Creosote/proper smoke flavor

sqwib · Sep 9, 2011

Tony80 said:
On my last smoke I preburnt the initial logs down to coals, then added them to the smoker. I had to nearly close my intake dampers in order to maintain a low temp. When doing this the smoke got very heavy and white. After intially preburning, I did add green peach wood to the fire as my coal bed reduced in size and my temps started to drop... So I'm sure this was bad, but I'm unsure if loading with pre buned logs then closing down the intake is bad...

Tony80 said:
Both seem to produce the same spicy flavor... Perhaps it's normal.... Don't get me wrong, the taste is not bad but I'm unsure of what a good smoke flavor should taste like... Any help would be greatly appreciated...

Now I'm confused...

By spicy do you mean a tingling sensation on your tongue?

Not bad,?, please elaborate on this.

Were the ribs sooty or charred black?

And as Johnny pointed out, coals aren't gonna give you white smoke

Tony, when you do your next smoke, take a ton of pics and notes and keep us posted...good luck!

venture · Sep 9, 2011

If you had to choke down the intakes to maintain temp, you are adding too many embers as earlier noted.

Also, I would lose the green wood until you get that white smoke issue in hand.

Good luck and good smoking.

tony80 · Sep 9, 2011

Thank you so much Oldschool... I was on the right track when I preburnt and closed down the intake... My fire was just a little to big so I was having to close the intakes nearly completely closed! I did however learn after my first fire that small adjustments and patience works much better than making those big adjustments and going crazy trying to control the temp. It's nice to know that I can use the intake dampers to help control the temp.. And I fully understand sizing the fire to where I'm running the vents about 1/4 open... Thank you so much for the clarification. I really appreciate you and everyone else taking the time to help a newbie like myself.

tony80 · Sep 9, 2011

@ SQWIB... Yeah I can see where that can be confusing! When I said it doesn't taste bad.... What I really meant is it doesn't taste obviously terrible! It may have been creosote... I don't know how bad it creosote really tastes, and maybe it was only slightly effected by Creosote... The problem is that I have only had real BBQ 1 time before and it was long ago. I don't recall all the flavor profiles associated with "Smoked Meat". One may be the spicy flavor that I'm describing. I can't think of a good way to describe what I'm talking about... Perhaps I'm crazy and the flavor is coming from my rubs... I'm going to do some more smoking this weekend and I'll let you all know how it turns out...

Thanks!

raymo76 · Sep 10, 2011

Lots of good info being shared there.

rgraham · Sep 16, 2011

Also make sure your meat is room temperature before adding it to the grate. If it's cold, the smoke/creosote will tend to want to stick to the meat adding even more off flavor to the meat. Kind of how water condensates on the side of a glass of water with ice in it. If you've been eating meat with creosote on it, most likely you will still taste it on your tongue the next morning. It's nasty stuff, and once you've tasted it, you'll not want to again.

ilovecanadabeef · Sep 19, 2011

hi guys,

I am new to this smoking deal also and looking (reading) for advice. I built my own horizontal offset smoker. 40" long cooking chamber. It's a reverse flow smoker with a plate inside to direct the flow of heat / smoke.Everything is made out of 1/4" plate. It weighs around 500 lbs. I came up with the design after a lot of reading on line. Anyways, I can't get it hot enough with charcoal alone, I need to burn a wood fire. This is no problem. My problem is that it needs to be tended to constantly. My brother-in-law has a cheap smoker made out of sheet metal. It is what is called on line as a COS (cheap offset smoker). His heat source is charcoal and has no problem maintaining a fairly constant temp. Because I want to avoid creosote and maintain a constant temp I build a small wood fire and add to it every half an hour or so. Is that how it supposed to work? I mean can I add more wood and still avoid the creosote problem, or half an hour is just how it is? Please put your 2 cents worth in if you have a solution.

Thanks,

Alex

venture · Sep 19, 2011

Hi Alex!

