Cliff H.
Master Chef
Griff said:When I do a chuck I do a single nine to ten pounder.
Griff
That is a big one. I don't think I have seen a chuck roast that big at Sam's before. How long does it take to smoke one of them honkers?
Griff said:When I do a chuck I do a single nine to ten pounder.
Griff
Cliff H. said:Too bad they weren't as moist as you expected. The four I've done came out about as moist as a well-cooked butt.Unity said:[quote="Cliff H.":2eyched9]Both chucks had a great flavor.... were on the dry side.
How'd your WSM do this time?
--John 8)
Cliff H. said:Larry,
I did have some issues with temps trying to climb. At one point the dome got up to 280 and I had no alternative but to close the top vent by 1/2 to bring the temps down. When I left, the temps were falling from 270 and the vent was 3/4 open. This could have caused the creasote formation and the hi temps could have caused the chucks to dry out.
I agree with you on the wood. The wood I am using is some that was cut almost a year ago. I picked out sticks that clicked when tapped together but felt heavy. With the weather the way it has been the wood in the garage may have picked up some humidity.
That little bit of wood would have only lasted two hours tops in an offset but it was still burning after 10-12 hours on the wsm.
When the wife shut the vents down there was enough air getting to the fire to keep it in the 100 deg range for a few hours. I feel that this is when most of the creasote was formed and everything stuck together.
--John 8)VWB said:Q: Can the WSM be fired using wood chunks or logs instead of charcoal?
A: Yes, but with considerable effort and inconvenience. Wood must be burned down to hot coals in a separate container, then shoveled into the WSM, and this process must be repeated several times during the course of cooking. Most people who try this once don't try it again.
brian j said:please explain how closing the top vent 1/3 - 1/2 creates a smoldering fire where as shutting down all the botton vents won't. both are limiting the amount of air getting to the fire.
Unity said:Cliff, it surprised me when you said you're burning wood -- first I've heard about anybody doing that. The FAQs at virtualweberbullet.com say this:
--John 8)VWB said:Q: Can the WSM be fired using wood chunks or logs instead of charcoal?
A: Yes, but with considerable effort and inconvenience. Wood must be burned down to hot coals in a separate container, then shoveled into the WSM, and this process must be repeated several times during the course of cooking. Most people who try this once don't try it again.
Oh, you were talking about smoke wood. Gotcha. [smilie=a_doh.gif]Cliff H. said:I didn't actually burn all wood. After 10 hours of cooking and not adding anything to the wsm there was still wood that had not burned up. When I took the lid off for a few min wood caught on fire and I could see that the chunks I put in there still had a ways to go before they would be exhausted.
this may be like foiling briskets and we may have to agree to disagree, but what you have described is cutting out oxygen from fueling a fire (in this case the spark plug from firing and driving a piston). to me you haven't described the difference between a clean burning fire and a smoldering fire which is going to occur whenever a fire is limited fuel (wood or oxygen).brian j said:[quote="Larry Wolfe":1r82er75]Closing the top vent doesn't feed the fire, it gives the smoke/gases an outlet, "exhaust". The bigger outlet for the exhaust the better your fire will burn. Closing the bottom vent's shut off the majority of oxygen feeding the fire, thus causing it to burn at a lower temp, but still burning vs. smoldering. You want a clean efficient burning fire, not a smoldering fire.
Use your truck as an example. If you stick a rag in your exhaust pipe it will start to spit and sputter and soon cut off because you choked the cylinders ability fire properly. When you restart your truck, you're going to get a plume of black smoke which is all of the nasties it was unable to get rid of. Same thing with your smoker if you stop it's ability to breathe properly.
brian j said:[quote="Larry Wolfe":1d2mxqbq]Closing the top vent doesn't feed the fire, it gives the smoke/gases an outlet, "exhaust". The bigger outlet for the exhaust the better your fire will burn. Closing the bottom vent's shut off the majority of oxygen feeding the fire, thus causing it to burn at a lower temp, but still burning vs. smoldering. You want a clean efficient burning fire, not a smoldering fire.
Use your truck as an example. If you stick a rag in your exhaust pipe it will start to spit and sputter and soon cut off because you choked the cylinders ability fire properly. When you restart your truck, you're going to get a plume of black smoke which is all of the nasties it was unable to get rid of. Same thing with your smoker if you stop it's ability to breathe properly.
who said it was designed to work that way? i have not seen anything from weber saying to use only the bottom vents to control temp. but to answer you question yes, and i feel i have better control using both the bottom and top vents. creosote is only going to build up if you have a big fire and no place for the smoke to go i.e. closed top vent.[/quote:3mdic47c]brian j said:[quote="Nick Prochilo":3mdic47c]Have you ever tried controling it with the bottom vents like it was designed?
i have mine. i sleep with under my pillow. :P page 10 under helpful hits.brian j said:[quote="Nick Prochilo":15fqc3fb]I thought that's the way it was said in the Weber booklet that came with it. I just search for mine but I couldn't find it. If opening and closing your top vent works for you, then by all means keep doing it that way. I'm gonna side with Larry here and keep my top vent wide open and control my temps through the bottom. What Larry said makes sense to me about smoldering and clean burning.
Uh, I think Cliff was talking about creosote, not soot.Larry Wolfe said:Cliff had problems with soot and I was offering my advice to help prevent it the next time.
Unity said:Uh, I think Cliff was talking about creosote, not soot.Larry Wolfe said:Cliff had problems with soot and I was offering my advice to help prevent it the next time.
--John 8)
(Although I'm puzzled how creosote could build up in several cooks from a few chunks of smoke wood. :scratch )