Newbie: question about smoke color...

[bsteele]

Hello:

New member here.

I have been looking through the forum. Somebody posted a picture with a lot of white smoke coming out of their smoker. A comment was made about the smoke and how they should be looking for thin blue smoke.

So does white smoke mean, too hot, too cold? Too much wood, too little, more air, less air, etc

I'm picking up my new Brinkmann Saturday morning, how do you season it?

Final question, during smoking, how many chunks of wood do you smoke with (on average?) Like 3 or 4, or a dozen?

 

[irishteabear]

Billowing, white smoke means too much smoke and will give you a nasty taste when you go to eat the food. What you are looking for is a thin, blue smoke. You want to be able to barely even see it coming out of your smoker, you should be able to smell it not see it. The wood should be smoldering, not in flames.

Your brinkmann should come with an instruction manual. What kind are you getting?

As far as how much wood you go through, it depends on a lot of different things such as the temp of the fire, the dryness of the wood, how long you run the smoker.

 

[bsteele]

I'm thinking for the price, I'm going with the Brinkmann split door. They have them at my local Home Depot for like $60. I also have limited space, so a big smoker is not an option right now.

Like everyone says, I guess it just trial and error.

 

[bigsteve]

Billowing white smoke means too much wood. Chunks on average? For a 5 hr smoke, I guess 2 or 3 fist sized chunks. Until you learn your smoker, and builing a fire for it, you be best using 1 chunk at a time.

Good luck with your new smoker!

 

[mballi3011]

Thick white smoke is not good food taste not good either. I use 3-4 chunks of wood for about 3 hours of smoke. You just want to barely see the smoke coming out of your stack hest the name thin blue smoke. Seasoning your grill I just build one big fire to cut off any not stuck paint and it will seal everything also. Then just start smoking and you'll season it just fine.

 

[bigsteve]

If you have some shortening like Crisco, you may want to lightly coat your grates before you season, or spray on some Pam oil. Not a big deal if you don't do that though.

 

[bsteele]

Thanks for the help.

Now I'm ready.

 

[tasunkawitko]

everyone here has it covered very well - can't think of anything to add except i LOVE the ECB and would recommend that as a less expensive alternative -

the downside is that in order to squeeze the best performance out of it, you have to do these mods (http://www.randyq.addr.com/ecb/ecbmods.html), but since i am a tinkerer, this was no big deal and only cost a few dollars.

 

[flash]

Probably this photo. I usually add two or 3 chunks depending on size, but you will acquire a taste over time that will tell you how much to add.