- May 20, 2017
- 5
- 11
Hello,
My name is Sam McMahan. I live in Irving Texas. I've been cooking (smoking) for several years now and have cooked various types of meats (Beef, Pork, Chicken, Turkey and Fish). I've used gas and charcoal grills, as well as charcoal grills as smokers. Most have been commercial type smokers although I have used cookers made from 55 gal drums, with the latest being a converted propane tank which I was very happy with.
I recently sold my propane tank smoker to a friend and purchased an "Old Country Angus" smoker. The image below is very similar to mine with the exception that mine has two exhaust stacks on top coming from the vertical stack.
I am in the process of tuning it up by adding thermometers and seasoning it. Yesterday (5-19-17) I burned a bag of charcoal at a high temp to burn off the internal coating that came from the builder. Tomorrow, I plan to coat the cooking chambers with cooking oil and do an all day burn using the wood I normally cook with (Hickory, Mesquite, Pecan) Whatever I have left from previous cooks.
This cooker has two cooking chambers. A main horizontal chamber and a vertical, multi-rack chamber at the opposite end from the fire box. I noticed that the vertical chamber was 175 degrees cooler than the main chamber at the hottest point of the burn. I did expect a difference but not that much. I've just been made aware of using tuning plates to even out the temp in the cooking chamber. I am wondering if they might help raise the temp in the vertical stack as well.
My name is Sam McMahan. I live in Irving Texas. I've been cooking (smoking) for several years now and have cooked various types of meats (Beef, Pork, Chicken, Turkey and Fish). I've used gas and charcoal grills, as well as charcoal grills as smokers. Most have been commercial type smokers although I have used cookers made from 55 gal drums, with the latest being a converted propane tank which I was very happy with.
I recently sold my propane tank smoker to a friend and purchased an "Old Country Angus" smoker. The image below is very similar to mine with the exception that mine has two exhaust stacks on top coming from the vertical stack.
I am in the process of tuning it up by adding thermometers and seasoning it. Yesterday (5-19-17) I burned a bag of charcoal at a high temp to burn off the internal coating that came from the builder. Tomorrow, I plan to coat the cooking chambers with cooking oil and do an all day burn using the wood I normally cook with (Hickory, Mesquite, Pecan) Whatever I have left from previous cooks.
This cooker has two cooking chambers. A main horizontal chamber and a vertical, multi-rack chamber at the opposite end from the fire box. I noticed that the vertical chamber was 175 degrees cooler than the main chamber at the hottest point of the burn. I did expect a difference but not that much. I've just been made aware of using tuning plates to even out the temp in the cooking chamber. I am wondering if they might help raise the temp in the vertical stack as well.
