What is TBS?


 
MickHLR

MickHLR

TVWBB Fan
As an old stickburner, one of the things we always learned to look for was TBS, or "thin blue smoke". I've seen a lot of guys mess up their meat, by throwing it on before their fire stops putting out thick white smoke. Thick white smoke will give you a creosote taste, to all your meat, and should be avoided at all costs. My old stickburners, as well as this new 22.5 WSM, seem to take around 45 min to 1 hour after startup to give me the TBS I'm looking for. This is a short video to show you what you want for smoke. The biggest difference is the amount of wood used. Let's say, for example, a 12-hour cook...on my stickburner, I'd be looking at probably 15-20 of the normal fireplace size 14"-16" wood splits...whereas, on the WSM, I normally use 2 or less, cut up into 7-8 large fist-sized chunks.

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It varies from person to person. I don't wait for the white smoke to subside and my food tastes fine. Put wood on hot coals and it smokes. If taste bothers you, then wait.
 
Once I pour the coals I lit in the weber chimney onto the coals in the WSM and put it together, it takes about 90 minutes for the billowing white smoke to suffice. is that normal or way longer then most experience?
 
Thanks for the video, Mick.

I have a quick question. You said that there were 7 or 8 chunks in the WSM. Were they all lit at once?

I tend to start my smoker with the donut method--a few hot coals in the center with the wood chunks spread out so that they will catch one at a time during the cook. Needless to say, as each one lights there is some white smoke.

Never had a problem with off flavors with the exception of oak. I have tried oak four times and everything I use it on tastes like ash tray. Maybe I'll try again and only put the meat on when there is TBS.
 
I rarely use more than two chunks and more than likely I'll use only one. I usually don't add the smoke wood until I get a clean burning fire. That way, all the thin blue smoke I see is from the wood I added.
 
I use 4 large chunks or 8 small ones. I want to taste the smoke. Thin blue smoke is important but I think getting some of the white stuff( not heavy white stuff) doesn't hurt anything and truthfully if you ever run a stickburner and you have my skillset you can't help it! It's pretty damn hard to over-smoke something on the WSM.
 
Dave/G said:
It varies from person to person. I don't wait for the white smoke to subside and my food tastes fine. Put wood on hot coals and it smokes. If taste bothers you, then wait.
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^^
This. I've never had any issues with a creosote taste. I always wait until the briqs are fully ashed over before adding them to my Minion set up. Never had billowy smoke from the unlit briqs. I'll chuck on a smallish size of wood to get things moving along, the buried wood taking over after that during the cook.
 
Mark Barton said:
Thanks for the video, Mick.

I have a quick question. You said that there were 7 or 8 chunks in the WSM. Were they all lit at once?

I tend to start my smoker with the donut method--a few hot coals in the center with the wood chunks spread out so that they will catch one at a time during the cook. Needless to say, as each one lights there is some white smoke.

Never had a problem with off flavors with the exception of oak. I have tried oak four times and everything I use it on tastes like ash tray. Maybe I'll try again and only put the meat on when there is TBS.
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Mark, no they don't all light at once. I put 3-4 on bottom and 3-4 on top. And, that's what has amazed me from the first time I started up the WSM. I was afraid as new pieces of wood ignited that they would put off the thick white smoke...but, it didn't. Even when I'm doing an all nighter, and add charcoal the next morning, I still get very little white smoke...and what I do get is not thick. This one thing has truly amazed me about the WSM from the get-go. Now, I've never added wood during a smoke on the WSM, as I think that might do it...maybe not. And, I really thought adding charcoal would cause it, but that hasn't been the case either.

Dustin Dorsey said:
I use 4 large chunks or 8 small ones. I want to taste the smoke. Thin blue smoke is important but I think getting some of the white stuff( not heavy white stuff) doesn't hurt anything and truthfully if you ever run a stickburner and you have my skillset you can't help it! It's pretty damn hard to over-smoke something on the WSM.
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I agree Dustin, I want to taste the smoke as well...and I really seem to get the same smoke taste from a couple of splits cut up into chunks for a 12-hour smoke on my WSM, as I did with my stick burner using 16-20 splits for a 12-hour smoke. I agree with you, I think it would be hard to over-smoke something on a WSM...and we get that from cooking on stick burners where our entire cook is from wood. But, I made this for a lot of people I've see on here that are always complaining that their meat is too smoky, or has an ash-tray taste, or tastes like creosote. And, as I've talked to some of them, it seems they've put their meat on too soon, while the thick billowing white smoke is still rolling. And, you're right...I've ran into the thick white smoke several times on my stick burner as well...but the only time I really see it on the WSM is on startup. The difference is, with a stick burner, you can open it all up and let that thick white smoke get out of there, even with meat on the grate. And, once it stops, and you have a fire with plenty of airflow again, and you close all the doors, the temp will recover pretty quickly. That's hard to do with the WSM. I'm still amazed at how little white smoke I get when a new chunk of wood ignites on the WSM. And, I don't know for sure, but I wonder if just being hot, before starting to burn, helps that. I could see the difference on my stick burner when I'd set a stick or two on top of the firebox for a bit, before I put it in the firebox.
 
