Charcoal/Smoke Wood Problem


 
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Chris Allingham

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Hi,

I received an interesting e-mail today from a new WSM owner, and thought it would be useful to share the information here.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>This past weekend was the first time I used the smoker and I had a few questions. It seems that even with all the bottom vents open, my charcoal would not burn very well. I will make sure next time that the water pan isn't sitting right on the charcoal chamber. I saw that in the FAQ section. However, is there supposed to be smoke coming out of the top vent for the entire time the food is cooking? It seems that there was smoke for about half an hour after I put the wood chunks on the coals. When I would open the access door, there still would be unburned wood chunks, but they weren't smoking. Is this normal or is this related to my charcoal burning problem? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Here's my response:

Regarding your charcoal and smoke wood...if you were able to keep the cooker going in the 225-250*F range throughout your cooking session, and your concern is that there was not much visible smoke coming out of the cooker, that's not really a problem. You will see a fair amount of smoke during the first 45 minutes or so of cooking, then it will diminish to almost nothing. Your wood chunks are still smoldering slowly and flavoring your meat, doing their job.

If you're firing up your WSM using Method #2 described on the Firing Up Your Weber Bullet page, you will see a lot of unburned charcoal and smoke wood, which is normal, but you will still be operating in the 225-250*F range. If you click on the very last picture on the Chicken! Chicken! page you'll see how my fuel and smoke wood looked after four hours of cooking using Method #2. There's a lot of unburned charcoal and smoke wood, yet I cooked for four hours in the 225-250*F range and the food had plenty of smoky flavor.

Mike Scrutchfield, the WSM champion of the BBQ competition circuit, puts it this way: "Forget about how much smoke is coming out of the cooker. If you've got the wood you like in there, burning up cleanly, the flavor will be in the meat. Smoke is nothing more than a smoke screen, and any coming out of the top of the cooker is flavor lost!"

Now, if your problem is that you had trouble keeping your temperature up in the 225-250*F range, and assuming you had your water pan in the correct location--hanging from the bottom flanges in the middle cooking
section--then you've probably got a problem with your fuel. Some cheap briquets and certain types of lump charcoal don't burn hot or long. If you use a good, hot variety of charcoal briquet like Kingsford or Royal Oak, believe me you'll have so much heat for so long you won't know what to do with it all! And make sure to start out with plenty of fuel. Don't follow Weber's instructions in the Owner's Manual--use either Method #1 or #2 on the "Firing Up" page.

[This message has been edited by Chris Allingham (edited 03-14-2000).]
 
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