• xenforo has sucessfully updated our forum software last night. Howevr, that has returned many templates to stock formats which MAY be missing some previous functionality. It has also fixed some boroken templates Ive taken offline. Reat assured, we are working on getting our templates back to normal, but will take a few days. Im working top down, so best bet is to stick with the default templates as I work thru them.

How much smoke?

Maylar

is Blowin Smoke!

Batch Image
Batch Image
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Messages
1,264
Reaction score
1...
Location
Connecticut
Name or Nickame
Dave
For those brethren not cooking with wood, how long into a cook do you have smoke? I've read that you only need smoke for a half hour at the beginning of the cook.

I'm asking because I cook with gas and use pellets for the smoke, but I imagine it'd be a similar question for charcoal cookers - do you keep adding wood until the cook is finished?

I grill a lot but have only smoked a few times and have found that poultry in particular can be over smoked. Just wondering how long does it take for smoke flavor to happen. Don't care about a smoke ring, just the flavor.
 
If running charcoal, I’ll run 80% or so of charcoal and 20% wood chunks to get through the first 4 fours of a cook. After that, it’s all charcoal. If running the Yoder pellet, I’ll smoke for about 4 hours at or under 200. Then I’ll crank temp to 250-275.
 
It's completely a matter of taste. Myself, I have never had a piece of poultry I considered oversmoked, but I generally like a heavier smoke flavor.

In your smoker I'd guess you are running wood chips? I'd just try a full tray first then add or subtract as you see fit.
 
I cold smoke our bacon using an A-MAZE-N maze for about 22 hours/two fills of the maze. Our bacon is used primarily as a cooking ingredient, so the super smoke flavor works well. If we were just eating bacon strips alone, the 24 hour smoke is probably too much.
 
The turkey breast I recently did on the WSM, I used two chunks of wood. Both chunks combined might have been the size of my fist. 3hr cook, one chunk burned completely and the other was just a little burnt as it was on the perimeter of the charcoal ring. The breasts had a very pleasant smoke profile. I'm guessing that first chunk near the center may have smoked for an hour. I really didn't need two chunks of wood.
 
It's completely a matter of taste. Myself, I have never had a piece of poultry I considered oversmoked, but I generally like a heavier smoke flavor.

In your smoker I'd guess you are running wood chips? I'd just try a full tray first then add or subtract as you see fit.

I use either an A-MAZ-N tube or a stainless pouch with pellets. Gonna do my first smoked meatloaf soon and I'm kinda feeling for how long to smoke it.

My son did a smoked turkey on his stick burner for Thanksgiving and the skin was inedible. 12 hrs though with a big bird.
 
I build my charcoal in layers, and each layer gets a split or two, and some pellets. In my Egg three full layers will give me enough charcoal to burn at least 18 hours, and as long as I start the coals in one spot in the center, the fire grows slowly, so I'll get smoke for 12 or 14 hours.

hXjmZxQ.jpg
 
I actually get less smoke flavor from my stick burner than I do from my PK 360. I think it has to do with the clean smoke and air flow in the stick burner compared to the PK with charcoal and wood chunks. In my stick burner I can do a 100% mesquite fire for 8 to 10 hours and the smoke tends to be light and a support player to the meat. In my PK 360 twenty to thirty minutes of indirect smoke followed by a reverse sear imparts far more smoke than my stick burner.
 
3hr cook at 250*F today, used a couple lil chips of cherry and one fist-sized each apple and cherry. the chunks were somewhat charred but still about half there/brown.
 
Back
Top