We could help you a lot more if we could see some detailed pics of your smoker. I have a couple of ideas from your post, but we would really need pics of your smoker and details of how you are using it to proceed.

Also, please stop by the "Roll Call" section and introduce yourself.

We have lots of experienced and helpful people here for you. We also have some experienced fabricators.

Good luck and good smoking.

sqwib · Sep 20, 2011

rgraham said:
Also make sure your meat is room temperature before adding it to the grate. If it's cold, the smoke/creosote will tend to want to stick to the meat adding even more off flavor to the meat. Kind of how water condensates on the side of a glass of water with ice in it. If you've been eating meat with creosote on it, most likely you will still taste it on your tongue the next morning. It's nasty stuff, and once you've tasted it, you'll not want to again.

Actually adding the meat cold is preferred by some to get more of a smoke ring, as far as increased smoke absorption/flavor I highly doubt it.

josh swanson · Jul 4, 2012

SQWIB said:
Actually adding the meat cold is preferred by some to get more of a smoke ring, as far as increased smoke absorption/flavor I highly doubt it.

I prefer to let any cut of meat you are cooking come up to room temp before cooking. When you put it on the heat it will be a less drastic change resulting in the meat tensing up less and less moisture loss. Try this with a steak: season and allow to come to room temp on the counter for 30 min-1 hour depending on thickness then cook to desired temp(will cook faster) after cooking allow to rest a minium of 10 min enjoy. Sorry to jump off topic just though I would share.

sqwib · Jul 5, 2012

Josh Swanson said:
I prefer to let any cut of meat you are cooking come up to room temp before cooking. When you put it on the heat it will be a less drastic change resulting in the meat tensing up less and less moisture loss. Try this with a steak: season and allow to come to room temp on the counter for 30 min-1 hour depending on thickness then cook to desired temp(will cook faster) after cooking allow to rest a minium of 10 min enjoy. Sorry to jump off topic just though I would share.

I know this thread is old and has been resurrected, but I felt this was too important to leave alone.

I totally agree with your statement when applied to Grilling Steaks.

I remove meats I'm gonna grill from the fridge an hour per 1" before cooking.

But the OP is asking about Smoking, which to me means Low and Slow, so I am not in agreement when applied to smoking at low temps.

As far as smoking at lower temps I would never do that with a large piece of meat. However, there are folks that do but I think it's unsafe.

In order for a large cut of meat such as a Butt or Picnic to come up to room temperature, that would take quite a while. Even if you leave it out one hour, you just decreased your time to get through the danger zone by 25%.

So play it safe ....right out of the fridge onto a hot smoker.

oldschoolbbq · Jul 5, 2012

Tony try this :

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/stickburning101

cound help some.

Have fun and ...

oldschoolbbq · Jul 7, 2012

Sqwib , glad you picked this one again, I strongly disagree disagree and post my Butts once again... I place my meat in at Reffer temp. ; keeping good clean smoke will not deposit anything but flavor the the meat . Sure, have a billowing white or some odd color smoke , THAT'S where the creosote comes from, and I stand my ground

.

rgraham said:
Also make sure your meat is room temperature before adding it to the grate. If it's cold, the smoke/creosote will tend to want to stick to the meat adding even more off flavor to the meat. Kind of how water condensates on the side of a glass of water with ice in it. If you've been eating meat with creosote on it, most likely you will still taste it on your tongue the next morning. It's nasty stuff, and once you've tasted it, you'll not want to agai

take a gander at this batch , then come back Sunday to see the end of the one I'm doing tonight...

Nice sheen is the sweat on them... if you need an explaination...PM me.

Have fun and...

sqwib · Jul 7, 2012

oldschoolbbq said:
Sqwib , glad you picked this one again, I strongly disagree disagree and post my Butts once again... I place my meat in at Reffer temp. ; keeping good clean smoke will not deposit anything but flavor the the meat . Sure, have a billowing white or some odd color smoke , THAT'S where the creosote comes from, and I stand my ground

.

take a gander at this batch , then come back Sunday to see the end of the one I'm doing tonight...

