Building and maintaining a fire to smoke food!

[SoEzzy]

Please add your own thoughts and comments to this thread, these are my ideas aimed at helping out people who are new to smoking!

One of the things that takes some learning is building and maintaining a fire.

You don't need clouds of heavy white or gray smoke, a wisp of blue smoke is all you need out of your exhaust vents.

For lots of folks, (except the big stick burning pits), you are often better off using charcoal for your heat and only adding wood for your smoke.

To use this method, and using either a charcoal basket or a raised grate for your charcoal fire base, (to allow good air flow under the fire), an only one or two splits, (logs that have been split into wrist sized pieces the length of your forearm).

You can use Lump charcoal or Briquettes, your choice!

Start a chimney starter full of charcoal, allow it to get going fully, waiting till the top charcoal has ashed over on the top, put the burning charcoal into the firebox, keep it together as much as you can.

With a bigger pit you may need a second chimney full to start getting heat into the pit.

Start your fires early on the day you want to cook, you really want most of the pit up to temperature, before you start adding wood to the fire.

If it takes more than 45 minutes to get your pit up to temperature, start another whole chimney full of charcoal at about 45 minutes, if the pit is nearly up to temperature do the same thing anyway, as this is about to be stage two.

Place a couple, (two), of splits on top of your firebox to preheat, but keep an eye on them you want them to preheat not start to burn, once the second, (or third chimney of charcoal on a bigger pit), is ashed over, put it into the firebox, keeping it in the same pile / area as the previous one. Add the preheated splits on the top of the charcoal bed, give it 5 - 10 minutes to start to burn before you add you meat to the cooker.

Place 2 more splits on top of the firebox to preheat, you'll need them in 45 - 60 minutes.

Don't keep opening the firebox lid all the time, but keep a close eye on your pit temperatures, if they drop more than 10 degrees, it is either time for more fuel, or adjust the air vents, or it's raining / snowing, the wind changed direction, (something changed... do you get the point?), pop the firebox lid check your fire, if you see that the charcoal bed is still burning but the wood has burnt away almost completely add the wood from the top of the firebox, if the charcoal has burned away start another chimney of charcoal.

If you run your fire adding either lit charcoal and then wood, or just wood as it needs it, you can go through the whole cook like this, and continue to maintain the pit temperature within a quite close tolerance, 10 degrees or so, either side of your “ideal” temperature.

Depending on what you're cooking, and the timing that the different meats entail, you may continue to add wood throughout the whole cook or you may just put the smoke on the meat for the first 5 or 6 hours, you'll need to do some practice and find out what works for you.

There are many other ways you can prepare the fire for a pit, the above method works on most pits with a side firebox, that aren't just burning wood for heat and smoke.

You could use the same technique on a vertical, but I prefer to use the minion method, filling the ring with unlit charcoal, burying chunks of wood throughout the charcoal, then adding a chimney full of lit charcoal on the middle and controlling the fire with the vents.

Some of the commercial places, use only wood but they burn the logs down to coals first, then shovel the burning coals into their pits as and when they need more heat, a lot of the heavier smoke gets burned off in the other fire, and although there is smoke hitting the meat on this style of pit, it is more the heat from the wood with a little smoke, than the heavy smoke of wood burning in the cooking pit.
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Here's a change Robert.

I still work here!

[Hell Fire Grill]

If you are burning wood without any charcoal/gas/electricity it is very important that your wood is well seasoned, about 6 months or so in the warm part of the year, and kept dry. I recommend keeping it in a wood shed with a roof only and no walls so it gets the maximum amount of air circulation, if the rain hits on one side all the time I cover that side. The wood also needs to be kept off the ground a couple of inches, so it cant soak up water from the ground. Most importantly under cover and off the ground be it stacked against a fence, house, wall or whatever.

When I build my fire it is on a fire grate at least a couple of inches off the bottom of the fire box. I start it with kindling ranging from slivers to up to about an inch or so thick until it is going good then gradually add larger pieces. Adding wood so as not to smother the fire, and keep it burning small and hot with virtually no smoke. Try to keep small spaces in between the pieces of wood so the fire can get plenty of ventilation. With my cooker I need to use pieces of wood that are about as big around as a beer can and 8-12" long to maintain a efficient fire. Larger cookers can use bigger splits and rounds. Like SoEzzy mentioned we are trying to keep thin blue smoke. If you have white or gray smoke your fire isn't burning efficiently and is depositing products from incomplete combustion, creosote, onto your food. Pre-heating your wood on top of or inside your fire box will help keep your smoke blue by eliminating some of the moisture, however it is not a quick fix for green or unseasoned wood.

When I add wood to the fire I have found it is normal for there to be some light white smoke for a couple of minutes or so. Sometimes I put in a piece that is extra dense, a knot, burl, or a Y in the tree, and the fire smokes like a locomotive, so I grab some welding gloves or tongs and remove that piece from the fire box and replace it with another piece.

[PULLEDPORKER]

Hi folks... Here I am at work and all I can do is disect my poor Rib performance from the weekend. I feel like a Pro football coach must feel on Moday morning after taking a severe A@# Whipping on Sunday... I have replayed the smoke out hundreds of times in my head.
I think that my choice to alternate Pecan and Hickory must hold at least a partial key as to why why my flavor was just bitter and too smokey. I built my base fire out of Pecan and had a hard time getting it up to 220. After an hour or so I leveled out at 220 where I kept it with +/- 10 degrees all afternoon. I also thought it might be nice to cover the ribs with onion slices to help tenderize and moisturize... Bad call I think... I took this from my brisket book but I think that this may have bittered me up as well.
Should I not use those woods and just stick with mesquite? Am I a hopeless romantic to think that I can smoke a rack without using charcoal? I am severely distraught over serving my family this smoke stack of a meal and need to redeem myself ASAP.

