I use splits, but later in the cook I'll use B&B Competition Char Logs for additional BTU's.
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I've always ran charcoal with splits in my stick burners. Especially for competitions. I will start with 1-2 chimney full of a good lump and about 2 splits to get it heated up. Then i will throw splits every 45 minutes to an hour. Once the coal bed is starting to dwindle down I will add more lump.
I start with a well lit (white ash to the top) chimney and wood from then on. I have put additional coals on if the bed begins to die but NEVER coals that are not fully lit. Don't want charcoal taste on my smoked butt or brisket.I started smoking this morning with a two splits on top of a lit chimney that’s on top of an unlit chimney. These are going along nicely. About an hour in I through on two more chunks of wood. I had intermittent blue smoke after about 30 min. 30 min after that, I still have a nice steady stream of blue smoke.
Do you guys remove the bark to lessen the white smoke? I’m preheating the wood on top of the firebox which I’ve read also lessens the white smoke. Lastly, what’s the largest split you’d put on?
What Old Country do you have? I used to do this because I was convinced by Amazingribs.com that it was the way to go. I generally would use lump charcoal and wood chunks. I'd have to throw a chimney of lump on roughly every hour. These were slightly smaller walmart chimneys. I used a charcoal basket I made from expanded metal. I did this for a few years even and switched to a WSM but kept the Old Country. Mine is a 20 inch diameter that's somewhere in size between a Pecos and Wrangler that they were building in 2011. It's the same steel thickness as the Wrangler minus the heavier guage door.
Anyway, I decided to try stickburning on it and good grief that's so much easier. If you insist on doing it the way you are get a charcoal basket of some kind. I would pre-light my chimneys. I dunno if that's necessary. You could do something more like a minion method. Because of the airflow in the offet it's hard to not have the whole basket of charcoal light on you. You could probably get away with adding unlit every hour but you might get some dirty smoke.
No this way is ok. Started off with charcoal and using wood after that is good. I might add some charcoal along the way to stabilize the temp a bit. This smoker is a Brazos. I have a basket.