Outdoor Cooking with The Smoker King

Hi everybody,

I need some assistance. I recently refurbished a New Braunfels Black Diamond that my father had sitting around. I have been testing the setup every weekend with a slab of ribs. My biggest problem is i can't maintain a solid temp for 5-6 hours.

I start out with a chimney starter worth of Charcoal. This week i used plain kingsford. I let the smoker heatup for an hour or so before putting the ribs on. Once I put the ribs on, i add some soaked chunks of hickory on as well. Every 45 minutes or so when I mop the ribs, I also check the fire and add some more charcoal as needed. I usually have the damper on the firebox open halfway and the chimney damper open all the way. after 5-6 hours, the ribs have not cooked all the way and i finish them off in the oven due to time constraints. Any suggestions here? I feel like a bit of a moron. I saw some folks start with 2 Chimney starters of charcoal in the beginning to up the heat. I am thinking the fire I have going is too small.

Some questions as well -

1) How often should I add wood chunks in? I don't want to oversmoke the ribs. i had that happen on the first try.
2) Anyone know if locust or walnut wood is ok to use as fuel? I have a lot of hardwoods i chopped down in my backyard that i could use as fuel, but I worry about the taste from that smoke.
3) Lump Charcoal vs Briquette? Any preferences? I have tried both, and to me it seems like the briquette last longer.

Thanks for any help.

Hello and welcome to the forum!!!

Well, here is my take:

You added a stack of charcoal and let it heat for an hour. What temp did you heat the pit to? What temp were you smoking at?

I bet one problem, which I have found on similar smokers that size, is that the surface temp where your meat rests is about 25-50 degrees cooler than the reading you are getting on the smoker thermometer. I have a similar smoker and the temp gauge reads 300 when I am smoking at 250. It works well, I just know the adjustments I need to make.

After you get the feel of your pit, it will be second nature to know when to add the chunks. You need to watch the fire and basically see when the chunks of wood are solid white and not firing up any more. The fire produces a steady heat but seems to be not as active. Add a few chunks then. I like to throw in a few chunks every so-often to keep a steady burn of wood and smoke going.

I am not sure about locust wood, but walnut should be very good. Expensive wood to burn!!

I prefer lump charcoal for sure. I think it produces a better tasting meat. I use kingsford charcoal to get the fire going, and switch out to lump and solid wood the rest of the time.

I have a thermometer on the end closer to the chimney and it says 300. My assumption was the same as yours that i would be dealing with a difference. My one concern and i am going to try and address it this week is that the thermometer is getting the temp of the grill itself and not just the air inside due to contact with the grill. So I may not be at 300 but really lower.

A simple thing to do is to purchase a cheap, oven thermometer from your local grocery store. I think mine has them for 3 bucks. They work very well and you can put them right by the meat you are smoking. Also, there may be quite a difference from front to back and side to side.

Aaron

Another thing to consider is, and I think it's a matter of preference is soaking your chips. A good friend of mine from Texas, who throws down some top notch Q, said that he would slap me if he found out I was soaking my chips. But then again, I've heard the opposite. I would say that if maintaining temp is your problem, I would consider this. I agree the smoker king that lump is the way to go. It produces much less ash than standard briquettes, therefore not smothering your fire. I recently found at lowes, Frontier brand lump charcoal that is hands down my new favorite. I use lump in conjunction with wood chunks for a lovely smoke everytime.

There are several variables that could be in play here. Fire management is really temp control. It is impossible to know where you are at without ACCURATE thermometers. Also you got some great advice about different temps at the many varied locations inside of your pit. I would suggest you do a bicuit test. Get the pit up to FULL temp and pop open a can of biscuits and spread them around on the grate and leave them in there for about 13 minutes and then open it back up and check out the various state of doneness of your biscuits. Also lump not only produces less ash but also generally burns at a higher temp. Also I would suggest NOT wetting the wood chunks. Wet wood makes more smoke but true smoke is what you are trying to avoid. Your goal in fire management is the smallest very hot fire you can build and still maintain your desired ACCURATELY read temps. Your goal is a very light blue to clear heat comming out of your exhaust, not a larger smoldering fire producing a smoky unclean burning fire. Also look at your firebox grate height. This is a very common problem for many people. You MUST have good airflow under and thru your coals even at the end of your cooks after a reasonable ash buildup. Remember smoke is a particulate matter that you do not want on your food. I hope this helps you in some way and HAPPY SMOKING.

I haven't used Lump Coal, but I'll pick some up and see how it goes. I usually can maintain my temp if I use Charcoal and Oak to get me a nice bed of coals going, then in comes the Pecan wood. My deer lease is on a Pecan Orchard, so I get all the free Pecan wood I can handle and I've come to really like how it works. I'm able to maintain temp pretty easily this way.