smoke pellets


 
D

DW Frommer II

TVWBB Fan
I use smoke flavouring pellets (the leading brand) in foil packets for my barbeque. I've not really had any complaints about using the pellets but I was cold smoking some cheese today and I was kind of puuzzled with what I was seeing...maybe I just never noticed it before.

Everyone says "thin blue smoke." I hear and I understand. But when pellets in a foil packet start smouldering, they give off a heavy greyish smoke...nowhere near "thin" or "blue" as I understand it.

Now this only lasts for 15 minutes or so but then there's no smoke at all. And come to think of it when I bury chunks in the charcoal I get the same dense grey smoke when they come online.

Is this kind of smoke going to leave a bitter residue on my food? I've always heard it would.

I'm particularly worried with cold smoked cheese because pellets or tiny chips seem to be the only way to deliver a constant smoke.

Any thoughts ro advice?
 
"Thin, blue smoke" comes from wood that's well on its way to being charcoal, such as the "completely engulfed" smokewood referenced in the BRITU technique. I don't think pellets or chips are going to be capable of providing that kind of smoke.
 
Well it's all an issue of how the pellets are heated. A very small skillet or sppon rest full of pellets covered in double foil works well. Make one small hole as far from the handle as possible. Put the handle in the fire. This works best with a Kettle. For a WSM make a long pounch of double heavy duty foil and put it next to the fire ring with the hole far up from the fire. The trick is you don't want to get the pellets too hot.

Pellet smokers which are a different beast have won the Jack Daniels twice.
 
Konrad,

This is interesting...I was under the impression (from the instructions on the back of the bag) that the foil pouch is supposed to be dropped into direct contact with the charcoal. In fact the instructions say that "it is important thatthe pellets get hot enough to smoke>'

Heck, I've put foil pouches on ashed over coals and had them sit there for half an hour or more with no noticable smoke before I stirred the coals up. I can't imagine them ever smoking if the pllet were outside the charcoal ring.

If the pellets don't smoke I can't see how you'd get any (smoke) flavour?

Can you be more specific about how this is done?

And how would you do this when cold smoking cheese?
 
I don't use pellets often but have never noticed bitter taste from them.

As for cheese I do it like Chris has it laid out in the cooking section. I use a torch and light 4 pieces of charcoal laid out in a square. once the charcoal gets going I lay a piece of apple across 2 pieces of the charcoal then a piece of cherry across the other 2 pieces of charcoal.
 
When it gets cold down here, I can smoke cheese in my Weber kettle. I use 6-7 kingsford briquettes all the way on one side. I make up 2 foil packets of pellets, heavy duty foil (I like orange with white cheddar). Poke a small hole with a toothpick. When coals are ready, spread them to a single layer, just to where the foil packet will cover them. Put cheese on a small piece of foil. Put the cooking grate down. Cheese goes directly opposite the coals & foil packet of pellets. Vent on Weber goes right above the cheese. After 30 minutes, flip the cheese, put a new packet of pellets on the coals. Wrap the cheese tightly in plastic wrap and hide in the frig for a couple of days. Smoke will mellow out.
 
I've never used pellets that came in a foil pouch. That may be the problem. I'd get some pellets intended for a pellet cooker and experiment. Traeger and BMFP are two excellent Oregon brands.
 
I use BBQr's Delight pellets all the time, although not for cheese yet. I use them pretty much as directed on the bag, except I double the foil, triple the amount and the quadruple the holes. :) I plop the packet right on the coals. This method has helped me get four calls in my first two competitions.

I can't recommend them highly enough.

Cheers,
John
 
BBQrs Delight is what I've been using as well. For meat, I have never felt that there was a problem or had any complaint about the flavour.

But the heavy grey smoke does seem to fly in the face of common wisdom.

And cheese seems so delicate. Plus, it seems to me that cheese would want to be in the smoke stream the whole time. It's cold smoking so we're not cooking it...smoke is the point.

I read here yesterday that smoked cheese needs a couple of days in the fridge to mellow out.(thanks Candy) That makes sense--the cheese I did yesterday wasn't bitter really but it was sort of "in your face' smokey. My wife loves it like that but I like it a bit "softer."

Back to the pellets...bottom line...I don't see how you get a thin blue smoke with the pellets. Maybe it's not necessary?
 
I've got a theory DFWII -- I think you're probably doing one or more of these:

Hole's too big in the foil packet -- let's too much air in and you get a smoke burst instead of slower delivery;

Too much heat under the foil packet, one layer of briquettes (about 6) gives about 30 minutes smoke, double layer of coals cuts that in half. 3 layers deep melts thru aluminum foil.

When you make a foil pouch, make sure there's plenty wiggle room for the pellets.

