Does Dirty Smoke Truly Equal Bad BBQ?

[chopsaw]

I out my hand over the stack and get some on there.

Also to see how much condensation forms .

 

[indaswamp]

Also to see how much condensation forms .

Great tip....and something that is overlooked often I bet....

 

[FritzHlzr]

What are you looking for in checking the condensation?

 

[mike243]

You can't control moisture unless you have a water pan, the rest is up to nature, humidity moisture in the meat and wood.

 

[SmokinEdge]

All good info here so far. To me though there really isn’t bad smoke (except for black smoke like a trash fire) it’s really more about good air flow.
Take smoke generators for example. They burn everything thing from chips to pellets to dust, all produce white smoke. With good air flow it works perfectly. In an offset style cooker you cannot produce TBS without proper air flow, likewise with smoke generators if you could produce TBS they would have flame and that is counter productive because they all smolder more than burn. However if you have good air flow the smoke is perfect. When white smoke is produced for a short time in an offset it’s not a problem with good air flow. Stale smoke or the lack of proper air flow is the bad smoke situation. Just my o2.

 

[texomakid]

Some great advice here. When I got my off-set many moons ago I actually thought the more smoke coming out of the flume, the better the BBQ. Then I'd taste my products and be so disappointed with my results. I have ruined more that one cook with dirty, excessive smoke back in my early days. Fire management is crucial to quality smoke.

 

[chopsaw]

What are you looking for in checking the condensation?

If it's showing white-ish smoke it lets you know if it's moisture or not , or how much .

 

[DougE]

I personally believe the whole process is quite forgiving and as long as you are not running nasty smoke most of the time you're fine.

This in spades. People get too hung up on producing TBS throughout the whole cook and it isn't realistic due to a number of reasons.