<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by paul h:
Been putting my smoke wood on top of my lit coals for years. How does that develop "dirty" smoke
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I was reminded of something during a chicken smoke the day before yesterday, and wanted to come back to Paul's post.
Basically, I was having a hard time getting my temp up where I wanted it, so I added a chimney bottom's worth of lit lump about 45 minutes after starting the cook. Well, it's a good thing that I only had one wood chunk on top, because when the hot coals hit that chunk, my smoke went from sweet to
!!! The smoke was so bad that I couldn't see the wood chunk to remove without having to do the hot squat and replace the lump I knocked out of the ring! Immediately after putting the cooker back together I was thankful that my buried wood had started smoking....but thankfully, producing the sweet aroma I look for.
Anyway, off the top of my head, the other two ways I've gotten similiar NASTY smoke is by letting the wood on top catch fire before getting the lid on, and turning wood chunks over to get more smoke out of 'em.
My point is, <span class="ev_code_RED">there's three classifications of smoke</span> in my opinion. We've got the occasional flat out toxic stuff as I 'fessed up to already, but the second category is the "mixed" smoke you get just after putting a wood chunk on the coals, and that's obviously not gonna ruin anything. However, over the course of a cook, like other users observe, I've found the need to limit the number of (cold) wood chunks introduced to the fire...hence the term, "oversmoked". If adding any during the cook, best suggestion I can give is to make sure they're well seasoned and small enough to first preheat between the ring and the bowl.
The third category though is SWEET...but don't go by sight alone since weather and steam from the pan can make it look like it isn't so. I smoked my chickens the other day for the ENTIRE COOK though, with lump and pecan. One chunk started on top, and three buried. The SMOKER was still smoking when I pulled the birds off, and the flavor was a fine as ever. No surprise though since all my smoke had passed the sniff test during the cook.