How to tell if wood is seasoned

[mrpigs]

I keep a supply of completely seasoned ash and cherry for getting a fire going good.

If I keep using it alone, I might as well be cooking inside in the oven. No smoke flavor whatsoever.

I also have plenty of cherry and red oak that ranges anywhere from green to almost completely seasoned.

Once I have a good hot fire going, I'll add in a less seasoned split and let the fire and cook chamber temp tell me what to do.

If the cook chamber temp starts dropping and I still have a good amount of smoke coming out of the stacks then I know that the less seasoned split is still a little too green or too large for my sized fire to burn.

Then it's time to add one or two small splits of the completely seasoned wood under the one that doesn't want to burn completely, and either use smaller pieces of the less seasoned wood or switch to some that's been seasoned longer.

It might sound like a pain but I get a lot of fun out of messing around and finding the right combination. I'm just lucky enough to have access to plenty of wood and have the room and the means to cut, split and season all my own wood.

Never had any soot on anything that I've smoked in my stick burner in the 3-1/2 years since I started using it.

 

[sackedbysapp]

https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=242324

Check out this thread. Is this similar soot your getting?

 

[Killa J]

https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=242324

Check out this thread. Is this similar soot your getting?

Yes, but not as much as in the picture of the beans. Maybe half that much. I have been prewarming the wood on top of the firebox like that. I’ll try it without doing that. And I’ll try decreasing airflow to make the fire not as hot. I’ve been running it wide open and using the damper to decrease the temp inside the cook chamber.

 

[Killa J]

It’s also essentially a brand new smoker, been used 4 or 5 times now. I wonder if there’s some manufacturing oils burning off still. I cleaned everything as well as I could with soap and water when I bought it, and did a burn-in like recommended. But who knows. Maybe I’ll do another burn-in with no food.

 

[sackedbysapp]

Leave stack wide open.

 

[Killa J]

I’m not using a traditional offset, it’s a Good One Marshall. It’s got screw-on “spinner” air vents. For burning wood, I open them on the firebox and cook chamber as far as they go without coming off. It’s got a damper between the firebox and cook chamber to let more or less heat in. So maybe an even smaller fire with the damper fully open. I need to see what temp that gets me. As long as it’s in the usable range, I’ll try to stick to that.

 

[sackedbysapp]

I doubt any oils.