WSM as a stick burner ?

[Lynn Dollar]

What Kolman is doing is interesting. Its similar to what Aaron Franklin wrote about in his steak book. Franklin puts a split across the middle of his PK grill to insulate his indirect zone from heat of the coals, but the split also provides smoke.

I wonder how long Kolman's set up would maintain temp ? Does he cook at 275 * ?

I would guess there's still a good part of that split unburned at the end of the cook.

No doubt Kolman knows what he's doing, but I don't like the idea of ever shutting the top vent, not even a little. To me, that's just backing up smoke and cutting down what little air flow the WSM can generate.

And oh yeah, bout forgot, in that first vid he puts a graphic up that says he added a split every 30 minutes.

 

[Tony-Chicago]

I was told by several experts at Weber class to use large pieces of wood. These were frequently under the charcoal.

 

[Chris Allingham]

I wonder how long Kolman's set up would maintain temp ? Does he cook at 275 * ?

And oh yeah, bout forgot, in that first vid he puts a graphic up that says he added a split every 30 minutes.

Kevin and Dustin cooked overnight using this setup in both 18" and 22" WSMs. But I think they were down in the 225-250°F range.

My apologies to the video author, I missed that graphic. I'll go back and correct my post above.

 

[Chris Allingham]

This makes more sense...I'm going to try the single stick also, but it's just a variation of the buried chunks

Yes, I agree. But it may burn differently/more slowly than chunks.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

I would also guess there's much of that split remaining at the end of Kolman's method. And that method would provide smoke for the entire cook, as opposed to chunks burning up completely early on.

Oak for smoking meats is hard to find here, any variety of oak. When my woodlot gets oak, the guy says he has no idea what variety it is, says there's 10,000 different varieties of oak. Pecan and hickory are plentiful, however , and I use pecan for my brisket. Happy with that.

 

[Pinny]

I found this thread today and tried both of the the methods shared by Lynn in the opening post.

Harry's method of cracking the lid open with a wood chunk did not work well for me. I couldn't really get enough air flow to burn a really clean fire that way.

The White Thunder BBQ method, of simply removing the access door, wound up working really well. At first, I threw in two large splits and my fire got WAY too hot. I should have taken my time to put down a nice bed of coals, and just a single split. But anyway, once the fire died down, it was cooking beautifully. I thought it would eat through my wood supply, but each split actually lasted a lot longer than I imagined. All in all, this was a huge success - the fire burned super cleanly with no acrid smoke whatsoever, and the water pan worked well as a heat sink and heat shield. (This worked alot better than my COS Oklahoma Joe Highland.)

This was alot of fun, but I definitely need to practice several more times before I chance an expensive piece of meat (today we were just grilling which worked perfectly over the two blazing logs). Once I can keep the fire locked in between 250 and 300, I will definitely try a full packer and report back how it went.

Thanks,
Pinny

 

[Emilio Roy]

I buy post oak and other woods from Patty. I love going to her yard. I'm very lucky her yard is only a few minutes from my office.

Interesting the Harry started out just with post oak, but later on in the cooking process when he added a log, the logs he started with were resting on a pile of lit briquettes. The first guy also used charcoal with the wood logs. Makes me wonder if it is possible to run a WSM strictly on wood alone.

It is possible to run on only wood but it's very difficult.
You'll have to use wood chunks and add them to the fire every 10-15min to maintain the temperature, while also allowing them to burn cleanly.
It's not worth the hassle.
I prefer to use a mix of both.
This is my method if you'd like to try it out.

 

[Pinny]

I tremendously enjoy grilling over wood logs in my WSM. I have a pretty unlimited supply of free maple wood in my area in New England to use as fuel. I pair the WSM with the Gabbys Grills Santa Maria attachment and cook all summer.