Smoker Bong

[elham]

They say it is better to remain quiet and appear stupid than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt. I never seem to learn that lesson, so here it goes.


I see a lot of discussion on wood chips, chunks, pellets, charcoal, and dust as well as things like low oxygen fires, creosote, condensation and bitter meat from creosote and stagnation of smoke. Being a long retired pot smoker, I remember at a young age building homemade water pipes.


Has anyone ever applied this technique / theory to meat smoking? I was curious as to whether one could build a remote choked down fire box for burning wood chips and chunks, and then extracting the smoke with a fan (negative pressure) on the opposite side of a water chamber and feeding it to the smoker.


Could someone explain to me what a horrible idea this is and why? My first inclination is that adding moisture to the smoke may not be a great idea. What got me headed in this direction initially was looking for a way to actively cool the smoke from a generator and seeing that pot smokers had advanced the idea of using glycerin coils for cooling smoke but dismissed the idea as not sustainable over a sufficient period of time for meat smoking.


Anyone have opinions, comments, laughter, derision?

 

[indaswamp]

IMO, running smoke through water is how liquid smoke is made. This will strip out many of the flavoring components, as well as the bitter creosote elements. The smoke after water treatment will not be the same and IMO meat smoked with it would not be the same.

You need TBS which really is very fine unburned organics from the wood. Thin almost invisible smoke has all those short chain flavoring elements we crave in smoked meat. Those will be the first to be filtered out with a bong type filter...

 

[indaswamp]

But...there are SMF members that have been successful using a coarse metal scrub pad as a filter for the mailbox mod and an AMNPS to filter out the creosote. The scrub pad gives a LOT of surface area for the creosote to stick to and lets the fine TBS through....

Maybe someone with this mod. will see this and post a link. I think it was JohnMeyer that invented it...

 

[6GRILLZNTN]

Being retired from that hobby myself, I understand the concept. Weber WSM's have a waterpan to keep temps low that introduce moisture to the smoke, so I wouldn't think that would be an issue.

You could also experiment with different liquids for flavor just like I did back in the day. You might be on to something here!

 

[gmc2003]

The topic has been brought up before. However I don't think it went anywhere.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/mailbox-mod-with-water-pan.277405/#post-1851380

...and then there was the smoking gun.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t...s-toys-and-smoked-salmon.272301/#post-1793937

Chris

 

[SonnyE]

I believe you are (probably again) over thinking the belly button and why some collect lint, and others do not.

If it can be complicated, one could say I'll find a way.
But smoke, and smoking meat works well with simple natural convection.
Take a wood stove, or a chimney. Heat rises, just a natural phenominominum. And smoke can be made to follow intricate paths based on warmer air rising.
I use that principal to generate smoke from pellets, or dust, in my "mailbox" mod (modification), and because my smoker and a stack I added to it draw on an 8 foot long aluminum (or aluminium if they prefer) corrugated tube between my "mailbox" and the smoker.
But the idea was to cool the smoke, and to clean the smoke of any undesirable deposits like gaseous creosote, tars, or things that might taint the meat being smoked.
It works. Nothing but length, and natural convection. No water, no electricity, no fans or pumps.
My "mailbox" (which is just an steel old box I had) has gobs of black tar on its walls from the combustion process. My run of tubing is dark on the "mailbox" end, but fairly lightly coated on the elbow end that connects to my MES 30 smoker.
My MES 30 has a very even patina of smoke covering on the inside.
And I have found the need for a tuna can on my highest rack under the exhaust stack because moisture being expelled condenses there, and tends to drip down. The can catches it, but it always seems to dry up on it's own. Before I put a catch can up there (like a smoke shelf in a chimney), I would get drip streaks down the corner walls under the stack.
Sometimes I will warm the MES to encourage or start the draw. But it will continue on it's own once established.
I've used it for overnight cold smoking of cheeses, nuts, and salmon. Or warm smoking of dishes like warm smoked (cooked Salmon) or hot items like some delicious 3,2,1 Ribs.
Cooling smoke does not have to be complicated, just well thought out.

