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Old 07-02-2013, 03:13 PM   #1
Dauvis
is One Chatty Farker
 
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Join Date: 06-26-13
Location: MOORESVILLE IN
Default Just one frustration after another

So, I had the intention of smoking a meatloaf this weekend but did not get to because of the weather. I finally decided that I was going to smoke on Monday come heck or high water. As I checked the weather maps yesterday, it was clear that I was not going to have a rain free window. As a matter of fact, it seemed like there was this stationary green blob where my house should be.

I get home and arranged charcoal in the side fire box of my Chargriller, setup my grate level thermometers, and started a 1/4 chimney of charcoal. I was using Stubbs for the first time. When that was ready, it went into the fire box. When I finished the prep, I went to check on the smoker to see it was ready. It was just blowing white smoke like a chain smoker who had two minutes left on his break. Not only that, the cooking area was barely warm to touch. Never had that happen before.

After fussing with the charcoal to get a better airflow, I managed to get the temperature up to 220-230. Still had white smoke but not nearly as thick. Now, I noticed that there was a large temperature difference forming between the two ends (at one point it got to be as high as 80 degrees). Looks like that problem was not actually fixed

Put the food on and started checking regularly. Noticed that my wood chunks caught on fire - need to research that. However, the temperature on the side opposite of the fire box was yo-yoing in the range of 180-220 while the fire box side was going from 250-320. Not that problem again . Although the smoke was mostly thin. Occasionally, it would belch a plume of white smoke. To top it all off, my probe thermometer for the food went on the fritz and the batteries of my kitchen thermometer died.

Ended up finishing the meatloaf in the oven/microwave. Smoke flavor was a bit strong in my opinion. Only good thing I could say about it was that it had a nice smoke ring.

I know this is a bit much but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. I am really dumbfounded and frustrated from this smoke. Last time, I had a consistent 260 on both ends. This time it is as if I did not have any mods or even a fire box.
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