Have a Stump's baby for BBQ and I'm not satisfied with how my BBQ is turning out on it so am working on dialing in as many variables as I can to get it right and consistent.
Right now much confused on how to use wood chunks in this thing. From TONS of reading and video tutorials on BBQ my understanding is that you do NOT want smouldering wood, you want BURNING wood for clean smoke. Granted, this advice comes almost exclusively from folks running stick burners (precious few sources on how to run a clean fire in a gravity fed).
If I put wood chunks in the ash pan of the Stumps and let the coals fall down on it the wood smoulders. There are times I've done this and I've gotten good smoke, but lots of times I get acrid, yucky smoke - I can't seem to put my finger on how to consistently get good smoke using this method.
I typically use a Rock's Stoker to keep my temps at 250-275 for my smokes - still have the same problem with usually getting bad smoke but occasionaly good smoke with chunks in the ash pan. Could the stoker be creating bad smoke by cutting off the air when not blowing??
Lately I've tried adding coals to the ash pan and lighting them along with the column, letting them get good and red, then adding some wood chunks to start building a coal bed in the ash pan. Only after I have a good, red coal bed in the ash pan I add the meat and then add pre-heated wood chunks. When I add the chunks I hit them with a propane torch to get the combustion going and leave the fire door open until I see the fire has set on the chunks. I don't get the bad smoke as much, but this is also 5x the work.
Pulling my hair out on confirming the best way to run these wood chunks and would appreciate any experience/guidance.
Thanks!
Right now much confused on how to use wood chunks in this thing. From TONS of reading and video tutorials on BBQ my understanding is that you do NOT want smouldering wood, you want BURNING wood for clean smoke. Granted, this advice comes almost exclusively from folks running stick burners (precious few sources on how to run a clean fire in a gravity fed).
If I put wood chunks in the ash pan of the Stumps and let the coals fall down on it the wood smoulders. There are times I've done this and I've gotten good smoke, but lots of times I get acrid, yucky smoke - I can't seem to put my finger on how to consistently get good smoke using this method.
I typically use a Rock's Stoker to keep my temps at 250-275 for my smokes - still have the same problem with usually getting bad smoke but occasionaly good smoke with chunks in the ash pan. Could the stoker be creating bad smoke by cutting off the air when not blowing??
Lately I've tried adding coals to the ash pan and lighting them along with the column, letting them get good and red, then adding some wood chunks to start building a coal bed in the ash pan. Only after I have a good, red coal bed in the ash pan I add the meat and then add pre-heated wood chunks. When I add the chunks I hit them with a propane torch to get the combustion going and leave the fire door open until I see the fire has set on the chunks. I don't get the bad smoke as much, but this is also 5x the work.
Pulling my hair out on confirming the best way to run these wood chunks and would appreciate any experience/guidance.
Thanks!