Help-When do you load in your meat-stickburner

Wiat untill my pit comes up to temp and steadies out , and I have a clean burning fire.
Usally when the pit is at temp and stays at a consistent temp the fire is at clean burn anyway. Then on goes the meat.
I season my meat and have it sit out while the pit is coming up to temp. This will rasise the temp of the meat a bit, but not quite to room temp.

Its gotta be hot enough that the crud on the grill has burnt off or is at least beyond 250. My pit cools down a little when I first put meat on, so I like it a good 20-30 degrees hotter. And no white smoke!

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109574

YouTube - ‪Pitmaster T Video Quickies Series - How to Start a fire (Reverse Flow)‬‏

I bring the smoker up to temps (actually slightly higher than cooking temps), then begin to close the dampers and put the wood in/on at this time. It takes usually 30 minutes or so to get to this point, and then another 10 minutes for the sweet blue to take hold and the temps to settle in where I want them. THEN I put the meat in.

Lake dogs is point on... should you watch that video above you will see that I suggest closing the pit up at 200 (this means the pit threms say 200 even with the door closest to the stack open, then I toss on some bigger wood (it will smoke) close up the pit as normal (like its gonna be for the smoke) and wait till 300 is hit (and the smoke is blue)

At my level though, you can deal with some white smoke... you kind of know what you need to do- make it blue -but... I never put meat on until its hot enough to sizzle slightly when it hits the grate. Its much easier to bring it down from a good fire than to build a fire to temp when you have the meat on.

bd brother came by one day to help me for an event and I for some reason tossed them on at 200.... 50 butts... I NEVER got the heat up until... it rained and the temp went down 30 degrees.

We had to finish in ovens because there was no way I was goona sit there all night. So even an expert can break a rule and fark up and say... dang I forgot!

Don't know who said it...

If its white, it aint right.
If its blue, its time to Q.

Hot and clean burning.

I build a large fire the temp usually go past 400 by this time I have a nice bed of coal when the heat start dropping I will put meat in let it drop then try to maintain heat around 275 /300

I actually start my cooker 2 hours or so before meat ever touches it. I leave all doors open when I first light it off for the first 30 minutes. Then I close it up and leave the dampners wide open and the fire box door slightly open for another 30 minutes. Then, I close the fire box door and start adjusting air dampners until it settles in and then I leave it until I hit the 2 hour mark. It's a process, I know. But I have a lot of thick steel inside for my baffle plates that take a long time to heat up and even out. Good side is that once they're warmed up, it takes a lot to cool them off and it has a nice even temp.


Tim
East Meats West BBQ