ANyone know of a technical book on burning fuel?

grossepellets said:

Does anyone know of a cook book/ a fuel book? How, what, timing, temperatures, devices, apparatus and fuels how to use wood, charcoal, etc technically speaking stuff that would give me insight into keeping temperatures with wood in kettles, the timing on opening doors, using temp gauges, things like that. More along the lines of sustaining smoke and heat in all types of smokers and with varieties of fuels.

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The only book I know of is my cooking log book. I keep pretty detailed info on each cook as I go along so I can refer to it each time I cook. It is still a little trial and error but it is allowing me to narrow the error margin a great deal.

grossepellets said:

Does anyone know of a cook book/ a fuel book? How, what, timing, temperatures, devices, apparatus and fuels how to use wood, charcoal, etc technically speaking stuff that would give me insight into keeping temperatures with wood in kettles, the timing on opening doors, using temp gauges, things like that. More along the lines of sustaining smoke and heat in all types of smokers and with varieties of fuels.

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I don't want to sound out of line. This may come across badly so please forgive me. If there was a book for that we'd all own it and read it daily. lol That is one of the biggest parts of cooking well. How fuel behaves in your cooker. We could both have a bandera and I may use 2 sticks an hour while you use 1. Did you use Royal Oak or Green Egg lump. Is your wood devoid of any moisture, slightly green or somewhere in between. Is it Kingsford or rancher. Is it cold or warm out. Whats the wind. There are so many variables. I think your best bet is to research cooking times here. Many have given in depth reports on their cooker, modifications and types of fuel they use. From the simple to very complex and theoretical stuff. Definitely read about the UDS and burning clean. There is a lot there that can be utilized in any cook.

That may be overthinking it. I'm guessing trees have enough uniformity to have uniformity in the temps they burn at or length of time they burn. There are way too many other variables like the amount of air available to feed the fire, exhaust, size/shape of the pieces of fuel and their overall arrangement in the fire itself, etc, etc.

It is not hard to jsut get a small fire going and work up to the temps you want, and then for each cooker figure out the refueling windows and such. Probably a lot less time consuming than figuring it all out from a book anyway.

There is one book that is a methodical approach and is available at Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/Smoking-Smokehouse-Design-Stanley-Marianski/dp/159800302X


first found a while back with a few diagrams...
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40041&highlight=science

Own it myself... goes in depth on many levels.

If you like the principles behind the science of a firebox... this is a keeper.

A book is only a guide. Every style of cooker is different. Practice, Practice, Practice. Once youve rubbed more butts than Hugh Hefner, You'll be a master.

I agree with winemaster every cooker is different, my cooker take a whole bag of coal at one time and if I wood to it well it will hold 4 or 5 pieces of wood 18" long at a time after it lit 2 logs a hour to maintain 275 to 300 for the day or night.

Sometime everything goes perfect, but most of time NOT. Yesterday was one of those days.