# cold fire burning



## olflathead (Dec 19, 2012)

cooking on my meadowcreek pigroaster this weekend. Its fired by charcoal and im getting a little nervous with the temperature being in the low 20s at start time. Any suggestions on keeping the temps up without burning through the coal to quickly.


----------



## Max1 (Dec 19, 2012)

Get a blanky for your smoker. That will isolate it some.


----------



## bigwheel (Dec 20, 2012)

Anything to block the wind will help. Park a car in front..tie a tarp across..set up some plywood upright shields etc. Stick it inside an EZ up gizmo would be ideal if you can vent it someway. Keep us up to speed on the project.


----------



## pete1 (Dec 20, 2012)

I, too am planning a cook Sat. Temps in the low 30s. I bought some aluminum insulation from Lowes and made a wrap around for the body of the smoker and made a hat with holes for the gauge and vent and made a flap to raise to open the door to add charcoal and replenish the water. I will watch the temp gauge and adjust accordingly.

BTW I am using a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. Butts on top and brisket on the bottom. This is my first cook with the smoker and I don't want to screw it up.


----------



## bigwheel (Dec 20, 2012)

Glad your taking some steps. Those R2d2's are highly wind sensitive. Upside down 55 gallon barrel over the top works best...but it needs to be coming a blizzard to need it. A big upside down galvanized washtub should be just what the Doctor would order for just regular old cold windy weather. That will conserve a bunch of heat and is also good if it rains. Smart thinking.


----------



## Puff1 (Dec 20, 2012)

Just make a wind block out of wood or what have you.
3 sided. Put the middle side towards the wind.
Big Wheeler is a little lax on the operation of such a fine smokin' machine. Pay no attention to that Texan behind the curtain.


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 20, 2012)

cooking sunday for my church 110 people ,going to take my welding blanket i do think


----------



## olflathead (Dec 20, 2012)

I have a movers blanket that I use for my MC cooker. Works pretty good. Just got my WSM this week. It will be going toe to toe with the ol MC. I do have a EZ up also. Looks like its going to BBQ or bust this weekend. Good luck pete with your first cook on the WSM, I'll be right there with ya.


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 20, 2012)

yes i have my EZ up but i used my tarps on something else lol never thought of that maybe i go get a couple more


----------



## Griff (Dec 22, 2012)

WSM will do fine in the cold if there's not much wind. I 'be cooked down to -20 if there's no wind.


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 22, 2012)

loaded up and ready for in the morning taking the rv so i will be able to get ready for church lol i know its cheating but i cant help my self ,and it has heater


----------



## olflathead (Dec 22, 2012)

cook went well. 25degrees at start time. MeadowCreek CD108 and my new WSM done well. Cooked at 250 on the wsm and had to add a partial chimney at the 6hr mark, not sure why but it still seemed to do a good job.


----------



## Max1 (Dec 23, 2012)

Speaking of fires what ever happened to that post that described what all the different types of wood did to meat and such? I was looking for it the other day and could not find it.


----------



## pete1 (Dec 23, 2012)

I smoked the butt and brisket Sat. Temp was about 27 when I started. I made a few greenhorn mistakes but the butt and brisket turned out pretty good.

I put the meat on before the charcoal stabilized and the heat spiked up pretty high. I don't think my probe/monitor was accurate although I checked it with boiling water. The probes read 195 and 205 when I took them off. I checked with another probe and it read about 190 and 185. I took the butt off at that time. Took the brisket off at about 185 and let it rest until the butts came off. The butt was very good but it did not pull well. 

I learned a lot and hope to do better next time.


----------



## bbquzz (Dec 23, 2012)

pete said:


> I smoked the butt and brisket Sat. Temp was about 27 when I started. I made a few greenhorn mistakes but the butt and brisket turned out pretty good.
> 
> I put the meat on before the charcoal stabilized and the heat spiked up pretty high. I don't think my probe/monitor was accurate although I checked it with boiling water. The probes read 195 and 205 when I took them off. I checked with another probe and it read about 190 and 185. I took the butt off at that time. Took the brisket off at about 185 and let it rest until the butts came off. The butt was very good but it did not pull well.
> 
> I learned a lot and hope to do better next time.



Sounds like you are learning the same way I did, trial and error. Either butt or brisket are pretty big cuts and the temperature could be different in different parts of the meat, might try several places and average. I've found with either cut you need to be pretty close to 200°.

Just so you know the unwritten rule here is "No Picture ... No Cook" so next time take some pictures and you can start your own thread, you will probably get more direct help if you have your own thread.


