Right amount of wood and charcoal

[catmanstew]

I don't really have any of these smokers you talk about. Heck I don't even know what they are. I look forward to the day I can go out and buy me a real heavy duty smoker and grill. For now I like building my fire with little or no starter. I use a flame tourch. My question is this. I usually end up with not enough heat or too much., How do you go about deciding on how much char coal to use ?

 

[fwismoker]

Is your smoker the one in your avatar?     As a rule of thumb you want to start with a small hot fire because you can always add more to reach your target temperature.   Long cooks you'll want to use the "minion method" and shorter cooks i'd suggest to use a chimney full of hot coals. 

There's lots of threads on the minion method, basically you'll want a charcoal basket if you don't have one, put unlit charcoal in the basket with wood chunks mixed in and use a chimney with a few lit and pour it on top. Little by little it'll heat up and depending on your setup you might have to add more or less coals next time until you fine tune it. 

 

[cliffcarter]

I don't really have any of these smokers you talk about. Heck I don't even know what they are. I look forward to the day I can go out and buy me a real heavy duty smoker and grill. For now I like building my fire with little or no starter. I use a flame tourch. My question is this. I usually end up with not enough heat or too much., How do you go about deciding on how much char coal to use ?

That depends on what you are cooking on and what you are cooking. We need more info to help you properly.

 

[catmanstew]

Thanks I thank you for the quick response. It is all about trial and error for me. I smoke many meats. Tasso,sasuage, steaks,roast,briskets and boston butts. I have added some before. Just seems like I am messing something up.