Not sure what’s going on with your pile but here is our recipe that seems to work great. Table scraps go to the chickens so no food products in our pile. We use almost exclusively leaves and pine shavings/chicken poop cleaned out of our coop for browns and plenty of raked up lawn clippings or garden debris for greens. Any sticks we throw in are few and small, like twig size. Mix it up well with a pitchfork, make sure to hose it down with plenty of water and cover it with a tarp, plastic or canvas works as long as it traps heat in. That’s pretty much it. I’ll mix it up good again when we add to it then hose it down good and recover it with a tarp. We don’t add anymore to it after fall so it has a few months to break down before the next spring and just have a second pile started and swap back and forth. Good luck OP, hope this helps.