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After years of deliberation and due diligence

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Comments

  •  

    733102243 said:

    Am I an idiot? ...

    Thoughts? What's a good ratio of wood to lump?

    The charcoal itself has some flavour.  For longer cooks like ribs I put 2 chunks of wood.  For shorter cooks I use a handful of wood chips.  Remember let the thick smoke clear before putting food on.  When smoke smells good then its ready for food.

    Cheers

    Thanks -"When smoke smells good then its ready for food."  That makes good sense. It would have had to burn for hours.

    NolaE.... 1-32? And I was using 1:3!

  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    edited October 2012
    Glad the fire department didn't come.  You probably would have been ok if you opened the lid and the bottom damper all the way and let everything ash over.  And if you were cooking steaks.

    I screwed up the other day - I was cooking a chuck roast for pulled beef that I recently collected - a about a thousand pounds of pecan and oak.  I had a pecan branch, about 2" diameter and 15" long. Just threw it over the burning lump.  Too much yucky smoke.  We ate it for dinner, but threw the leftovers away. 

    If the smoke smells good, the food will taste good.  If the smoke smells bad....yep.  In this case it just never turned the corner.  I was roasting a branch along with my dinner.  Pyrolysis flavored beef ain't good. 
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • 733102243
    733102243 Posts: 38
    edited October 2012

     

    Glad the fire department didn't come.  

    I was more concerned that CARB (California Air Resources Board) might show up. There are parts of this state where it's illegal to burn a wood fire in one's fireplace.

    Well, I swapped the ceramic top for the DW and closed the bottom vent. It's amazing how quickly it cooled from near 300 to below 100 - an hour and a half. So - pulled the rack, drip pan and plate setter. And - gloves on - removed 90% of the wood. Restarted the fire and cranked it up to 250. I hope it settles at 260. Am going down and have a look in a few minutes. (update - 15 minutes later - 260 and not moving either way)

    Temperature control is like most things in nature: Like a pendulum, or like sailing towards a landmark. A light touch is rewarded.

    Thanks (all) for your help and let's take a minute to thank Big Al (Gore) for inventing the Internet so we can have a great resource like this.

  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    edited October 2012
    Ok.  Thank you Al Gore for helping create the internet.  (After all, he sponsored and cosponsored the two bills that started it - first one created a network between universities and the second opened the internet to commercial traffic.)  Vint Cerf of DARPA, credited as being one of the "Fathers of the Internet" has thanked Al for all the work he's done to bring it outside the military for commercial use and ultimately to what we're using right now. :)

    Glad you're getting the hang of the temperature control.  It's easy once you figure it out.


    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • Seriously - The Internet has changed little things like cooking ribs in ways we couldn't imagine. I've been in I.T. professionally for over 20 years. An amazing ride.

    After the initial smokeout and cooldown, I decided to throw a rack of baby backs on (7:45). What I consider a standard rub -Kosher salt, pepper sugar (Br/Wh), paprika, cayenne, chili, cumin. I cut the rack in half - will sauce and foil one half and mop / foil the other half at around 10:45.Raise heat to 275 and cook another hour. At least that's the plan now. I'll have a full report in the morning. It's going to be a late night.

    Thanks again for the suggestions.

  • Checking-in. Busy week. Never had time to report back about the first cook. First of all, Thanks to everyone for their contributions to this thread and again thanks for the forum. I bought the egg sight unseen- never cooked on one, never saw one demo'd except on The Learning Channel show about pitmasters - the episode with Lee Anne Whippen and DizzyBBQ? Looked like it would fit the bill.

    Here's a shot of a couple of the first batch. They were great - could have used a little more rub.

    Am getting ready to take the 2nd batch off in a few mins. Will post in a different Thread.