1Gradymaci
Knows what a fatty is.
Again a Oven is your friend, A Butt is the easiest piece of meat to cook, besides SPAM...Good luck
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I think I might give up on offset cookers...
- Thread starter mph33
- Start date
mph33
Full Fledged Farker
Because I added HVAC pipe to the smoke stack I don't have the ability to use a damper it's just wide open. The pipe is 6 in in width. As for the firebox door I always keep it about halfway open and the damper on the firebox door is wide open. It seems that I get some decent airflow under the firebox while using the fire brick maybe I could push out the brick a little wider that also use a steel rod inside of the fire basket to prop the wood up so the wood has space beneath it to where it'll burn freely and not smolder. I've always been under the impression that you want to always use bigger and longer smoke stacks so you get more air flow anyways.. I'm new to offset smoking. Sometimes it works really well for me and other times it takes forever to cook a piece of meat especially brisket
Titch
somebody shut me the fark up.
Can you grab a reducer and put over the stack and close the draw down a bit
musicmanj
Knows what a fatty is.
I keep a journal of my cooks. Detailed notes about everything I do on a cook, a description of how the food comes out, and ideas on what I should do on my next cook. It's been a tremendous help for me, especially cooking in an offset. If I try something new and it doesn't work, then I note it. If I try something new and it works out great, I make note of it. Before I cook, I review some of the last entries and put together my "game plan" for the cook.
With regards to pork butts, my local Costco no longer sells bone-in pork shoulder. So I end up with 8lb butchered pork butts. I started cutting these up in about 2-3 lb pieces trying to make them all the same size. The area where they cut the bone out, I use twine and try to make it a uniform piece. The end product is great, and I end up with a lot more bark. The best part is they cook in a much shorter amount of time. I cooked up 16 pounds of pulled pork yesterday in a little over 7 hours.
Good luck on figuring things out. I get a tremendous amount of enjoyment cooking on an offset. But it can be challenging at times.
With regards to pork butts, my local Costco no longer sells bone-in pork shoulder. So I end up with 8lb butchered pork butts. I started cutting these up in about 2-3 lb pieces trying to make them all the same size. The area where they cut the bone out, I use twine and try to make it a uniform piece. The end product is great, and I end up with a lot more bark. The best part is they cook in a much shorter amount of time. I cooked up 16 pounds of pulled pork yesterday in a little over 7 hours.
Good luck on figuring things out. I get a tremendous amount of enjoyment cooking on an offset. But it can be challenging at times.
mph33
Full Fledged Farker
All the YouTube videos of this particular smoker people add a full extension to the smoke stack I think I should leave it alone and learn how to maintain the fire with the door closed using the damper on the door. I also need to start using better wood. Tomorrow I'm going to cook some St Louis style ribs three racks to be exact and I'm also considering removing the LSG firebox and using the stock fire great with fire bricks and see if that will also help as well.
1MoreFord
Babbling Farker
Try putting your lsg fire basket on top of your stock grate.
Jlems
Full Fledged Farker
I spent a lot of time with my Brazos and yep, had the same issues. Very very very long cooks that confused me for months. Never completely got it corrected but learned a ton along the way. The Brazos needs to have the firebox door closed and the pinwheel 1/2 open. Stack completely open. If you have and more air intake than that, the heat pulls straight across the bottom of the cook chamber, underneath the food and out the stack. Also, on large cuts I went 6-8 hours to get the bark and color I wanted and finished in the oven. Turned out some great meals doing that. It’s a good pit but it’ll test your patience unnecessarily. My workhorse does not have these issues.
Unfortunately it seems many of the super budget offsets REQUIRE a lot of TINKERING to get them to cook right. In this fast paced world we live that’s a lot to ask for someone not retired or unemployed.. If money is a primary constraint then sure go for it… I think time is perhaps a bigger constraint for most and can make the learning curve on a subpar offset not too enjoyable.
My conclusion? Don’t give up on offset smokers because your not enjoying your budget offset. Rather… if you like the style of cooking (minus the obvious quarks) save for a proper offset. The premium smokers like Shirley etc are so balanced in heat airflow that you’ll cook like a pro quickly…. assuming you are already skilled with fire (heat home with, enjoy starting the fire for family and friends in backyard… know how to cut dry wood… etc…).
While you save/wait… don’t get discouraged, dial in your shorter cooks. Chuck roast, Wings, Quarters, whole chickens… etc. Shorter cooks seem much more manageable and the quarks less frustrating. Smoke on!
My conclusion? Don’t give up on offset smokers because your not enjoying your budget offset. Rather… if you like the style of cooking (minus the obvious quarks) save for a proper offset. The premium smokers like Shirley etc are so balanced in heat airflow that you’ll cook like a pro quickly…. assuming you are already skilled with fire (heat home with, enjoy starting the fire for family and friends in backyard… know how to cut dry wood… etc…).
While you save/wait… don’t get discouraged, dial in your shorter cooks. Chuck roast, Wings, Quarters, whole chickens… etc. Shorter cooks seem much more manageable and the quarks less frustrating. Smoke on!
Lynn Dollar
is Blowin Smoke!
I'm also a former Brazos owner, and this is exactly what I discovered. But I never had excessively long cooks as I would go about 9 hours on the Brazos , then finish in the oven. I ran biscuit tests with different air intake configurations to tell me where the hot spots were at, and paid attention to both the top of the biscuit and the bottoms. I cut the air flow way down so the heat will rise as soon as it passes under the baffle. Don't bother with tuning plates, they only make it worse. Take off the stack extension. The Brazos needs low air flow. My Franklin does not have these issues.
Jlems
Full Fledged Farker
Good to hear you landed a Franklin Lynn.
93_confirmed
Take a breath!
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2014
- Location
- Princeton, New Jersey
All these posts and I didn't see anyone asking whether you are using a digital probe to measure the ambient temp. The lids gauge could be way off and you're cooking at a lower temp than what you think it is.
SirPorkaLot
somebody shut me the fark up.
This line of thinking is why there are so many bad pork butt cooks out there.
50% of what I see on the internet I wouldn’t feed to my dogs, because I like them.
onemanlan
Full Fledged Farker
what type of BBQ do you normally feed your dogs?
SirPorkaLot
somebody shut me the fark up.
They eat what I eat most days.
There’s a lot of pulled pork I wouldn’t touch. Stringy crap covered in a sweet sauce.
All because someone told a newbie that pork butt was impossible to mess up.
Go figure.
Dustin Dorsey
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2014
- Location
- Burkburnett, Texas
There's a lot truth to this. I know us Texans probably don't give the pork butt the respect it deserves.
mph33
Full Fledged Farker
I'm sure you remember... I did all of your mods. I'm gonna remove the smoke stack extension and chunk the tuning plates in the woods on my next cook. I also found that I managed my fire better without the LSG firebox with this last cook. Maybe the LSG firebox will work better without the smoke stack extension?
I want a Franklin pit! How long was the wait for you? Not gonna lie but, the workhorse 1975 would be cheaper and probably a shorter wait time. However, I don't like to compromise on any purchase if the Franklin is way better, I will wait
mph33
Full Fledged Farker
I'm far from a rookie. Hey just ordered some more of your rib rub. That stuff is awesome for Keto! And... Your turkey dry brine was awesome last year for Thanksgiving!
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mph33
Full Fledged Farker
Yes. I have Ink bird. I will check grill grate temps prior to adding meat
Lynn Dollar
is Blowin Smoke!
I don't advise people on what to buy. That's a very personal thing. What I want in a smoker and what others might want, will vary greatly.
You could leave that stack extension on the smoker. But just as Jlem said, close the door and leave the damper 1/2 open. It just makes no sense to improve the draw through the smoker and then cut down the air intake. One is working against the other.
Have you done biscuit tests ? Set it up , just as I got through describing, and run a biscuit test. The bottoms of the biscuits right on the edge of the baffle, should show the most heat. That's how you want the smoker to run. Open the damper, just enough to burn a clean fire, and just enough air flow to get heat to rise directly in the cook chamber. The sooner the heat rises, the better the smoker will run.
The problem with this smoker, is the baffle contradicts the exhaust at grate level. Either have one or the other, but not both. Yoder and Horizon exhaust at the top of the cook chamber and run with a convection plate/baffle across the bottom. Cutting out the baffle is a viable option. There's like four welds that hold it in place, if cut out carefully, it could be put back in easily.
I've seen you on the Facebook Old Country group. There are several others there, who've cut out the baffle, and added a collector and taller stack. You might search them out. I don't do Facebook, I use my wife's account, and I have no idea how to search on that place. But here's one of them on YT . I had a welder quote me $300 to do this last March, when I got the chance to buy the Franklin.
https://youtu.be/KcM9bResWFM
Those who've done this are happy, so they say. This is the internet and ya never know how honest people are when they report results. So take it for what its worth. But I see no reason why it won't get a Brazos as close to a Workhorse or a Franklin as can be had. Your gonna lose 1/3 or maybe 1/2 of your cooking grate on the firebox end, so if capacity is an issue, this is probably not the thing to do. But I never used that space, anyway. So its a personal decision that no one else can advise you on.
But bottom line, you have to decide how much air flow you need in your backyard smoker. Why do you want more air flow ? Air flow will improve convection. People buy convection ovens over conventional ovens to get more even and faster cooking . How much is that worth to you ?
And oh yeah, the LSG Fire Basket is not your problem. That effectively makes your FB longer, which is a good thing. It also helps you keep a good coal bed, which is very important. It has no bearing on how long it takes your meats to cook.
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