Wood help, please.

After all these years running smokers,I have never really considered the state of the leftover charred wood,as long as the cook went well.

I'm guessing it could have to do with type of wood,how dried it was,length of cook,running temp,shape,position in firebox ?

Thanks Tom for responding. I'm wondering if smaller pieces are more prone to smoldering fully. All of my wood to date has been Cookshack wood, and I keep it in my kitchen pantry.

My wood chunks are almost always completely reduced to ash, but that's over at least a four or five hour period of cooking, usually longer, for butts and brisket.

When I've done shorter sessions, just to get some smoke flavor on something, the chunks may or may not be reduced to ash. I haven't paid that much attention, but it may depend on the size of the chunks. In my own experience, I've never seen a chunk that wasn't at least fully blackened after a cook, more like "charcoal" than "wood".

I assume your cooking times and temps are otherwise in the ballpark, right? Have you checked with CookShack customer service on this? They probably have some insights.

chefjeff,

I have a smokette, The only time that I see wood turn to total ash is if I do a 20 hr pork butt smoke. Anything going less time will leave wood that looks like lump charcoal.

I have the best luck positioning any wood towards the front of the wood box, just over the bend in the heating element. I also seem to have better luck using one larger chunk of wood as apposed to two smaller chunks of the same weight.

I am not an total expert with the cookshack and sometimes scratch my head with the how the wood ends up. based on some of the posts I would guess that I like a lot of smoke aroma on my meats so I am always happy to see that all of the wood has gone to ash. One thing that does seem constant is that the more wood you start with the more smoke flavor you will end up with no matter how the wood looks after the smoke.

Do any experts have similar results?

Thanks Bob and DMK. Positioning the wood over the bend will be my very next experiment. As for the cooking temps that I use---200º for fish, 225º for chicken, and believe it or not----180º for ribs! Somewhere I either heard or read that smoke will begin when the thermostat hits 135º.

Thanks again for your responses,
Jeff

I have had this happen a couple of times. What I do when my wood does not turn to ash. I use a soft bristle brush and scrub the whole inside good. Then i clean the smoke box with white lighting. Soak it and rense really good. Then last i use a gun cleaning kit copper brush to clean the top and bottom hole. This take about 20 minutes tops. Then the wood burns to ash for me.

I put in a nice brisket an hour ago and put the 2 oz. chunk of CookShack apple wood in the front of the woodbox and set the dial to just a tad under 200*. The smoke started almost immediately and very thick. Should have tried it years ago. The way it is smoking now, no doubt it will burn completely.

I like to leave my smoker well seasoned.

Derek,
Another quick way to clean the woodbox without using all those chemicals is to use a plain green Scotchbrite pad (with no attached backings), and rub away, with or without water as you like. After you have cleaned the inside, if you want to do the outside also, rub with the 'grain' of the metal and it will shine like new. Cleaning the outside of the woodbox once in a while keeps the foil from sticking to it as bad for easier cleaning. I learned the Scotchbrite pad trick from commercial kitchen equipment installers who polish field modifications of stainless steel countertops that way. Remember if appearance matters, on stainless steel rub ONLY WITH the grain of the metal.

Thank you for the Scotchbrite tip. I like that one!
Jeff

Thanks Nod. I picked up a red scotchbrite pad from a stainless fab shop here in town today. Just cleaned the smoke box with it. Works great!

Nothing against cleanliness,but I always figured a firebox is a firebox.

Now, we do foil the tops of the lids on our fireboxes before each cook,as well as the floor of the cooker.

We do shake the ashes out of the firebox,before the next cook.

I can think of no reason at all to clean the inside.

Just my $0.02

Makes it pretty?

Kinda like I learned out on the farm.

Ya can dress up your pet heifer,but you still can't take her to town.

Very well put!

Jeff,

I have experienced the same problems. First make sure you have the updated fire box for the AmeriQue. Second, never let the wood sit over the air holes in the bottom of the box - it needs all the air it can get.

Good to read one of your post. Been gone for a while, Alaska and for a Florida brat it is cold up there. First order of business on return was to smoke up two butts, 16 lbs total, in the AmeriQue and had friends over. I got a perfect burn on the wood with the AmeriQue set at 220 degrees for 20 hours and finished at 195 degrees internal. What I call a perfect burn was 90 percent ash and 10 percent charcoal when cleaning the box out.

smokemullet

Smokemullet,
Can you please explain your comment on the "updated fire box" for the Amerique? What has changed?

Nodrog,

The first run of the first month of Ameriques had a firebox that did not allow enough oxygen to enter the box and the wood made charcoal. As far as I know they were all replaced by Cookshack within weeks of the discovery. They didn't want the old box and I took a 1/2 drill and duplicated the new box and now have two perfect boxes and don't know what to do with the extra one for I am sure it will never wear out.

smokemullet