Question on Carbon powder on Trail bologna Casing and other oddities

[DaveWNY]

To all:

This past weekend I wanted to run a batch of Beef Trail Bologna in the smoker... Started up the Mastetbuilt Propane smoker and placed my Cast iron pan of chips on the burner. Let her roll for about 1 hour while I started the bologna in the over at 175 degrees and then moved it to the smoker.

Placed it in the smoker for about 2 hours running at 175degrees on the low to 180 at the high and then was going to pull it an finish it in the oven.

After 2 hours when I went to get it I opened the door and had a flare up that I thought was just fat from a hole in the casings, but all of the tubes had dark black carbon powder on them...

I think I caused this by having the exhaust vent too far closed, but could I have something in the Venturi like a spider web that would cause this? I really wasn't concerned about the product since it had the fiberous inedible casings but I want to do a batch of snack sticks soon and this will kill the tastes....

Thoughts?

 

[Slow42]

Were the chips very wet when you put them into the smoker? If so the smoker, under the right conditions, would produce a sooty moist smoke because of excess moisture. Very clean smoker or well seasoned makes a difference also. The product would then be covered with black moist soot. Been there with a pork butt. After a fashion the chips dry and the heat becomes dry as the moisture has evaporated From within. The black carbon like soot remains on the meat. It could be dry or sticky. Just a possibility.

 

[DaveWNY]

Wood chips were completely dry.... They were stored in garage and just another handful from a bag... Could it have been cold wet conditions outside and not enough air movement through smoker?

I also noticed more orange flames than blue from burner

 

[Slow42]

DaveWNY it was just a guess, but to much moisture does cause problems with smoke. I don’t think the flame had anything to do with the problem, except not hot enough. When my problem occurred it was very moist in the smoker as well as the wood and outside. I think if the heat from the smoker could have dried up moisture the problem would have been solved. I just think in my case the smoker was over whelmed by the moisture. I was heating on low and didn’t think at the time to increase the temperature.

 

[DaveWNY]

What you have described about being overwhelmed by the moister makes sense. Saturday in Upstate NY is was raining and very damp (usually snowy but not cold enough) and the moisture in the air was quite high. I do keep my smoker under a cover but still outside on the deck, and I wonder if there might be a better product with just letting it rip on high for like 15 minutes or so with the vent wide open when I start it but before I put the wood chips in the pan just to rid the dampness of the air in the chamber.... It shouldn't take long but I also wonder if trying to hold the temp below 200 in there was not good due to the conditions. I might have to wait until spring to do any warm smoking since the weather seems to play havoc with this when there is moisture.

I notices this once before when we had a thunderstorm rip through the area and a ton of that carbon ended up on my snack sticks... High winds also blew in an lit the chips on fire too so that didn't help at all.


Thanks for the ideas

 

[SmokinAl]

It sounds to me like your burner is plugged up. It's pretty hard to get soot from dry wood chips, Also it's almost impossible to get the low temps you need to make sausage in a propane smoker. You should be starting out at 120 degrees & with no smoke for an hour or so to dry out the casings, then bump the temp up every hour 10 degrees & add smoke.
I end up at 170 & take the sausage to 152 degrees, then into an ice bath. A cheap electric smoker with an Amazen tube or tray is the easiest way to make sausage. You could also try plugging up every other hole in the burner to get the temp down, but your still going to need an Amazen smoke generator. Cause the chips won't burn at those low temps.
Al

 

[DaveWNY]

It sounds to me like your burner is plugged up. It's pretty hard to get soot from dry wood chips, Also it's almost impossible to get the low temps you need to make sausage in a propane smoker. You should be starting out at 120 degrees & with no smoke for an hour or so to dry out the casings, then bump the temp up every hour 10 degrees & add smoke.
I end up at 170 & take the sausage to 152 degrees, then into an ice bath. A cheap electric smoker with an Amazen tube or tray is the easiest way to make sausage. You could also try plugging up every other hole in the burner to get the temp down, but your still going to need an Amazen smoke generator. Cause the chips won't burn at those low temps.
Al

AL- I was able to dry the casings out when I started them in the oven, but I was just using the smoker to add an hour or 2 of smoky flavoring...

I have an Electric hotplate and an A-Maze-N tray for the grill that I can use, but since it is the the xlarge Masterbuilt will I be able to keep it hot enough to achieve 150 degrees for 2 hours to get the smoke flavor and then bring it in to the oven to get it up to 165?

Also since the tray is off the burner itself, would you suggest tray right on the coils? or cover the coils with foil and then put the lit tray on top?

Sorry for the specific questions, but my first batch just needs a bit more smoke to be ideal and I'm controlling most of the "cooking" with the oven.

 

[SmokinAl]

I don't think you would want to put the tray on the burner. I think I would also try pellets or sawdust in the tray. The Amazen trays are made to use them, not wood chips. That may be your problem. Did you use cure #1 in the sausage? Or is this fresh sausage? Cause you wouldn't want to smoke or cook uncured sausage at that low of a temp. Where are you located, because you may be able to use the propane burner if it's cold enough outside. Also cured sausage only needs to cook to 152 degrees to be safe to eat. If you try to take it to 165 the fat will probably render out & separate from the meat. But before anything, you need to check the burner & see why it's not burning a nice clean blue flame. That is probably where the soot is coming from. It happened to me on my Smoke Vault & I ended up just buying a new burner.
Al