[thirdeye]

Originally Posted by Porcine Aviator

I have always used charcoal with wood chunks to smoke bacon in an offset— which provides pretty clean smoke.

Not having used a passive pellet device to smoke with, I have a question:

Because the pellets in these devices do not use a fan to facilitate combustion ( as in a pellet smoker), don't the pellets smolder and produce nasty white smoke? In their advertisements it certainly looks so.

That's why you have to take advantage of your smokers natural draft, and tweak it as needed. Granted heat plays an important role in draft during a normal cook, so when you use a cold smoke generator in your pit you might need more draft (or draw) than the vents will provide, meaning you might have to prop open a door, or in my case with my Little Chief, I use spacers on the lid and prop the lower flap fully open.



Here is my mini-WSM with cheese, using the sawdust smoke generator from A-Maze-N. You have to look really close to see the whiffs of smoke on the left side in this photo. I'll have both vents fully open, and sometimes I'll crack the lid slightly. But... the gentle delivery of smoke lets me flavor cheese for 6 or more hours which is a big window for dialing in the exact flavor I want.