I have to ask

[dtel]

I am new to this and have a question I can't find an answer to.

Why do so many people use charcoal or lump charcoal ? (in a firebox) Or am I misreading and it's used in pits that don't have a firebox?

I know it's probably a dumb question for many people here, and there is a good reason, but I don't know the answer.

I have just been building a fire with the same Oak we use to heat the house and add some hickory when I had it.

I love the taste and smell of Hickory but I read it's to strong to use by itself, and I understand that.

[Oregon smoker]

Not a dumb question, the one that is not asked is the dumb one.
I think what your referring to is offset pits possibly and related to any cooker for that matter.
First off, lump burns hotter, you need to use less. The desire is to have the smallest clean burning fire that produces the temps you aim for. Briq's can all kinds of chit added to em to bind them together, hence finding a all hardwood briq. But they can choke themselves out due to ash production.
Whatever fuel you use there can be some nasty by products of a poor fire and its management. Have you ever eaten BBQ that makes your tongue go numb? That is the result of poor fire control.
As to pits with an offset firebox its so the meat is not directly over the coals and most time especially with bigger pits they only burn wood. I start with lump in my small ones and move to wood exclusively as the fire needs it.
Try using the oak only, you dont have to be so touchy with it and can use it as the only fuel source.
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#3 LIAR

[k.a.m.]

dtel, a lot of people including me use 1 or 2 fully lit chimneys of lump or charcoal with a couple of wood splits to start the fire in an offset. It jump starts your coal base and speeds up the process. In smaller backyard offsets some folks can run lump of charcoal exclusively and use wood chunks for flavor but when you cross the threshold and move into trailer mounted rigs with larger fireboxes it gets expensive to run one on lump or charcoal. Example is my backyard cooker gets started with 1 chimney fully lit of charcoal I add 2 splits to this and let the cooker settle in. After this I use 1 to 2 splits about every 30min. to 45min. to maintain the coal base. On long cooks I sometimes replenish my coal base with a lit chimney of charcoal instead of the splits. I hope this helps.
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Always remember slow and steady wins the race.

Hybrid Cooker

[roxy]

[necron 99]

Also, vertical or 'bullet' style smokers are not really designed for 100% stick burning (or 100% chunk burning). I'd hazard a guess that's true of UDS style cookers although I can't speak from personal experience since I never had a UDS.

In my younger days in South Texas I would BBQ by 100% stick burning free mesquite in an Old Smokey cooker. I never used the burn down the wood to coals seperately in this style cooker. It can be done but fire building and fire management skills are key.

I'm +1 with k.a.m. on how I use my horizontal offset smoker. But I enjoy my bullet smoker for overnight cook sessions or days when I'm multitasking while cooking something with a relatively short cooking time like ribs or tri tip roasts or brined and stuffed pork loins.

Overall, my bullet smoker has about twice the thermal efficiency of my horizontal offset smoker. So, even though it requires charcoal, it's about half the amount vs. using charcoal in my horizontal offset smoker, and my bullet smoker has TONS better ash handling capacity than my horizontal offset smoker.

just different fuels and techniques for different equipment along with whether you have a low to no cost source for good cooking wood.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[dtel]

Thanks everyone.
It was kind of thought, some designs are not made for sticks, others are efficient enough to do fine on lump and with a fire box it's the convenience of warming up and also an easy way to get sticks burning and get some coals built up.

I had a bullet model many years ago and it was easy to keep going with lump, I always used lump because to me the charcoal didn't last as long or taste as good to me.

Then I grilled for years trying everything to get that smoke flavor with little success. So i built the offset firebox design I have now. With the size of it it did not look like I could keep up the temp's unless I used a crazy amount of charcoal or lumps so I just used sticks. I did think about charcoals to help speed up building the fire but never tried it.

It's really nice to have a place to ask questions and get an answer from people with experiance, and willing to help, Thanks...................and I have alot to learn so this is not the last question.

[dtel]

[Oregon smoker]

[necron 99]

[dtel]

[Oregon smoker]

[GnarleyQr]