THoey: Last time I got the fire rolling, got it up to temperature for about 30 - 40 minutes, let the coals get good and hot with little smoke I then added hickory - I played around and got it running consistently. I started a stopwatch at each adjustment and she held 225 for over 35 minutes without a touch. Is that good? Really surprised at how little the adjustments were that made the temperature gauge change.
Todd
Todd, those times sound about right from what I have read here. I have a Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM), so I use charcoal and wood chunks, not sticks. From what I have seen, stick burners here use small, hot fires. Get the fire going and around your target temp (+/- 25*), when it drops to around -25* of your target, add another small split. Temp will jump to around +25* of your target and then start to settle. Process seems to take about 35 - 45 mins between adding a split.
Don't fight to get a certain temperature. This is BBQ, not Rocket Surgery. When I first got into making Q, I fought like crazy to get my gasser
twitch
to exactly 225*. I learned here that it is best to settle where your pit likes to run then to try to choke it to make a certain temp. My WSM likes to hover around 275*. Some days a little hotter, some days a little cooler. If yours settles at 260* or 295*, that'll do for Q.
Agree with the others. TBS or Thin Blue Smoke. That billowy white stuff tastes awful. When you add a split, you might see a little as the new split catches fire, but it should go away soon. To help this, try to put a split or two by the firebox to heat up before they need to go into the firebox.
As for adjustments if needed, remember this is not like an oven. Any adjustment will take about 15 minutes to take effect. Don't keep playing with the vents. Oh, and keep the doors closed. If you are looking, you aren't cooking.
Since this will be your first run on something like butts, give yourself an extra hour or two. Better to be done early than for everyone to be waiting for a slow cook. If the meat gets done early, pull it off the smoker, vent it for 15 mins to let the steam and some heat out, wrap it back in foil, wrap a big towel around them, and put them in an empty cooler. They'll stay too hot to handle with bare hands for several hours.
Oh, and