Maiden Voyage on the new christmas present and popping cherry

[brandonh1987]

So this is my new christmas toy. A lang 36. She is a beaUT. This is my first ever stick burner, so I was a little lost and had some trouble figuring out where to add wood and how much. I feel like I used a LOT of wood. I first started off seasoning it, sprayed it down with some oil, and let her rip up to about 450, and sprayed her off on the inside with a hose. Then I let the temp come down to about 250 and I put a rack of ribs on and a pork butt.

My temp would go up to about 275 if I kept the door cracked on the back and vents wide open with about 2-3 12" logs on there. Oak and Apple. I would need to add a log about every 40 minutes as when I would head back out the temp would be down around the 220 range. It was about 30 degrees out today, so not sure how much that played a part in it. Any advice would be much much appreciated. I started it with a chimney of briquetts, and then as I said I would add about 2 splits every 40 or so minutes to maintain between 220-265ish. I would prefer up around the 275 mark.

I did 2.5 unwrapped and 2.5 wrapped. They came out almost prefect. The end bones were overcooked, however the middle were perfect. I think 30 min less woulda done the trick.

Anyways, here are the results from the ribs.
Thanks for lookin!

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[AZRaptor]

A couple of splits every 40 minutes or so sounded about right once I saw the size of your splits on the bottom rack. I usually use one every 40-45 minutes, but they are bigger diameter than what those look like. When I add some that came from thick branches instead of a split trunk I usually add two as well.

One thing I did notice when I cooked for the first time on the offset was that I couldn't go inside and do other stuff and just pop back out every 45 minutes or so, because some of those times a split may have burned a bit faster than expected and suddenly my temp was down from 275 to 230 or so.

Now I use it as an excuse to sit out back, enjoy a beverage and cigar and catch up on the forums or a book I'm reading. I can glance over and see my temps. I cook at 300 on the offset now, so when it drops five or ten degrees I pop over to the smoker and check out the fire and either add a split or knock some of the ash free depending on what it needs.

EDIT: BTW... great looking ribs. Grats on the new smoker.

 

[pjtexas1]

Wood usage might be the outside temp. If you get it to cook at 275 I wouldn't wrap as long.

Edit: Nice gift!

 

[FireChief]

Man, nothing better than seeing a brand new pit get fired up for the maiden voyage and those ribs are just gorgeous !! Congrats on the new pit and welcome to the wonderful world of stick burning !!

p.s.

Don't fret right now about dialing in your temps on these first few cooks. It will continue to season the more you cook and you'll learn all the nuances. I think you'll find it will obviously take more time to come up to temp in the winter but once it's dialed it should run pretty smoothly. I don't worry anymore how much wood I use. Whatever it takes to keep it cruising that's what I feed it. You'll also notice you're gonna generate a lot more ash burning sticks. Just clean it out periodically on long cooks if it starts really building to ensure good airflow and a clean fire. Hope that helps !

 

[brandonh1987]

Thanks for the tips.

Yeah I am not sure if my splits are normal sized or not. 12" long and the apple splits were pretty small, the oak were a tad bigger, but nothing like typical firewood I see. I did have a few bigger oak splits in there that had trouble lighting. Maybe they had some moisture in them.

How about the initial start up. To save wood, I just light a chimney, and lay some unlit coals down to get a nice bed of coals, and just go from there with my splits?

 

[Titch]

L plates wont last long with that feed you cooked.
Nice rig and ribs mate

 

[FireChief]

Thanks for the tips.

Yeah I am not sure if my splits are normal sized or not. 12" long and the apple splits were pretty small, the oak were a tad bigger, but nothing like typical firewood I see. I did have a few bigger oak splits in there that had trouble lighting. Maybe they had some moisture in them.

How about the initial start up. To save wood, I just light a chimney, and lay some unlit coals down to get a nice bed of coals, and just go from there with my splits?

This is exactly what I do except I don't light the coals first, light it all up at once. This is just to get a good bed of coals going. Then I let it ride with splits the rest of the way.

Here's my firebox on startup, looks pretty much just like yours.

 

[viking72]

Welcome to the Stick-side. Lose the briquettes, the ash impedes the air flow. Wood was made to burn!

Later,
Doug

 

[Ol'Joe]

Second on what viking72 says, used a stick burner for 15yrs, it never saw charcoal and cooked great.

 

[cheez59]

Perfect looking ribs. Congrats on the great Christmas present. You are blessed.