- Feb 3, 2009
- 1,720
- 14
Hello everyone, and happy Memorial Day weekend to all. Hope everyone gets a chance to be outdoors this weekend and get some good smokes going. I did a brisket yesterday along with some ribs. I am using wood as heat and smoke. My first attempt last month I went thru what seemed like a cord of wood. Learning curve on the wood smoker for sure. Yesterdays smoke, I was quite proud of myself. Used hardly any wood at all. Made some adjustments to my air intake and found the right setting for the draft. What a difference. But heres my problem. When ever I had to add wood, I always got that heavy initial smoke on startup. I took a bunch of the wood and set the pieces in a fire ring and used my propane torch to char all the wood to burn off as much nasty stuff as I could prior to putting them in the firebox. I still got that heavy smoke when they were first put in and did not subside until a good fire was going. How can I avoid that? I see some people burn their wood in a seperate barrel and then transfer the hot coals to their firebox. I have tried that, but seems like I went thru lots more wood than I wanted to. Any help appreciated.