BBQer's, let's talk pit fires.

[Hotler]

Do you keep a separate pit fire going to add coals to the smoker firebox when needed, or do you throw in a chunk of wood? I'm heading to the store to get stuff to try the two sauce recipes I saw here I'll check back in an hour.
Thanks

[pipoman]

1. I use a pellet smoker

what kind of smoker are you using? Some of the small round smokers you about have to start new outside the smoker then add them every 4 or 5 hours. The bigger smokers I have been around, like a barrel type with a separate fire box, most users just add well seasoned wood as needed. Hope this helps.

[Hotler]

4. I have a barrel type with separate fire box.

I read about and see people throwing in a piece of wood and then I read were there should be very little to no flame in the box. I have done it both ways. When I add chunks I preheat them by putting them on top of the fire box. I worry alittle about making the meat bitter.

[pipoman]

5. I think you control the flame

with the flue. If it flares up or is too hot close the flue a little, if it is too smoky or the temp is too low open the flue up. The only bitter meat I've ever had was cooked with hedge (osage orange) and it is notoriously oily smoke not considered good for food by most people. There is a restaurant in Wichita KS that uses hedge and the food is great but not real smoky.

[NashVegas]

2. Here's One

Done by hillbillies on the Cumberland Plateau.



A small pile is kept going through the day, separately, and gets periodically shoveled in.

[pipoman]

3. Out here on the prairie we don't have any

indigenous wood suitable for smoking, all of the hickory or fruit wood has to be brought in from other distant places...that method would never work here. looks like a good system if wood was abundant.