Pic of Buford new smoker

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wittdog

Master Chef
Joined
Apr 8, 2006
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Location
West Seneca NY
I hope this picture comes out smaller. But here is a pic of my new smoker I got it 2 weeks ago and have already done ribs x2, Butt, Chicken, Turkey and a Brisket. I'm still playing around with it and would like to hear anyones advice about the best way to use buford. Fire management, use of sticks and such. If you look real close you'll see what I was using.
My only other ? is which kid do I cook first?




 
Wolf thanks for the good looking kids thing, they are what really matters. I got the Pit from Adventures in Heat here in Buffalo they had it made at a Fab shop. It's made out of heavy gauge steel. has a big fire box with a heavy duty grate which I took into work and had the millwrights beef up with some stainless flat stock, the cooking grate is a stainless weave and the smoke stack runs along the side of the smoke chamber and ends at the cooking grate. I thought the design was pretty well though out and drolled over it the whole time we were in the store, my wife wanted me to buy it then but I waited 4 whole days to decide to get it. Cool wife Huh? As far as using it; it seems to want to settle in at 250 which is ok with me I personally don't like to cook much lower, and have been happy with the results so far. After my intial fire I end up adding about a coffe can full of carcoal every 1 hr to 1 1/2. I havent' tried logs yet, the last SFB I had was junk and I burnt up the fire box, that shouldn't be a problem with this one. It held a nice temp when I did Brisket Friday it was Rainy and Cold here But I am using alot of Lump.
 
wittdog said:
I hope this picture comes out smaller. But here is a pic of my new smoker I got it 2 weeks ago and have already done ribs x2, Butt, Chicken, Turkey and a Brisket. I'm still playing around with it and would like to hear anyones advice about the best way to use buford. Fire management, use of sticks and such. If you look real close you'll see what I was using.
My only other ? is which kid do I cook first?




It all depends! Some days I want to cook the oldest, some days the middle kid and other days the youngest. Then there are the days I'd like to cook the whole dang bunch of them! Now if you ask them, my a$$ is in the fire EVERY day!
 
I hear ya Nick most days I'm in the fire. I play with molten metal at night 11:30pm-7:30am then take care of the kids all day while my wife is working. ](*,) Besides my boys are probably to lean to Q might have to direct grill them or see the lady in the Gingerbread House for a decent recipe.
 
Wittdog,

I have a Bar-B-Chef smoker, yours looks heavy duty. Below are two post I've posted before. They may help. I believe you would do fine with starting with lump charcoal then add wood for heat and smoke after you get a good bed of coals. I've seen a fellow use a Lang smoker at the competition in Rockingham a few weeks ago and he was using wood. You just need get your firebox vents adjusted so you can keep a small flame. The small flame will keep the smoke the light blue we all look for.

Here are my cut and pasted post from before.

Good Luck.

I have been using a lot of lump charcoal with my small Bar-B-Chef offset smoker.

Today I smoked a brisket and loin back ribs. I tried to do something different with the fire. I placed a chimney full of unlit lump charcoal in the fire box with two small sticks of hickory. I then started a chimney load of lump charcoal using my burner (I usually use paper but it was 3:10AM this morning). I dumped the lit lump charcoal on top of the unlit lump. I had the damper about ½ to ¾ open. The exhaust was full open all day. When the temperature got to 250 I closed the vent to about 1/8 open and put the brisket on. That was at 3:55AM. I watch the temperature awhile and it stayed pretty steady. I took a nap for a little over an hour. My thermometer would have woken me if the temperature had gotten too high or too low. I was up again about 6. I decided I was going to not put anymore lump in today. I wanted to try and use all wood. I split the wood very small and also cut it to about 8 or 9 inches long. I wanted to try and keep a small open flame. The small flame will keep the smoke just the right color.

Now I had to watch the fire a lot. I would put a small piece or two of wood in about every 20 minutes. I found if I put the unlit wood in the fire box but not in the fire itself it would really get hotter than placing it on top of the fire box. Then, when it was time to add it to the fire, it would catch up real fast. I would then take wood from the top of the fire box and place it inside the fire box but not in the fire and get it ready to add to the flame (or coals) when needed. I repeated this process all day. That kept the smoke just right (the wispy blue). I haven’t figured out the fire box damper opening combination yet. I had the damper almost all the way open as well as the door cracked a lot today. Towards the end of the day I kept the damper about ½ way open and it seemed to work well.

I succeeded in not adding any more lump charcoal all day. I just used wood after the initial start up.

Here are the pictures of the fire management

http://usera.imagecave.com/cleglue/FireManagement/


Also here are the results of the cook.

http://usera.imagecave.com/cleglue/Brisket3/

Second Post


On Saturday April 1 I smoked a Boston butt and chicken thighs. I was also working on fire management again on my Bar-b-Chef smoker. I used a method found on the homebbq.com knowledge base by Dan Colmerauer. http://www.homebbq.com/content.asp?cont ... wledgeBase
I already had a charcoal basket made before reading his article. I was able to get a steady temperature between 220 and 250 for 5 ½ to 6 hours. I reload at that time with about the same amount of lump I started with (a basket full unlit lump and a chimney load of lit lump. The heat remained steady until I finish both the Boston butt and the chicken thighs (which I pulled at about 5:30 PM.). I put the butt on at 5:33 AM and pulled it off the smoker at 3:40 PM.

I placed a few chucks of wood in the basket to begin with. When I tried adding more a little later I would get that ugly smoke. I couldn’t get that wonderful blue smoke without leaving the fire box door open with would have used up the lump charcoal.

It still took a lot of lump charcoal for this cook. It took about 15 to 20 pounds for a 12 hour cook. Is this normal?

Here is a chart of the cook. http://usera.imagecave.com/cleglue/Apri ... Medium.JPG

The other week I tried to use sticks after the initial startup. I had to use very little sticks and keep the door of the fire box cracked to keep a steady flame. This saved a lot on charcoal and it worked but it took a lot of babying. I think I’m going to try this again. It was a little windy that day.

I’m told that these small offset smoker are hard to use a just stick burner. I know other have tried but I guess it is my turn.

I also made another batch of lump charcoal.
Here are some pictures of the entire day.

http://usera.imagecave.com/cleglue/April22006/
These pictures may not always be available because my free account is filling up.
 
cleglue thanks for the info. I'll have to play with my new toy and see if I can get the same results. I just got 9 40lb bags of Lump from work and have a cord of apple wood so I can do a lot of experimenting. By the way that Brisket looks great. Nice smoke ring.
 
wittdog said:
cleglue thanks for the info. I'll have to play with my new toy and see if I can get the same results. I just got 9 40lb bags of Lump from work and have a cord of apple wood so I can do a lot of experimenting. By the way that Brisket looks great. Nice smoke ring.

Where the hell do you live at...a National Park, that back yard looks huge.:)

Good looking pit, and I agree with the advice on cooking the oldest to send a message to the young.
 
what temps do you cook to on a kid ? rub or just a little s & p ? and at what point do you foil ? :grin: just wanna make sure I let the oldest know the details.
 
I think you would use whatever suckling pig recipe that you favor. You would have to wrap them in bacon because they are so lean MMMMMMMMMM Bacon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe the Cheese Cloth method? The last suckling pig I did I stuffed the cavity with Italian Sausage, MMMMMMM entrails....... My father in-law wouldn't eat the sausage said it was to pink. Tried to explanin Smoke Ring. Oh well more for the rest of us.
 
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