Hello everyone!
I just got my first offset smoker, a OKJ Highland reverse flow. Did my first cook this last weekend. I used a 50/50 combination of store bought Cowboy Brand Hickory Logs and Kiln dried oak from a local wood supplier. I live in Brooklyn, NY so as you can imagine there’s not a lot of easy places to find firewood nearby. I did a 2.5 hour smoke at 275 before wrapping. As I was quickly running out of Hickory I decided to use only Oak after wrapping. I was having difficulty keeping it lit. I was keeping the large firebox door open for 5 minutes or so after putting on new logs to give them time to really catch, which they did, but upon closing the firebox door they wouldn’t keep well lit. I was keeping the vents open at the way, and even cracking the vent door a few inches but couldn’t get over 225 or so. I bought a moisture meter and the Oak was reading around 20-21% on a freshly cut end. I can only find Kiln dried wood immediately around NYC, I’m wondering if I should be seasoning the kiln dried oak longer to get a good burn, or what mistakes I was making. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
Matt
I just got my first offset smoker, a OKJ Highland reverse flow. Did my first cook this last weekend. I used a 50/50 combination of store bought Cowboy Brand Hickory Logs and Kiln dried oak from a local wood supplier. I live in Brooklyn, NY so as you can imagine there’s not a lot of easy places to find firewood nearby. I did a 2.5 hour smoke at 275 before wrapping. As I was quickly running out of Hickory I decided to use only Oak after wrapping. I was having difficulty keeping it lit. I was keeping the large firebox door open for 5 minutes or so after putting on new logs to give them time to really catch, which they did, but upon closing the firebox door they wouldn’t keep well lit. I was keeping the vents open at the way, and even cracking the vent door a few inches but couldn’t get over 225 or so. I bought a moisture meter and the Oak was reading around 20-21% on a freshly cut end. I can only find Kiln dried wood immediately around NYC, I’m wondering if I should be seasoning the kiln dried oak longer to get a good burn, or what mistakes I was making. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
Matt