Am getting brown residue everytime!


 
J

J. Wilson

TVWBB Fan
Frankly....it grosses me out. It looks like a mess and I don't know what to do. I have done the foiled pot thing and I don't think you get appropriate air flow. (I know you will disagree with me but that's my humble opinion) Shutting down all the vents to 50% or less doesn't make sense to me from a combustion standpoint and I feel I get a much better burn with vents more open and cooking with water.

But cooking with water gives me the brown residue.

I love the WSM....but am ready to just about bag it and get a PBC. Somebody save me from the cliff.

What can I do about the brown residue?? I notice it is mostly on the lid around the opening...but it can be all around the top of the barrel as well.

I foil the pan and cook with KBB and go minion method. Any help you guys can give is appreciated.
 
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As long as you continue to use water you will always get that residue in your smoker. There's really no need at all for the use of water adjusting the bottom vents on my WSM i can keep[ it at 250 with no problem at all. I've tried the water thing twice when i first got my smoker and never again it caused nothing but a mess of things inside.
 
I rarely use water but occasionally will get that brown residue running with a empty foiled pan. It's moisture laden smoke particles. If I'm doing a full load of chicken leg quarters they'll add some moisture to the smoker and I'll get the same thing.
Pat dry your meat to remove most of the surface moisture and try using less smokewood or cut your chunks into thirds or fourths.
You will get less heavy white smoke and into the TBS. You could also try pre-heating your chunks in the chimney when firing up your MM. That will start a pre-burn removing some of the volatile white smoke.
HTH and don't give up yet.:wsm:

Tim
 
Smoke is dirty, water is wet, when they mix you get brown water vapor. If it grosses you out how do you eat smoked foods?
 
JBooker said:
Smoke is dirty, water is wet, when they mix you get brown water vapor. If it grosses you out how do you eat smoked foods?
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+1 :)

That said, it is going to be worse with water than with nothing in the pan. You might try sand in the pan...you'll get the heat sink effect, but no evaporation.
 
As ancient Latin said "in medio stat virtus"
No water or full water pan ????
In my experience I use just 0,3 lt for short cook (6-7 hours) and 0,5 lt for long cook.
This is enough for adding moisture in the initial part of my cooks causing great smoke absorbtion and smoke ring.
NO MORE BROWN RESIDUE FOR ME since I use this method.
 
A PBC isn't going to stay pristine from that brown residue, either if you use the same kind of setup (with a full water pan directly over coals). I find that putting an aluminum pan of water inside a foiled WSM water pan generates enough steam without getting loads of that brown gunk. This setup works by reducing the amount of evaporation. I don't think you need it to be a rainforest in there to get good results.
 
I did most of my cooking in 2015 with an empty water pan and lost the brown flakes, replaced by a shiny black shellac all over the inside of the lid. I think there are some good comments above, try using less water or no water and see what you think.

By the way, today's Latin lesson: in medio stat virtus = in the middle stands virtue :)
 
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