clear smoke?

[LT72884]

I have read a few posts about smoke and wood chunks and all sorts of info. My question is this. is it possible with charcoal and a wood chunk to get almost invisible smoke? im talkin even clearer than tbs?

if so, how is it done? im just curious is all. Should i burn it in teh chimney till embers? will that still give great flavor?

thanks

[landarc]

Yes, I often get a smoke so light that I can barely see it, if there is a wind, I don't know that there is smoke until I taste the food. It comes down to a clean fire and well seasoned wood. It just seems to burn cleaner.

[Patrice]

Usually, I get invisible smoke with lump and a chunk of cherry without much work, I light the charcoal in a chimney dump it in, let the smoke settle to thin blue and put the meat on. Before long, it goes invisible and yes, it gives great flavor.

[BBQ Bandit]

Yes... that is the sign of an efficiently heated and fast burning fire... absence of a visible smoke.
Charcoal will produce it even once fully lit in a fully consumed fire.

[LT72884]

lets discuss clean fire. to me, this is how i achieve that: i place a full chimney of unlit either in the charcoal basket of my uds or to one side of the weber otg. i then light about 20 or so coals. roughly 15% ratio of lit to unlit. once they are nice and white. i pour them over the unlit in a single pile, sometimes i do spread them over the entire pile. i let pre heat for 45 minutes or so, even if i am dialed in to my temps early. i still like to wait a few minutes.

Is that a good fire?

thanks.

[Boshizzle]

To me, clear smoke is the way to go. When using charcoal, what I do is bring my smoker up above the cooking temp and then crank down the air inlets until it settles at the cooking temp and the smoke becomes a clear vapor.

[LT72884]

Originally Posted by Boshizzle

To me, clear smoke is the way to go. When using charcoal, what I do is bring my smoker up above the cooking temp and then crank down the air inlets until it settles at the cooking temp and the smoke becomes a clear vapor.

that way all the unlit charcoal has a good pre heat i assume?

Can you have clear smoke with high temps such as 375? should the wood actually be on fire? haha

[colonel00]

While this isn't clear, this photo is a great illustration of the thin blue smoke of a clean burning fire.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Outnumbered]

Can any of you UDS experts on here help me out on this same subject? My UDS, about 2.5-3 hours into my cook yesterday started throwing out a white smoke. I didn't change anything, but the thin blue went away. Only thing I could think of is that the juices from the brisket dripping onto the coals caused this. It wasn't a putrid smell to the smoke and the brisket tasted fine.

that was only my second UDS cook and my first brisket.

[colonel00]

Originally Posted by Outnumbered

Can any of you UDS experts on here help me out on this same subject? My UDS, about 2.5-3 hours into my cook yesterday started throwing out a white smoke. I didn't change anything, but the thin blue went away. Only thing I could think of is that the juices from the brisket dripping onto the coals caused this. It wasn't a putrid smell to the smoke and the brisket tasted fine.

that was only my second UDS cook and my first brisket.

Yes, it was most likely the juices hitting the hot coals. If you don't have a diffuser then this will happen. That is one of the things that people like about a UDS is the "campfire effect" of the juices burning and adding flavor back into the meat. One way I can tell the difference between "bad" smoke and steam/juice fumes is the bad smoke will burn your eyes where the steam does not.

[tamadrummer]

Originally Posted by Outnumbered

Can any of you UDS experts on here help me out on this same subject? My UDS, about 2.5-3 hours into my cook yesterday started throwing out a white smoke. I didn't change anything, but the thin blue went away. Only thing I could think of is that the juices from the brisket dripping onto the coals caused this. It wasn't a putrid smell to the smoke and the brisket tasted fine.

that was only my second UDS cook and my first brisket.

In an oil fire, white smoke means too much fuel not enough air and a super hot combustible mix. (Much more dangerous than black smoke) Black smoke is too much fuel and too much air, raw fuel can be left on deck and blow up but the white smoke is vaporized fuel where as black smoke is liquid fuel.

In a wood fire I am not too sure if it equates the same but it seems like you may have had a huge spike in air and the amount of heat being produced.

[captndan]

It's a clean fire thing. Just like making lump charcoal The white or grey smoke is from burning off the trapped gases and other junk in the wood or charcoal. Bargain brand charcoal and improperly seasoned wood makes this process longer. The Ancients knew about this 'cleanliness is next to wealthiness'.

[Saiko]

I know this sounds silly but: Any time you think you aren't getting smoke flavor because you don't see any smoke, hold your hand over the exaust vent for a few seconds and then smell your hand.

[Midnight Smoke]

On the BGE I cannot see the smoke. If cooking at night you can hold a Flashlight with the beam pointed over the Exhaust and you will see glimpses of smoke.

[LT72884]

thanks guys. i was just curious because i want to get as close as i can to clear smoke. it was interesting, i had about 20 lit coals on the cement the other day in a nice hot pile, i threw on a wood chunk and it smoked up a storm. thats what made me think of this question. even with a very hot pile of coals in the open, the wood chunk still smoldered and smoked a bunch. lol. thanks