Smokin-It User Forum!
Smokin-It Smokers => Model 1 - The Little Guy!! => Topic started by: Regor63 on February 15, 2020, 08:41:48 AM
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I have my smoker a little over a month now and have finally mastered making beef jerky. So today I decided to move to smoking a brisket. My question is that I have studied this forum on brisket smoking and they all say they lose their smoker with 7 ounces or more of wood chunks to do a brisket. I can only get about 1 to 1.5 oz in my wood box. I really don’t want to open the door 1/2 way through the cook to add wood and drop the temp. Please let me know what ya’all are doing. Thanks. Really like this smoker just need to figure it all out
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Are you using chips rather than wood chunks? Otherwise I'm not sure why you'd only be able to get 1 1/2 oz in the box. I use chunks in my #1 and so far I've only used 3 1/2-4 oz on fairly large (10 lb +) pork butts/shoulders. 8-10 hr smokes and was still smoking when I pulled it. I stocked up on "Western Premium BBQ Products" chunks when the local Walmart was having a clearance sale on them. Not the best quality but the price was right. Quite a few places online sell better quality wood.
Wood chunks and my splitting wedge.:)
https://imgur.com/JDQ7YQ9 (https://imgur.com/JDQ7YQ9)
9 0z in firebox
https://imgur.com/j35e5XB (https://imgur.com/j35e5XB)
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It shouldn't be a problem to fit that much wood in the fire box... most smoking woods are fairly heavy, even if dry. Don't be afraid to let the wood touch the sides and each other. It can even touch the top of the box, though you don't want it lifting the box open. Do use some larger chunks as those will smoke longer than a bunch of small chunks. Otherwise, don't worry about adding more wood as there will be plenty in the firebox to get you through the first few hours, plus smoke will linger in the smoker for a long time. After that you'll have already thoroughly smoked things and the food will be a temp where it won't readily take more smoke anyway.
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Welcome Regor63. I believe you are underestimating the actual weight of your wood. If you have or know someone who has a digital scale, weigh your chunks to get a feel for the size to weight ratio. Large chunks can be split with a hatchet or hammer and chisel.