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raybones

raybones

Fire Starter
Original poster
Mar 21, 2010
64
11
Southeastern, Pa.
Hello everyone I've been reading this blog for a couple of weeks and finally decided to join. You all sound like a great group of people and I am hoping to get some good advice. I have already signed up for the 5-day ecourse on smoking. I have a Weber Kettle 22.5" and been smoking with it for about 6 months. I get a lot of white smoke which thoughout this blog they say white smoke is bitter. What am I doing wrong? I soak my chips for about 1/2 hour and throw them directly on the coals which somtimes are hardwood charcoal and other times I use Kingsford. I always use a chimeny to light my coals. My food taste good but I feel it could be alot better. Also if anyone out there smokes with a Weber have you ever used the Smokenator 1000 with Hover Kit? It looks like it would do a great job, but I would like to hear some reviews before buying it. When smoking, should chips or chunks be used? If you use chunks do you soak them first?
 
Welcome to the forum. Someone will be along shortly to help you with your smoker.
 
Welcome to the SMF Ray!

When I first started smoking in my gas grill I too had the same issue with a lot of white smoke (not only is too much smoke bitter, but it can also deposit creosote on your dinner and that ain't good eats!). I would soak the chips, place them in a foil pouch and toss it down by the burner. My father-in-law told me to separate the pouch from the direct heat and that slowed the burn rate down to where I had a nice light blue smoke versus the heavier smoke I had seen before.

When we decide to use the ECB I use chunks (still soaked for a good 30 minutes or more) and drop just one or two (if it's the size of my fist then only one) onto the coals and that's all it takes. While I still have a bag or two of chips I found that I use a lot less with the chunks.

One final option on the chunks which I've heard about but not yet tried, is to wrap a single chunk (soaked or dry) in foil, poke a couple of holes and that really slows the burn rate. Remember, you actually don't need to see smoke to get the flavor. As long as you smell the smoke, you're getting it in the food.

Hope that helps.

Mac
 
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Mr Mac is giving you some good advice here. I don't know if you are using propane or charcoal/lump. But when I was first breaking in my smoke shack I was having issues with my wood chips burning too fast and producing too much white smoke. What I did was switch to chunks of wood and put a couple of fire bricks between my flame and my cast iron chip pan. This slowed down the wood burn and I get a nice thin blue smoke now. As Mr Mac said you don't need to see the smoke coming out if you can smell it your food will taste like smoke and it will be wonderful. Back when I first started I had several times where I was blasting the meat/cheese with tons of white creosote and it will taste like licking a burnt stick when you are trying to eat your food. Not good at all! If you are using charcoal/lump try switching to chunks of wood instead of chips. You only need a few chunks to get the job done. I don't soak mine at all from my experience and what I have read it just delays the process of the wood burning/smoking. But there is a big debate about "To soak or not to soak" There is no right or wrong way which ever you like better go with that. Also the tinfoil wrapping and poking holes in it works good to. Try some of these things and that should cut back on your white smoke and give you the nice TBS (thin blue smoke) you are looking for. Keep us posted.
 
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Welcome to the forum. As you can see, there are a lot of helpful folks out here just waiting to share.
icon_smile.gif
 
Does anyone have pics of what the blue smoke is supposed to look like? I smoked my first pork butt this weekend and there was a lot of what appeared to me to be white smoke, but the good tasted great! I also didnt see much of a smoke ring on the pork butt after slicing. What should the blue smoke look like versus the white? What appears white to me may in fact be blue.

Tom
 
[h1]
texas.gif
Hello and welcome from East Texas. This is a great site, lots of information and great people that are willing to throw in their two cents worth on about anything   ......... [/h1][h1]  [/h1][h1]Gary[/h1]
 
image.jpg

image.jpg

Here is what my egg looked like during the first hour or so this past weekend. I don't feel the meat tasted that bitter though. Either way, does this mean I put the smoke chunks on too early and should have waiting for the fire to settle? How do I get the blue, lighter smoke?
 
There a lot of variables. I don't have an egg and quite frankly don't know how to set them up. I understand it's difficult to get to the fire when you set up a komodo. How much wood did you add?

I like to get a clean burning fire before I add smoke wood or food. But that's just me. I can easily get to my fire.

If you like what you're cookin who's to say you're wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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