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Shawn White

Sous Chef
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
791
Location
Calgary, Alberta
well, I caved today, and went and bought that cheap offset, my first offset ... final clearance 50% off $87.50 CDN .... lol, it wasn't even $1/lb ... made in China weighs 100 lbs and will be left here when the contract is up

nice size , too big for this balcony though ... steel seems perhaps a bit thin

assembly was ok but instructions were poor and it took 3 tries to get the legs and cart rack assembled

no cooking rack versatility, but they included charcoal grates for grilling in the main unit

cheap finish ... so cheap in fact it was wearing off from finger tightening the nuts and bolts .... if I had this at home I would have given it a couple extra coats prior to use

check the therm, heh ... I willl try to cook at 'Ideal' (if you can't make it out it says 'Warm - Ideal - Hot')

wood is a problem atm so I got 2 bags of Royal Oak Lump

looking for seasoning tips and lump use tips






 
Got to love those gems in the rough. Guy down the road was going to donate his brinkman to my collection until the Mrs informed me that I don't need another pit around here (plus the fact that it needed major rehab) If I get sneak it in, I'll name it Mel #-o

Back to your pit. You might think about extending that stack to keep smoke out of your eyes :(

Have fun with it.
 
Cool and the price was right. A use it and leave it smoker. I'm thinking it will work great and be a lot of fun.

Griff
 
Shawn,

To season rub it down with some type of cooking oil. You can also rub down the outside to keep it from rusting. Start a fire and get it hot and let it die down on its own. Offset are hard to maintain a nice temperature. Here is a good site in learning fire management. It is a pdf.

http://www.homebbq.com/content.asp?contentid=688

Small offset are not stick burners. You need lump (or briquettes) for heat and wood for smoke. As we speak I'm smoking Baby Back ribs trying again to use all wood after starting the fire with a handful of lump charcoal and a few briquettes (I did want to open a new bag of lump to start just a fire).

Here is a cut and paste that I posted on to a fellow on another forum about trying to use all wood a few months back. My offset smoker is a Bar-B-Chef.

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/


Shawn,
Keep us posted on your result using the offset smoker.
 
Yer gonna have a blast with that! You can do almost everything on that. Good learning curve. Might want to take that thermometer off and chuck it for a real one or perhaps remove it and put it in some water and mark it when it starts to boil. At least you will have some kind of reference point. It is frustrating to guess at things. have fun and take lots of pics! =D>
 
Finney said:
You'll make it work like a champ.

Are you on the top floor of your building? They let you have charcoal/wood burning on the balcony? :eek:
Click to expand...
8th floor (of 10) .... no bylaws, building manager said I could have a BBQ ... in fact she helped cart all this stuff up to my room and was quite interested in the smoker ... lotsa questions... I promised to drop off some samples

about the charcoal thing, I decided not to use a chimney starter ... I build the fire in the box and add unlit to minimize the risk of dropping coals ... I tried some Zip brand No Scent lighter fluid ... I'd rather not use the stuff but I think a chimney would be unsafe

Bill, it's not seal veal season but it's a priority on the to do list .... rofl .. first cook will probably be burgers to lay down some grease and if they get a bad taste I'm not out much ... the thing smelled pretty bad during seasoning today

thanks all for the links and tips, very helpful, much appreciated

did the 1st seasoning today and most of the paint on the firebox has blistered or peeled ... omg how cheap :eek: .... lol ... don't matter, I'll do 2nd seasoning tomorrow
 
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