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Good for you! Remember to monitor your smoke and you have to be proactively thinking and staying ahead of the heat curve. Once you get the hang of it it is a piece of cake.
Too much white smoke means your wood isn't up to temp and not burning properly.
Make sure your exhaust is WIDE OPEN always. Not just now, but always when you smoke.
Open your firebox door ALL THE WAY to get some oxygen in there.
Check your cooking chamber temp guage. If it is getting to hot, crack your firebox lid (the one on top) open with a metal rod or something to bleed off heat.
In a little while the white smoke will change to TBS and you'll be good to go.
tas, im using only chuncks but just found out they burn out real quick!!
I have some lump in the chim. right now. Im gonna try the one chunck on the side. Im trying to get the thin blue that you showed pics of using only chunks, but i think its time for the lump?
i think your right rivet. I cant seem to keep the temp up with just chunks so i have some lump going & a chunk on top to heat up. I thought being in arizona at 110 the chunks would be good to go?
thanks AGAIN rivet. i live in the middle of nowhere so i cant get the splits & i think my box is too small or those? i have to order the chunks as it is. I have the lump in now & a chunk on the side. fingers crossed
Okay..keep me posted. If you keep getting white smoke, there is noting wrong with lifting the smoking chamber lid wide open counting to 3 and then shutting it to vent the stale white smoke in there!
Yes, the chunks will catch fire. That is okay. You want a small flame, the chunk shoould be off to the side of your briquette mound and the whole thing a gentle small event.
If you have a lage roaring flame, then crack open the top portion of your firebox to bleed off heat. You want to keep enough heat in your smoking or cooking chamber that you want, but if you have too much fire, you need to bleed it off by opening the firebox cover a bit.
I saved the metal axle that originally came with my SnP. When I have too much heat from my wood, I lift the firebox lid, stick that metal rod crosswise between the lid and the firebox and that way it props the lid open about 1/2 inch. I leave it like that until the fire tames down and then all is well
wow. i just added another chunk that was sitting on top of the box for half an hour & again i get alot of white smoke. I opened the chamber to let it out, but it keeps coming?
That's okay...that's part of cooking with wood. You are going to get a few minutes' burst of white smoke initially. If it stays white, then you have a problem - discussed and fixed in posts above. A few minutes of white smoke when you initially put on a fresh piece of wood is normal and won't hurt anything.
Remember, this is more art than science, and sound judgement plays a big part. If you are uncomfortable with the bit of white, then reopen the firebox door wide, or vent the smoking chamber momentarily. Don't ever forget this is YOUR food, and you get to cook it how YOU want to. No harm done either way, and if doing that makes you feel better about your smoke, then by all means do it. Seriously. You have to be happy with what you are doing, not doing something just because someone else is telling you to.
Wood is a challenging fuel to cook with. That's why they invented briquettes!
You should be proud to want to take on the challenge of wood smoking; once you get the hang of it you'll never want to go back!
rivet,how do i thank you enough? I just took the chunck out. I think I have enough smoke on it anyway. Im just using the lump to finish up. Should be done soon. Thier at 145 now
No worries, bud. Just glad to help a fellow smoker out, that's all.
And good job to you, RealTort~ you did fine! You thought about what was going on, you asked questions and you acted appropriately. Gonna be a champion smoker soon enough!