Bill Schultz
TVWBB Hall of Fame
I use wood, mostly Oak which I find to be the best for my uses all the time cooking outside in the fire pit. I also have done it when rained on under the porch in both the WSM and the OTG. When you cook with wood in the OTG you need short pieces and also chunks work well.
When you cook with wood you need to start way ahead of time and make a deep bed of coals on one side of the grill or use the whole bottom and when the wood is burned down 70% or so use your shovel or poker to move the fire over to one side. That works fastest. depending on what you are cooking and for how long you will then add more pieces of wood to the top of the fire. The goal is to keep a steady supply of coals. I put the grate on with one handle near me so I can lift up the grate when needed and use my hooked poker to rake over however many coals i want depending on heat needed. For quick meat cooks like steaks burgers Carne Asada etc. I just burn the wood in the center and spread out once they burn down to mostly charred still slightly flaming chunks or splits.
I learned how to cook outside back when I was doing a lot of Rendezvous and also hunting/camping with some old timers and they all use basically a Keyhole Fire. Basically they have a main fire going and pull hot coals as needed down a trough between wood or stones as needed with the grate or other holder above the trough to hold the pan or pot. Works great. Same basic idea I use in the OTG
Here is a video of a larger one in use, when I cook for just me or a few people I use a much smaller version of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmBwdfKl2-g
When you cook with wood you need to start way ahead of time and make a deep bed of coals on one side of the grill or use the whole bottom and when the wood is burned down 70% or so use your shovel or poker to move the fire over to one side. That works fastest. depending on what you are cooking and for how long you will then add more pieces of wood to the top of the fire. The goal is to keep a steady supply of coals. I put the grate on with one handle near me so I can lift up the grate when needed and use my hooked poker to rake over however many coals i want depending on heat needed. For quick meat cooks like steaks burgers Carne Asada etc. I just burn the wood in the center and spread out once they burn down to mostly charred still slightly flaming chunks or splits.
I learned how to cook outside back when I was doing a lot of Rendezvous and also hunting/camping with some old timers and they all use basically a Keyhole Fire. Basically they have a main fire going and pull hot coals as needed down a trough between wood or stones as needed with the grate or other holder above the trough to hold the pan or pot. Works great. Same basic idea I use in the OTG
Here is a video of a larger one in use, when I cook for just me or a few people I use a much smaller version of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmBwdfKl2-g
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