Jealous Devil Blox Hickory & Oak Compressed Natural Hardwood Firewood for Cooking and Grilling, 24 Logs

They burn forever without a ton of smoke!

Premise:I took up competition style BBQ and backyard meat smoking as a serious hobby during CoVid lockdown and the pandemic. I've always been into BBQ and have been smoking meat on my Weber Kettle for a few years before I upgraded to an off-set smoker right when the pandemic happened.Restaurants shut down, travel and entertainment closed, grocery store resources were scarce so, I guess I'll make the best of it with BBQ.These Jealous Devil Blox are an excellent complement to lump charcoal the firebox in an off-set style smoker. Notice how I said complement, not replacement to charcoal. You will need a hot bed of coals to get this firestick lit, so you cannot replace charcoal with these in an off-set cook.Typically, I have 1 unlit log and 1 chimney's worth of unlit coals in the firebox in a cold off-set smoker with a few lumps of smoke wood underneath the grates. I add a fully lit chimney's worth of charcoal to the firebox to bring the smoker up to temp. With this much fuel (1 jealous devel log + 1 chimney's worth of unlit charcoal + 1 chimney's worth of charcoal), I can get about 3 hrs at 300*F with minimal ash.Pro's:I would say 1 log approximates 1 chimney's worth of charcoal in fuel/heat.I use these logs in supplement to the firebox instead of going full charcoal because it really cuts down on the ash created and therefore helps my airflow during a cook. When I used to do full charcoal in my off-set, the amount of ash that would build up would cut down on my airflow to the fire causing poor combustion resulting in needing to clean out the firebox mid-cook and restarting the fire to keep heat going on long cooks.I would add about 1 log every 1.5 hrs to keep the heat going at 300 *F and there would be very little ash build up over all.Con's:-When adding an unlit log to supplement a longer cook, the smoke that would release from these logs would make the food very dark. It wouldn't effect the flavor, but would make the food look unappetizing.At the beginning of the cook, when I had the log and unlit charcoal in the firebox, and added lit charcoal to get the smoker up to temp, the dark/uncombusted smoke would have already been released by the time the smoke got up to temp, then I add my food.When I need to add more fuel, and I add a log to a hot bed of coals, the log has to get up to proper combustion temp. As the log gets up to proper combustion temp, it releases A LOT of dark smoke, which coats the food which isn't ideal for presentation.This dark smoke that coats the food is the biggest downfall/CON of this product.Do I need to pre-heat/pre-light the log in a chimney before adding it to the firebox? That's rather dangerous.I'd rather have double split kiln-dried smoke wood to my firebox to add fuel to my off-set than adding a jealous-devil log/blox because of the dark smoke.TL/DR;I really only use this log as a fuel source to reduce ash from charcoal at the beginning of my cooks in my off-set so that the dark smoke generated during warm-up is out of the smoker by the time I add my food to smoker. Don't add a Jealous Devil Blox/log to your firebox during a cook or else your food will be coated with black smoke.

Stinks and burns dirty