I moved pastures the other day and got into some really nice “grey wood” standing dead trees that have been dead a long time. Wood is the kind of stuff people beg for for cooking wood. Customer I dropped it off to for bbq says it’s burning up over night and his pit is cold in the morning.
the pasture I was in before had lots of standing dead wood also, but I was clear cutting so I’d probably send 15-20% green wood in every load. No green wood in the new place. I’m wondering if he was chunking a couple green chunks on the smoker at night. I’ve seen him throwing them on the steak fire, he says they coal up better and stay ready a lot longer so they don’t have to babysit it on a busy night.
I guess I need to buy a moisture meter.
Take it from me a guy that lives in Houston, home of the largest most famous bbq cook off competition in the world. There is a bbq joint on almost every street corner in the state. As Texans, we know bbq.
The best bbq joints don't put wood directly into the bbq pit. They have a fire pit out back and burn there wood down to coals then transfer the coals to the bbq pit.
NEVER EVER put ANY mesquite directly into your bbq pit, Mesquite is a grilling wood, it MUST be burned down to coals before it's moved to your bbq pit.
I've been selling wood to competition cooking teams and bbq joints for over a decade and I get all kinds of request, and complements. All bbq pits run differently depending on size design, Also wind direction and air temps plays a big role in how a pit functions. bbq pits like a fireplace or stove has a draft and that draft will change with wind direction changes. The size of the firebox and the size of the wood you use in it also plays a big role in how it will operate. Unlike charcoal when cooking with wood your always going to get more heat and cool spikes no mater what kind of pit or wood you use. People don't understand the drafting effect that wind plays in how a pit operates. Shifting winds makes it harder to maintain an even temp for a given amount of wood you load in the fire box. Everyone has to experiment through trial and error in order to get the best fire possible, from the pit they are using.
The ideal fire will put out a almost clear smoke that is almost invisible. What smoke you see coming out the stack should be a clear bluish smoke that is almost invisible. You should see little smoke and what smoke you do see should look more like just a shimmering heat wave with almost no smoke at all. That means your fire is burning the most efficient it can. The dryer the wood the cleaner the smoke will be. If you have white smoke coming out the stack, your fire is burning too cool and that white smoke is un burned fuel and will create more creosote witch will make your meat bitter. Meat will only absorb so much smoke before it seals and covers the outside bark with creosote. Cooking with strait wood does require more attention and more frequent loading of wood.Adding ANY green wood to make it burn longer will simply create more creosote and white smoke and more creosote. Learning to get the fire rite is the key to good bbq vs great bbq. Making great bbq is an art and the key is keeping and maintaining the correct fire. People are lazy and want to overload the firebox so they can sleep all night. Thats there biggest mistake, because it creates that white creosote smoke you need to avoid.
The key is the fire and the size of the wood you feed compared to the size of the firebox it needs to maintain that clear blue almost invisible smoke. When you add a new piece of wood to the firebox you will always get some white smoke for a few min till the dry wood starts burning properly. People think by adding more wood it will burn longer, and it will, but it's not gonna burn efficiently and make too much white smoke. Making great bbq requires constant attention to the fire and how it's burning. Some pits work better and will hold heat longer and the fire will burn longer depending on design. Laze cookers never have great bbq, it's the ones that have taken there time and done there experiments to make there pit run it's optimal. Many of the great cookers have two fire pits and start the wood in a separate fire pit and once the fire burns down to coals and will then transfer the coals to the pit. They almost never throw a raw piece of wood directly into the firebox on the pit to avoid any white smoke. The proper fire is an art and must be learned through trial and error.
A proper fire will only burn right for a shorter time. People confuse a bbq fire with a fire for the house stove. Thats where they are making there mistakes. All the champion teams I have worked with swear by this method. They also don't cook with one type of wood. They mix different types of wood. They use a combination of wood types of wood, They may use some different oaks, pecan, hickory, mesquite to create a different flavor profile. They almost never use one type of wood exclusively. Different wood types add different flavors, just like different rubs do.
Explain to them these techniques and I guaranty there bbq will not just be good, it will be great. Enplane that it's the art of the fire that is the key and to stop being laze when they are cooking.
The last thing is a good pit needs to be used on a regular bassos. A pit will go stale if you only use it once a month. It you haven't used it lately they need to run a fire for a few hours and give it a good cleaning before they start cooking.