Are you using the electric hot plate to fire your wood?
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Are you using the electric hot plate to fire your wood?
For starting charcoal, I've always used a propane torch. I don't use lighter fluid.
As for as using a hotplate in this, only if I decide to cold smoke some fish. I'd want to put the hotplate in and see what the temp gets up to first.
Tomorrow I'm going to do some chicken thighs and breasts on it. I'll have the intakes wide open for chicken as that has to be cooked preferably at 300+ degrees. Going to get up in the morning, peel the skin back on those pieces of chicken, get them to marinating in Zesty Italian dressing for about 6 hours, then sprinkle salt and pepper on the meat part, pull the skin back over the meat and set on the grill. I'll take some pictures tomorrow.
So something like fire the edges then drop the basket in place? Do you a bit of dry wood to start your fire?
I use lump charcoal. For tomorrow I'll probably put about 1/4 of that basket with some lump in it. Fire up a couple spots with the propane torch and let it get going. I'll set it down in the barrel and open up the intakes. As soon as I see it's taking to burn, then I'll set a couple sticks of mesquite on it and as soon as that starts to smoke, then I'll put the chicken on, the lid and won't touch it for about an hour hopefully. I'll check it about that time to see if maybe I need to turn it.
As much as I know how to bbq and/or smoke things on pits, there's always a learning curve on brand new pits. I'll post what I find out tomorrow or Monday so the info can be of use to others that are interested.
I use a regular little propane torch to start my coals. A lot of people use those big "weed burner" type torches. I would too, but don't have one and the little one works just fine.
The term lump charcoal for me is Kingsford. I know you are talking about wood but I don't know what your reference is to lump charcoal other than that. You are using soaked wood for the smoke I assume but how do you get it to fire with a torch? Or, does it start just fine?
Sorry took so long to respond. Had to go run an errand.
There are two kinds of charcoal. There's briquettes, which Kingsford and Royal oak make. Both are compressed charcoal dust which contain additives, i.e. cornstarch for one. I stopped using those a long time ago when lump charcoal came along. Lump charcoal is wood that is basically chucks of hard woods that have been made into charcoal. I think there is a thread somewhere here on how to make charcoal, if not there's plenty on the net. I use Royal Oak lump charcoal as well as another kind that comes in a brown bag that I get at Menard's or Home Depot. I watch for sales in the fall when they are trying to get rid of inventory and I stock up if I can.
I do add to my charcoal chunks of what ever wood I want smoke flavor, i.e. hickory, apple, cherry, white oak, pecan to name a few. I never soak them. There are occasions when you would want to soak for a little while, but not in any way that I would need to.
The "flavoring" woods I use for smoke will simply smolder on top of the charcoal. Depending on how you control your fire will dictate if you have flame ups. The more air it gets the more likely it will flare up, which is not good. What you looking for is a thin wispy blue in appearance type smoke. Real heavy yellow smoke is not good and your meat will take on a flavor you don't want. It does not take much smoke to flavor the meat.
***Cowboy brand is the other kind that I use***
I just went back and re-read the threads. Just to clear up why I say "Lump Charcoal" is because I don't want people to think I'm using briquettes. Those are a big no no for me.
Now, how do you clean the ashes out of the barrel? I didn't see a door in the side so do you have to turn it over and dump it?
Yes, barrel has to be turned upside down to empty the ashes out and at some point the bottom has to be scraped to get the build up of drippings out. Unfortunately with a barrel pit of this kind there is no way around it. The plus side is that it comes out pretty easy being the ashes mix with what drippings do not burn up in the fire. If I were to put a door somewhere or cut the bottom like I traditionally have in the past, then I would have no way to control the air intake due to the cuts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
I have thought off and on of making some kind of insert to go in the bottom that I can take out, but all in all turning the barrel upside down is not that bad.
The plus factors of this type of barrel smoker is due to better intake control and the top being fairly sealed,
1.) I can cut my charcoal usage in half if not more to do the same thing it use to do.
2.) I get that great flavor from the combination of charcoal, wood and the drippings falling in the hot coals.
3.) The convenience of almost unattended operation once I find the right intake control to maintain temperatures I want.
Brag has this capability on his BGE. I just happen to like making my pits and the barrel pits are a tried and true way to do this.
I just got some chicken thighs and breasts to marinating in some generic zesty Italian dressing for a few hours. I'm probably going to fire up the pit in a few hours to get it going. Stay tuned for pictures later this afternoon or this evening.
What if you had your son get you a small diameter barrel, cut it off about seven inches high and placed it in the bottom of the barrel? Instead of using bolts for legs for the wood basket you could use small pieces of strap metal to tie the wood basket to the ash barrel a few inches above the ash barrel so you would still have air flow underneath. The ashes would drop into the smaller barrel and when you pull the wood basket out, the ash barrel would come out with it.
That would get around the door issues, let you still control the air flow, and make it a bit easier to clean out. My brain hurts, now.
I thought about it, but can't block the intakes on the inside. That air has to flow directly to the fire so I would have to cut holes in the sides and line them up with the intakes. It's a thought that I am harboring though.
Rick, Here's some more pics. I got the chicken going.
Clickable thumbnails
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180002.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180003.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180004.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180006.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180007.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180008.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m..._P51800012.jpg
Chicken is done. New pit works like a charm! Took approx 2 hours to do this chicken I fiddled with the intakes and a few other things but I'm happy.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m..._P51800032.jpg
Tahyo, you're supposed to send some over to Q.C., remember?
Is there any chance that you would be willing to outsource this one?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken
Only the bones, Sam. Only the bones.:D
I don't know how much a lot of you bbq, but I am a freaking fanatic. As much as I know, there is just so much I don't know and continue to find the "ultimate".
Where as this barrel pit is concerned. I stumbled a little bit today only in trying to keep track of how fast/slow the chicken was cooking.
All in all though... where as homemade pits are concerned, this is the best one I've ever done. Nothing on this pit is original as I've pirated plans from where ever I could get them. Where as bbq pits are concerned, there is plenty of room for plagiarism but I will admit it.
I now pronounce this new barrel pit good and a keeper. I just ate some of the stuff off of it and I'm full as a tick.
I don't think you can get much better than the Italian dressing marinade for chicken. What a great flavor.
I would not want to sneak in there and try to borrow some of the chicken. It looks like guard duty is being well handled.
I use the generic Zesty Italian dressing for chicken. It's always a winner.