Lang Clone

[anstissk]

Very nice, looks like is ready to season and start cooken on it!

Well I attempted to season it up but I was having some major difficulty. I thought the in-laws had some good seasoned cherry but it was still a little moist. We got a good fire going in the FB with some dry ash and cherry and got a coal bed established. It was 22 degrees outside with 20-30 mph winds and snow. I struggled getting the cooker up to 200 and never got it higher, so we called it a night. The weather was not cooperating and also caused a lot of condensation in the cooker.
Anyone have any tips to battle condensation or are my suspicions correct that the weather was the primary and unavoidable culprit in all this?

 

[civilsmoker]

Wet or green wood will not burn good. You need Also wind like that along with bad wood will not yield good results. Also 20 deg and that wind with snow would be a non-starter for many seasoned experienced smokers......mind you that cold air steels energy away from the fire and keeps it from doing its thing....

Wind blowing around the smoker can actually cause vacuum like condition and can draw air out of the fire box. Since your just tying to test burn next time turn the fire box to face the wind to create an incoming pressure.

I would also suggest lighting a full chimney of charcoal and once fully lit pour them on the fire box grate on top of another 1/3-1/2 chimney of unlit coals. Then add 3 -2in x 2in splits (dry and freshly split) on the coals and leave your fire box open till they are fully engaged then Close the door but leave the vents open wide till the flames reach equilibrium with the new oxygen level. Then just add additional 2-3 inch splits as needed. You want a clean fire box that isn’t full of wood like you would do on a fire box at night in the house. Too big of splits don’t burn well either.

I suggest the charcoal coals to help create the heat you need to maintain a good fire over just pure wood to get the coal bed till you get some experience behind how your smoker burns.