Creosote?

[SmokinAussie]

Everything Chris says here is Gospel. I've had terrible trouble with creosote. First, I didn't know what it was. Then I found out and tried multiple different methods to reduce the amount of creosote, and the resulting effect on the food. I've made small but noticeable improvents over the last 2 years... Then, Friday, for some reason, I just fluked it and did everything that Chris has been saying here. Now I'm reading this and going... yep... yep... yep, that's right..... damn why didn't I figure that out before.. etc.

Last smoke I did for the lamb, I never had to foil, I had a small fire, I raided the grate, I pushed it to the edge, I backfilled, I had super temps, I had super control, I had super blue.. almost CLEAR smoke....

God.. 2 years to get it RIGHT...

So whatever Chris Says... Don't question it, just do it. Save yourself years of trouble!

Cheers!

Bill

[jonboy]

could someone explain this statement:
I pushed it to the edge, I backfilled,
Does this mean to keep fire at the back of the firepit and add new wood/fuel to the front near the door? (compared with having a fire/coals spread out over the grate)
Is this the process of banking a fire, if so, please explain...
When cooking a long cook and ash builds up under the grate, do you try to remove it to improve air flow?
I have been cooking with a charcoal base, kingsford, and splits/logs on top. It seems if i stir the fire any i get alot of ash flying. Maybe i need to try a hardwood charcoal.
Any suggestions?
jon

[bigabyte]

If that is in reference to how i refueled my offset, it means I shoved the lit coals to one side (in mine I shoved them towards the cooker), and then filled in behind that with unlit lump. In my offset I made the fuel burn back towards the air intake. I only used lump to avoid ash issues.

[jonboy]

I had a small fire, I raided the grate, I pushed it to the edge, I backfilled, I had super temps,
This is what i was referring to, (need to learn how to do the quote thing)

Watching the pitmaster show i saw a lot of pits with a deep bed of charcoal and little wood (I don't remember seeing any wood logs being used, maybe chunks) I guess that is part of the hot and fast technique or getting a fire started quickly. Or maybe it was advertising....
jon

[dudz]

This is a great thread, but I have problems getting my smoke to the blue color at the beginning of my cook as well as when adding wood when I use my kettle. I start minion method with hickory chunks but when they burn they burn white and I only get blue when I lift the lid and they catch fire. By the time the white smoke clears There is little wood left for smoke. Most of my meat is turning out under smoked, and how can I get a good fire burning without using all of my smoke wood in the first hour or so ? With My uds I dont want to keep adding wood, what should I differently to stop the white smoke and save wood?

[bigabyte]

I don't know if I mentioned this earlier or not (I think I did), but when doing a Minion type burn, you are running a smoldering fire basically, where maybe some coals are burning good with plenty of air, but some are just starting to light up and thus are not hot enough yet to burn clean. So how do you keep from getting too much bad smoke? By reducing the amount of smoke you create. In units that do a Minion type slow burn, almost all people use more charcoal than wood for this very reason. This way you are burning charcoal primarily, which is not going to smoke heavily because charcoal is wood preburned down to coals. Then use just a few small chunks of wood to get some wood smoke but in a much lighter dose. While these ligt up, they will produce a white smoke, but a thin white smoke so long as you don't use too much wood. Some people also notice that using certain kinds of briquettes may produce a thicker white smoke when doing a Minion burn as opposed to other briquettes, or even lump. So the quality of your charcoal could also be a factor in the amount of smoke produced.

[dudz]

OK thanks I'll experiment with different charcoals , Also will the white smoke cause a bad taste ? I dont add my meat till the white stops and when it does there is little wood or smoke left at all, How can I get long burns with blue smoke doing minion method, or is it just not possible ?

[bigabyte]

I've been happy with my WSM's for a few years now and have not had a problem with an oversmoked taste. So in my opinion, a thin white smoke is not going to cause you trouble. The smoke doesn't usually turn to pure thin blue smoke until after the wood has been burned down to a coal basically. So if you want to get only thin blue smoke using a Minion method (in my opinion), burn only quality 100% hardwood lump charcoal. This is hardwood chunks that ahve already been preburned down to coals for you. They will impart a hardwood flavor, just not as much as when you use wood because a lot of that flavor is lost while charcoal is being extinguished, but it's still there.

[dudz]

I'll try lump with some wood and see what happens..i have been using stubbs maybe that could be my problem,

[tntjz3]

Originally Posted by dudz

I'll try lump with some wood and see what happens..i have been using stubbs maybe that could be my problem,

I told you that Stubbs was junk . Walmart & Kmart carry Royal Oak Lump. Stubbs sparks and emits a nasty odor for the entire cook.

[dudz]

I have no problem with stubbs, but I just want to experiment, I am unhappy with the amount of smoke I get, I want more smoke but not more wood because all wood does for me is billow white smoke witch is bad, I am more confused now than I was before ...

[tntjz3]

Originally Posted by dudz

I have no problem with stubbs, but I just want to experiment, I am unhappy with the amount of smoke I get, I want more smoke but not more wood because all wood does for me is billow white smoke witch is bad, I am more confused now than I was before ...

Lump charcoal works good for less smoke.

[dudz]

lumps burns very inconsistently called "bridging" I think, both work good, but (lump produces less smoke), I thought it was opposite....

[blackdog043]

I use RO lump and put three or four pieces of chunk wood mixed in and one on top. the mixed in does not burn at the same time so not as much smoke at one time. I get a very very light white or blue smoke.

[2007Flsct]

This is some good information. I get a white smoke in my WSM but the taste was always great.

I recently started using sticks in my Chargriller and was surprised to see how easy it is to get a thin blue smoke if I keep the fire burning. At first I made the mistake of getting the fire too hot and then closing the vents until the fire goes out. This lead to a large amount of white bad tasting smoke.