ideal burn temperature - is a rocket core too hot to preserve subtle flavours

[Braai Pete]

Hi!

Any hot-smoking connoisseurs using smokers with rocket stove cores?
Does the super hot secondary burn destroy the subtle oak, apple wood etc flavours?
And the desirable smokey compounds (guaiacol and syringol)?

I realise that a hot smoker shouldn't actually be smokey - "The most desirable smoke is almost invisible with a pale blue tint".
So I'm not worried that a rocket core won't produce obvious smoke.
More worried about the subtle flavours surviving an intense secondary burn...

What do you do?
Stick to a regular offset smoker for smoking meat and a rocket oven for bread?
Somehow regulate rocket burn temp down to a certain range for the first part of the session, during which the smoke ring is formed?
Add smoking chips to the cooking compartment, rather than the fire box, to add back some of the lost flavour?

Context:

I have several oak trees plus wild cherry, apple, pear, hazel.
Not felling them, but they provide finger-thumb thick branches each season...

I'd like to make a combination hot smoker / pizza oven / grill.
Will buy local lumpwood charcoal for the bulk of the fuel and use oak and fruit tree prunings for flavour.

I'm drawn towards a batch box rocket core - ceramic fiber board and fire bricks - for fuel efficiency and for the fun of it.
I'm experienced at barbecuing / grilling / braaing over lumpwood charcoal.
Have only used an offset smoker a handful of times though.
Have not used a rocket core yet, but love the concept...

Main thing I struggled with, with the offset smoker is topping up the wood or charcoal during the session.
Temperature and smoke levels are then all over the place again after each topup.
Keeping a second fire going and topping up using the hot coals from that works great, but seems very inefficient on fuel...

Thanks!

 

[SonnyE]

Don't know what a "Rocket Core" is.
But it sounds like nothing I would want on my food.

I had a Air-Tight Catalytic Wood Heating Stove in Wyoming the last two years there. The smoke outside smelled like car exhaust. I actually felt sorry for my down wind neighbors smelling that crap. But there wasn't any smoke left in it, just the smell of cremation. Kept the house plenty warm though.

I hear Ya on tending the fire of an off-set. I'm lazy. I like my Natural gas grill, and my MES smokers.

 

[Braai Pete]

Thanks SonnyE.
A rocket stove actually gives a very clean, low-smoke burn, but without the catalyst of the catalytic stove!
Instead the rocket stove is insulated (firebricks), and uses preheated secondary air to burn up the unwanted smoke.
So it burns clean, hot, efficient and doesn't smell like a cat.
The rocket name is just from the sound of the air rushing through it - no rocket fuel.
The design has a narrowing between the firebox and flue, to cause a venturi effect, to suck the fresh secondary air in.
Then a sharp bend to cause turbulence to help the air and any woodgas and smoke mix and burn fully.
So what I'm wondering is if it burns so hot and clean that the good smoke flavours and subtle fruit flavours are lost.
If so, I guess a workaround would be to treat it like a gas or electric smoker: put smoking chips in a suitably hot part of the food chamber instead of in the firebox?

 

[chef jimmyj]

The efficiency of the rocket core or stove is based on burning everything consumable coming out of wood. Considering that Apple Wood smoke flavor is made of dozens of components, it's highly unlikely that everything will be burned away but the tastiest and most aerobatic components of the Apple Wood.
Your idea is a great one. There are a variety of wood chip burning smoke generators that could be used to inject flavor smoke into the smoke chamber...JJ

 

[gmc2003]

I know it not a rocket stove, but when I use the Vortex on the kettle with a chunk of apple or hickory over the coals my chicken takes on a slight smoke flavor profile. Which is what the wife and I like.

Chris