When is the fire ready for smoking?

[Steve Tiilikainen]

Some people seem to put meat on a fire right after lighting the charcoal. Others wait until the smoke thins out (the famous yet elusive "thin blue smoke" that I have never seen myself appears in this context) because the smoke wood might otherwise add creosote/acridity to the meat. Is there any science to back this up either way? What has been your experience? Thanks.

 

[DanHoo]

Hi Steve,

no science from my corner. I try to keep notes, especially for my my "less good" results, and often these are tied to what I call cleanliness of the smoke.

I can produce TBS. ( Thin Blue Smoke) on my BGE, my WSK, a Kettle and a WSM when I had it. My Pellet never had TBS, it was always more white and puffy.

I can also produce TWS ( Thick White Smoke ) and I can create Brown, or Black or Dark Grey smoke aka dirty smoke. If the smoke is dirty, I won't put food on, and I am cooking and something goes off the rails and I start to get dirty smoke, I pull the meat, fix the smoke and then put the meat back on.

In my experience ( and my opinion ) cook that have TBS, especially long cooks taste better. When I cook tri tip, I cold smoke it using smoke generator with no coal lit at the beginning. The tri tip is enveloped in pecan wood TBS from pecan for an hour or two before I light coal. This method leaves an almost sweet flavor of smoke on the tri tip, even thought the overall cook time is about 3 hours.

I have cooked chicken when I was in a hurry and the smoke had not yet cleaned up. It was on the edge of dirty/thick white and it was over smoked and bitter. I've done the same with Tri Tip, and it tasted like that liquid smoke you can get in a bottle, but too much. Based on that "less good" cook, if I find myself late to start, I'll just change plans and cook on the gas grill, or change a slow smoke cook to grilling.

For longer cooks, and for cooks I absolutely want to smoke over coal, I pad my schedule with at least an extra 30 mins to get the coal started and stable.

There is lots of info out on the internet, yet in the end, you are the judge. Keep smoking, and take notes. I take a lot of pics because pictures have a built in time stamp and I can add my notes later. Sometimes I'll snap a pic of my coal layout, and where I've placed chunks of wood. I'll snap a pic of smoke coming out the vent so I can look back and say I lit this at 9pm, and temp was 250F with clean smoke at 9.45pm. Good to know, even if the meat is going on at 10.30pm for an overnight cook.

And, keep posting here. The crew here has amazing collective skills for reviewing cooks, and sees things and asks great questions. I learn by reading what others are doing, and sometimes where others have had mis-steps.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Briqs = at least a 15 minutes wait till ashed over and no longer puffing black, acrid and bitter smoke

Briqs plus wood chunks = at least a 30 minute warmup/burn off time before I’d place any protein atop that fire/heat

These are my basic prep times when I cook for LAS.

If I’m going direct with JD lump for a steak or chickens, 10 minutes light up and wait and then I’ll start grilling. JD real charcoal (lump) cleans up from lighting fairly quickly.

 

[Steve Tiilikainen]

I can also produce TWS ( Thick White Smoke ) and I can create Brown, or Black or Dark Grey smoke aka dirty smoke. If the smoke is dirty, I won't put food on, and I am cooking and something goes off the rails and I start to get dirty smoke, I pull the meat, fix the smoke and then put the meat back on.

I can only seem to produce TWS. Never see any other color. So far I’ve only used KBB and some good-quality (I.e. “aged” and dried) smoke wood (3 pieces per cook). So far I’ve waited until I see no more white smoke before adding the meat. This can take up to an hour.

In my experience ( and my opinion ) cook that have TBS, especially long cooks taste better. When I cook tri tip, I cold smoke it using smoke generator with no coal lit at the beginning. The tri tip is enveloped in pecan wood TBS from pecan for an hour or two before I light coal.

This makes sense to me. I’m now considering whether to purchase a smoke tube or something for this purpose. What do you use to generate smoke for a cold smoke?

And, keep posting here. The crew here has amazing collective skills for reviewing cooks, and sees things and asks great questions. I learn by reading what others are doing, and sometimes where others have had mis-steps.

Hahaha. Hopefully I won’t be banned for posting too many inane questions.

 

[Chris Allingham]

Is there any science to back this up either way?

Probably the most comprehensive article out there on this subject.

When I cook low & slow in the WSM using the Minion Method, I spread the hot charcoal over the unlit charcoal, assemble the cooker, add water to the pan, and immediately put the meat in the cooker. I will get visible white smoke from the lid for perhaps 30 minutes (obvious, but not obnoxious), then the exhaust becomes very difficult to see from that point on. I think I get a little bit more smoke during that first 30 minutes when I drop the smoke wood directly on top of the hot charcoal, a bit less smoke when I tuck the wood chunks into the unlit charcoal before pouring on the lit charcoal.

When I cook hot & fast by getting all the charcoal ashed over first and not using water in the pan, I'm dropping the smoke wood on top of the fire and adding the meat and getting some smoke again briefly at the beginning, but it goes away within a short time.

 

[EricV.]

Ditto!

 

[Steve Tiilikainen]

Does anyone know what’s in the white smoke and why it goes away later in the cook?

 

[MartinB]

It depends on a few things.
Not the least of which is the airflow, and how consistent it is.

Rapidly igniting cold coals generate thick white smoke, regardless of if you have wood there or not.

I will tell you that when you get into a cook a little bit, and its stable, and you've got just that barely whisper blue smoke coming out of there with that meat cooking it smells great and sweet. It doesn't smell smoky or acrid, it just smells delicious. It does not smell like smoke.

I have had cooks with little smoke flavor..... Using a fair amount of wood. And I have had cooks with too much bad smoke flavor using a small amount of wood. The more stable and consistent your temperature is, the less smoky the food is.

Consistency is everything

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

I follow a rather convoluted method combining information from Harry Soo, Enrico Brandizzi, and Tony UK.
I lay a full layer of smoke wood on the bottom, (Soo) fill the ring to almost overflowing, set the mid section on and break out the torch and light the edge through the door(Brandizzi) put everything on and button it up. Adjust vents if necessary and make a cocktail (TonyUK)
I really have come to appreciate how simple the Branding “Sidewinder” method is to use and the consistent results it has rendered me. It’s simple, so simple!

 

[JWorden]

I've found that when the temperature drops below 235F the smoke becomes more white. For this reason I like to let extra air in to get the temperature up more quickly at the beginning. I usually wait until the grate temperature is at least 200 before I put anything on. I'll leave all vents open and even crack the door until it's about 240.

 

[Anne M.]

I only ever used mopani roadside charcoal...
Light charcoal in starter. When real hot with white ash etc, but some in with the charcoal loaded in the wsm.
Assemble the lot and start cooking.
I use very limited smoking wood as this charcoal still has some pieces that are almost like wood.
Note that I hardly use the waterpan, so my wsm is sort of turned into a pit barrel smoker.
Anyway, ask, try, but remember things may work differently for you