First Real Post

[denalieast]

Hey ya'll,

My name is Steve and I'm from Maine, I signed up for these forums and then posted in the Roll Call section a few weeks ago but I've been radio silent since.  I'm not accustomed to being a member of an online community so I recognize it's going to get some getting used to, and I figured a good place to dive in would be posting my first smoking experience on my new smoker and since joining!

So to begin, as I said in my roll call announcement, I recently got a new (to me) smoker.  It's a CharBroil horizontal offset smoker.  Just your standard el-cheapo offset.  As expected the door on the firebox wiggles and has large gaps and there is a tremendous heat jet where the box meets the cook chamber.  The guy I got it from cut a small rectangular piece of cookie sheet and had it rigged as a (not very effective) baffle.  I did my trial run with high hopes, remember ribs that I've done on ECB's in the past, and set a full slab of spares and about 20 wings on the rack. 

It was a beautiful sunny day and the beer flowed, but man, the cue did not!  It came out acrid tasting and undercooked, I was unable to maintain a constant temperature and ended up with lots of billowing white smoke.  Going to perform a couple modifications, specifically hoping to add a thermometer to both sides of the cook chamber, inserting a better baffle, and maybe putting in some plates... Any other thoughts for this particular model?

Thanks!

 

[joe black]

Welcome from SC, Steve. As far as the FB door is concerned, the extra air could be a good thing. Being choked down could be part of your smoke problem. Make sure that the stack damper is fully open. You need a good bed of coals and your wood should be well seasoned. When you put in a new split, leave the door open until it is fully burning. It helps to pre-heat the splits also. If you can put the next ones on top of the FB and get them warm, they will ignite quicker and not smoke so much. There are some good videos out there that show starting and tending an offset smoker. Keep working, it will work itself out the more you use it. Good luck, Joe

 

[denalieast]

Thanks for the feed back Joe.  I cleaned it out very thoroughly using Simple Green (recommended on here) and then tightened up some screws, added a chimney extender, and made sure to keep the smoke stack full open, using only the damper on the firebox to moderate temperature.  I loaded about a half a chimney with coals, put them in the box, and closed the lid to let it cook post cleaning and seasoning.  Got up to around 600F before I opened up the door and started letting some air get to it, so it heats pretty easily.

Then I decided to run some food on it, since it was warmed up anyway!  I had a hard time getting it to stay down to 225 while the excessive amount of coals burned down, and then had to add new coal about once every 30-60 minutes to maintain that temp.  I've got pictures on my phone of the conditions that I'll add to this post when I get a chance, but in the end I found that around 17-22 briquettes (I know, I should use lump, but briquettes are available and inexpensive) seems to keep me at around the target temp.  The product came out much better, very little acrid taste (the little bit I got I think was because I had to add cold coals; adding 5 or 6 to my charcoal chimney was ineffective).

I've a couple questions..

-Wood - smoldering or aflame?  I seem to have heard both..

-How do I get a longer burn from my briquettes?  I kept my damper at halfway, opened full when adding new wood.  If I tried to close it more than halfway I was worried it would choke out the fire and create billowing white smoke.

-If it gets too hot, what's a good way to moderate temperature without suffocating the fire?  I've got a CharBroil (http://www.charbroil.com/offset-bbq-smoker) with 1 sliding damper on the firebox, and the chimney damper

-I want to shake my basket during the burn to shed ashes but don't want to cover my meet in soot, is this a legitimate concern or is there a trick to use to help it?

-What should I do to preheat small amounts of briquettes (5-10) at a time for supplemental heating?  

 

[joe black]

1. Your wood should flame and burn to coals. Smoldering wood will add to bad smoke and acrid taste.
2. I leave the damper full open and control temps with the fire size. Lump to start will establish a good bed of coals and then use only wood to cook with.
3. You will learn how your cooker responds to wood amounts. The temps will react very well to just using wood.
4. Don't shake the basket. This will cause ashes to stir up. If you start with lump, there will be much less ash. You can use a poker to work the wood coals without stirring up ash.
5. Don't add charcoal. Use wood splits. They can be placed on top of the FB to preheat. If your FB is round, without a warming plate on top, you can put splits into the FB away from the coals to preheat before adding to the fire. Preheated splits will ignite very quickly and there will be very little white smoke.

Be sure your therms are accurate. Buy a good brand (River Country) and check in boiling water for accuracy. You will also need a good remote digital like the Maverick e-732 or 733 to be sure the grate is close to the door therms and to keep an IT temp check on your meat.

Good luck and keep smoking, Joe

 

[denalieast]

Excellent info, thank you Joe!