Fire and smoke

[oldcountrykory]

So I'm fairly new to the smoke scene, I just purchased my third smoker of the weekend. And I need some help it's an old country pecos smoker (stick burner) I've normally been a charcoal kinda guy maybe even some lump as well but I wanna get to where I can produce damn good meat off straight wood.

I get starting the fire open vents,doors exhaust, if it opens I do it! Fires blazing now,close it down smoke is gone meat goes on. Now what? Maintain some temps right. How do I keep the fire going, eventually it runs out and I'm gonna need to add more wood. Here's where it gets tricky for me. I thought the smoke was bad for the meat? But wait the meat is already on, so how do I add more wood without overpowering my meat with the smoke?

 

[pineywoods]

Control the fire with the air intakes on the firebox. I'm not sure exactly what that smoker looks like or size but you'll need splits of wood. Try making splits about the size of a magnum beer can but a little longer and add one or two splits at a time when needed. With my Lang we usually add 1-2 splits about every 30-40 minutes

 

[timtimmay]

You'll learn to balance how often you add wood. Once you get it down you'll have a feel for adding wood on time. Depending on weather, I would add a log every 45-60 minutes. Once or twice a cook I'd throw two on if I was running out of coals. Watch your smoke if you starve the fire too much you get white smoke instead of blue. Not a problem here and there but if most of your cook is white smoke the meat will be bitter.

 

[golfpro2301]

Piney and Timmay got you covered. It wont take you long to figure how the time intervals between adding splits. I would start with big fire and let it burn down to give you a nice bed of coals. Usually about an hour to hour and a half before meat goes on. This will get metal nice and hot as well. Let it burn down close to your desired temp then start adding your splits. I always cook with dampers and exhaust wide open on a stick burner. This will give you a very clean fire. When your fire is burning clean you will have very thin smoke. Sometime you wont even be able to see the smoke leaving the stack but its there. 

 

[bluewhisper]

Lots of people start their wood in a separate fire to get past the smokiest phase of lighting. And you cn always blend charcoal and wood. Lump ignites much moe cleanly than briquettes.