Getting a clean burning fire - tips & tricks?


 
Jerome D.

Jerome D.

TVWBB All-Star
Hi fellow TVWBB members:

I'd like to hear about the various ways you can tell when you have a clean-burning fire, as well as the various methods people use to get a clean fire. It's my understanding that a thin blue smoke is what you're going for. Since information-sharing is one of the strengths of this forum, I'd appreciate any tips & tricks for achieving a clean fire in an efficient way (e.g. visual cues, timing, charcoal & smoke wood configuration, etc). Even though I've been smoking on my Webers for a few years, I'm always looking to improve.

Thanks in advance,
Jerome
 
My belief is that as long as your charcoal is not first lighting up you will be burning clean. A minion start will burn clean as where dumping unlit onto a for will give a bad burn and to be clean.

Start a minion with wood on top and cook away
 
Jeff R said:
My belief is that as long as your charcoal is not first lighting up you will be burning clean. A minion start will burn clean as where dumping unlit onto a for will give a bad burn and to be clean.

Start a minion with wood on top and cook away
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Thanks Jeff!

Minion is my go-to method, but even when I cook with Minion I still get occasional white puffy smoke throughout the cook - is some level of billowing smoke unavoidable?
 
as long as you are burning something you will get a bit of smoke such as the minion method. a little is just fine. but light blue just about requires you using only hot coals and a bit of chunk of smoking wood. as long as its not really heavy i just don't worry about it.
 
I always have heavy smoke at first but since I only have one chunk of wood burning ( the others haven't lit yet) I don't worry about it and have no ill effect. If you are happy with your food, that is what matters.
 
Jeff & George,

Your feedback is much appreciated. I feel better now, having sanity-checked my technique with that of more experienced BBQ'ers.
 
I have had great luck with starting using the "Tin Can Minion Method" and starting to cook (I lay wood on top of the unlit in a circle around the center) within fifteen or twenty minutes without any issues. I catch the temperature on the way up (typically put the meat on at about 200 degrees) and have few problems (or none) maintaining my chosen temperature.

FWIW
Dale53
 
For me the best way to tell is to smell my smoke. If it smells bitter it's not burning clean, if it makes me hungry it's good.
 
I used to worry if it wasn't thin blue smoke till I read that Harry Soo throws wood in when he puts the meat on and then 2 hours later. That will always give you white billowing smoke. Harry does pretty good in his comps.
 
Jeff R said:
I always have heavy smoke at first
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Same here. I never wait to put my meat on and the white smoke doesn't seem to bother anything. I think the thing to ensure is that you have enough lit so that the fire isn't smoldering. I get my 10-20 briquettes burning well before I dump them in and keep my pile together to ensure a good start. I can see why the coffee can method would work well, but I just make sure the middle of my charcoal pile has a bit of a dip in it to keep the lit together. I think you might start running into issues if you spread out a small amount of lit and try to get the fire going from that.
 
I don't have a problem throwing a fresh piece of smokewood on the fire and getting temporary white smoke until it turns back to thin blue. Think about stick burners, they do it all the time. Although I do prefer to pre-heat the smoke wood if I can.

My issue is with (what I call) artificial fuels like charcoal. They have varying levels of additives/binders that produce thick black smoke (incomplete combustion?) and odd smells. That's the stuff I don't want on the meat.

In my opinion the Minion method fixes this by starting with a relatively small fire that brings the cooker up to temp AND pre-heats the other fuel in the chamber at the same time. That way as the fire progresses outward, the nasty smoke is already long gone as the fresh fuel is already pre-heated. I prefer to let the fire/temperature 'settle in' for at least an hour before putting meat on. That way I'm pretty sure that the nasties don't get on the meat.

Russ
 
Greg Powers said:
For me the best way to tell is to smell my smoke. If it smells bitter it's not burning clean, if it makes me hungry it's good.
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This exactly. To be honest, smoke has never looked thin blue to me so I dont worry too much about that. Once the fire gets going and changes from smelling bitter to putting a smile on your face, it's ready.
 
I know some prefer KBB and that's fine. I prefer lump because of this very reason. I have better results from getting to the clean burning stage faster. I put lit on a bed of unlit and wait until all I see is heat waves before putting food or smoke wood on. That way I know that all the TBS I see is from the smoke wood I added.
 
Thank you to everyone who has chimed in on this subject. I've gained valuable insight from all of the responses.
 
Russ Sylvester said:
I prefer to let the fire/temperature 'settle in' for at least an hour before putting meat on. That way I'm pretty sure that the nasties don't get on the meat.

Russ
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+1 here. I always use the minion method, and for the first half hour or so it's getting up to temp, and then for another 15-30 minutes when at temp it burns off 'the nasties'...it stinks..you can smell it..and if you put your food on right away, in my experience - especially with things like chicken that take on smoke flavor easily, you'll taste it. I always wait until the coals are burning clean/theres relatively little/no smoke coming out of the smoker, which is about 45 minutes to an hour. I will throw on my smoke wood maybe 5 or 10 mins before the food, or with the food, but not until the coals are burning clean. I don't like that taste. Some do and thats cool!
 
A small hot fire is often the goal when using a "stick Burner" because this allows for a clean burning temp settling around the 225-250 range. This is achieved by providing a good draft and not choking the fire. Again, a small fire is desired. When using a WSM this simular technique would be achieved by using the Minon Method and allowing the coals to burn a while and settle down before adding the meat. Just my .02.
 
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