New guy with questions

The sticky "Bandera 101" document on this site is a good place to start. You'll also find many answers to your questions with some searching through Q-talk. But the first suggest I'd offer is to wrap the meat once it's had enough smoking time. On an unmodified COS, it's very easy to get way too much smoke and creosote. When I was cooking briskets on my old Hondo, I'd let them go from 4 to no more than 5 hours over oak with enough hickory added for flavor, then wrap them to continue cooking. With some of the modifications commonly made to COS, you can reduce the need to wrap, and even eliminate it with luck.

As far as the diffusion plates and such go, a diverter where the firebox enters the cooking chamber is probably the most important one. Beyond that, you're mostly trying to even out temperatures across the cooking surface. That's never been as important to me as knowing where the hot spots are, as long as there's plenty of cooking area to choose from. Leaky doors are a nuisance, but not as important as getting the amount of smoke right.

The goal is to have a small hot fire. In order to light splits fast you need a nice bed of embers.

This will get you started

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7112

Lose the foil with holes, youll probably want a proper baffle instead.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143736

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=172050

For gaskets try http://www.bbqgaskets.com/

I don't cook on an offset, never have, so I have no advice. Just wanted to welcome you to the site, this is a great bunch of folks and you'll get the answers you need here for sure.

KC

Your Wife has good taste. I've seen that pit at most all it needs is a Horizion style baffle plate. It is better built that an OK Joe I may get one myself. I suggest you cook on it for awhile the leaks will seal themselves all pits leak a little.

Burn Sticks - FireWood- Splits

Have you not watched the video linked above or read any of the links?


Too Old of Wood might be some of it- I've never burned wood that old - most like 6 months to 1 year season on wood.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=207672

Common error ,you will go broke feeding the thing Charcoal. ou get more bang for the buck with wood for less. Start with a chimney of hot charcoal and drop a split on top of it once it catches set you intake to 1/2 open and let the pit come up to temp. Put on the meat and put a split on top of the fire box to pre heat. when your temp drops about 25 deg add the hot split and preheat another. Don't worry about the temp running up when you add wood\, just roll with it it will drop.

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JGKrwCq5zCA[/ame]


[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BS1veMrDOC4[/ame]


[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gAC5ifYeDn8[/ame]


[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1U6_gpg8ry0[/ame]

No gaskets
No welding
No baskets
No lower chimney
Do burn wood
Do open chimney all the way
Do level cooker
Do control temp with intake vent
Do have fun

Later,
Doug

just cook in the middle, you can add plates later.

later,
Doug

More than likely the bitter tasting food was caused by poor draft, make sure your exhaust is WIDE open (adjusting only the intake for temp control) and that you've developed a decent bed of coals to ignite a new split when you've added it to the fire.
Wood is what your offset wants to eat, it is NOT designed for charcoal even though many manufacturers of COSs market them as wood/charcoal cookers. Charcoal will ignite too quickly, causing the pit temp to spike which will force you to choke down on the intake and cutting off valuable airflow through the cooker, the result of which will be that any wood that you have on the fire will begin to smolder instead of burn and then you'll get the creosote thing happening. A wood fire with plenty of airflow is the key to success with an offset. I think you may have seen my fire building method on another thread on fire management but I'll go ahead and re-post it here, give it a try next time.:wink:
As for the mods, when I was using my old COS the #1 change that I made to it was to add a heat baffle which consisted of a 1/2 of an aluminum turkey roasting pan which I attached to the inside of the cooking chamber directly over the firebox opening. It made a world of difference as it forced the heat to the center of the pit before it was allowed to rise and exit through the stack, I also added the sheet metal with the holes but soon realized that it was interfering too much with the draft of the cooker and I scrapped it and just went with the baffle.
For sealing the doors you can get some high heat silicon caulk at Home Depot or Lowes which will seal the cracks pretty well, here's what I used...
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Red-Devil-Industrial-Resistant-0809/dp/B000H5Q5VG"]Amazon.com: Red Devil RDL0809OI RD PRO Heat Resistant RTV Sealant 10.3 oz. 100% Heat Resistant, Red: Home Improvement@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21U8wMvre1L.@@AMEPARAM@@21U8wMvre1L[/ame]
... and here's my fire building method once again.:-D
This is something that I keep on file for anyone that can use it, this fire building method places the emphasis on building a good coal bed for more consistent temps / cleaner smoke and can be tweaked to fit pretty much any size offset. My pit is fairly large in comparison to most (especially the mass produced box store pits), so instead of using an entire bag of lump (1/2 lit, 1/2 unlit) you may only want to use a chimney of lit coals and smaller splits than I do to start with.
STARTING AND MAINTAINING A FIRE IN AN OFFSET SMOKER
The best way to run your offset is to build a good, hot wood fire and to develop a thick bed of coals to thoroughly heat the pit. With this method it takes a little time initially to get the pit ready for cooking but it will be well worth it as the cook will be a LOT easier for the pit master. It's important to note that you should leave the exhaust damper wide open and adjust the temps with your intake damper. Here's my fire building method...
Open the doors and all of the dampers to the pit. Start with an 8 to 10 lb bag of LUMP charcoal, filling a chimney with about half to light and pour the rest into the firebox. When your chimney is thoroughly lit, pour the lit coals on to the mound of unlit coals in the firebox, put a couple of wood splits on top and allow them to burn down to begin generating more coals. When the wood splits have fully ignited and are ashed over, shut the doors and leave the dampers fully open to allow plenty of draft as the pit heats up.
Once the temp climbs to about 25 degrees or so above where you want to cook at, begin adjusting down on the intake damper until you have dialed in your cooking temp and then once the first two splits have sufficiently burned down to coals add another wood split to begin a routine of a split every 45 minutes to an hour. This way you are constantly adding to the coal bed and your temps are staying pretty much consistent. As long as you add your splits when they are needed your pit will practically run itself and though there will be SOME fluctuation in temps when opening the firebox door and when the newly added split catches on, the pit will recover very quickly, you'll be cooking in a ZONE.
If you want to cook at 275 for instance, work to maintain a zone of 50 degrees and maintain the temp in an area between 250 and 300. The temp will fall to between 250 and 275 when the pit is ready for another split and then the temp will rise to between 275 and 300 as the split ignites but eventually the temp will settle in to the 275 that you have the intake damper set for. Again, as long as you're adding your splits regularly your pit will pretty much be on auto pilot and you'll never have to worry about losing your temps or dirty smoke.:wink:
P.S. Again, it's important to make all temp adjustments with your INTAKE damper only, the exhaust should remain wide open throughout the cook.

PuJo said:

Great info.
Too bad I am leaving tonight for my 14 day hitch in the gulf.
I will have to give your method a try when I return in 2 weeks.

When I do give this another try, I will take pics and notes !

Thanks again,
-PuJo

Click to expand...

Cool,... be safe out there!:thumb: