I posted over the weekend about wanting to try an offset (been using WSM bullets.) I am very glad to have been firmly but politely instructed in reality - the fire needs to be fed every 45 minutes. I like long smokes on my briskets, and I am not getting up every 45 minutes or starting at 3 and eating at 9 pm. Soooo ... any other suggestions, or am I limited to charcoal and the WSM? I have no interest in going to the auto pellet route.
You can easily buy some high-quality wood chunks from say Smokinlicious and mix that with your charcoal for flavor. Charcoal itself only provides heat so mixing wood is absolutely a good idea.
While the website leaves much to be desired in terms of navigation, the customer service and product is excellent.
I ordered the double filets, which are recommended for smokers like the PK300. I picked sugar maple, white oak, and cherry. Shipping was fast and it arrived in 3 days.
Pricing is very good as 2/3rds of a cubic
+1 on Charcoal with wood chunks. If you want something different than your WSM, maybe a gravity feed smoker? Assassin Smokers, Stumps, Myron Mixon are a few of the top brands. Masterbuilt, Charbroil, etc. on the low end. Just a thought.
Last edited by Jfrosty27; June 12, 2024, 06:00 AM.
If you do decide to add wood chunks, start off easy with the wood. Too little wood smoke flavor will still be edible. Too much of that smoke may or may not be edible but probably not enjoyable at any rate.
Keep in mind wood chunks mixed in with charcoal are going to smolder more than burn cleanly - hence why it is easy to overdo it and end up with bitter, nasty smoke flavor.
I have been experimenting with using wood chips mixed in thoroughly with the charcoal rather than wood chunks to provide a steady stream of high temperature, clear wood smoke. @ 225 charcoal doesn't burn very hot and chips require much less heat to catch fire and burn than to keep a big old chunk of wood to continue burning. In my experience, as the charcoal slowly burns away from the chunks, the chunks smolder and slowly go out, creating the "dreaded" creosote laden smoke.
I already do add a fair amount of wood - fruitwood for pork a variety of oak and or hickory for beef. There is a slight off taste to briquettes, but I find charcoal burns too hot for me to easily regulate.
Depends on the smoker and the meat. For brisket in the 22" I probably put in 3 logs of either oak or hickory on the top of the charcoal. I add burning briquettes on top of that. For the baby (14.5) I am doing pork (ribs or butt) and will add 4-5 smallish chunks mixed in. I do not tend to add more - the smoke in either the brisket or pork case can be too strong for me.
Question about fuel - do people stay away from briquettes? I've always used them because of the ease of use (they burn long and evenly, and not crazy hot which is not a good thing for low and slow. What do others feel about that? I know plenty of competition folks use briquettes.
If the smoke flavor is already very strong ( or too strong sometimes) with your current process, what is the issue? You’ve got enough smoke flavor already.
Briquettes are favored for low and slow exactly because they won’t get to crazy high temps. If you want to do 2-zone, and get a searing station going, you can do lump which gets very hot, burns clean, and has less ash produced. But many here do 2-zone with briquettes successfully.
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45 minutes is very optimistic...in reality I find it's more like 20-30 to maintain a hot fire without dipping too low and having to essentially rev your fire back up over and over again. Good on you for researching and asking important questions before jumping in head first and regretting it. Charcoal and wood chunks is 95% as great tasting, and 100% acceptable!
If it's in your budget and you still want to play with wood, you could try a Santa Maria style grill. They're not a low & slow smoker but a wood-powered grill.
Yeah - I will second this. I was reading this thread and was going to post that with my offset I had to feed the fire at least every 30 minutes if using straight wood. That is why I don't do overnight smoking on the offset anymore! Those go on the kamado or kettle+SNS.
As Jfrosty27 mentioned, maybe a gravity fed smoker. Larger capacity than the WSM or PBC and can hold ( some models) 20 lbs of charcoal and wood chunks. That will make it through the night. I’ve used one a couple of times (years ago) and I believe you can put on a temperature controller. Old Country is another manufacturer.
Do folks think that a gravity smoker with charcoal and wood is likely to give any different results than a WSM? I do like to master new techniques, but only if the results vary. For example I bought a PBC some years back. I find it wonderful for certain things because the temperature profile is so different. I use if for fowl, and some steak meats like try-tip, but do not find it a good replacement or addition to the WSM for "low and slow." Hope I didn't just start a war ...
Different results than the WSM? No, not really. But a gravity smoker may have more capacity than a WSM. Don’t get caught up in all that low and slow voodo. On the competition circuit, drum smokers cooking hot and fast are used a lot. I always do my pork butts on my PBC. I don’t gauge the temp - just let her rip.