Ever herd cows? Cows are really interesting animals. A friend I worked for showed me that with a simple switch (stick) in hand we could move several hundred head through the fields, across the roads, and to the barnyard pens for sorting, vaccinating, and pregnancy testing. You give a cow about 20-30 seconds to think about what you want them to do, they will turn and do it.
The point is, things that are simple tend to work the best. Horses, flinging ropes, and noises are not necessary.

Pondering belly button lint, or trying to reinvent convection isn't necessary either.

If you are interested, here's what I'm talking about.

 

[texomakid]

Oh I saw the title and clicked on the thread..........
That's all I got to say about that :)

 

[johnmeyer]

As I remember, from long ago, the water in those contraptions was mostly to cool the smoke because it always seemed to make people cough and choke. Any filtration was secondary and, of course, most people didn't want anything filtered out. :)

As others have said, the key thing in creating smoke is to keep all the "good" flavors, while either not producing, or filtering the "bad" flavors, mostly creosote. The key to not producing the bad stuff is getting the proper amount of oxygen. I don't have any expertise on that, and you'll need to get advice from some of the true pitmasters. However, filtering the bad stuff can be done through condensation. The "mailbox mod" for the MES does that by having the smoke interact with a lot of cool metal before being introduced into the smoking enclosure. Some people enhance that effect by putting a long length of duct between the smoke generator and the smoking chamber.

My attempt at this was to take the mailbox mod idea, but use a larger, cheaper, food-grade enclosure, using a popcorn tin. I then added a stainless scrubbing pad (or two) to the inside of the duct, to provide more metal surface area for the creosote to cling to. I describe that here:

Mailbox (Popcorn) Mod

 

[elham]

Lots of good feed back everyone - thank you.

Was just thinking of stripping out the bad, but didn't consider that I may be removing much of what is good as well.

I am definitely buying in to the remote with scrubber pads concept. Looking to do an interchangeable remote with a Masterbuilt Slow Smoke unit for chips, chunks, or pellets and a can/mailbox for pellets / dust.

Johnmeyer - in your popcorn mod it looks a short tube to the smoker and one of the things I was considering was trying to shorten the connection between the remote smoke unit without adding significant heat to the smoke box. I just got the Sam's Club version MES 340G with legs and casters, and I need to be able to roll it in and out of my garage to smoke so I didn't want to mess with an 8' tube and the extra real estate every time I wanted to smoke. The wrap around tube looks to be an option, but I need to think on all of that. I would prefer a compact rolling assembly, so I have some things to work out. I was surprised to see the amount of creosote trapped in the scrubber with pellets. I kind of though pellets were the answer to creosote and that creosote was more of a chips and chunks issue.

SonnyE - I over think everything. Heck I even overthink overthinking everything. Along those lines I have been considering adding a vertical stack above the out vent to increase draw and then using the damper to control flow. I am also moving toward PID with a socket plug and switching option for stock Bluetooth or PID that will allow the MES to either run as normal or on switching to retain function other than element control which will come through the PID. The Auber PID I am looking at also has control for the remote so that you can run steps with or without smoke. The other mod would be the dimmer/voltage control for the slow smoke unit so I can start and turn down for expanded run time.

There is also the option of using chunk charcoal which may have less creosote issues . . . see I over think everything.

 

[johnmeyer]

Here are a couple of links to excellent articles on how to produce the "right" kind of smoke for BBQ:

What You Need to Know About Wood, Smoke, And Combustion

Barbecue is all about the smoke

 

[elham]

Thanks for those links. You are an evil man. That is way too much to over think about.

I'm going to go plug in the old Brinkmann, drink a beer and smoke some ribs over some water soaked chips - Doh!

I may even fire up and season the new MES today.