Thin Blue Smoke

[TDiggy]

Hey Family,

I have had the #3 for months now and I'd have to say that for the most part, the meat it produces is very good.  However, I do have a question concerning the smoke.  At times, I see thin blue smoke, but only for a short period of time; then the smoke is white.  I use fruitawood cookshack cut, and weigh the wood before cooking making sure I use the correct amount.  I foil the wood in a sort of "boat" but I am not sure if I am doing it right.  I have seen on this site to put a layer of foil on the bottom of fire box to allow the wood to smolder.  At the end of my smokes, I usually have mostly ashes with small chunks of wood, which may indicate that the wood is combusting.  Please enlighten me on how to get the tbs for the entire smoke...  Thanks in advance to everyone and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

 

[smokeasaurus]

Well, in electric smokers, the wood is in a oxygen starved environment so the wood tends to smolder and not burn clean. That is why so little wood is to be used. You can oversmoke and ruin your grub very easily. Fruitawood is an excellent wood source. I would give Smokinlicous double filet wood chunks a try. They seem to burn "cleaner".  Try to stay away from wood chunks. I tried some once and my #3 was smoking like a runaway freight train for a while....

 

[SuperDave]

Also experiment a little with wood placement.  You will find that there are some spots hotter than others in your box.  I've covered almost all my holes in the bottom of the box to help eliminate combustion.  I now have mostly black lumps than ash.  If you put several pieces of wood spread out in the box and run a test, you'll see a difference in the burn patterns. 

 

[smokeasaurus]

Also experiment a little with wood placement.  You will find that there are some spots hotter than others in your box.  I've covered almost all my holes in the bottom of the box to help eliminate combustion.  I now have mostly black lumps than ash.  If you put several pieces of wood spread out in the box and run a test, you'll see a difference in the burn patterns.

That is really smart. I am gonna do this right away  8)

 

[DivotMaker]

Hi Diggy,

There will often still be smoke in the box, even when it's not visible out the top "blow hole."  Question:  Has the food you've smoked been smoky enough?  If so, don't worry about it!  You actually don't want smoke rolling the entire time.  Your meat will "absorb" smoke (actually penetrate the meat) until the internal temp hits about 140.  After that, if you keep hammering it with smoke, you risk over-smoking, because the smoke builds-up on the surface (just look to the walls of your smoker for an example of what happens when smoke can't penetrate).

End results is what it's all about!  If you see thick white/grayish smoke, you probably have wood combustion, which greatly shortens the length of smoke.  If you're using the fruitawood chunks, wrap the bottom half in foil.  If you happen to try the smokinlicious wood (which I hope you do someday), you won't need to wrap it.  Like I said - end results.  If the meat is smoky enough, keep on keepin' on.  If not, you may want to increase the amount a bit.  We have folks here that say 3 oz is too smoky for a pork butt, but I use 6-7 oz!  All about taste!