Let's Talk BBQ
Outdoor Cooking Equipment => Grills & Smokers => Stick Burners => Topic started by: smokeasaurus on November 28, 2013, 07:23:34 PM
-
The wood-fired Stick Burner is the most challenging type of pit to control. It also is often the novice's first pit. This is a bad combination. As we learned in How Wood Burns, restricting combustion air is an easy way to control pit temperature but doing so will degrade smoke quality. Unfortunately, the Stick Burner's only controls - the inlet and/or outlet damper - do just that, and it's left to the pit boss to learn the fire management techniques that keep smoke and temperature in-line simultaneously. The common thinking error is to take a "log-forward" approach instead of a "meat-back" one.
The log-forward approach starts with logs, commonly available in 18" and 24" lengths, and usually split as little as the supplier can get away with. Big logs must mean less frequent tending, which seems good. This leads us to buy a pit with a big firebox, 20" or 24" square. Now we need a fire. Since we can't make a fire with one log, we arrange three to provide some decent geometry that will trap enough heat to sustain a flame. And this is where our problems begin - three big logs, fully crowned with flame (to burn the smoke), produce way more power than most backyard pits need. So we reduce the power by throttling air and black, bitter, creosote-covered meat is the result. Uncle Ralph swears it's the best he's ever eaten, but you're not so sure - Ralph's "authentic, charcoal-grilled" burgers always tasted a bit like lighter fluid ...
Meat-back thinking starts with the product and works back to the log. How big a fire do we need to raise our 4' long pit to 230F with 60 lbs of cold meat in it? No calculator exists, but a hot, compact, well-oxygenated fire the size of a shoebox will surely do it. And if that fire is going to have three or four logs in it, they've got to be pretty small. And that means we're going to be adding small logs more frequently, instead of big ones less so. The #1 cause of bad barbecue in backyard-sized stick burners is oversized logs - get out your chainsaw and splitting maul and your product will improve dramatically. The pellet cooker is meat-back thinking taken to its extreme: tiny logs added very frequently, controlled hot geometry, lots of air, and a fire the size of a coffee cup.
Stick Burners can and do make great barbecue, but not without a lot of effort from an experienced and knowledgeable pit boss. For that reason, they are viewed by some as the most "real" type of barbecue pit.
-
Amen... except for the pellet part. ;)
-
Well…pellets are wood. And they are sticks. Perhaps the offset stick burner is so you can play with bigger sticks, to reinforce certain feelings of inadequacy??? :D :D :D :D
JK guys…. I have no prejudice either way. If you can make good BBQ on a hot rock, and burning a pine branch - I am all for you! ;)
-
I've cooked on stick burners for several decades ???
For most of that time without a thermometer!
Now my pits have thermometers & I realize that my pit temps vary from 225 to 315 & it's all good!
-
Smoke I like my logs about 8 in , I get friends to cut loge to that length & I split them
(http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz203/Lostarrow-photos/d421258e4688fab17d9d2dbafba70e30.jpg)
(http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz203/Lostarrow-photos/3c004b0b5c0fcd9f778f5c9d9df3f1d8.jpg)
-
I thought of keeping out the pellet remark, cause I copied and pasted it and felt I would just leave it in to keep the article in its entirety.
Lost Arrow is keeping it real out at the Hunt Camp :)
-
Good read, thanks
-
I thought of keeping out the pellet remark, cause I copied and pasted it and felt I would just leave it in to keep the article in its entirety.
Lost Arrow is keeping it real out at the Hunt Camp :)
I will assume that everyone knows I am just kidding about the pellet poopers. I believe in the 3 Cs of BBQ... 1) Creating, 2) Consuming and 3) Competing. For me it is all about creating. I have no doubt that I could make food that tastes better to 99% of the world on a pellet smoker, and I am also sure that I could never compete with my style of food. What I do know is that it suites my pallet and is hell of a lot of fun to "create" on a stick burner.
-
I personally will put up my grub off of the stick burner against anything out there ( I ran pellets for a while), if they could only make on off-set that has the ease and convenience of a pellet grill..........never gonna happen though..... :(
-
I am glad that I have both. Like I have said several times before, I use the pellet burner for all of my long duration cooks. Instead of getting up at 3:00 AM and tending that fire every hour on the hour and making sure everything is running correctly, I just place the brisket on the pellet smoker and let it run. The last big cook that I had before surgery was a 12 lb brisket set at 225 and it ran for 20 hours before it hit the target temperature. I could literally sleep through it and not worry until my alarm went off to alert me to the target temperature.
Just my preference, and not anyone's else's, but the my wood smoker is better served for cooks from 5 to 8 hours where I can pay attention and monitor the cook. Now that it is getting dark so early, I cannot monitor the beast properly without good light. Which means that I need to put a spot out there. But, I get tired and I want to rest and do something else instead of run out to the stick burner for 20 hours.
That's my "opinion" and I am sticking to it. Any opinions are like circular sphincters, everyone has one.
Ed
-
I personally will put up my grub off of the stick burner against anything out there ( I ran pellets for a while), if they could only make on off-set that has the ease and convenience of a pellet grill..........never gonna happen though..... :(
That is why I gave the not so scientific 99% disclaimer... In my experience (even in Texas), most folks prefer to eat Q that is a little on the lighter side of the pallet (smoke and seasoning). As for comp, well IMO that is more about the perfection of technique than it is about cooking.
-
Tee has created this giant parking lot and no matter what kind of pickemuptruck we drive, we are welcome to park here :)
-
Great article- especially the part about the smoldering wood, creosote tasting meat. When I went to Andy Groneman's brisket class, he talked about pre-heating your wood. That the wood to burn clean, clear/blue smoke; it should combust instantly when place in the pit fire. I experimented with this line of thinking and my research teaches me: That now I will keep both my wood logs and Kingsford in the pit, just far enough from the fire to keep it from combusting. I have noticed significant reduction in the dark smoldering smoke and my smoke remains light blue! If I don't have room in my pit fire box, or running my UDS's; I will run a small charcoal grill on the side with my wood and charcoal in it. Is this necessary.... very likely not, but I know that for me; my stick burning Q tastes a whole lotta better when I do this.
Dan
-
Since I got the square fire-box, I just rest a couple of splits on top and let em get toasty. I start with about 5 lbs of Kingsford for a base. I add one 8" split (I grabbed a Mitre saw yesterday ;)) and let that burn till about 1/2 way spent. I then add a fresh split next to it. After about 30-45 minutes the first split is spent and I break it up with tongs and add a new split on top of the broken up coals. Then when the fresh split is spent I break it up and add another one. I might add a split every 45 minutes but I burn steady around 225-230 with no smoldering smoke at all. When I add the fresh split, I leave the fire-box door cracked open for about 5 minutes. This ensures that the fresh split bursts into flames and will not smolder. The initial smoke does not enter the smoking chamber. The pit does not get a heat spike that way also. I pretty much have a clean burning fire for as long as I want. The key is getting the wood hot. I tried one that was not heated and there was too much smoke. If you are gonna get an off-set get a square fire-box. If you have a round fire-box, get a welder to put on a 1/4" flat pot warmer on top (if possible to rest your wood on).