Educate me on "smoke" please

[Apriliamille]

So some around here know I joined the forum recently and the world of hot dogs, bacon, sausage is new to me and ive been filling the freezer with experiments. Doing so I have not cooked anything "normal" since I got into this world and now I am confused about smoke. I picked up a cold smoking gadget that uses one of those aquarium air pumps and works with wood chips or pellets, i also have one of those cheapo smoke tubes to fill with pellets. all the sausage and the first bacon today have the entire time span over the past 3 ish months has been with this white "dirty smoke"

Well I decided after the bacon was "done" i take out the smoke tube and turn off and remove the hose from the cold smoke gadget and prep to do some ribs with the practice I have been using with my Weber Kamado and my adrenaline / sns kettle grill for gosh i dont know how long... "clean almost clear smoke"

I then recalled in the Duncan Henry bacon video towards the end he was gagging on the white smoke when he opened the door to his big cabinet smoker. And i think i recall some of the 2 guys and cooler videos of "white smoke" in his cabinet.

Am I confused on what really is "smoke" for various types of meats and when to use it? do we really want "white smoke" while smoking bacon and sausage vs "clear smoke" for brisket, pork butts and ribs?

 

[jcam222]

I will let others weigh in on cold smoking smoke. That said I no longer use color as my guide for good or bad smoke. I put my hand over it or get a nose up close. If it smells acrid or like a house fire it's dirty smoke. If it smells like deliciousness it's ok. I've had grayish fairly heavy smoke before that was fantastic. My Lang is always clear to blue but my charcoal cabinet can have spurts of the heavier smoke as it catches new wood chunks. The nose knows. I guess a question as well as I'm surprised you'd get heavy white smoke from a smoke tube. How do the results taste?

 

[smokerjim]

Not familiar with your smokers, do they vent good, maybe the tube just gives off to much smoke for your smokers.

 

[SmokinEdge]

White smoke isn’t necessarily bad at all. White smoke is produced from pellets, chips and dust. All of which are used to cold smoke perfectly. The old smoke houses ran a lot of white smoke as well. The thin blue smoke is great but that really only pertains to stick burners or other cooker with an active wood heat source like charcoal or briquettes, and is an indication of a well ventilated fire and the fact that it is predominately hot coals, which is what you want in those style smoker/cookers. But when producing cold smoke the opposite is true, we don’t want a hot fire specifically. Now, there is no way to “clean up” the smoke without fire or intense heat to clean the smoke at the source of the smoke generation.

They use the Bella generator in pellet grills with huge success (about the same square inch as your MES) all the time to add more smoke flavor. They use them to cold smoke cheese and salt or herbs in a variety of contained environments such as old refrigerators (use your imagination). The smoke is always “white” and tastes perfectly fine, but you do need air flow.

I use both a smoke tube, in some applications, and the Bella generator in my smokehouse. Before the Bella I would smolder (key word, no flame) wood chunks in a cast iron skillet on top of a propane burner. Those chunks of wood smoldered until they were ash at which point I added more wood chunks. Lots of guys here doing the same thing with wild success. I switch to the Bella cold smoke generator for versatility, sometimes the skillet smoldering was just to hot to maintain temps for smoked cured meats like sausage ham and bacon. And if I turned the burner down it wouldn’t get the skillet hot enough to make the wood chunks smolder and smoke. So enter the smoke generator. And I’ll tell you, this thing can make billows of smoke. When I open the door to check progress often times I can barely see the meats for the thickness of all that white smoke.

That said, I’ve posted pictures of my meats smoked this way to you in another thread, they are beautiful. I just did 3 briskets and 2 butts in the smokehouse over the last couple days, rolling at 225 and they came out redish orange and tasted delicious. This makes the smokehouse much more versatile, smoking and then bbq in the same house, So it’s in fact not “dirty” smoke at all.

I will also mention, especially with cured meats, you need to let them rest after smoking for at least 24 hours to let the smoke even out, this makes a huge taste difference.

