Building The Proper Fire With Wood Chunks

[Pork Smoker]

Some of you know I am looking at getting an EGG. I am still learning and cannot seem to grasp the correct procedure regarding the initial fire start.

Using my UDS I have had success when using wood chunks spread out in the fire box. Get some white smoke for a bit but mellows to a nice Blue.

I was reading the Naked Whiz site on lighting a fire and using wood chunks. I can understand the stacking of the Lump to obtain the best long lasting fire. I am having a brain freeze on the adding of wood chunk.

From the Naked Whiz website; Assuming that you want some smoking chunks in your fire, we like to bury some chunks in the pile of charcoal near the top so they can start smoking later in the cook. We put a couple of fist-sized chunks on the top of the charcoal for the initial smoke.

The last sentence is where I am getting off track.

This last weekend I fired up the UDS with a full load of unlit KF (with all the K's facing up) and dumped in a heavy 1/2 of lit from the Weber starter. I stuck 1 small fist sized chunk into the top center . The smoke was over bearing. I did not put the meat on for about 20 minutes until the smoke cleared. It would have been bitter.

I understand I will not pour in a bunch of lit KF, but if I read it right, the lump fire will still be started on top in the center.

What am I missing here?

[HeSmellsLikeSmoke]

I am glad you brought this up. I too have pondered this very question. My instinct is to do the minion method with distributed chunks, which I have done for the low and slow cooks and seems to work.

Things change, however, when you cook very hot. By the time you get the temperatures stable the entire load of charcoal is fully engaged as are the wood chunks. At that point you see no virtually no smoke coming out.

(BTW, you probably know this but you don't want to be using K in the Eggs since the excessive ash/binder build up tends to plug the air holes in the firebox and grate. Good quality lump is the best.)

Luckily there are many Eggheads on here who are a lot more experienced than I who I hope will chime in on this subject.

[Ron_L]

I'm far from the veteran Egger, but I use small chunks (about 1xx1x3 inches) mixed in with the lump. I'll pour in some lump, arrange it if i need to, add two or three wood chunks, then more lump and two or three more chunks. Then I use a torch and start the fire in the middle and let it go. (This is for a low and slow cook). If I am grilling I start the fire in three spots around the lump pile to get a hotter fire going.

[Jorge]

Some of you know I am looking at getting an EGG. I am still learning and cannot seem to grasp the correct procedure regarding the initial fire start.

Using my UDS I have had success when using wood chunks spread out in the fire box. Get some white smoke for a bit but mellows to a nice Blue.

I was reading the Naked Whiz site on lighting a fire and using wood chunks. I can understand the stacking of the Lump to obtain the best long lasting fire. I am having a brain freeze on the adding of wood chunk.

From the Naked Whiz website; Assuming that you want some smoking chunks in your fire, we like to bury some chunks in the pile of charcoal near the top so they can start smoking later in the cook. We put a couple of fist-sized chunks on the top of the charcoal for the initial smoke.

The last sentence is where I am getting off track.

This last weekend I fired up the UDS with a full load of unlit KF (with all the K's facing up) and dumped in a heavy 1/2 of lit from the Weber starter. I stuck 1 small fist sized chunk into the top center . The smoke was over bearing. I did not put the meat on for about 20 minutes until the smoke cleared. It would have been bitter.

I understand I will not pour in a bunch of lit KF, but if I read it right, the lump fire will still be started on top in the center.

What am I missing here?


I'm a little confused. Are you using lump, or briquettes?

[TysDad]

I made big progress using the minion method and wood chunks when I stopped rushing at the beginning. I used to start with a full load in the starter, then 1/2 and now I'm down to 15 briquettes. That's right, only 15 lit briquettes added on top of the pile. It takes a bit longer to get the cooker up to temp, but the fire is smaller at the beginning and more manageable. It doesn't light all the wood chunks immediately, either.

Alton Brown always says, "Your patience will be rewarded". It's so hard to wait to start cooking, because I don't pop the top on the first one until the meat is on!

So you gentlemen that start your fire with a weed burner...how many briquettes (or what volume of lump) are lit when you close the lid?

[Pork Smoker]

I'm a little confused. Are you using lump, or briquettes?

Sorry, sometimes a little hard to be clear. In my UDS I use Briquettes. On the EGG I would use Lump.

Same concept, if the fire is lit in the center and a wood chunk is placed directly on top the smoke would be over bearing.

I think spreading the chunks out throughout the Lump would be the correct procedure.

My biggest question is when cooking Low and Slow on the EGG or a Drum it seems the wood would always smolder rather than burn due to the lack of oxygen.

Don't get me wrong, I have produced some pretty good food on my drum. Had a few times that the smoke was not a constant Blue.

Using my CG offset I would have more airflow and good temps, I believe the main reason was that design of the Smoker. If I place my meat on the far side from the Firebox things were good because if the smoke got heavy it flowed above the food to the exhaust rather than up thru the food.

I hope this makes some sense.

[thillin]

What he is saying about the fist sized chunks for initial smoke is regaurding light up I think. It'll smoke heavy, but by the time the egg gets up to temp and you get the intakeand daisy wheel set, the smoke will strart to become "cleaner" by the time it's ready to cook.

[Pork Smoker]

What he is saying about the fist sized chunks for initial smoke is regaurding light up I think. It'll smoke heavy, but by the time the egg gets up to temp and you get the intakeand daisy wheel set, the smoke will strart to become "cleaner" by the time it's ready to cook.

That is correct, but placing the Chunk on top seems like a waste as if you wait for the smoke to settle the chunk would be gone. Great for aroma while waiting but of little use for the cook.

I am understanding something just by talking about it. I think I am using to big of chunks. Seems more smaller chunks spread out would be better that a few larger ones.