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 23, 2012)

well church cook went good today started out pretty chili 28 so i tried the blanket thing everyone mentioned and it didn't work for me i had a run away smoker ,wow it was just to much temp keep creeping up so the blanket had to go then all was well ! 
2 turkeys ,2 butts, 2 hams 20 lbs mashed potatoes ,15 lbs mac and cheese,4 gallon of green beans , and boat load of rolls 
every one was all smiles


----------



## bigwheel (Dec 23, 2012)

Well glad to hear all went well for them in the trenches. Great job guys.


----------



## olflathead (Dec 23, 2012)

don't give up on the blanket yet SSBBQ. that's what that thing suppose to do. if your smokers dragging a little because of the cold, cover her up and she should respond. mine hit 260 and I took it off, it went back to 240 and held there. just make sure its a 100% cotton. uh, learnt the hard way. lol


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 23, 2012)

lol mine wouldnt come down under 300 thats why i lost the blanket i hadnt ever had a problem just thought it made good sense so i wanted to go back to sleep build small fire and let it ride just didnt work that way ,but i think the turkey was honestly the best i have ever done ! it was the juiciest thing and had just the right color  was really nice ,but i had so many coments on the ham it was everyones fav i think , i deep fried a turkey to it was good to


----------



## olflathead (Dec 23, 2012)

sounds good. Where did u get your ham. tried to find one at sams club but everything was already smoked.


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 23, 2012)

iga it was a whole ham bone in ,never really cooked one like it! nothing left but mac and cheese lol thats how i like it and i sold my smoker im sure i will be sick about that but o well my new projects need funding hehe


----------



## olflathead (Dec 23, 2012)

sorry to hear about the smoker. guess i'll cook some chicken and ribs on Christmas with my new wsm. when one goes down, one must rise up.lol


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 23, 2012)

Well  bbq it up on Christmas, and shouldn't price things too don't want to sale lol people will buy it from you,I don't have the funds right now to finish new Smokers so it will go along way for me I need a vault style for my Catering rig , going to do a stomps type, and have not  really made up my mind yet for other one but will be similar just bigger


----------



## Max1 (Dec 24, 2012)

Well if you have a grill of any type, you still have a smoker. Just cook indirectly, and add some wood chips to the mix.


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 24, 2012)

hey max i have a few smokers that one is my fav it  does  really nice job and has few negative things about it just going to mis it lol


----------



## Max1 (Dec 24, 2012)

Had no clue. Sorry to hear. But if you have more smokers, you can still smoke!


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 24, 2012)

*more smokers*

the blue smoker is the one that the guy is buying


----------



## Max1 (Dec 24, 2012)

Sorry brother I saw no picture?


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 24, 2012)

cant seem to get it to work lol


----------



## Max1 (Dec 24, 2012)

Let me see if I could help....

Your line of bbcode should look something like this.



>


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 24, 2012)




----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 24, 2012)

i used the pictures in my cp on forum didnt work /


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 24, 2012)

http://www.bbq-4-u.com/forum/members/18064-albums11-picture60.html
http://www.bbq-4-u.com/forum/members/18064-albums11-picture53.html
http://www.bbq-4-u.com/forum/members/18064-albums11-picture50.html

try that


----------



## Max1 (Dec 24, 2012)

I think your problem is that you are trying to hotlink something that you have uploaded to this site. You may want to get like a photo bucket account and upload your pictures there then post the url to here. If I did not have a site, I would do that, it does not cost anything.


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 25, 2012)

ok i got this this time





[/IMG]


----------



## Max1 (Dec 25, 2012)

Did you delete the images because, I see blank thumbnails.


----------



## DJ (Dec 25, 2012)

Cold Temps usually mean a cleaner fire.....just add an xtra stick along the way...
dj


----------



## bigwheel (Dec 25, 2012)

Lookin good.


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 25, 2012)

well i have my blanki on it today trying this again seems to really be working this time i hope it will make the wood last longer lol


----------



## Max1 (Dec 26, 2012)

Cool you got your pictures working.


----------



## SLOW SMOKIN BBQ (Dec 26, 2012)

yes finally got it figured out ,was funny we have had snow and ice all night and i got up this morning started to leave around 9 and i still had smoke coming out of the stack ,so i just added some wood to it so when i get home i can see it burning lol ,i will miss o blue he is my fav


----------



## Max1 (Dec 26, 2012)

There, there, it's okay, you will build another one.....   :p


----------



## bigwheel (Dec 27, 2012)

Okay Max bring us up to speed here. Thanks.


----------

