Twisted T's Q
is one Smokin' Farker
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2014
- Location
- West Virginia
do these pits get hot enough to put a good scold on chicken?
Deciding if I should keep this thread going or start a new one lol. I received my large comp off-road IVS not quite 2 months ago now, and have only done two cooks, one for the seasoning with a cook at the end, and one dedicated cook. I sold everything and bought a 1975t and then while that was being built I ordered this smoker to replace all of the kamado, gasser, pellet, fire-pit, and small Brinkmann offset I had.
It's been a learning curve on both. The best food I've made came off a thin walled, holes throughout 35+ year old 16"x32" Brinkmann that's been sitting out by my dads shed for 30+ years that I scrubbed off and seasoned up. I feel like I got a deeper smoke flavor on the Brinkmann than WH at first, maybe because I was constantly fighting the fire every 5-15 mins on the Brink and had clean then not so clean smoke the entire cook, which I think lead to a good flavor due to the mix of mostly clean and super clean smoke. Now with the 1975t, this thing drafts so good and burns so clean I can't make it smoke the least bit white even when I try! Been playing with the intake and exhaust settings, and adjusting split sizes for heat and then adding small splits sideways to try and recreate some of that uneven but still clean burn like the Brink. Came close this weekend on chicken, so next steps are to try and get the IVS to match this flavor of the Brink that I liked the most. Since I live in FL and it's already in the 90s for a few weeks now, and my yard is full sun 9am to 30mins before dark, it's not as enjoyable for long cooks on the offset as it is in winter when I use the pit as a heater too.
On to the reason for this post; the IVS is another story. Been reading this thread and have some things to try, but going to post to track my experience and get some possible help or help others after you all help me learn.
I'll start by saying I love the space on my large IVS compared to my offsets and other kamado's I've had over the years. I started by cooking on open fire's since I was a kid, and just got use (and had fun) to spending hours playing with the fire and cooking multiple loads over an adjustable wire grate I had. But now with kids and both me and my wife working 60+ hours a week, I just want to relax but still have good smoked meats.
I got 2 ball valves, and use both for start-up with no fan, and dial inlet and outlet back at the 50F before setting per instructions. Mine wants to run at 250F no matter what I do with a single valve unless it's wide open, then I can hit my 300F for chicken I wanted. May have to put my signals with the fan on next to try and keep temps up, but I normally load about 1/3 of the firebox with lump on the intake side and put a few pieces of chunks in there. Once up to temp I load 4-6, 1/2 sheet pans of meat on wire racks on top (chicken and ribs) that I cook once a week or every 2 weeks to feed my family plus parents and grandparents I help take care of. After a brief dip in temp, it settles back at 250F, and I have to open the ball valve 100% to get it back up after 30 mins or so, then cut back to maybe half. Once I open the door to mop the chicken and ribs, again do the same process with the valves. I have noticed as well that when temps start to drop, I've twice added charcoal since it acted like I was running out, but when I opened the firebox and pullled it out, only the bottom coals were red and the top were still unlit/black. Once I mixed the coals and added more coals, I could maintain temps, but this was after 3 hours or so and near the end of the cook. I really do not like the smell or strong unburnt flavor of briquettes (maybe I need to try other brand/combos), but do those that have ran lump and briquettes had this problem on one or the other? I saw one guy on youtube mix both together, with briquettes on the bottom and lump on top, anyone else try this? Any ideas on why this may/may not help; perhaps just to keep the lump lit I suppose?
The second issue is the lack smoke flavor with the IVS compared to my two offsets. After finally reading all the pages one by one I found two examples of how people load wood (and one that looked like they emptied the wood chipper after the engine quit half way through a chester drawers, lol jk). I think I've been waayyyy too light in my wood to charcoal ratio. I saw one youtube video of a guy putting fist sized chunks on the wire grate only 3" apart throughout the entire "snake", then putting briquettes in between the chunks, then added lump on top, with I believe more wood on top of that. I may try this method on a smaller cook and see how it comes out, then adjust from there before I make my large batches. Any additional firebox set-ups people want to share would be appreciated as well.
I will not let this thread die!!! lol
Haven't seen any new postings on here since all of the rather good reply's on smoke flavor on the LSG IVS, so I'll give my update just in case someone is still struggling like I am.
I say still struggling, because I haven't cooked on my LSG IVS since mentioned cook in above quote. I've cooked almost everything exclusively on my WH 1975t, and it puts out amazing food, but it does run through a lot of wood I buy by the cu. ft. at Academy, so wondering if the IVS will be better financially while getting close to the 1975t flavor. I purchased this huge IVS and I'm going to figure out how to run it until I get it to taste like I want it to dang it!
Store had BOGO bone in turkey breasts on sale so I kept two froze, took out two prime ribs (one 3/4-ish bone and one two pack of 2" thick steaks, ran out of true 3-5 bone roasts when I cut the whole loins down, won't do that again will keep all thick).
Have the two turkey breasts brining in Tipsy Tom brine, and will inject with jalapeno butter as normal turkey, then season with little bit of Lawery's and black pepper then wrap in butter once 140F (did this with chicken breasts last week and it was the best chicken BREASTS I have ever had, not best chicken but close, but best breasts). Plan for prime rib will be to season a day ahead with my mix of Killer Hogs AP, steak, TX, and kosher salt.
My plan is to run my IVS like my old Saffire kamado with one turkey breast and the two 2" thick prime rib cuts, and then cook the other turkey breast and 4 bone prime rib on my offset, and do a blind taste test.
when I say run like my old Saffire kamado, I mean I'm going to:
1.) Load the firebox up 70/30 or somewhere less than 50/50 charcoal to wood, didn't use this high a ratio in my kamado but people here say pour it to it, so going to try it,
2.) Use B&B hickory lump,
3.) Use pecan chunks on bottom, maybe some spread throughout to get good mix of wood to charcoal to try to get as even as a burn as possible but no smoldering wood,
4.) Light small fire on opposite side of intake,
5.) Leave exhaust most of the way open,
6.). Put thin disposable turkey sized pan in water basin filled with chicken stock, herbs, and whatever seasoning I'm using on the food (may remove before placing thinner prime on since not sure how chicken stock will affect taste, normally use beef stock with beef)
7.) Still deciding on removing lower deflector plate to encourage more air flow and more fuel usage, but depends on if temps get too much (similar to Smoking Dad BBQ double indirect on his Kamado joe by encouraging more air flow thus more fuel usage),
8.) Still deciding on if I'm going to use my billows or not, normally got better control and food with air vent settings once I got them figured out. Seems like fan may choke fire down instead of letting small amount flow through freely when not needed.
9.) Finally, I'm going to put the food directly on the grate, and put pans on the next full shelf (4" gap), this will mimic me putting the water/stock pan on top of the deflector plate in my kamado, and giving room for the smoke/air to circulate; versus me putting the meat on a wire rack directly on a sheet pan like I've done on previous two cooks.
If prime rib is done thawing out by the time I get home tonight, I'll be seasoning meat tonight, then leaving work early tomorrow to make this cook happen. Wish me luck!!!!