look at the mods and try them out - anything to increase efficiency in charcoal consumption is a good thing!

 

[nate_46]

18# sounds good. Personally I am going to start burning more wood than charcoal because of the cost. I have asked around and found a lot of apple tree trimmings plus I can buy a quarter cord of apple (or other hard woods) for 150.00 . A quarter cord will last me quite a while!

Any Q-vue?

 

[eaglewing]

I'm with the others on this one... I just did a BUTT over the weekend and went threw probably 15# of Kingsford brickets for only 8hr smoke...and that's with quite a bit of wood too...

I go threw LUMP a lot faster than brickets

 

[bigsteve]

Last butt I did on the Smokenator used 70 briq.

 

[rickw]

I agree with going with wood if you have it available to you. I can get a full face cord of oak and cherry for $75 delivered. There's a lot of smokes in a face cord with my Horizon.

I do use lump to start my fire.

 

[flowercitysmoker]

Wood sounds like an interesting route. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you need to burn it down pretty good in a seperate 'burn barrel' first?

Checked Craigslist - I can get mixed hardwood or all Apple for ~$50 a face cord delivered.... Dogs would think it was X-Mas.

 

[rickw]

No, not at all. I used this thread as a guide for fire management. It takes a bit of practice but it is well worth it.

 

[taterdavid]

thats a good price for the wood, i would get a face cord of apple and another face cord of a nice mix of cherry and mapple if avalible.

i have been cutting my wood into small pieces, how small all depends on the original size but i cut it down and fill up my charcoal chimney just like if it was charcoal and light it up. i use it just like charcoal and this works really well for me. i do use splits too but ussually i'll cut a bunch of wood and have it ready so when i need it its ready. this is not nearly as inefficent as a burn barrel but it is alittle labor intensive, but not to bad

 

[nate_46]

Man that is a great price for hardwood. Around here it is a little hard to find so I think that is why it is much more expensive. We have plenty of pine though

.

 

[tasunkawitko]

crazy as it sounds, my lump consumption is way more efficeint than my briquette consumption. with lump, i was able to do two pork shoulders (butt portion) one-and-a-half bags of lump that were 8.5 lbs each (royal oak in the green bag). when using kingsford briquettes this last weekend, i went through just over an 18-lb bag of kingsford (the kind with little hickory chips in it).

i know this is a bit upside down, but that's how it went.

 

[enfuego]

Sorry for the newbie question, but aren't you going to oversmoke your food if you burn nothing but apple wood?

 

[rickw]

It would seem to be but in fact I get a more mild smoke using all wood in my offset compared to using charcoal with chunks of wood in the uds.

 

[rivet]

I have an SnP offset and other than a pile of charcoal to get started, I do many smokes on all wood. Using mild wooods like pecan, apple, cherry there is no worries on eversmoking. Also, I don't preburn either- not practical inside the city limits. Just use well dried wood.

 

[flowercitysmoker]

Actually, I've noticed the same thing. My first couple of smokes were with briquettes, and I went through an 8# bag for 3hr+ fattie smoke. Used about 5-6# pounds of lump on the next fattie. I used Kingsford briquettes and Fire King lump.

Ok I'll start working on the wife this week. I'll convince her 'low & slow' as we're going out of town for a wedding, so no smoke this comeing weekend, but next week I wanna do some chickens.

Currious, there doesn't seem to be a Beer Can Chicken Sticky....