Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I get the thermoworks emails but i haven't seen them on sale yet.

 

I doubt they will for awhile, seems like they're selling plenty of them.

 

looks like i need to add coals

 

I said it above, but...

You should be able to get 6 hours easy out of that slow&sear at 225 once you learn the vents. If you do need to add coals, this is the hinged lid I was talking about...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WEPHKW

Just trying to hep

 

Yes.. I saw that.. It would make things a lot easier.

I wonder if walmart had it

 

if i add coals, i presume i have to start them, then wait for them to ash over. .. then dump them in there

 

not necessarily, you should be able to dump 10-12 coals on the older coals and it should light. Usually on mine is about every hour YMMV.

 

10 - 12 coals every hour? hmm..

Okay.

Anoher observation.

I rearranged the coals to clear the ash within the slow and sear.

That revived them and now my temps are back up at 260s..

 

South Texas?
Where's south Texas??

New to Texas. Live in Katy.

 

Ive seen the slow& sear go 225 for 6 hours with just vent control and a pretty full basket, no refilling. It's all in how you control the air to the fuel.

And, anytime you dick around with the coals like stirring them you will see an immediate increase but it's usually short lived... the key is learning how to get a lot of coals to burn at the rate you want. Dont light ALL the coals and put them in the basket, just light about 7 coals and put them on top of the basket of unlit coals. The lit ones will migrate to the unlit ones and it'll burn a looong time.

 

@ramonortiz55 , I think I see why you burned through those coals so fast... don't put the lit ones under the cold ones, put them on top.

 

That's exactly what I did.

 

Looks like tomorrow I'm going to do another round with coals at the bottom and 7 - 10 coals on top

 

That's exactly what you did? So in the pic you put the lit ones to the side, not the top? If so, that works too. I thought maybe there was a layer of lit under all the unlit.

 

I put the lit ones on one side,under the coals.

 

If, while you're still learning your rig, you need to add coals (unlit) just position your current grate with the biggest opening by the handle over the center of the coal box. You can add a few and push them around to distribute with a metal rod of some sort.

 

Put them OVER the coals.

 

Will do.

 

Might as well throw some sort of meat on. Try a 1/2 or 1/3 of a pork loin or a whole tenderloin.

 

Its been holding at 226 for the past 30 minutes!