 

[Apriliamille]

jcam222 the sausages, i have no complaints so far with the "smoke" the bacon, i do not know as they are in saran wrap in the fridge to "settle in" and its my first time doing bacon. maybe im just becoming aware of the types of smoking this morning as i had not done any traditional bbq in a few months.

smokerjim i dont really have a smoker. my SNS (slow n sear) is what i would call a super charged Weber Kettle competitor plus i mainly got it cuz of the rotisserie add on and the 2nd level of cooking space. My Weber Kamado is just a Kamado but steel. I think im probably a "lazy man" bbq guy I drive them via Fireboard drive systems with fans. I even have an adapter for my fireboard to use on my masterbuilt gravity (but i have not used it at all this year yet as I have not done anything needing its capacity and its a charcoal hog if i just do 2 racks of ribs in it)

SmokinEdge your stuff looks bonkers (a good thing to me) what you are saying makes sense. i have not used a traeger type grill in 4 years. i started with one but swore it off for charcoal and wood chunks when i went to someone's house who had a charcoal bbq get together. So i had gone and bought a bag of traeger hickory to use with these cold smokers. i guess its been so long it didnt cross my mind about the smoke i was experiencing back in 2020.

 

[SmokinEdge]

SmokinEdge your stuff looks bonkers (a good thing to me) what you are saying makes sense. i have not used a traeger type grill in 4 years. i started with one but swore it off for charcoal and wood chunks when i went to someone's house who had a charcoal bbq get together. So i had gone and bought a bag of traeger hickory to use with these cold smokers. i guess its been so long it didnt cross my mind about the smoke i was experiencing back in

For what it’s worth, I use a bit milder pellet with Pecan and Cherry pellet/ or chips As a mix. It’s fantastic and not over the top with the cold smoke, the meat color is crazy good.

 

[tallbm]

So some around here know I joined the forum recently and the world of hot dogs, bacon, sausage is new to me and ive been filling the freezer with experiments. Doing so I have not cooked anything "normal" since I got into this world and now I am confused about smoke. I picked up a cold smoking gadget that uses one of those aquarium air pumps and works with wood chips or pellets, i also have one of those cheapo smoke tubes to fill with pellets. all the sausage and the first bacon today have the entire time span over the past 3 ish months has been with this white "dirty smoke"

Well I decided after the bacon was "done" i take out the smoke tube and turn off and remove the hose from the cold smoke gadget and prep to do some ribs with the practice I have been using with my Weber Kamado and my adrenaline / sns kettle grill for gosh i dont know how long... "clean almost clear smoke"

I then recalled in the Duncan Henry bacon video towards the end he was gagging on the white smoke when he opened the door to his big cabinet smoker. And i think i recall some of the 2 guys and cooler videos of "white smoke" in his cabinet.

Am I confused on what really is "smoke" for various types of meats and when to use it? do we really want "white smoke" while smoking bacon and sausage vs "clear smoke" for brisket, pork butts and ribs?

I think you are getting some good feedback so I'll throw my 2 cents and my experience in here.

I run an MES (electric) with a mailbox mod and an AMNPS pellet tray.
With normal smokes the pellet tray produces perfect smoke whether it's thin blue or light white etc. It is never thick heavy white.... except 1 one case that I fixed.

The 1 case of thick white and it was bad for a few reasons, was when cold smoking.
My issue was that the air flow was not good because I had no draft. This causes smoke to build up and linger and become stale and UGH leave a horrible taste on things.
My solution was to whip up a fan contraption that would blow air up a cardboard tube. I would place that contraption over my MES vent and BOOM, instant draft and no more stale/bad smoke flavor!
This solved all my cold smoking issues.

I know from experience as well that a short time period of thick heavy white smoke (15-30 minutes) over a many hour smoke will cause no issues. This has happened when my pellet tray has flared up and and caught fire and the whole thing burned up producing a ton of smoke until it burned out quickly.
This caused no issue at all, so a short period of thick white/bad smoke won't hurt.

I have my system dialed in to where I get only good smoke. Not always thin blue but never thick heavy white. I have had no issues and I run 12 hours of 100% mesquite pellets on my overnight brisket smokes and they come out AMAZING!!!!

If you have any cold smoking issues with bad taste, just know there are some fixes out there.
I hope this info helps :D

 

[nlife]

I've been chasing Thin Blue Smoke for some time now, and kind folks like SmokinEdge have been very patiently saying "well, it's not necessarily about color of the smoke..." and then pointing me towards better airflow. I've tried a few experiments (including piping TBS from my Traeger into my Bradley), but I've found that it didn't solve the problem since I was still limited by airflow in the Bradley. The resulting test produced an offputting taste despite TBS.

