Cookmaster by Masterbuilt: Wheres the smoke!?

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catfish jack

Newbie
Original poster
May 23, 2013
6
10
Tucson AZ
So I got the above mentioned smoker last night and seasoned it per instructions. Tonight I decided to fire it up again to get a handle on dial positions giving what approximate temps inside and what I need to do to get it making smoke, how fast it produces smoke, etc. I want to be able to use it successfully this weekend. 

The manual says nothing that I saw about how long to soak wood chips or if to soak them at all. 

Today I tried dry and some chips that were in a quick soak. It makes smoke but not the amounts that I am used to seeing with my coal smoker. 

Since I have no other electric experience to compare this too:

1. is it possible to get that billowing "OMG the neighborhood is burning down" smoke coming from it?

2. is it even necessary to have that much smoke? 

I've seen some tips and tricks on getting these things working well and did try the chunk of coal tip to keep the chips smouldering. 

Anything else I should try this weekend when I put some meat in it? 

Thanks in advance
 
OMG you do not want that "OMG the neighborhood is burning down" smoke! You want what we call TBS, Thin Blue Smoke. It is just what it says, sometimes almost invisible. If you can smell smoke coming from your vent then you are getting smoke flavor. That thick white billowing smoke can create creosote and give your food a bitter flavor.
Charcoal will give off a lot of white smoke until it settles down a bit.
In my experience, soaking the wood only delays the smoking process, it has to burn off the water by creating steam which looks like smoke before the wood actually produces smoke.

Good job on doing a trial run with your smoker! Don't get hung up on wanting to see lots of smoke, if you see light whiffs of smoke and you can smell it then you are right on track!
 
OMG you do not want that "OMG the neighborhood is burning down" smoke! You want what we call TBS, Thin Blue Smoke. It is just what it says, sometimes almost invisible. If you can smell smoke coming from your vent then you are getting smoke flavor. That thick white billowing smoke can create creosote and give your food a bitter flavor.
Charcoal will give off a lot of white smoke until it settles down a bit.
In my experience, soaking the wood only delays the smoking process, it has to burn off the water by creating steam which looks like smoke before the wood actually produces smoke.

Good job on doing a trial run with your smoker! Don't get hung up on wanting to see lots of smoke, if you see light whiffs of smoke and you can smell it then you are right on track!
Awesome thanks. I'd always had a bunch of smoke with my wood smoker so I didn't know any better haha 
 
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