I am new to this game but the smaller splits seem to work great and are manageable, rather than throwing 1 at a time on I sometimes throw two on, and I think I probably end up feeding it more frequently but get ultra clean smoke with great flavor
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I've been asked to weigh in on this, my smoking with wood experience is limited to a KBQ where the recommended thickness is 'a Red Bull can' to 'a brick' with heat and smoke managed by a fan. Everything posted so far makes sense to me, however allow me to digress a bit. I heat my house with wood, my firebox has a glass door. If I load it up and run the damper full open I have an extremely hot fire with the glass as clear as glass. Turning down the damper to regulate the heat causes thick smoke and soon the glass is clear as creosote. Since clean smoke is the goal, my suggestion is keeping the splits a thickness that allows them to burn hot without getting the smoker too hot. How thick? Post 359Comment
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Great! So there is a lot to talk about here still, maybe now, ... maybe later. Maybe not. To me, there are lots of grey areas here that have not been discussed... Another words ... Where do our tasty, favorable compounds for our BBQ come from? Are they ALL Indeed from that light blue smoke that everyone talks incessantly about or is it a bit more complex than that? What are the percentages of the"good smoke" or necessary compounds needed to reach the BBQ nirvana we all seek coming from that light blue smoke. Could there possibly be some undesirable "banned" compounds coming from our fireboxes unbenounced to us that may comprise our perfectly balanced BBQ without our knowledge?
Sorry but I can't help myself. So many variables, so little time!
Does the Good Doctor have any opinions on this?
Im sure there are references to this subject somewhere.Comment
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Yes thank you! So if we read that article we will see that without creosote there would be no smoke flavor.
you might as well be eating boiled meat! That's what the good Dr. says.
It's all about balance. Like so many things in life.
oh, never mind.Comment
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I've been stick burning for quite a long time. To me the key to a good clean fire is to start with a good proper bed of coals. I run my stick burners for a hour or so before I even start cooking. I start with smaller splits and keep adding larger ones every couple of minutes. I leave the intake and exhaust vents wide open and the top door on the firebox open. Once it's going good I close the top door and the intakes about half closed and let it burn down to a nice pile of coals. Then I just let it go until the temp stabalizes where I want it. I have splits of all sizes available. I use them as a temp regulator. Small splits for small temp gains larger splits for more heat.
Once everything is heated up and churning along my smoker will hold a steady 250 with a bed of coals the size of a softball. Sometimes I have to add a small split not for temp purpose but just to keep a fire going.
I try to keep a thin blue at times like the pic in my avatar. But a lot of times all I see is a heat signature leaving the exhaust. I burn mostly red or white oak which is a mild smoke flavor and I always get a good smoky flavor on my finished product.Comment
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