The winter has been mild here so I am not waiting any longer, time to smoke a butt and a brisket next week for my sons second birthday. I hope to be able to squeeze in a pot of baked beans to let the fat drip into as well.
Awesome. Still eating some smoked shoulders we did about a month ago. We smoked 4 butts then pulled them, then ziplock bagged them (about 3 servings per bag), and froze it all.
If you haven't yet, get the bone from the butt and make some pea soup with it. We use shoulder bones (of course bigger), and throw in some pulled pork. Comes out incredible.
Len
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
I get a lot of creosote on my brisket since I've been using my little PID on my New Braunfels Black Diamond offset firebox smoker. This isn't good, of course. Do people using Gurus and Stokers have this experience?
"I've Scaced many HX/E61 machines, seeing shot variances of up to 8-10F or more. [The BDB] stays within 1F." - Mark Prince
I get a lot of creosote on my brisket since I've been using my little PID on my New Braunfels Black Diamond offset firebox smoker. This isn't good, of course. Do people using Gurus and Stokers have this experience?
I use the Guru and a weber smokey mountain, it takes many cooks before any creosote will build up on the sides of the smoker and I have never noticed it on the food even with an 18hr cook.
I use the Guru and a weber smokey mountain, it takes many cooks before any creosote will build up on the sides of the smoker and I have never noticed it on the food even with an 18hr cook.
If you are burning just wood, not charcoal, there will be a higher amount of wood tars, etc. that accumulate in your smoker. What I read, and experience, is that you want the smoke to be "bluish" in color as it leaves the stack, not smokey white. I also try to dampen the fire on the front end instead of the stack end; this way the smoke exits quicker. The fire will burn a bit hotter in the firebox, however will not sit around as long in the smoking chamber. The other way (with the stack dampered) the smoke sits around longer and the firebox runs cooler. The smoking chamber temp may stay the same either way, but you should strive for the hotter firebox temp.
Also, I burn oak & maple, mostly oak.
Len
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
The creosote started for me post-PID, so I was blaming the PID for it. But I realize I changed my fuel mix after the PID to get a longer burn from each load so it's probably the wood. I'm going to try some better seasoned wood and also some charcoal and see that that does. With the PID controlling the fire by way of a blower, there's not much I can do to the intake side of things. I guess I can also wrap my brisket in foil after it gets enough smoke on it. Ribs are OK, but their cooking time is way shorter.
"I've Scaced many HX/E61 machines, seeing shot variances of up to 8-10F or more. [The BDB] stays within 1F." - Mark Prince
With my WSM I got better smoke when I split the wood into pieces as thick or a bit thicker than my thumb. If left fist sized, it seems that the wood smolders rather than smokes, as it were.
With my WSM I got better smoke when I split the wood into pieces as thick or a bit thicker than my thumb. If left fist sized, it seems that the wood smolders rather than smokes, as it were.
Might be a difference in how we each ignite the fuel. I use a torch to light 5 areas where the chunks will go and will even use the torch to ignite the chunk, after a half hour the chunks are going well and this is when I load food and I get get smoke for 3 hours min. If I am doing shorter cooks, under 6hrs, I will use smaller pieces to get 1-2 hrs of smoke.
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