New UDS. Moisture Issues!

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eliot clasen

Newbie
Original poster
Nov 15, 2014
8
10
I just built an UDS and tested it out on a whole chicken and some ribs. After a couple hours I noticed this black slime on all the food. I think it is coming from too much moisture from the lid. I have two exhaust tips on the lid. I read about "dirty fire" and there is white smoke coming from the exhaust tips. What I don't understand is that if people soak their wood anyway how does it being wet make it a "dirty fire"? How do I fix this. Thanks.
 
Wait till you are putting off "thin blue smoke" before you add your meat. Poultry is easy to over-smoke.

(possibly) Moisture is condensing on your UDS lid, and dripping down.  Putting an insulating blanket (with holes cut for the handle and smoke vents) will prevent the moisture from condensing on your lid and raining.  Also, no need to soak wood chunks.  The controlled air flow in a UDS should keep them from flash burning. 
 
Last edited:
How do I get the blue smoke? I did a test smoke for about 4-6 hours and did not see a blue smoke. Only white. What is an insulating blanket? So the wood is not the issue? I don't know what could be causing so much moisture inside the drum.
 
Eliot,

Do a google search for "thin blue smoke".  The information you will gain, will far exceed anything I could type in 20 minutes.  Puffy white smoke is bad for the taste of your food.  If it persists for hours, it is a sign of:

Wet wood

Uncured wood

cold fire

Gods punishing you

Normally all smokers make white smoke at first, then settle down to a nearly invisible faint blue-ish smoke. 

To ask a silly question, you did perform a burn-out on your drum, and remove all the lining before construction didn't you?
 
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