Newbie smoker help needed

boomhower · May 7, 2012

Hello all. Boomhower here.

New to smoking. Just finished a 100 gallon reverse flow build (I'll start a build thread with lots of pics when I get a chance.) and I have my little girls bithday party I have to cook for this weekend. (about 50-60 people) I seasoned the pit this weekend, but I will not have a chance to do a test cook for this weekend. I got some questions.

First, I had some trouble keeping the temps regulated during the seasoning firing. Which do you use to regulate heat with, the firebox inlet, or the chimney outlet? Or both? Some general direction here please.

Second, what size in general do you split the wood to? Leave as large logs, or split it down fairly small to get a more complete combustion?

Third, I am cooking pulled pork for this party. I would like to use apple or hickory wood, but I do not have any of either currently. What I do have is very well seasoned oak, or fairly green (cut in January/February) silver maple. Which would you recommend for the pork shoulders? I'm leaning towards the maple.

Thanks

boom

pineywoods · May 7, 2012

boomhower said:
Hello all. Boomhower here.

New to smoking. Just finished a 100 gallon reverse flow build (I'll start a build thread with lots of pics when I get a chance.) and I have my little girls bithday party I have to cook for this weekend. (about 50-60 people) I seasoned the pit this weekend, but I will not have a chance to do a test cook for this weekend. I got some questions.

First, I had some trouble keeping the temps regulated during the seasoning firing. Which do you use to regulate heat with, the firebox inlet, or the chimney outlet? Or both? Some general direction here please.

Leave the Chimney vent wide open and use the intakes to control the air flow into the chamber. Smaller splits will help with regulating temps

Second, what size in general do you split the wood to? Leave as large logs, or split it down fairly small to get a more complete combustion?

Splits about the size of a magnum beer can will give you much better heat control. After getting a bed of coals going add one or two as needed with mine it's usually every 30-40 minutes

Third, I am cooking pulled pork for this party. I would like to use apple or hickory wood, but I do not have any of either currently. What I do have is very well seasoned oak, or fairly green (cut in January/February) silver maple. Which would you recommend for the pork shoulders? I'm leaning towards the maple.

I'd go with the oak green wood is much more likely to produce creosote and not burn clean/complete. Oak is also a pretty good flavor being stronger than apple but not as strong as hickory

Thanks

boom

newflame · May 7, 2012

Hey, welcome to SMF!

First, I had some trouble keeping the temps regulated during the seasoning firing. Which do you use to regulate heat with, the firebox inlet, or the chimney outlet? Or both? Some general direction here please.

On mine, I find that the firebox vent gives you more temperature control because that's where the air is meeting the wood to generate heat, but the answer is different for each smoker, were your temps too low? Too high? or just all over the place? I find that I have to set mine up depending on the wind so that's something to take into consideration, if your temps are too low maybe you need to turn the firebox in the direction the wind is coming from to get more air. As far as the chimney outlets go I've found that I can use them to "fine tune" the temps, but the bulk of the temperature control on mine is done at the firebox.

Second, what size in general do you split the wood to? Leave as large logs, or split it down fairly small to get a more complete combustion?

How big is your firebox? I generally split mine or pick out the split logs at the beginning of a smoke, and once the fire gets going I'll take some of the bigger pieces and put them in to keep a constant fuel source. What I do is lay down a layer of charcoal on the bottom, put some split pieces on top of that, and then some smaller stuff on top of that...then I use a charcoal starter (full) to light briquettes and once they're going I put that on top of everything else to start the actual fire.

Third, I am cooking pulled pork for this party. I would like to use apple or hickory wood, but I do not have any of either currently. What I do have is very well seasoned oak, or fairly green (cut in January/February) silver maple. Which would you recommend for the pork shoulders? I'm leaning towards the maple.

I would go with the oak, or possibly a mixture of the oak and maple, the green maple is going to give off a lot more smoke than the oak will just due to the fact that it's greener, and too much smoke can be a bad thing.

boomhower · May 7, 2012

Thanks for the replies.

Ok, that makes sense on the firebox inlet to control temps. I did find I could fine tune with the chimney vent, but when I really closed it off, I was getting a lot of smoke coming out of the doors.

On the charcoal. I was using wood only. Is it easier to control temps with the charcoal/ wood mix? Is the fire more stable this way?

boom

newflame · May 7, 2012

boomhower said:
Thanks for the replies.

Ok, that makes sense on the firebox inlet to control temps. I did find I could fine tune with the chimney vent, but when I really closed it off, I was getting a lot of smoke coming out of the doors.

On the charcoal. I was using wood only. Is it easier to control temps with the charcoal/ wood mix? Is the fire more stable this way?

boom

The charcoal is going to give you a constant, smoldering heat source, so while it probably won't give you a lot of "extra" heat, what it will give you is a nice base to keep the rest of your fuel going, so in short, yes, it will help to give you more consistent temperatures...the thing you gotta remember though, as is true of any "custom" rig, is that they're all different, you're going to get good at maintaining temps on your smoker, through practicing and smoking more food, which is great, cause hey, more bbq! Could we get a picture of your rig by chance?

pineywoods · May 7, 2012

boomhower said:
Thanks for the replies.

Ok, that makes sense on the firebox inlet to control temps. I did find I could fine tune with the chimney vent, but when I really closed it off, I was getting a lot of smoke coming out of the doors.

You can play with the chimney vent some but closing it too much will trap smoke in and can lead to improper combustion

On the charcoal. I was using wood only. Is it easier to control temps with the charcoal/ wood mix? Is the fire more stable this way?

Personally I don't use any charcoal I start with 4-6 wood splits and a Propane Weed Burner to start the wood and find it works well and I don't have to mess with charcoal at all

boom

Here's what I use to start the fire

http://www.harborfreight.com/propane-torch-91033.html

boomhower · May 7, 2012

Here's the only pic I have right now. I'm at work and it's from my cell phone.

boom

newflame · May 7, 2012

nice lookin' rig man! Yea you should be able to figure it out pretty quickly once you get going a few times. Good luck!

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Newbie smoker help needed

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