[SoEzzy]

IF you insist on not using charcoal as a fire base... Go TEXAN!

Get yourself a burn bin, a 55 gallon drum with a hole in the side big enough to get a shovel through flat with a load of burning coals on it, and a grid about 1/2 way down the barrel.

Put your wood in the top of the barrel stand it vertically, then set light to the bottom of the wood, from underneath the grate. allow the wood to burn and the coals will drop through the grate and collect in the bottom of the barrel, use the shovel to move the burning coals from the burn barrel to the firebox of your pit.

Keep adding more wood to the burn barrel so you have hot coals available at all points during the cook.

Otherwise get some hardwood lump charcoal use it as your fire base and to keep the heat up, then use your wood for the smoke and flavor.
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Here's a change Robert.

I still work here!

[dmor71]

That "Texan" style is something I think I will try when I'm at cook-offs. I have never seen that before and I'm from Texas!

I have also found out that using the wind to my advantage helps. I just turn the pit so the breeze will inter through the damper on the firebox. It works like a natural bellow to keep the heat. I also use a chimney starter to get the fire going then lay my logs on top. I have found that the logs burn much hotter than the charcoal but I have not used lump charcoal before just the typical Kingsford brand.

Here is a classic one for you. My father in-law doesn't even use a temp. gauge. He pours a small amount of beer on the cover of the cook chamber on a barrel style smoker. If the beer bubbles, it's too hot. If it doesn't make a thin stream and quickly run down, it's too cold. --I can't make this stuff up!
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- Doug

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Char-Griller Outlaw w/ firebox
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[peteque]

Their are all kinds of smokers out their as well as techniques. The goal no matter what type of smoker you are using or what you are burning is to maintain the right size and high temp fire. Unless you are using "Texas Style" the goal is a complete burn as possible at your fire. This will get you the thin blue smoke you desire for a good session.

Pete

[Char Grilla]

[SoEzzy]

I wonder if a 5 gallon would be too small, perhaps a 15 or 20 gallon would do, the bigger ones are built so that the coals that fall to the base and can then be removed with a shovel, are big enough to still have some burn time left, but not so big that they aren't already pretty charred.

You might try it out and let us know if you find a method that works for you?
_________________
Here's a change Robert.

I still work here!

[Char Grilla]

Yeah, I teach at a high school, and use the metal shop often. I bet they could just roll some metal, weld it into a cylinder, then put a grid on the bottom for the fire to breathe, like a chimney. Instead of using a shovel out the bottom, I could use tongs to pull a chunk of wood once it's going well enough.

[Harry Nutczak]

[SoEzzy]

I lean towards Harry's idea of a couple of rebar, perhaps two across and two in a perpendicular direction.

But open below and only transfer those that drop through.

JM2C!
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Here's a change Robert.

I still work here!

[ABAUM]

I christened my chargrill smoker with offset fire box the other day. I used a full chimineys worth of charcoal in the firebox and could not get the temperature up to 200-220 degrees. Both vents on the box and on the grill were "wide open". Do i need to put 2 chimineys worth of charcoal to get it up to temperature or is there something i am doing wrong?

[SoEzzy]

Not being funny!

Check your thermometer accuracy.

You should be able to break 200 F with a full chimney of lit charcoal.

Where is your thermometer on the pit, have you ever tested it, in iced or boiling water?

Post us a picture of your set up if you can, it will help us see what we'le talking about.

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4096
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Here's a change Robert.

I still work here!

[Bunqui]

SoEzzy,
Thanks so much for this thread.

I've read a number of Char Griller owners who have complained on the accuracy of the thermometer. I'd suggest getting an inexpensive cooks thermometer and oven thermometer as backup.

I also read somewhere a guy rigged a candy thermometer on the grill body to get his grate temps.
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CharGriller 5050 w/ SFB
Cooking with gas and blowing Smoke

Weber Smokey Joe
LIAR#38

[Golfergal]

We just bought a vertical gas smoker and I wanted to know what temperature we should be cooking stuff at. For chicken, ribs, or even a pork butt? From what I have read it seems that it's ok if there isn't a ton of smoke coming out of the smoker as long as it is smoking, is this correct? Thank you in advance for all your help! I am so excited about my new smoker I just want to cook everything.
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Learning how to work the smoker.....

[jhill55]

Where should me air vents be when I'm building my fire? I have a Chargriller SuperPro, with an intake on the fire box, and the standard stack.

[Bunqui]

jhill55, My Char Griller does well with the SFB only at 1/4 open after the lump gets going. That works well for me for the entire cook.

I'm going to put this out there. What's the recommendation if you want to have very low heat and smoke for items such as cheese?

Thanks.
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CharGriller 5050 w/ SFB
Cooking with gas and blowing Smoke

Weber Smokey Joe
LIAR#38

[Smoking P]

Great Thread! Going to have to add a fire pit to my plans on my smoker, which ill add a grill above so i could also use it for grilling also.

[jennifermilly]

This is very nice to see.I really want this kind of site.Thanks for sharing this.Thanks to you. i love Smoked Foods.i will come back to see more in future.
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NS0-153 and NS0-163 online classes and NS0-501 training

[Flame145]

So with an offset smoker i should only add 1 chimney full of charcoal at a time????? I new at this and I built a expanded metal basket which is 13 x 8 and I thought fill it up, add some lit charcoal from my chimney starter and control the heat through my air intake. Will this make the fire too hot ???