WSM Minimal Smoke Ring Theory

[thunter]

It's a replacement door.

http://cajunbandit.com/wsm-parts-mods/

Great link. Thanks Terry! :grin:

 

[akoda]

No issues with smoke rings on my 18.5's, I always leave the top vent wide open and have never used a gasket.

 

[THoey1963]

No probs. They are great doors. Really heavy duty and look great. If you get one, you almost have to replace the latch with a compression latch. I don't think the Weber latch would last long...

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[Norm62]

Everyone has an opinion, right? Here's another... supposed to be backed by science.

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbusting_the_smoke_ring.html

 

[Norm62]

No issues with smoke rings on my 18.5's, I always leave the top vent wide open and have never used a gasket.

Anyone Hungry?! :icon_smile_tongue:

 

[Grain Belt]

My knowledge of smoke rings may not be totally scientific or correct but I will state what I believe. When meats are cured with sodium nitrate as part of the ingredients it turns redish pink. Think canadian bacon, or corned beef or pastrami. When there is sodium in meat from a rub or a brine and it is exposed to smoke, nitrates are created where smoke, sodium, and meat come together creating a nitrate reaction of some type, hence the pinkish color.

 

[1buckie]

Ok, cool! I'll bet you would notice a difference if you placed the vent on the same side as the fuel and wood. I'll have to give that a try myself.

Yes, if the vent is right over the burn, the heat travels straight up & out.....Runs a little hotter, less smoke flavor 'cause a lot goes out the vent & fuel burns quicker as the draw is greater with that situation.......

this is for kettles, but may have some small bearing on what you want to do.............

 

[creekwalker]

I didn't say anything about competitions and SR....don't know about that, I'm just a backyard pit guy. I do know that my meat stays moist in all of my smokers and that's a prerequisite of SR formation...moisture needs to be present for the chemical reaction to happen.


I have no idea why my meat stays so dang moist in all of my cookers but i'll take it!:dancer:

This is the way it is in my (only) smoker, an elongated and otherwise modified cheap bullet type. Butts always comes out so moist that I have to super concentrate my tossing sauce (since the meat won't absorb much of it)--and this, in spite of the fact that I'm cooking with direct radiant heat.

Which makes me ask, has anyone yet suggested using the WSM without a diffuser of any kind?

 

[charrederhead]

Great approaches. But do you mean remove the water pan completely like cooking on a UDS or BDS? I have thought about doing that before but just haven't. Also, I like the kettle lid idea alot!

Yes!

 

[Vision]

My WSM produces great smoke rings.

 

[smoke ninja]

Smoke doesn't even come from my wsm. I think the term smoked meat leads to many problems. What we want here is invisible, just like a ninja.

 

[midwest_kc]

If anyone has ever cooked on their WSM without the water pan in at all, like a UDS, I'd be interested to see what the results were. This is something I've been thinking about recently, but haven't been able to try it yet.

 

[BB-Kuhn]

I get very pronounced smoke rings with my wsm.

 

[charrederhead]

If anyone has ever cooked on their WSM without the water pan in at all, like a UDS, I'd be interested to see what the results were. This is something I've been thinking about recently, but haven't been able to try it yet.

I've done this w/ chicken a couple of times. Sorry, no pics. It's my hookless WSM version of a PBS. :shocked:

Honestly, I couldn't tell a difference taste-wise. Temp-wise there wasn't too much difference either. I run only a foiled water pan, and can get 330 like that anyway. I didn't try to goose it to see what it would do.

Not sure if it was because of the relatively short cook time, or the distance from lump to top rack, but I didn't get much of the "fat on coals" flavoring others talk about.

:noidea:

 

[thunter]

Smoke Ring Test Cook Log...

Today I am testing some minor adjustments to my WSM cooking methodology, in an effort to improve my smoke ring formation.

First, I am going back to using water in my water pan. Next, I created a makeshift gasket around the charcoal door by wrapping it with foil to eliminate any smoke leakage. Lastly, I'm cooking with the top vent open only about 50%, to keep smoke in the cooking chamber longer, and so that the smoke will push lower into the cooking chamber is the meat on the lower rack will have better exposure to smoke.

