Blue Smoke vs. White Smoke (Pron?)

[Bigmista]

Here's some Blue...

[Dave S]

Sure did!! Thanks very much.
If you don't mind, I'd like to pick your brain a bit more.

If you're cooking on a UDS, using the Minion method, can you place wood chunks down into the briquets so that those chunks will smoke later in the burn OR have only briquets in the basket and just manually add wood chunks during the burn?

Originally Posted by Lake Dogs

Dave, did we get 'ya hooked up?

Get the fire going first, with vents open as much as possible. Bring the smoker up to
temps, then begin closing vents little by little to get the smoker to level out to the temps that you desire. THEN add wood, a piece or a chunk or two at a time, dry
seasoned wood, and dont smother the fire. Those pieces of wood will get to sweet
blue heaven in only about a minute or two at the most. Now add meat. Not until
now. On the Lang I use roughly 1 split piece of wood every hour, give or take.

[rogwadd]

Here's some white smoke from Myron's Rig. These are from the DC BBQ Battle last summer.


He had a grease fire goin' on in his firebox.


The smoke seen from his neighbors a few spots down

[rogwadd]

Here's some blue from my first butt Feb 2010.

[HOG WILD BBQ]

Originally Posted by Cook

Next time The Neelys are on The Food Network and Pat'olBoy is "smoking" out back you can see exactly the thick white smoke that you don't want.

IM NOT SURE HOW THEY EVEN HAVE A SHOW! MUST BE THE WORST COOKING SHOW ON TV.

[Dallas Dan]

Originally Posted by Bigmista

Here's some Blue...

Umm, that's my pit and actually the smoke is white. I had just put more wood on the burner and it was dry cherry and oak. The jpeg development setting was set for cool white instead of warm white.

[Panthers65]

Originally Posted by Lake Dogs

Does anyone have any pron of what the "Good" blue smoke looks like vs. the "bad" white smoke?

Bad on left, good on right.


What would make the same piece of wood either burn with Blue Smoke or burn with white smoke?

The fire should be hot, and if possible the wood should be as warm as possible before placing on the
hot fire. Do NOT smother the fire/coals. Also, wet or moist wood will do this. This is one of the reasons
to NEVER soak wood like many instructions will tell you.

worth the quote, great picture!

[Big slick]

I honestly never knew about blue and white smoke. I always uses the minion method and let the smoker run for almost an hour before adding the food. By that time most of the smoke has died down or is completely gone. I also scatter my wood chunks throughout my charcoal so that it burn at later parts during the cook providing me with constant smoke flavor.

[Frank Grimes]

Lakedog, did you set up the cookers to display that? If not, that's the best timed pic in the history of BBQ!