off-set fire maintenance

[bigwheel]

Hey Honcho..not sure who convinced you to debark your wood..but as James say in his narrative it aint a good plan. Near all the flavor of wood is found in the bark. If you go to the trouble to take off the bark you will be also making yourself some flavorless conditions on the meat. Person cooking with debarked wood might as well be cooking with cardboard boxes. Just my .02 of course. Sure other opinyawns will vary. As they say it just like an anus..in that everybody got one

bigwheel

Jamesb your so rigth,,it takes more wood two burn 2 pits,, yes it is more work, but like the 1st member stated free wood, mine is not free ,, I get pd to cut it n haul it...I just wish I got some hickory more offten,,, with char. costing $4-7 a bag i don't find it the best value so i use what i got oak, cherry, & maple and NO soft wood not even to start it up

 

[honcho]

intresting; i will 2x check 2 see if i'm wrong,, sorry,,, didn't no harm

 

[Woodman1]

Only time you need to remove the bark is if it is wet and funky! Otherwise, I find it does not affect anything one way or the other. wm

 

[Uncle Bubba]

Yeah, smokin 5 cigars while you're cooking really brings those taste buds alive. :roll:

 

[cleglue]

Monty3777,

I made a video last February on fire management using my Bar-B-Chef offset smoker. The wind picked up the last few hours which caused my fire management to take a turn for the worst. Here is the link from last February.

http://www.bbq-4-u.com/forum/viewtopic. ... management

 

[Woodman1]

Yeah, smokin 5 cigars while you're cooking really brings those taste buds alive. :roll:

I don't actually EAT the stuff!

 

[wittdog]

Yeah, smokin 5 cigars while you're cooking really brings those taste buds alive. :roll:

I don't actually EAT the stuff!

So thats where Bubba learned it from...

I don't use wood with bark...don't care for it...but thats just me

 

[bbqfans]

fire control - an old timers way,

I guess I'm just ANAL about my "Que". :roll:
I use a pre-burn barrel and in doing so I end up with NO nasties(phenols,soot,creosote,etc.). To me smoking is not the amount of smoke coming from the exhaust, but a barely visible wisp!
As others have said,"if it smells of smoke, it's smokin'"
In my honest opinion, charcoal and even chunk gives a definite taste to the meat that offends me.
Yeah, I know it's a lot more work and the neighbors look at me as if I were NUTS,but do I care-NOT :!:
All the folks I've ever served my "Q" to have raved about the taste when you have something good, why screw with it :?:
With embers you can control your heat easier than with charcoal and have none of the offensive taste. But , too , I like being DIFFERENT!!!

 

[wittdog]

Arent' the embers just lit charcoal

 

[monty3777]

Re: fire control - an old timers way,

I guess I'm just ANAL about my "Que". :roll:

I think we all are - that's why we spend so much time reading internet forums in an attempt to find the best way of going about making as good a product as possible.

 

[Greg Rempe]

This might make for a good radio show topic!

 

[monty3777]

It certainly would be a unique show/podcast as I really haven't found any other source for information. This thread may be the most extensive resource on the internet right now about how to deal with a fire in an off-set.

 

[bigwheel]

Re: fire control - an old timers way,

Great point on the wood coals. That is the way the Lord intended for us to cook. Preferably Mesquite and hoping it bees cooked direct to semi direct. Now have offset with coals and that works too just not quite as well. Charcoal and raw wood cant hold a candle to a good pile of S. Texas Mesquite coals a shovel and a drunk bohunk who knows how to sling em right.

bigwheel

I guess I'm just ANAL about my "Que". :roll:
I use a pre-burn barrel and in doing so I end up with NO nasties(phenols,soot,creosote,etc.). To me smoking is not the amount of smoke coming from the exhaust, but a barely visible wisp!
As others have said,"if it smells of smoke, it's smokin'"
In my honest opinion, charcoal and even chunk gives a definite taste to the meat that offends me.
Yeah, I know it's a lot more work and the neighbors look at me as if I were NUTS,but do I care-NOT :!:
All the folks I've ever served my "Q" to have raved about the taste when you have something good, why screw with it :?:
With embers you can control your heat easier than with charcoal and have none of the offensive taste. But , too , I like being DIFFERENT!!!

