Looking for help on wood.

[brarchibald]

Hey y'all. New to posting on the board but have been reading for a while.

I'm looking for opinions on how to stop wood chips from catching fire. I smoking on a Landmann Vertical two drawer set up.

I'm to smoke some brisket in the next couple of days and because of the duration I decided to smoke other meats over the last several days just to fine tune any details.

My problem is using the wood chips in the chip tray I'll get about 10 minutes of smoke at 250 and then instant combustion. Today I ran several different methods by foiling chips and only didn't catch fire using very little chips and not much smoke or chips in foil with only a small fork hole

If I do these methods I'm switching out the old wrapped with the new but losing smoke time. Is this a problem?

Should I attempt to switch to chunks instead?

Thanks in advance.

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Hmm, sounds like your smoker is typical of my experiences with propane. At higher burner output you can switch to small to medium sized chunks. They don't flare-up nearly as easily and smoke far longer than chips. For longer smokes especially, I found that chips for a faster onset of smoke, and small to medium chunks then bring on the duration of the smoke. With a handful of chips and about 6-8 chunks I could get 6-8 hours of smoke from my Smoke Vault 24" without ever opening it up again after loading it up with meat.

Another trick you may be able to play on your smoker is to raise the smoke tray an inch or so higher when you're using higher flame...this reduces the heating of the smoke tray, thus reducing the potential for flare-ups.

You're on the right track with foiling your chips for stopping flare-ups, but, you may be removing smoke wood while it's till smoking. Maybe use a bit smaller foil pouch and don't swap them out...just add another one after 4 hours or so. Just because you can't see smoke at the vent doesn't mean it's not there. If you can smell it in the vent gases, then you're still smoking. That's what we call thin blue smoke...it may be nearly translucent, but it is the sweet smoke of heated and slow smoldering wood, after the initial white smoke is gone. It will still sting your eyes, but if you get your face in the stream of vent gases and smell that sweet smoke, don't mess it, 'cuz you've got a good thing going.

BTW, welcome to the SMF Family!!!

Eric

 

[cmcatv]

I dont have alot of experience smoking but i started out with the same issue you are having. I ended up pulling the chip tray that my unit came with right out and replaced it with a cast iron pan. I have many cast iron pans so i had one the exact size of the try i took out and it slide right in place. At first i tried covering the wood chips with foil but that ended up not being needed either. Just the pan and toss in dry wood chips. Works great and no fires.
I havent tried wood chunks yet. I will when i get my hands on some.

Also i know some people soak the chips. I got better smoke faster with chips that were not soaked.

 

[SmokinAl]

Eric is right on.

Chunks are the way to go with a propane smoker.

At your leisure, would you swing by "Roll Call" & introduce yourself.

Then we can all give you a proper welcome!

Al

 

[domerskee]

Get a small cast iron skillet and sit it on the tray That little extra buffer should keep the wood from catching fire.
You may also want to check your vents and slow the air flow a bit.

 

[r2 builders]

Just to throw my 2cents in.
With the stock pan that come with my smoker I was getting flare up consistently.
I tried every method I found on the site to no avail.
I switched to the cast iron pan and chunks and won't be looking back.
It seems to me that I can control the smoke better with chunks and a skillet.

Not trying to stir a controversy it's just my experience.

r2