WSM Minimal Smoke Ring Theory

[realspaazz]

Two things that might help.
1) I always point the open intake on my wsm downwind of the smoker (we usually have at least a light breeze coming off of the ocean) This seems to help keep the fire aspirated by only the draw of the heat and should allow for a slower rise of the smoke.
2) I saw that you put your meat on at 185. I always get my cooker up to temperature before putting the meat on. The smoke ring is formed by a chemical reaction between nitric oxide and the myoglobin in the meat. This reaction seems to happen near the surface of the meat at pit temperatures above 212. Once the meat temperature reaches 160 or so the smoke ring seems to stop forming. I think that by putting your meat on before the pit comes to temp, that your meat heats up with the pit and spends less time in the proper meat temp versus pit temp zone. Hope that this helps.

 

[smoke ninja]

Keep trying brother.

Here's my spare ribs from yesterday on my 18. I used chef select lump (nice stuff, first time) for heat and two small handfuls of apple wood chips in 2 piles. Yes I said chips.

Note how much smoke you can see.



Almost done



Done



Just keep the fire clean and you'll get there.

 

[thunter]

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.

UH OH! Ninja is stressing again!:shock:

Well, part of the fun of this sport is doing some experiments, and I don't mind failures when they taste so good! :grin:

I think you could be right about the smoke wood. I have a nice stash of white oak that I use in the stick burner. I'm going to cut me up some chunks and give that a go. I'll be doing some fatties this weekend, so I'll let them be the test cases.

Also, I should mention that the reason I am so perplexed by this is because this has not always been a problem in my WSMs. I dug up a pic of some spares I did, and my first brisket. I have always used bagged chunks, but my next test will tell me if I need to change!

Spares I cooked on my WSM...



My very first brisket, done on the WSM...

 

[Fwismoker]

Well there ya go! I'm sure you had your vents wide open in that smoke right?

If you always smoke your own wood you know what you're burning.

 

[bshm]

According to everything I've seen you need combustion producing carbon monoxide and a moist exterior. Have you ever seen someone deaded from CO poisoning? They turn pink.

That's just conjecture on my part though, I put the meat on after I have the temp I want and don't foil unless I'm cooking for picky eaters. Instead I just use less sugar in the rub and control exterior browning with a spritz.

The top vent on my 22.5 stays wide open the entire time, and I control air flow evenly with the bottom vents, cracking them a bit more as I go. Once the meat is on I try not to go backwards by closing them down but only keep cracking them a little more little by little. So, if it's going to be a long cook like a brisket it's kind of a balancing act with adding fuel and air but not taking air away... but sometimes you just have to.

Not so many people mopping/spritzing anymore but hey, it works for me, as well as using water in the pan for anything thick that's going to take awhile like butts or brisket.