Nice sheen is the sweat on them... if you need an explaination...PM me.

Have fun and...

So we are in agreement on this Fridge to smoker?

rowdyrawhide · Jul 7, 2012

I am in agreement for fridge to smoker......my theory is takes longer for the exterior proteins to reach 140* ======> more smoke ring.

It also helps with the 4 hour rule.

As for grilling, i leave beef and pork out at room temp before grilling.

eyesrwindows · Nov 21, 2012

Finally its great to hear from someone that knows how to "smoke". I have seen far to many people pile the wood in the box and watch that billowing smoke from their chimneys and smile thinking THAT is smoking. Then when they get the food off it looks almost as dark as a meteorite. Like many I screwed up my share of meat thinking exactly that, AND hearing it from the "masters". I now preburn ALL my wood to embers before tossing it in the box, or use a quality lump charcoal. Visibly there is very little "smoke" other than light and sweet smelling wisp coming from my chimney. The food quality has gone from barely passable to intensely flavorful with that mild sweet smokey flavor. I still have friends that insist my way is not smoking.. and watch themas they add big chunks of wood in their lil firebox, then later pull out black chickens and fudge brown butts from their smoker that have a strong offensive smoke odor as well as taste. Hope a few folks read all of the above and take heart. I promise you the food quality will improve vastly and your wife will no longer roll her eyes and the kids will not have to be coaxed to eat all their food.!

s2k9k · Nov 21, 2012

EyesRwindows said:
Finally its great to hear from someone that knows how to "smoke". I have seen far to many people pile the wood in the box and watch that billowing smoke from their chimneys and smile thinking THAT is smoking. Then when they get the food off it looks almost as dark as a meteorite. Like many I screwed up my share of meat thinking exactly that, AND hearing it from the "masters". I now preburn ALL my wood to embers before tossing it in the box, or use a quality lump charcoal. Visibly there is very little "smoke" other than light and sweet smelling wisp coming from my chimney. The food quality has gone from barely passable to intensely flavorful with that mild sweet smokey flavor. I still have friends that insist my way is not smoking.. and watch themas they add big chunks of wood in their lil firebox, then later pull out black chickens and fudge brown butts from their smoker that have a strong offensive smoke odor as well as taste. Hope a few folks read all of the above and take heart. I promise you the food quality will improve vastly and your wife will no longer roll her eyes and the kids will not have to be coaxed to eat all their food.!

Everyone here at SMF strives for TBS and really try to show the new members how to achieve it,

I see this is your first post here, when you get a minute would you do us a favor and go to Roll Call and introduce yourself so we can get to know you and give you a proper welcome, also would you add your location to your profile, we like knowing where you are when we talk to you, Thanks!

eyesrwindows · Nov 21, 2012

No way it is unsafe. Keep in mind you are taking the meat to 185 plus degrees. No pathogens are going to survive that . The only difference you might notice is the cook times decrease considerable using less fuel and a hella lot less stress waiting for the food to be cooked. Not a pro here by any means but I have learned a few tricks.

s2k9k · Nov 21, 2012

EyesRwindows said:
No way it is unsafe. Keep in mind you are taking the meat to 185 plus degrees. No pathogens are going to survive that . The only difference you might notice is the cook times decrease considerable using less fuel and a hella lot less stress waiting for the food to be cooked. Not a pro here by any means but I have learned a few tricks.

If pathogens are present in the 40 to 140 range for too long (over 4 hours) they can survive temps over 185

I see this is your first post here, when you get a minute would you do us a favor and go to Roll Call and introduce yourself so we can get to know you and give you a proper welcome, also would you add your location to your profile, we like knowing where you are when we talk to you, Thanks!

eyesrwindows · Nov 21, 2012

thanks... couldnt find your roll call but tried to stick a few things up on my profile. Cooking at the moment and prepping turkey for the smoker starting wee hours AM EST. Love this site from what I have read in it. Happy Thanksgiving folks.

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