I think I may have it figured out now, and have a buckboard bacon on the go as we speak. This go round had much more airflow so hopefully the smoke/air ratio produces a better taste despite being white.

 

[schlotz]

Yep, there's more to digest regarding smoke color. White is not always bad. My pellet unit (MAK) does a very good job. First minute or so its pretty much solid white but it quickly settles down to TBS after feeding some more pellets to maintain the heat setting. It's never produced any acrid flavored results. So, white here is no issue .

 

[gmc2003]

i dont really have a smoker. my SNS (slow n sear) is what i would call a super charged Weber Kettle competitor plus i mainly got it cuz of the rotisserie add on and the 2nd level of cooking space.

WHAT - your kettle is indeed a smoker.

How are you setting up your SnS? I use mine all the time for larger cuts of meat. When I start it up I lite a Weber cube in one corner, and surround it with about 4 briquettes. Once they're fully ashed over then I put a couple of chunks of wood down on the bottom of the SnS. With one about a 1/4 inch away from the lit coals. Then I finish filling up the SnS with charcoal. Give it a few minutes to make sure everything stays lit and let the kettle come up to your desired temp(I shoot for 250*). I keep the top vent wide open and make all adj. with the bottom vents. If your using water in the trough then use hot water. You may get some white smoke(usually dependent on the brand of charcoal KF blue bag is the worst for this), but as long as it's not billowing white you should be good to go. Also you may not get any smoke at times, but if you put your nose over the top vent you'll still be able to smell the smoke.

Chris

 

[Apriliamille]

gmc2003 ok maybe im wierd. i dont have an official "cabinet smoker". Like the images i see here for smoke houses, or what Cascade smokers, humphreys, meadow creek etc etc sell. i never really assumed my sns and my weber summit kamado (WSK) as "smokers". before i got the WSK, i did throw chunks and pecan shells on my charcoal in the sns charcoal bay. since the WSK i only use the SNS for the rotisserie and recently to "smoke" my sausages, bacon via using the acquarium air pump smoker and a smoke tube. i say aquarium air pump smoker cuz its a no name gadget that i got off amazon for 70 ish buck

 

[gmc2003]

A Apriliamille I'm sorry if you took my post as being snarky, but it wasn't meant to be. All I was trying to say was that any enclosed structure can be transformed into a real smoker. Some people use a cardboard box with a pellet tube as a cold smoker and get most excellent results. Your kettle or WSK make great smokers. You aren't limited to just stick burners anymore.

Here's a full packer smoking away on my Kettle and SnS

Chris

 

[Apriliamille]

gmc2003 it wasnt taken that way. i guess i just have a weird definition of what a smoker is (probably cuz when i grow up i want to be able to afford a cascade, humphrey or meadow creek or one of those things i see 2 guys and a cooler use) but I do see in what you are saying about a card board box being a "smoker"

 

[RCAlan]

So some around here know I joined the forum recently and the world of hot dogs, bacon, sausage is new to me and ive been filling the freezer with experiments. Doing so I have not cooked anything "normal" since I got into this world and now I am confused about smoke. I picked up a cold smoking gadget that uses one of those aquarium air pumps and works with wood chips or pellets, i also have one of those cheapo smoke tubes to fill with pellets. all the sausage and the first bacon today have the entire time span over the past 3 ish months has been with this white "dirty smoke"

Well I decided after the bacon was "done" i take out the smoke tube and turn off and remove the hose from the cold smoke gadget and prep to do some ribs with the practice I have been using with my Weber Kamado and my adrenaline / sns kettle grill for gosh i dont know how long... "clean almost clear smoke"

I then recalled in the Duncan Henry bacon video towards the end he was gagging on the white smoke when he opened the door to his big cabinet smoker. And i think i recall some of the 2 guys and cooler videos of "white smoke" in his cabinet.

Am I confused on what really is "smoke" for various types of meats and when to use it? do we really want "white smoke" while smoking bacon and sausage vs "clear smoke" for brisket, pork butts and ribs?

Here’s a link that has some very valuable information about smoke, the different types of smoke and the best way to approach it. https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/understanding-smoke-management-updated-12-08-14.139474/

Good luck.

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