I agree 100% I always wait to put the meat on. I've definitely ruined some meat on the stickburner oversmoking it. Most people can't tell the difference but once you taste the good stuff, its hard to not notice it.
 
Mickey
I like very much this kind of TECH post!
I totally agree with you and have tried from zero up to 2 hours before adding meat.
Trying to reduce waiting time to 1 hour but still puffing heavy white smoke. So I decided that 90 minutes is really the minimum.
About locating chunks in the charcoal ring, I really like the idea to split between the buried and the top ones.
Thanks for sharing with us your tecnique.
 
So I use 3-4 fist size chunks for a long cook. I now bury all chunks. I always wait for white smoke to clear.

Soooo..... my theory on white smoke ETC. Prior to minion method everyone said you have to wait until your charcoal is ashed over so it does not put off a bad taste. Everyone started cooking minion method and we said hey this tastes pretty good and makes my life easier. My theory is when the fuel (wood or charocoal) gets heated up it puts off less white bad tasting smoke. So once you fire up your cooker minion method all of the fuel heats up, maybe not light on fire, but heats up. When heated it does not put off that nasty smoke. Cold wood/charcoal thrown on a hot fire equals bad smoke. I have zero science to back up my claims but just one guys thoughts!
 
I agree Tommy.
Introducing heat to the unlit doesn't produce billowing smoke. Now, introduce flame to the unlit & it smokes like an Apache sending a message to his mates on the other side of the canyon!
The ONLY billowing smoke I get is if I put a piece of wood on the lit at the beginning of the cook. This only lasts about 20 minutes. No big deal.
 
Tommy B said:
So I use 3-4 fist size chunks for a long cook. I now bury all chunks. I always wait for white smoke to clear.

Soooo..... my theory on white smoke ETC. Prior to minion method everyone said you have to wait until your charcoal is ashed over so it does not put off a bad taste. Everyone started cooking minion method and we said hey this tastes pretty good and makes my life easier. My theory is when the fuel (wood or charocoal) gets heated up it puts off less white bad tasting smoke. So once you fire up your cooker minion method all of the fuel heats up, maybe not light on fire, but heats up. When heated it does not put off that nasty smoke. Cold wood/charcoal thrown on a hot fire equals bad smoke. I have zero science to back up my claims but just one guys thoughts!
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Exactly my theory Tommy. Once again, nothing to back it up...just what I've seen with pre-heated wood as compared to cold wood in a stick burner, and applying that to the heated chunks starting up in the WSM and not causing thick white smoke.
 
Tommy B said:
So I use 3-4 fist size chunks for a long cook. I now bury all chunks. I always wait for white smoke to clear.

Soooo..... my theory on white smoke ETC. Prior to minion method everyone said you have to wait until your charcoal is ashed over so it does not put off a bad taste. Everyone started cooking minion method and we said hey this tastes pretty good and makes my life easier. My theory is when the fuel (wood or charocoal) gets heated up it puts off less white bad tasting smoke. So once you fire up your cooker minion method all of the fuel heats up, maybe not light on fire, but heats up. When heated it does not put off that nasty smoke. Cold wood/charcoal thrown on a hot fire equals bad smoke. I have zero science to back up my claims but just one guys thoughts!
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Yep yep. It's one of the reasons why many stick burners put splits on top of their firebox, to preheat before tossing them in. BTW, White smoke doesn't have to be avoided completely. If you want to do a very quick smoke, it's just fine in short, limited amounts. Thick black/grey smoke should be avoided at all costs.
 
When I first started smoking, grilling I thought the more smoke the better thru the whole smoke. Then I started hearing more about clean smoke how stick burners had a cleaner tasting smoke after getting little ash tray taste on the weber and was thinking about a small stick burner for better smoke flavor. After waiting for the blue smoke on the WSM I can tell a difference. I use about three chucks fist size of hickory on butts and the smoke profile is perfect to me. Hickory or pecan is about all I use.
 
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