No-charcoal minion method; set and forget stickburner

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I hope there will be some experiments this weekend (I just whiled away a 2 hour meeting with my boss doodle-ing new firebox designs). I'm going to try loading up my insulated FB with a top-down fire and air-intake near the top of the FB. The insulation and high intake should help reduce creosote, since clearly a 6 hour burn of thick white is not the goal.

IF this method gassifies for the first few hours (and thus converts the wood to charcoal), that's fine--I don't need smoke in the second half of the cook anyway.

I also have a 'rocket stove' type idea for a downdraft firebox, but its a bit radical and will wait for next month.

Seems to work

Took a little while to finish eating the costco shoulder clod I did last month--you really need eaters to help with this hobby. Anyway, this weekend I gave it a try. I started with a 4# grass-fed packer from texasgrassfedbeef.com (which is my regular supplier). Grass-fed aint cheap, but the gap with grain fed is closing fast (and not in a good way).



Meat is trimmed lean--no fat cap. I put the trimmings into render pot.



Lightly rubbed with salt, pepper, and garlic.



Started with 5.5 splits. Wasn't sure how much to use or how much would fit in my firebox. This is almond wood with a bit of oak. splits are on my 12x12 chopping block.



Broke the spilts down a bit to improve packing. In retrospect, I should have done less--they fit fine and bigger wood burns slower.



Firebox, viewed from top. Its not nearly full, but I was worried about having some headspace for the fire, so I didn't add any more. Dryer lint used for tinder nest along with a scrap of wax from a candle stub. The pipe on the upper right is a firebox bypass that allows secondary air into the top of the fire. This means the fire gets fresh air from top and bottom: this results in a cleaner burn.



and we're starting up.


The big picture. The smoke chamber is running 123C (about 260F) and the IT is 58C (135F).



TBS. It was white for the first 15 minutes or so, but lightened up considerably around 15 - 30 into the cook. It stayed TBS for 2-3 hours and then when totally invisible (ie, just charcoal left). This picture is 1 hour from match.



Rendered the trimmings for cooking. Beef fat fries!



At 4 hours I needed more wood, I think, so I sawed a longish split in half and chucked it in.



This is the firebox, 6 hours from match.X



Pulled at 6 hours, rested 2. The IT was 85C (185F) but I cooked until probe-tender (just recorded the IT for reference).



Sliced fine. I think the smoke ring is smaller than usual for me, but that may be because I didn't use a water pan or mop at all. Normally I use a water pan and get more ring.







Next time I'll fill the firebox higher and expect to get a full 6 hour cook from a single load. Not sure if the reduced smoke ring was caused by drier chamber or what. The smoke was strong for the first 1-2 hours during gassification. Once gassification was over, it was like a charcoal cook.

We ate the point and some sweet corn fresh from the farmer for lunch. Smoke flavor was spot-on (no creosote, not too heavy, not too light)--at least for a stickburner.

On the El Dorado--the firebox looks sufficiently large for this, but I wonder if the firebox is insulated enough.

I think the key to success with this is an insulated FB, which allows choking down on the firebox full of wood without producing white smoke. OR, you would need a good, tight wood loading scheme to limit the size of the fire.

Let us know how your test burn goes. I almost didn't put meat in the chamber 'cause I thought it had little chance of success....