Blue Smoke Question.

leanza

leanza

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I fired up my Silver Smoker this weekend and was working on fire control. I'm trying to better understand how air flow, heat and fuel play into getting as much a blue smoke as possible. I used Rancher, chunks and stix alternating during 6hr cook. I learned alot.

What I noticed was that when I would pop my firebox open on the side a bit to get more oxy, I would see blue smoke coming out of the firebox while at the stack end a somewhat more whiteish smoke would be exhausting.

Is it safe to assume that since I am having what appears to be correct combustion in my fire box, that the more whiteish exhaust is a result of smoke condensing in the cooler cooking chamber and that it is a suitable smoke? Thanks ahead of time for your opinions.
 
Hmm, usually when I get white smoke it's after I close the intake a bit - or add cold wood.
 
leanza said:
I'm trying to better understand how air flow, heat and fuel play into getting as much a blue smoke as possible.

What I noticed was that when I would pop my firebox open on the side a bit to get more oxy, I would see blue smoke coming out of the firebox while at the stack end a somewhat more whiteish smoke would be exhausting.

Is it safe to assume that since I am having what appears to be correct combustion in my fire box, that the more whiteish exhaust is a result of smoke condensing in the cooler cooking chamber and that it is a suitable smoke? Thanks ahead of time for your opinions.
Click to expand...

I don't know where the "blue smoke" thing originated, but I suspect it was from a very light gray smoke with a blue sky in the background. At least I've never seen "blue smoke" come from my smoker.

While wood smoke has alot of stuff in it, it's color is mainly carbon in particulate form. Pure carbon is black. And yeah, you want to minimize that.

I'm happiest when I can see nothing coming out of my smoker exhaust. That indicates the most complete combustion.

So not to worry leanza. I'd say with certainty that your biggest mistake was not having some meat in there while farking around.
 
I'm pretty sure it was a blue hewed smoke. I had no beers in me yet. Anyway, I had a rack of ribs in it so is was for a good cause.
 
" I feel funny but I don't know why...Excuse me why I kiss the"...... blew hewed smoke coming out of my fire box.
 
Here is a picture taken by "Scotty's Inferno" showing a nice mellow smoke coming from his Big Green Egg. I think Scott described this sweet blue smoke perfectly saying "you almost wonder if it's even there".

0eebb44d.jpg
 
10-4 thirdeye. I seen plenty of it yesterday. I had no problem per-say getting blue. But I was curious, as it related to my original question. Thanks for the pic.
 
Could be a bit of grease sizzling and producing the grey smoke because of increased air stoking the flames and pushing them into the chamber....Just a thought....
 
Mark said:
I don't know where the "blue smoke" thing originated, but I suspect it was from a very light gray smoke with a blue sky in the background. At least I've never seen "blue smoke" come from my smoker.

While wood smoke has alot of stuff in it, it's color is mainly carbon in particulate form. Pure carbon is black. And yeah, you want to minimize that.

I'm happiest when I can see nothing coming out of my smoker exhaust. That indicates the most complete combustion.

So not to worry leanza. I'd say with certainty that your biggest mistake was not having some meat in there while farking around.
Click to expand...

You hit it on the head Mark. The hotter the fire the less smoke you will see, but that does not mean that you will have less smoke flavor. The smoke you see is unburned particles, which have nothing to do with flavor unless you get so much of the particles on you meat it taste bitter. Otherwise known as soot. SO if you want to babysit you smoker small hot fores are the way to go, but if you smoker can run for along time with nice steady stream of smoke it isn't a bad thing.
 
Mark said:
You want to imagine that's blue? Okay. The point is that it should be as faint as possible.
Click to expand...

Whether you see a bluish color is irrelevant-- it certainly aint white or grey, or thick. The point you made is correct, faint, wispy or 'invisible' smoke is best. I think the pictures show the kind of smoke to shoot for....
 
backyardchef said:
Whether you see a bluish color is irrelevant-- it certainly aint white or grey, or thick. The point you made is correct, faint, wispy or 'invisible' smoke is best. I think the pictures show the kind of smoke to shoot for....
Click to expand...


That about says it all right there.
 
Here is a pretty good shot of sweet blue!
 

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Yeah water looks blue sometime too. But you know it really isn't. I think the same physics apply here, but I don't really care.
 
So no smoke will give the same flavor as the small amount of smoke wisping form the chimney? I usually shoot for the wispiness myself. Scott
 
Just remember, it is the sun that makes the sky appear blue, as the light hits our atmosphere.

So I think the blue smoke is also clear, until light reflects off of it

If you smoke in the middle of the night, with no light source whatsoever, you will see no smoke, blue or not.
 
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