 

[ronbeaux50]

Re: fire control - an old timers way,

Great point on the wood coals. That is the way the Lord intended for us to cook. Preferably Mesquite and hoping it bees cooked direct to semi direct. Now have offset with coals and that works too just not quite as well. Charcoal and raw wood cant hold a candle to a good pile of S. Texas Mesquite coals a shovel and a drunk bohunk who knows how to sling em right.

bigwheel

I guess I'm just ANAL about my "Que". :roll:
I use a pre-burn barrel and in doing so I end up with NO nasties(phenols,soot,creosote,etc.). To me smoking is not the amount of smoke coming from the exhaust, but a barely visible wisp!
As others have said,"if it smells of smoke, it's smokin'"
In my honest opinion, charcoal and even chunk gives a definite taste to the meat that offends me.
Yeah, I know it's a lot more work and the neighbors look at me as if I were NUTS,but do I care-NOT :!:
All the folks I've ever served my "Q" to have raved about the taste when you have something good, why screw with it :?:
With embers you can control your heat easier than with charcoal and have none of the offensive taste. But , too , I like being DIFFERENT!!!

And there ain't nothing better than some bacon wrapped quail breasteses with a jalapeno inside cooked over them shoveled in coals either!!!!!!

 

[bigwheel]

Well I take your word on that bacon jap quail combo...dont think I ever had none but sure I love it since it has the word bacon in the recipe Now have did some purty tasty dove bird breastes in a similar fashion and they was purty much grand prize winners amongst the drunk dove hunters who was wolfing them down. Now we could not afford Japs or quail for some reason. I dont think anybodys breastes out the quail around these parts. Maybe thats why we didnt have none. This is getting cornfusing.

bigwheel

 

[bbqfans]

well, not really coals

Witdog, I'm not saying that preburnt wood embers aren'tcoals,just that I've found my smoked products don't have a burned or acrid taste. :roll:
My thinking is that all the nasties (phenols-creosote-etc.) are gone by the time I scoop the glowing embers into the firebox.
It turns out to be a little more work, but isn't thhat part of te fun? Besides it keeps the "wanna be's" wondering, What the heck is he doing, does he like to play with fire :?: WELL, as a matter of fact it is my way of being a Pyromaniac. It's part of my fun. Besides if it looks complicated, no-one else will want to go to all that trouble- it's what keeps me the guy people want to do thier smoking for them :!:

Nothing special , just STYLE :!: :!: :!:

 

[wittdog]

To each there own..whatever works for you and what you like....it all comes down to fire management...that burt taste comes from not running a clean burning fire

 

[bigwheel]

Good points all. Have heard it splained by some of the dedicated coals slingers that wood smoke contains around 200 plust different chemical compounds of which about 190 dont taste good on meat. Now do have a comp chum who cooked on an offset pit and always preburned and shoveled his wood which was a mix of hickory and mesquite. Usually come in sorta hit or miss at awards time. One time down at Terrell in an IBCA cookoff he decided to skip the preburn step and just use the wood straight. The fella hit first place brisket..stuck 750 bucks in his pocket and threw away his preburn gizmo forever. Guess it just proves the old adage that there's mo than one way to skin a cat..or perhaps contest cooking is only one way for the good taste of bbq to be objectively measured.

bigwheel

 

[monty3777]

Re: well, not really coals

Witdog, I'm not saying that preburnt wood embers aren'tcoals,just that I've found my smoked products don't have a burned or acrid taste. :roll:

I think you'll find that the burned flavor you are describing doesn't come from the charcoal you use. It is probably a result of you burning your meat. 8)