How can you have too much smoke?

You know... I am not sure how people are going to take this but I did the "loaf Pan chicken" the other day by Chris Lilly. I did it precisely like he did it, even the rub. I sprinkled the rub on just like him too.

I put it in my weber, not the other two beast I have, and fired up the same fire I always did and lowered the temp to 300 like he asked. I never had a white smoke touch that bird and yet with my rub I use for chicken and my method I have smoked a bird at times with white smoke,,,

the results.... it reminded me of why I used to hate what people did to a bird or the types and amount of rubs they used. It was oversmoked I thought.

Heres the point.. and its not a dis on Chris because his normal chicken (not in pan) is stellar. I think what we put on the bird and its amount contributes to the amount of smoke it retains.

I have made quite a few fire foul ups over the years and with my rub... which is salt and pepper and conservative amounts of rub, I never have a problem.
 
Shadowdog500 said:
A video of this would be helpful!

I have light smoke, but I don't know about "blue"?

I do sit near my smoker and have pulled out a piece of smoke wood or two that smelled like a burning 2x4, but I never tried to smell the meat in the smoke.
Chris
Click to expand...

It is not easy to see the "blue" folks talk about. Most of the time I can't tell what the fark the color of the smoke is. But, it will be thin, and will tend to dissipate quickly... and smell really good.

Bad smoke will be noticeably white, and linger above the smoker, and may or may not smell particularly good. If it does offend your nose, don't expect it to please your palate.

CD
 
Depends on what type of cooker you are using. If you are using a drum, when the juices hit the coals, you are naturally going to get some white smoke as a result.
 
I think when people say "over-smoked" it's different than "Badly smoked i.e. white". Seems more like a problem with the environment one cooks on.

I was confused by this when I first started smoking as well given that I use all wood in an offset how does one "over-smoke"? then I realized cooking something in my weber and getting a little too free handed with the hickory chunks what over smoking was. Because of the enclosed environment the good fist full of chunks I burned produced a more concentrated flavor than my all wood burning offset.

So it seems to me that when people think over smoked, it's on a primarily charcoal burning pit with too many chunks thrown in.
 
We don't smoke during the day too often, but when we do, I rarely see the blue smoke. I find it much easier to see when we're cooking overnight. When the sun is down, the blue of the smoke is more noticeable to me and it only seems to be around for a little while and then gone. We refer to 2 or 3 AM during a comp as sweet blue time.
 
Everything above is good advice, I'd just add this -

You can over smoke in just the same way that you can over salt your food, what's too much for one person might not be enough for another. Smoke is an ingredient, over using it is just as sinful as under use.

Along the lines of El Ropo's suggestion of putting your hand over the exhaust and then smelling your palm, I'll stick my nose over the exhaust and draw in a slow steady whiff of smoke, if it smells good AND you're not choking/gasping/wheezing, you're prolly on target. :thumb:


And please, don't soak your chips or chunks... what does wet fire wood smell like when you burn it? Horrible! How are wet chips or chunks going to smell when smoldering on top of coals? Horrible! :becky:
 
Wow, this is a great thread. I've been doing it sooo wrong for sooo long, I'm having a hard time even wrapping my head around this concept. :doh:

My confession:
Generally, I'll have 5 baseball sized chunks of mesquite soaking in water for an hour or so before I starting smoking.
Just before I put the meat on, I'll put three of them on the charcoal fire, then immediately put on the meat and close the lid.

That's when I start praying to the God Of Billowing Thick White Smoke. :oops:

During the coarse of the session, I'll drop another chunk on as they burn away.

I guess I'm not only over smoking, but soaking them in water is bad too?

Bob

EDIT: Thanks knucklhead, for the comment about soaking the wood.
 
Last edited:
Don't worry Bob. Most of us started out a little like that. I sure did.

Cheers!

Bill
 
LOVE the idea of warming my chunks of split oak on the firebox before adding to the fire. I always use a chimney to get a load of lump red-hot and then use that as a bed upon which I throw wood, one or two chunks at a time. I've never had a problem with bad-tasting smoke, but it does burn more densely than the thin blue that folks describe. Using the chimney to burn off any outside layers first has given me success using briquets like Kingsford Blue, too -- but my method is really enhanced by the hotter-burning lump, like Competition... I'll try preheating my chunks and sticks this Saturday though -- doing a 60 pound pig and 50 pounds of butts!
 