Today, I am cooking a full-cut slab of angus beef ribs, one rack of spare ribs, and some spicy garlic brats. The beef ribs are on the lower rack, and every thing else is on the top rack. I'm cooking those meats because I want to measure performance for short, medium, and long cook meats. The sausage will come off first, then the spare ribs, and last, the beef ribs.





I'm using the Minion method to fire the cooker. I lined the bottom of the fire grate with apple chunks, then I filled the charcoal ring with Kingsford briquettes, and started the fire with about 10 lit coals.

10:15 AM

When the smoker got up to about 150* I put the meat on right out of the fridge, then I added about 5 large chunks of hickory and sealed up the charcoal door.



11:15 AM

I'm happy to see my theory about closing down the top vent is proving true. I can see that more smoke is hovering throughout the cooking chamber. The bottom vents are all wide open, but the smoker is not up to my cruising temp of 225* degrees yet. I'm only at 185* right now, but that's ok, because it is steadily rising. It won't be long until I'll have to close the bottom vents to about 50%.

3:00 PM

The spares had a good color on them, so I put them in foil with brown sugar, honey, and butter. I put the back on the smoker and I'll check on the in a couple of hours.

I also took my sausage off. The flavor was amazing! The smoke ring… meh! It's there but not really pronounced.



4:15 PM

I took the beef ribs off the smoker and wrapped them in butcher paper. The color was very nice, and the texture was screaming "wrap me!".



5:15 PM

The spare ribs are ready to come out of the foil. The look amazing! Beautiful color and perfect texture. I glazed them with some of my special sauce, and put them back on the smoker to set the sauce.





The beef ribs are still in butcher paper and will stay on for a couple more hours or more.

6:00 PM

The spare ribs have been hanging out for a while, so I thought I would break into them and see what happened. Again, the smoke ring was there, but not very pronounced at all. The ribs were great, delicious and beautiful, but why does the deep, well-defined, smoke ring elude me?



9:30 PM

I took the beef ribs off the smoker and let them rest. They smelled wonderful! They tasted amazing too. My wife, who is not a beef fan, was in devour mode! But… there was utter failure in the smoke ring department!





I have no idea what the problem is with my WSMs, but something is definitely not right. I have been doing this for along time now, so I know about putting cold meat on the smoker, I know about the science behind smoke ring formation, I know the differences between good and bad wood, I know about various methods of cooking with/without the water pan, and with/without water in the pan, and I know the difference between different types of fuel and their effects on the cooking process. What I don't know, is why my WSMs won't give me a smoke ring! Maybe it's the air in Indianapolis or something! Well, I'm done worrying about it now.

I gave my stick burner (CG Smokin' Pro) to my son, who, by the way, is enjoying not only delicious tasting food, but also the bragging rights behind having those beautiful smoke rings which are always so reliable with stick burners. Now, I have no option but to pull the trigger on my new stick burner sooner than I thought. I'm going to pick up my new Oklahoma Joe Longhorn this week, and get her seasoned and ready for my big cook on July 4th. Then In 2015, I'm getting myself a Lang!

 

[smoke ninja]

I cannot stress enough that we don't want smoke you can see.

 

[Fwismoker]

Today I am testing some minor adjustments to my WSM cooking methodology, in an effort to improve my smoke ring formation.

First, I am going back to using water in my water pan. Next, I created a makeshift gasket around the charcoal door by wrapping it with foil to eliminate any smoke leakage. Lastly, I'm cooking with the top vent open only about 50%, to keep smoke in the cooking chamber longer, and so that the smoke will push lower into the cooking chamber is the meat on the lower rack will have better exposure to smoke.

Today, I am cooking a full-cut slab of angus beef ribs, one rack of spare ribs, and some spicy garlic brats. The beef ribs are on the lower rack, and every thing else is on the top rack. I'm cooking those meats because I want to measure performance for short, medium, and long cook meats. The sausage will come off first, then the spare ribs, and last, the beef ribs.





