Hey guys. Well finally bought myself an offset smoker. Here it is being seasoned up and looking forward to the first cook up this weekend. Going to start with chicken.
I have to say how impressed I am with the quality of the build. Very well packaged and was easy to put together on my own.
One quick question. You can see from the picture the wood I was using to season it. It is Redgum I split from some old sleepers I had around the house. I have a fair bit of this and hoping I can use this up before going to buy something else. Anyone see a problem with using it?
Cheers.
Congratulations and thanks for posting. Some of the wood looks a bit big. Split the larger bits again and it will be great wood. You need a small hot fire rather than one which will smoke too much until the big logs catch. Have you checked out the Hark video in our videos section showing the rotisserie working? That's another accessorie I'd highly recommend if you didn't already get it.
Thanks Gumb. I will split them a bit more which I thought would be better after my practice run.
I preheated my logs by placing on the firebox and they caught alight real well. But when a big piece caught alight it ran a bit hot and I had to close the damper too much to bring the temp down which caused too much smoke. Lots of practice ahead of me.
I've have seen the rotisserie and looks like a good addition at some point.
Like Gumb said smaller wood better burn, remembering that you want blue-ish clear smoke when your cooking not white. If it's white your over smoking and it will make the food taste bad.
I would recommend the addition of a temp probe if your cooking chicken as anything less than an internal temp of 165f is likely going to a bit raw still and we all know what happens with raw chicken. You can pick up a cheap one from a lot of different stores, or if so inclined Chris (AKA Urbangriller) sells some nice gear on his site.
I would also recommend the addition of tuning plates. The hark runs a variety of temps and this will help even it out.
You'll likely find that the government warning in regards to smoking doesn't just apply to cigarettes, it is addictive lol.
Thanks for the tips Jeff. Definitely going to get the axe out and split some of those pieces.
I actually bought a temp probe from Urbangriller last week. Ordered it Wednesday arvo and received it Friday (in Adelaide). Now that's fast delivery, so thanks Chris. I got the Maverick ET-733 which seems to be a great unit.
I use the 733 with my TF get piece of kit. I have also fitted another temp gauge at the front of the cooking chamber so as to easily see the temp diff from the fire end to the other.
Or just get a free standing thermometer you can move around inside the chamber like in my video. I've also got the tuning plate but I think that will be used for when I have a lot of food in the pit and then it needs to be an even temperature right across the whole chamber. But most of the time it will only be one chicken or one piece of meat so I like the idea of being able to move that around from the hotter end to the cooler end as I need and in those cases, the plate will come out.
No-one has mentioned the suspect smoke flavour in using old sleepers for cooking food for the Family.
The older trains that used to travel above your sleepers used to drain toilet flushes directly onto the track, I remember when I was a kid travelling on the Moss Vale to Sydney country train, I got a kick out of seeing it all flush down on the blurred fast moving bed of sleepers underneath.
Asbestos dust from brakes also coated the sleepers over the years, not to mention diesel engines dripping diesel or oil on the tracks. mmmm tasty.
Clean Red Gum firewood would be a healthier safer choice for cooking in an offset.
I think these sleepers have been on my property since it was built in the 70s.
That was one of my main concerns though. I'm not going to take a chance, especially cooking for my family. Will go pick up something else before Saturday.
Thanks for the advice.
AussieBBQSmoke wrote:No-one has mentioned the suspect smoke flavour in using old sleepers for cooking food for the Family.
The older trains that used to travel above your sleepers used to drain toilet flushes directly onto the track, I remember when I was a kid travelling on the Moss Vale to Sydney country train, I got a kick out of seeing it all flush down on the blurred fast moving bed of sleepers underneath.
Asbestos dust from brakes also coated the sleepers over the years, not to mention diesel engines dripping diesel or oil on the tracks. mmmm tasty.
Clean Red Gum firewood would be a healthier safer choice for cooking in an offset.
But garden red gum sleepers are not the same as railway red gum sleepers....
Its all about where those sleepers have come from. If you can be 100% sure they have never been used on railway tracks then they are fine.
Also with railway sleepers that treat them with Arsenic to stop them from rotting so quickly so they dont have to replace them all the time. If in doubt throw it out.