Preheating splits and chunks is such a blast. My goal on my stick burner is to ignite the farkers on the box, then pop em right on in there. Cuts the white smoke down to nothing, it's beautiful.

In people's defense, you gotta remember that you think that way cause most people have TOLD you to think that way. My neighbor from the Town Homes swore up and down he made the best food ever... he soaked every bit of wood, INCLUDING THE SPLITS! :shocked: He soaked the chips he used, he had white smoke out of everything. The brisket tasted like creosote, I wanted to vomit. I was new to the block, and he's a NICE guy, so I told him it was the best brisket I ever had, and that guy did electrical work for me... to this day, no charge.

I made him my brisket, and it blew him away. He told me he knew I had to be lying, but he appreciated the sentiment.
He learned from his father. I learned from you guys, lmao. You guys win.

Same thing with mopping, Texans swear by mopping. I've gotten into some pretty heated verbal arguments over nothing more than soaking wood chips, and mopping brisket.
 
My FEC 100 spits out plenty of white smoke. I even add smoldering pellets to it when I want more of a smoke flavor and guess what, it's not a clear blue by any means. Just because it's not a grayish blue doesn't mean it's bad.

That nasty smell from lump charcoal when it's first lit up though is pretty nasty though. I've also seen a stickburner next to me at a comp pump out blue, brown, green and gray smoke. His rib was the worst thing anyone has ever asked me to taste.

In my opinion, it comes down to what wood you are using, how much is smoldering, how wet the meat is and how long it's being bathed in smoke.
 
Yeah but like you said, as far as the kind of wood you're using, you're using pellets, little tiny balls. I've never used a pellet smoker so I'll leave it at that, not trying to sound as though I'm an expert. I'd imagine that the differences between cooking with splits and cooking with little preshaped Yesterday's News looking pellets would be drastically different though.
 
I'm sure this has been said, but you can't REALLY have too much smoke because smoke is not even a variable in the equation.

You want a clean burning fire. End of story. You achieve this by using heat and air with wood.

You can have too much wood for the amount of heat and/or air. In this case the fire is suffocating and struggling to burn. The gasses and compounds released from the wood are unable to ignite properly because there is too much being released for the air and heat supply to ignite. This is usually visible as thick white or even yellow smoke. These compounds that are not burnt up land on your food adding a nasty, acrid, bitter flavor.

You can have insufficient air. The result is basically the same as too much wood, because the amount of fuel does not have enough air to cleanly burn.

You can have insufficient heat also, but this should be able to be rectified by either increasing airflow or fuel, whichever is lacking.

Smoke is a byproduct. A fire produces it. No matter how big or small your fire is, you want it to burn clean for proper results. The key is hitting your target temp with that clean burning fire. A larger fire means higher temps. A smaller fire means lower temps.

So smoke is not the source of the problem, fire management is the problem. The smoke will always be right if you create a clean burning fire. Try not to manage temps by adjusting airflow...manage temps by the size of the fire.
 
El Ropo, thank you very much for helping to un-noob me.

Bigabyte, That sounds "legit" to me. Definitely something to give thought to.
Thank you!

Bob
 
I even add smoldering pellets to it when I want more of a smoke flavor
Click to expand...

So, how many decades does it take to get the desired level of smoke flavor using a pellet pooper?

:caked:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
Too much airflow?
Replies
5
Views
550
Lynn Dollar
Lynn Dollar
T
New Backwoods Cabinet - How do I get more smoke flavor?
Replies
13
Views
839
snadamo
snadamo
J
Electric smoker dying
Replies
16
Views
659
JIMSMOKES
J
cayenne
How much wood per session through free flow Blue Smoke Smoker offset?
Replies
9
Views
2K
PGarSD
P
Headgear
Hot spot testing/Oven Thermometer Accuracy
Replies
12
Views
472
Nuco59
N
Back
Top