No wars started at all! We're here to discuss cookers and cooking so let's keep doing it! PBCs, I agree, are excellent for chicken but it's not my personal preference for ribs or brisket either. Different smoke flavor. Gravity feeds, like mentioned, are charcoal +wood chunks, so little if any flavor difference from what you already know. Fun to operate? Yes!
I think a lot of folks here love helping others spend their money on new toys, myself included. Here's some thoughts on the best questions to consider as well as links to old threads for relevant discussion:
Key Questions (thanks Old Glory ) that buyers should consider and share their thoughts on so we can provide the best
Smokin-It 3D
Weber Kettle with an SNS
Masterbuilt kettle that I call the $30 wonder grill
Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
Anova WiFi sous vide machine
Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
From some browsing I was doing a few weeks back, I believe the LSG Pellet Smoker also can do wood chips. I know you say no auto pellet, but if you are after the flavor the wood provides, could be an option.
Also, have you looked at M Grills? A combo style smoker/grill - could be used with charcoal, splits, are both. Could be another option?
This won’t prevent you from having to feed a fire every 20/30 mins BUT, look at holding your brisket over night. In other words, cook it without dismantling your circadian rhythm - I’ll never do an overnight again. This might allow you to play w wood fire during the day. 🤷♂️
I didn’t chime in on your last post but I don’t use my KBQ as much as I’d like to simply bc don’t want to futz w the fire every 20 mins.
Im told there is more than one way to skin a cat, and this is heresy, I know, so DONT TELL ANYONE ON THE PIT, but I’m gonna try smoking my next brisket for 4 hrs only in the KBQ and then finish it in the oven. If that works out, it’ll allow me to play w wood/my KBQ more often.
Huskee I guess it depends on what time ur eatin'. Early/mid afternoon is tough to accomplish w/o a night time cook....that is until I understood about long holds.
I am 100% in the long hold camp. I got tired of feeding my stickburner every 20 mins all night, so I start cooking the day before. My goal is to have the meat off the pit and in the warming oven by midnight so I can still get a decent nights sleep before serving lunch.
And I’ve def done the transfer from pit to 250° oven to finish after wrapping and it works great.
JCBBQ and Santamarina For midday lunch BBQs I cook the day before and reheat coupel hrs before. There is no reason to cook all night, especially on a stickburner, unless someone chooses to or doesn't realize they can reheat and it is 99.9% as good, sometimes it's even better, 101% as good!
Drum smoker is another option - using lump charcoal you can easily get 15, maybe 20 hours out of a basket sometimes. And mixing in more wood chunks, kinda like you already do with your WSM, can give you some of that wood smoke.
I like the Super 55, I've actually got one on my back porch, still in the box, awaiting paint and assembly. Actually, I'm waiting on the wheel kit for it, THEN paint and assembly.
For me, it is/was a new modality I'd never used and an excuse to get another cooker. (LOL - The Wife wasn't so amused )
Since I bought it, I've now experimented with one elsewhere and I like it. Gonna be a useful addition to the stable when I get it up and running. Not the same flavor as a true wood offset... but then... there's a reason offsets ARE what they are - many consider them the king of Texas-style low and slow. There's just no other way to really obtain that flavor without putting that kind of time into it. Personally, I find tending the offset somewhat therapeutic. I don't mind throwing a log on every 30-40 minutes, sometimes I'm getting up ever 5 to mess with the fire or adjust the air inflow, etc. Just tweaking. I like it. And I certainly like the flavor. Now, once I wrap and things are cooking overnight, I don't mind throwing a larger log on and letting it burn - dirty smoke isn't a problem once meat is wrapped, and I can get some sleep, have gone over an hour sometimes before my Fireboard wakes me up with an alert my temps are dropping - that's fine, I sleep in the recliner those nights, getting up as needed to stoke the flame.
A kettle with an SnS insert, B&B briquettes (by far the slowest burning) and a couple of chunks of wood will produce very, very fine results. My SOP now is to get the kettle up and going in the evening so that it's stable by bedtime, put the brisket on and go to bed as usual. This config will give you a solid 8 hours, if not more, of stable temps requiring no futzing while you sleep, and then you can absolutely move the cut to an oven for the rest of the ride if your fire is starting to die out. You will have picked up all the smoke flavor that you're gonna by then, and as has been mentioned, BTUs is BTUs is BTUs, it won't matter how the heat gets into the meat once it's got its smoke.
Particularly if your technique is to wrap the brisket after that amount of time, when there would be no way to pick up any more smoke regardless.
Looking forward to hearing how it goes for you, and good luck!
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