When to add and when not to??

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smoknrookie

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jul 6, 2008
30
10
I have been using what you all on here call a UDS for sometime now.. Recently I have built what you also refer to as a double barrle smoker where the barrles are stacked on top of each other.. I have never smoked on a true wood smoker before and am in need of some guidance.. I have read some of the threads on here but I am still a little confused.. I understand the whole getting the fire going thing I am just curious as to when you actually add the wood that you are using for flavoring.. Do you add it while youy are trying to get the fire going or do you wait until the fire burns down and you get a steady temp reading before you add it?
confused.gif
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!
 
Get the bed of coals going, and temps stable. Then add meat..and wood as needed for smoke... smaller splits at a time to start. You should do a dry run and mess with it.
 
Smoknrookie, I run a homemade stickburner. I personally fire up with the wood I am using to cook with. Put several sticks in the firebox and let it get going good to heat up the smoker, and shut down the air vent to less than the setting that I normally use when smoking and watch my therm to see when the temp gets into the temp range that I wish to use. Once the temp is achieved, I load the smoker, open the vent back up some, and sit back with a cool one and wait for the temp to stablize. If temp doesn't come back or drops you will need to add wood and air until cooking temp is achieved again. Then manage your fire to hold temps during your cook. Hope I was able to help you, and it gets easier to more cooks you do and the better you get to know your smoker.
 
Thanks for the quick responses!! I will definitely do a dry run before I do any cooking on it, I would hate to ruin a good chunk of meat, just because I couldn't keep a good steady temp... Thanks again for the info..
 
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