Welcome SMF member, please take some time and read this.
The importance of Location, detailed questions, detailed answers and pictures.
There is a little bit of a learning curve to asking questions as well as posting answers, hell I am still learning after 4 years on this forum.
Most of what we post here is opinion based on experience.
Pictures are simply one of the best tools we have for communicating, I have seen where someone is posting a serious problem with their smoker and post a picture with detailed information, many times a SMF member will see something in the picture that was overlooked that just don’t quite look right and before you know it…problem solved.
I have been trying to make my post a little more useful, especially to the newcomers because a lot of the time a generic question will be asked and everyone chimes in with their opinions, which is great and why we are here, but many times...especially the newcomers, will take the info and run with it, Then post a few weeks later with undesirable results.
What is happening is, we give advice based on our Application, such as fuel source and smoker, while this is fine, some newer folks do not pick up on this. So a member smoking on a WSM maybe taking advice from a Stick burner that may not apply to his method of smoking on a particular cook.
Or a guy going through 100 pounds of charcoal on a 250 gallon stick burner is wondering why the UDS guy is getting butts done on a 20lb bag, I know that’s extreme but I am trying to make an obvious point. Or a smoker from Montana in the middle of the winter, may wonder why he can’t get his smoker up to 200° and a smoker from Florida says I have the same unit as you and have no problem with temperature, again, these are extreme examples.
Most Stick burners are primarily using wood as a fuel, while other types of smoker are using wood to impart flavor and the fuel source is something like Gas, Lump, Charcoal and Electric or a combination of the aforementioned.
I will smoke the same product differently on my GOSM as I would on my Stick burner and may run my Stick burner a little hotter on a cold rainy day or a windy day. Sometimes I'll use Lump, Charcoal or propane as fuel.
Personally I use my Stick burner to Barbecue and my goal here is not to infuse smoke flavor into the meat but rather a traditional Low and Slow "Q", I will use my GOSM BB when I want to try and add smoke flavor to the product.
Different species of wood may have significantly different BTU ratings, so someone giving advice on their Stick burner using cherry, may be giving advice to someone using a Stick burner with hickory, this can be a major difference in my opinion, but may not make much of a difference when being used to impart a smoke flavor to the food as opposed to being used primarily as fuel..
Many use Smoking synonymous with Barbecue, to me they are as different as grilling is to barbecuing.
My point is that there is not any one cure all answer to a question, there are just too many variables and with the aid of pictures, Location and detailed information the outcome is usually favorable.
Things to consider when getting advice is the application being used, such as ... what fuel are they using, what temps are they running, what's the current weather conditions such as rain, wind, and what smokers are they using as well as the desired results.
Things to consider when posting a question, detailed information, location, weather conditions, type of smoker, fuel being used, pictures and desired results to name a few..
Everyone has a choice on this forum to use or not to use the advice given in a post.
And remember that you are ultimately responsible to make your own informed decision.
Sorry to ramble,
Welcome to SMF and enjoy!
The importance of Location, detailed questions, detailed answers and pictures.
There is a little bit of a learning curve to asking questions as well as posting answers, hell I am still learning after 4 years on this forum.
Most of what we post here is opinion based on experience.
Pictures are simply one of the best tools we have for communicating, I have seen where someone is posting a serious problem with their smoker and post a picture with detailed information, many times a SMF member will see something in the picture that was overlooked that just don’t quite look right and before you know it…problem solved.
I have been trying to make my post a little more useful, especially to the newcomers because a lot of the time a generic question will be asked and everyone chimes in with their opinions, which is great and why we are here, but many times...especially the newcomers, will take the info and run with it, Then post a few weeks later with undesirable results.
What is happening is, we give advice based on our Application, such as fuel source and smoker, while this is fine, some newer folks do not pick up on this. So a member smoking on a WSM maybe taking advice from a Stick burner that may not apply to his method of smoking on a particular cook.
Or a guy going through 100 pounds of charcoal on a 250 gallon stick burner is wondering why the UDS guy is getting butts done on a 20lb bag, I know that’s extreme but I am trying to make an obvious point. Or a smoker from Montana in the middle of the winter, may wonder why he can’t get his smoker up to 200° and a smoker from Florida says I have the same unit as you and have no problem with temperature, again, these are extreme examples.
Most Stick burners are primarily using wood as a fuel, while other types of smoker are using wood to impart flavor and the fuel source is something like Gas, Lump, Charcoal and Electric or a combination of the aforementioned.
I will smoke the same product differently on my GOSM as I would on my Stick burner and may run my Stick burner a little hotter on a cold rainy day or a windy day. Sometimes I'll use Lump, Charcoal or propane as fuel.
Personally I use my Stick burner to Barbecue and my goal here is not to infuse smoke flavor into the meat but rather a traditional Low and Slow "Q", I will use my GOSM BB when I want to try and add smoke flavor to the product.
Different species of wood may have significantly different BTU ratings, so someone giving advice on their Stick burner using cherry, may be giving advice to someone using a Stick burner with hickory, this can be a major difference in my opinion, but may not make much of a difference when being used to impart a smoke flavor to the food as opposed to being used primarily as fuel..
Many use Smoking synonymous with Barbecue, to me they are as different as grilling is to barbecuing.
My point is that there is not any one cure all answer to a question, there are just too many variables and with the aid of pictures, Location and detailed information the outcome is usually favorable.
Things to consider when getting advice is the application being used, such as ... what fuel are they using, what temps are they running, what's the current weather conditions such as rain, wind, and what smokers are they using as well as the desired results.
Things to consider when posting a question, detailed information, location, weather conditions, type of smoker, fuel being used, pictures and desired results to name a few..
Everyone has a choice on this forum to use or not to use the advice given in a post.
And remember that you are ultimately responsible to make your own informed decision.
Sorry to ramble,
Welcome to SMF and enjoy!