I've got this theory...when pellets are in a foil packet and heat's applied, wood pellets are being converted to charcoal. The heavy creosote flavors stay with the charcoal, only the lighter smoke gets out to flavor food. On the BGE, I use pellets directly..just toss a few in the coals. The quality of smoke is not as good, more creosoty. See the same thing in a stovetop smoker. Always get better smoke by containing pellets.
 
Candy,

From what Jay said I'm guessing you own or operate BBQrs Delight?

I make up a foil pouch double layer from heavy duty foil. I punch a tiny hole in it. No bigger than a pin prick.

I am not certain how you would, as a general rule, limit the number of briquets under a foil packet if you are throwing them into a ring full of charcoal--for a butt cook, for instance. The briquets in a full charcoal ring might be six deep.

On the other hand, I admit to cramming my pellets in there so perhaps that's the problem.

I have tried to throw spent pellets directly on the fire...on the theory that they are essentially little bits of charcoal but if they are even a little "unconverted" the smoke is, like you say, heavy and dark.

Finally, you know much more than I do about this and I'm not saying this just to be contrary...but I can't see how foil would contain the creosote more than no foil. The creosote is a volitile tar that travels with the smoke until it finds a cooler surface on which it can condense. Since the foil is transmitting the heat that carbonizes the pellets, it cannot be all that cool, can it?.

Don't get me wrong I like the pellets...just ordered several more bags...but I would like to get this mysterious business of thin blue smoke vs heavy white or grey smoke straight in my own mind.
 
From http://www.barbecuen.com/burningwood.htm:
This is an excerpt from an article by Dave Lineback, a North Carolinian who is a scholar and defender of what he terms "traditional" barbecue. His website address is: http://www.sunsetridge.com.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">"Did a little research on the combustion of wood recently. Turns out it's an interesting subject that has undergone quite a bit of study in recent years.

Wood does not burn directly. Rather, when heat is applied it first undergoes a process of thermal degradation called pyrolysis in which the wood breaks down into a mixture of volatiles and solid carbonaceous char. The cellulose and hemicellulose form mainly volatiles while the lignin mainly forms the char. Exactly what products are formed by each depends upon the temperature, heating rate, particle size, and any catalysts that might be present.

The solid char remains in place. What goes up with the volatiles are a gas fraction (carbon monoxide and dioxide, some hydrocarbons, and elemental hydrogen), a condensed fraction (water, aldehydes, acids, ketones, and alcohols), and -- here we go! -- a tar fraction (sugar residues from the breakdown of cellulose, furan derivatives, phenolic compounds, and -- pay attention here -- airborne particles of tar and charred material which form the smoke.

If oxygen is present and the temperature is sufficiently high, burning of the volatiles occurs. When temperatures are too low or when there is insufficient oxygen for complete combustion of the volatiles, smoldering occurs. This is characterized by smoking, the emission of unoxidized pyrolysis products. (This is the awful tasting stuff, creosote, that will give barbecue a bitter taste.) If the temperature is high enough and sufficient oxygen is present, then flaming combustion occurs with less smoking and more complete oxidation of the pyrolysis products. Further pyrolysis of volatiles during flaming combustion may cause char particles (soot) to form.

The remaining lignin char burns in the presence of oxygen in glowing combustion. These are my beloved coals that yield the thin blue smoke that makes great barbecue! And, that's why it is so important to preburn the wood to coals."

Dave Lineback
Click to expand...
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
To me this says you're not going to get thin, blue smoke from anything that's not already charcoal to begin with.
 
The paragraph "If oxygen is present..." in my opinion has the most bearing on smoking with pellets. While a foil pouch keeps the pellets all neat and makes cleaning up a gas grill easier -- it's main purpose is to restrict the oxygen while heating pellets. The oxygen limit controls the burn, limiting the combustion of heavier compounds in wood.

Pellets are NOT normal wood! They are super compressed, very dry wood. A direct comparison between wood chips and pellets...it'd take 4-5 times the wood chips to be comparable to pellets volume-wise. Try wetting a pellet and watch it expand to "normal" wood size. With that said...I do not agree with Mr. Lineback's last paragraph. If all flavor came from coals, we'd not need to add anything for flavor when using lump charcoal. In my opinion, mesquite lump doesn't impart mesquite flavor, because the unique qualities of mesquite wood flavor have been driven out during the combustion that leaves the charcoal.

Here's how I use pellets in my WSM cooking brisket. I make 3 foil packets of pellets and fill a cast iron smoke box 1/2 full (that's 1-1/3 cup of pellets). I use Jack Daniel's cause I like the flavor (& judges do too). I use Minion method, but with Ozark Oak lump charcoal. I bury 2 packets in the unlit coal. I pour a lit chimney of Kingsford briquettes on the unlit charcoal. The cast iron smoke box is in front of the door. The last packet of pellets goes on top the lit coals. BBQtv recorded me doing brisket in Lebanon in 2004.

Dave.tv BBQtv CSW at Lebanon
 
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