Fire control

K

Kelly

Guest
I'm new to smoking with sticks but I like the idea. Always used charcoals before. The problem I have found is my temp jumps to 350-400 if I open the firebox door. Then it takes 45 minutes to an hour to bring the temp back down to 250. I guess what I am asking is, how do I build a fire to last all night without it flairing up?
 
Well Kelly, my experience with stickburners says that you won't get an all night burn when using sticks.

To get the right kind of smoke and right temp, you wind up with a small hot fire. A small hot fire will not burn all night. You'll need to stoke it every 90 minutes or so.

I'm sure more seasoned stick burners will chime in if you have more questions, but this is the short and sweet answer. Good luck!
 
Hi Kelly, I'm not a stick burner, but there is an excellent section on fire control in the BBQ FAQ: www.bbq-porch.org/faq/index.html

This is an indispensable read for all of us, and small hot fires seem to be one of the main themes of advise for stick burners.

Hope that helps
 
Talk about stickburners, I can burn stumps in mine, but still have to tend every 90 minutes to an hour to add more wood. We used a stoker this last comp and had great success with keeping the temps under control, but prior to that, it was all on adjusting the baffles on the fire box and smoke stack (exhaust). I have noticed that guys will load of a box and then you get 5 sticks to catch at one and bam 350+, best thing to do is choke that sucker out, close all baffles. To prevent this, you will add sticks when you see the temp drop after running your pit almost wide open at both end. Its work, so if you got the cash buy the stoker, but if not, just keep this site up as I will start tonight at 2100 and smoke 15 birds until about 0700 and look forward to chatting with any other all nighters:thumb:
 
Yeah, in my short existence as a stick burner, the short answer to the question of, "How do you get a fire that lasts all night?" is.......you don't!

It is, however, my new, favorite and preferred method of BBQ'ing. I think I like it for the challenge as well as being able to say, "cooked over only hardwood smoke" with a grin.


Cooking 2 gobblers tomorrow for the first time on the offset stick burner! Can't wait!!!
 
Agreed with the above. To get the "sweet blue smoke" as ive learned on here, its all about fire health - and you gotta keep a small fire burning to keep it healthy and not too hot in the cooking chamber... That means not having too much fuel in there choking. I'm by no means an expert, I'm still learning my new pit, but will have another lesson with 6 birds tonight, starting at about 1 or 2AM. Im with ya Cajun.
 
imperfectutopia said:
Agreed with the above. To get the "sweet blue smoke" as ive learned on here, its all about fire health - and you gotta keep a small fire burning to keep it healthy...
Click to expand...


Exactly! And the best way to kill a fires health is to choke it down in attempt to lower temperature - But a small hot fire won't need choking...
 
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