Santa Maria to kettle test

[RonB]

I mentioned in another thread that I wanted to try using wood in the Santa Maria to get some real wood smoke on the protein and then switching to the kettle to finish the cook. I did that today. I used a half rack of spare ribs cut in half 'cause SWMBO likes 'em fall off the bone.

The weather was cold, (mid 30s), and windy. A long gust would lower the temp as the heat went sideways. A lot of the smoke also went sideways, (more on that later). I started the fire using some charcoal with some small splits on top and the gas igniter in my kettle. Once the wood was burning well, I added the ribs and the cover. It was very hands on for the hour I left the ribs on the SM. I didn't want too much smoke but I would have liked more smoke, but I'm not sure why I didn't get enough smoke. It could have been the wind, or the limited time, (1 hr), or maybe the cover was too big. I started out making very small changes in the grate height with little effect, but the change was fairly quick when I moved it enough. A 180° swing of the wheel turned out better. If the change wasn't enough, I'd move it more, and if it was too much I'd move it back a bit. You can see where I got better in the graph below. The changes were very quick if I moved the grate enough. It was literally hands on the entire time. I'm not sure I would want to do that for 2 or 3 hours, but I'm gonna smoke a butt this way when I get some warmer temps.

The setup. First photo shows how I raise the charcoal grate when cooking something that needs searing. I bought a second charcoal grate and use 2 fire bricks left over from when we built the house ~ 40 years ago to raise the wood close to the cookin' grate.


I didn't need to raise the grate for a slow cook. I used the gas assist to light one layer of charcoal with splits on top.


This is the setup with the meat on the fire. It didn't take much wood to get the temp where I wanted it.


I put the grate too close to the fire and had to raise the cooking grate. That's as high as it would go with the cover in place. I may try a smaller cover next time.


This shows the sprocket. Going one notch did not move the grate very much. I tried moving 3 notches, then 4 notches at a time but wound up moving about 180° and watching to see the change in temp.


Here's the graph showing the temp changes. You can see that it took me a while to figure out how to reduce the swings. The first dip is when I changed over to the kettle, and the second dip was when I took the ribs off. I had trouble with the temp once I switched over to the kettle and the cook wound up finished in about 2 hours which resulted in a 4 hour hold @ 150° in the toaster oven.


This was my wife's plate. I forgot to take a photo of mine, and I had already taken a few, ok - a lot, of test tastes. She likes her's sauced, so I sauced hers and then glazed them under the broiler inside. Mine had salt only because I wanted just the smoke for flavor.

[Mosca]

So do you think you got stick-burner flavor, or did you get combustion-limited flavor?

[RonB]

I had a little oak smoke flavor.

[Henrik]

I’ve done the same a few times, minus the ”lid” you use.
What I did was running with the same amount of wood as you, but drop the grates much lower. Not too low, as I don’t want to burn the food. But by having it lower more smoke hits the food.

I haven’t done ribs in this way though.

[RonB]

Thanks Henrik. I may have to try that at some time. I did get more smoke on chops and steaks front searing over wood splits.

[Johnny Booth]

I think the wind was your enemy on the smoke and the fluctuating temps. Although your control was impressive once you got the hang of it, the wind probably blew most of the smoke away. Maybe a wind barrier would help?