I'm using the Minion method to fire the cooker. I lined the bottom of the fire grate with apple chunks, then I filled the charcoal ring with Kingsford briquettes, and started the fire with about 10 lit coals.

10:15 AM

When the smoker got up to about 150* I put the meat on right out of the fridge, then I added about 5 large chunks of hickory and sealed up the charcoal door.



11:15 AM

I'm happy to see my theory about closing down the top vent is proving true. I can see that more smoke is hovering throughout the cooking chamber. The bottom vents are all wide open, but the smoker is not up to my cruising temp of 225* degrees yet. I'm only at 185* right now, but that's ok, because it is steadily rising. It won't be long until I'll have to close the bottom vents to about 50%.

3:00 PM

The spares had a good color on them, so I put them in foil with brown sugar, honey, and butter. I put the back on the smoker and I'll check on the in a couple of hours.

I also took my sausage off. The flavor was amazing! The smoke ring… meh! It's there but not really pronounced.



4:15 PM

I took the beef ribs off the smoker and wrapped them in butcher paper. The color was very nice, and the texture was screaming "wrap me!".



5:15 PM

The spare ribs are ready to come out of the foil. The look amazing! Beautiful color and perfect texture. I glazed them with some of my special sauce, and put them back on the smoker to set the sauce.





The beef ribs are still in butcher paper and will stay on for a couple more hours or more.

6:00 PM

The spare ribs have been hanging out for a while, so I thought I would break into them and see what happened. Again, the smoke ring was there, but not very pronounced at all. The ribs were great, delicious and beautiful, but why does the deep, well-defined, smoke ring elude me?



9:30 PM

I took the beef ribs off the smoker and let them rest. They smelled wonderful! They tasted amazing too. My wife, who is not a beef fan, was in devour mode! But… there was utter failure in the smoke ring department!





I have no idea what the problem is with my WSMs, but something is definitely not right. I have been doing this for along time now, so I know about putting cold meat on the smoker, I know about the science behind smoke ring formation, I know the differences between good and bad wood, I know about various methods of cooking with/without the water pan, and with/without water in the pan, and I know the difference between different types of fuel and their effects on the cooking process. What I don't know, is why my WSMs won't give me a smoke ring! Maybe it's the air in Indianapolis or something! Well, I'm done worrying about it now.

I gave my stick burner (CG Smokin' Pro) to my son, who, by the way, is enjoying not only delicious tasting food, but also the bragging rights behind having those beautiful smoke rings which are always so reliable with stick burners. Now, I have no option but to pull the trigger on my new stick burner sooner than I thought. I'm going to pick up my new Oklahoma Joe Longhorn this week, and get her seasoned and ready for my big cook on July 4th. Then In 2015, I'm getting myself a Lang!

I still think you need to figure out what is going wrong for you. What kind of wood chunks are you using? I cut my own wood, you never know what you're buying in those bags.

You didn't believe us when we said trapping smoke around the meat isn't the answer? :noidea: Offsets don't trap smoke around the meat...same with UDS etc...and all of those smokers produce smoke rings well.

I would get different smoking wood, cut them smaller with a hatchet or whatever and spread them around more. I'd also light your basket on one side and let it do a good minion burn across the basket lighting up wood chunks as it goes. Maybe you're burning all your smoking wood too quick.

I cannot stress enough that we don't want smoke you can see.

UH OH! Ninja is stressing again!:shock:

 

[Fwismoker]

Thunter, this is off of my mini wsm.

 

[thunter]

Thunter, this is off of my mini wsm.

Those are beautiful! :thumb:

 

[jonmhenderson]

Without reading all of your posts, you may either be getting too hot too fast, or there may be too much sugar in your rub. Of course, the rub theory wouldn't explain the sausage. Some rubs really seem to inhibit smoke ring formation. I've had it happen over and over again with two rubs in particular. They taste good, but stop the ring.