"Randolph M. Jones" wrote in message

JD wrote:
"Dana Myers" wrote in message news:409d16b3@wobble

Russ wrote:


How important is it to pre-burn? I haven't been doing this so far,
seems like a royal PITA to me. Does it make a huge difference? If
you use Pecan vs Oak or Hickory do you still need to preburn? I am
using straight wood for fuel, I started with Oak and ran out of
that so i'm using Pecan now.

Personally, if I'm using straight wood I *always* pre-burn,
otherwise it's way too easy to get too much smoke. I mostly use
oak lump and, other than the initial chimney load I start with, I
do not pre-burn
the lump when adding to the fire.

I might prefer a more subtle smoke flavor than others, though.

Dana


I've never been able to achieve this mythic condition of
"oversmoked". I guess i'm not into subtlety.

I tried using straight wood in my WSM once (once was enough) without
pre-burning, and everything ended up covered with creosote. It wasn't
subtle at all. I was assuming that's what people meant by
"oversmoked".

I can see where straight wood might not give the best results in a WSM or
any other smoker with as restricted an airflow. I've seen straight wood used
to good end in hand cobbled cinderblock smokers and I suspect that the fire
is burning hotter with the leakier construction keeping the temp at the meat
in a proper range. Icky creosote is one thing, robust smoke penetration is
quite another.

JD

"JD" writes:

I tried using straight wood in my WSM once (once was enough) without
pre-burning, and everything ended up covered with creosote. It wasn't
subtle at all. I was assuming that's what people meant by
"oversmoked".

I can see where straight wood might not give the best results in a WSM or
any other smoker with as restricted an airflow. I've seen straight wood used
to good end in hand cobbled cinderblock smokers and I suspect that the fire
is burning hotter with the leakier construction keeping the temp at the meat
in a proper range. Icky creosote is one thing, robust smoke penetration is
quite another.

I use fist-sized chunks, but I put them in *only* when I'm firing up
the WSM at the beginning. That way, there's plenty of air, so that
when I'm ready to cook, the chunks are already burning nicely.
Whenever I have tried adding chunks in the middle of cooking, I have
regretted it.

--THC

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Cormen Voice: (603) 646-2417
Associate Professor Fax: (603) 646-1672
Dept. of Computer Science Email:
Dartmouth College URL: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~thc/
6211 Sudikoff Laboratory
Hanover, NH 03755-3510
------------------------------------------------------------------------

JD wrote:


I've never been able to achieve this mythic condition of
"oversmoked". I guess i'm not into subtlety.

I tried using straight wood in my WSM once (once was enough) without
pre-burning, and everything ended up covered with creosote. It
wasn't subtle at all. I was assuming that's what people meant by
"oversmoked".

I can see where straight wood might not give the best results in a
WSM or any other smoker with as restricted an airflow. I've seen
straight wood used to good end in hand cobbled cinderblock smokers
and I suspect that the fire is burning hotter with the leakier
construction keeping the temp at the meat in a proper range. Icky
creosote is one thing, robust smoke penetration is quite another.

JD

What would you call a layer of sweet smoke on the outside? Not sour
creosote, but simply a crust of smoke from a burning log. That is a possible
result when burning logs in a side fire box. Been there done that. It's not
mythical just because you havent experience it. Which you say is
something you've actually tried to achieve? Sure, here's the other one.

But if you are actually in earnest, here's the recipe for oversmoking.
First you have to select some meat that will be effected by this, chicken
(most dont eat the skin) or Pork butt arent effected, best try pork spare
ribs or a roast beef. Get yourself a barrell style side smoker. Now get
yourself some oak logs suitable for the fireplace, about 6" in diameter, no
wimpy little things, your normal wood stove heater splits is what you want.
Now burn your fire as you would normally, and keep it stoked properly so the
log doesnt just smolder and make creosote. There ya go, as easy as that.


D
--

Duwop wrote:

This is your first one? Then I might suggest you try what was suggested to
me by Hound, this first season keep your exhaust and intake vents wide open
and learn how to manage your fire size. After you get comfortable with that
then you can start playing with the intake vent, always keeping the exhaust
open. I followed that advice and have found it to be very useful.

Yup, outstanding advice.

Sure was a
PITA that first summer though, gotta admit. Spikes and lows all over the
damn place. But short term pain for long term gain I figure. I also finally
figured out that those spikes dont hurt the meat any and calmed down. You'll
see some here that BBQ as high as 400F, so if you are trying for 250-275
your spikes wont even reach that, and BBQ cuts are forgiving anyway.

Yeah, at very first I wanted to over-manage the fire and try
to keep it within a 25F range. Nearly drove myself nuts. Then
I figured out two things at pretty much the same time - how to
manage the fire to avoid wide spikes and that the spikes,
within reason, generally don't cause a problem anyway.

The irony is that I started not worrying about
the temperature spikes right about the time I'd learned how to
avoid them. Life is just that way sometimes.

I suppose it's like parenthood - with our first baby, we carefully
sterilized bottles and generally worried about germs all the time.
Our pediatrician told us to settle down, keep things clean but don't
try to keep the baby in a bubble, that a little bit of background
exposure to germs is necessary for a healthy immune system anyway.

That raises perhaps an interesting side-question - perhaps those
heat variations are helpful in adding some kind of complexity to
the finished Q... just a thought.

Another example of trying too hard, Robert Mondavi the winemaker
initially worked very hard to maintain absolutely consistency in
his winery. Mondavi used stainless steel fermenters and filtered
the wine to remove unwanted bacteria, he was actually quite
innovative in raising the quality of wine from California. Then
it dawned on him all the processing was stripping the life out
of his wine, and they figured out how to filter less (or not
at all) and now Mondavi even ferments in oak fermenters.

Seems like we all go full-circle.

Dana