![]() ![]() Lesson #5 – And definitely have a few bags of charcoal handy in case its needed (it will be needed) Next time, I won’t consider ordering anything other than a half cord. In our experience with a half cord, we burned through every last bit of firewood. Monk: In Sam Jones’ book, he says you might be able to get away with a quarter cord of wood, but he recommended at least a half cord because having leftover is far more preferable than running out. Lesson #4 – Get at least a half cord of wood ![]() Monk: Yes, these were definitely lifesavers. These came in VERY handy (refer to Lesson 1), and I wouldn’t try this again without some. Speedy: We were very, very fortunate that Monk’s neighbor had some fireproof grilling gloves that he brought over. Monk: We were probably a little bit anxious in adding coals to the pit and should have let the fire go for at least an hour before we started shoveling them in. This shot the temperature back up 30 degrees quickly, but we had trouble keeping enough coals to shovel in (refer to lesson #5). ![]() Speedy: What we found was that the cinder block pit we made was losing about 1 degree of temperature a minute, so we ended up dropping coals in every half hour. Lesson #2 – Be sure to allow enough time to let a solid bed of coals build up before you start to shovel into the pit To add to this, I’d say that if placing the barrel on the ground, put a solid sheet of metal that won’t burn through underneath, as it can be difficult shoveling the coals off the ground. Taking a hot burn barrel with an active fire off of cinder blocks could’ve ended badly, but the pig was the most important thing. Speedy: Monk may be underselling this a bit. Once we got it on the ground, it was smooth sailing…for at least a little bit. We managed to get it done, losing just a few coals in the process. However, after just a couple of hours that pan started to disintegrate so Speedy and I had to figure out a way to get the burn barrel off the cinder blocks mid-burn. I did get a tip that an aluminum water heater pan would fit perfectly, and it did. The top wasn’t needed, but I would have preferred the bottom attached so as to keep the coals in. Monk: The barrel I got, while free, already had both the bottom and top cut off. Lesson #1 – If your barrel doesn’t have a bottom, don’t set it up on cinder blocks But even using both the Sam Jones: Whole Hog BBQ book and the Buxton Hall Book of Smoke as references, there were still a few speed bumps that we can learn from the next time we smoke another hog (and yes, there will definitely be another time). Monk: Back on Father’s Day weekend, Speedy and I set out to do something I’ve been wanting to do for years. Hopefully, I will get to do one again later this year but in the meantime enjoy this trip down memory lane. Monk: In honor of Father’s Day, we are reposting our blog from three years ago recapping the first (and thus far only) whole hog I smoked for Father’s Day 2019. ![]()
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