Stickburning Discoveries: Larger Firebox = Easier to get Clean Smoke!

[Marauderer]

As far as your original question of wood size. The smaller one needs smaller pieces of wood. For the small one the size wood should be about the size of a soda pop can in length and diameter. That is the size I am going to use on my small Lang when I get it. I have read of folks not having a clean burn on a small stick burners as the size of the wood is to large.

[The Burn]

Wow, Big Tex is a monster. And that brisket looks great. Thanks for the firebuilding pics, they are helping get me revved up for my cinder block pit build.

[Huskee]

Beautimous. Fantabulicious. Fabutastic.

[_John_]

Looks awesome, I think when I retire I will get a big rig like that and just smoke meat all day for people.

[Jerod Broussard]

Large insulated fireboxes are super nice. You da Protein King.

[Jon Solberg]

You da Man Paul! You da Man.

[PaulstheRibList]

Ok, I'm a couple of months into my new StickBurning experience. Have a new 22" offset, built like a Yoder Witicha, heavy gauge with a plate I can raise and lower between the firebox and the cooking chamber. It's been way fun cooking on it! I'll put a pic of so of the BRISKET PRACTICE here...





I'm having Big Fun and loosing a lot of sleep with all this Brisket Practice!!!

This week, I cooked 300 sausages for a fundraiser for the elementary school I volunteer for on Friday, so I borrowed this huge pit from a church friend. It's 44 (or 48, I can't remember) inches wide, and 8 feet long, with a huge firebox. I walked by today and saw this comparison:


I'll name them Lil' Tex and Big Tex!

My issues on my Lil' Tex largely deal with keeping the fire going and the smoke clean. I have 3 ricks of wood from 3 different suppliers, 1 of Oak that was split about 5 months ago and stored under a shed, another rick of Oak that was split about 2 months ago, and 1 rick of Pecan that was split a few months ago, and has too many large logs and long logs (poor splitting, so I won't buy from that seller again).

One learning is that I need to have SMALLER WOOD for the smaller smoker. This is not rocket science, but I was just using what I had. So, as a red-blooded man, I used this as a great reason to BUY MORE TOOLS. So, there's a new Huskvarna chainsaw in my garage, I bought a 6 pound maul to split wood today, and think I'll have a 7 ton (small) electric spitter here in a week or so, so I can have smaller splits and shorter ones for my Lil' Tex.

OK, back to Big Tex. IT HAS BEEN SO FUN TO BUILD A FIRE IN THIS HUGE FIREBOX!!


I laid a couple of more flat pieces on the bottom, poured on a full can of lit charcoal...



then put on a couple more splits on top, and waited a bit...


And a huge, beautiful fire emerged!


Followed by a beautiful bed of coals (OK, I didn't take a pic of the fullest bed, but the one above will do!)

I'm having a blast cooking on this huge cooker!

I'll start another thread tomorrow, I am cooking for another event Monday, and have 95 pounds of St. Louis Cut Ribs, a couple of Boston Butt's, and a few dozen chicken thigh's. I'll use both 22.5 WSM's, and Big Tex. Should be fun!

Happily Yours...
Stickburner4Life