# Building a fire? Chemical taste on meat



## flteng (Mar 30, 2013)

I have been using pecan wood and trying to maintain small hot fires. My ribs still comes out with a chemical taste and kinda burns the mouth. When you build a fire how long do you let it burn for before putting on the meat? Reduce it to just coals? To avoid excessive smoke do you place one stick at a time on?  I am getting a little discouraged here any input would help. In addition I notice at times my smoker billows with smoke after I place more wood in the box. Adding too much at a time?


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## daveomak (Mar 30, 2013)

Build a huge fire in the FB..... cook using coals.....  pre heat the extra wood you are going to add to the FB....  either in the smoker itself or on top of the FB.... Use only well seasoned wood...   When adding wood, add splits that are small.... you do not want to add big limb sized pieces that have bark on all sides....  As a guess, the splits should be about 2" x 2" or there abouts....   This whole process is a learning curve and not hard and fast rules...  every smoker is different...  There is a science to smoking great food.... 

The initial problem I have seen is folks building a small fire and then start the food... Doesn't work too well....    Dave


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## oldschoolbbq (Apr 4, 2013)

Fiteng, hello and welcome to the Bunch 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






.  I have an article  http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/stickburning101     that may help you . What you want is:













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__ oldschoolbbq
__ Aug 12, 2012





  a fire like this , down to Embers. This state of wood burning causes less harsh smoke , thus a better tasting meat :













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__ oldschoolbbq
__ Oct 17, 2012





  light and thin like this...with results like this...













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__ oldschoolbbq
__ Nov 1, 2012





  Pork Butt and













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__ oldschoolbbq
__ Nov 1, 2012





  Nice tender Ribs . All with a good smoke flavor and no bitterness. The 'white ,or cloudy' smoke carries a lot of nasties which in turn flavors the meat with a bad numbing sensation ( Creosote ).

Hope this helps , have fun and...


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## Bearcarver (Apr 4, 2013)

Old School's got you covered on this one!!

Make sure you go to that link "Stickburning" he posted above.

Bear


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## bruno994 (Apr 4, 2013)

Stickburning 101 is a great tool for sure.  What color smoke are you getting out of your exhaust?  If it is white and fairly thick, then you probably have too small of a bed of coals and when you put fresh wood on, it tends to smolder and smoke white instead of a clean burning blue or near clear.  A good idea myself and a lot of other forum members use is to start your fires with a little bit of charcoal and start feeding wood to it for smoke and fire maintenance.  This is a great method especially for newbs to cooking with fire, takes some of the learning curve out.

Good luck with your future smokes and make sure and post us some Q-view of your smoker and the results of your future smokes!


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## sound1 (Apr 4, 2013)

Mastering the art of a thin blue smoke is the trick.  If you are sending smoke signals to the neighbors the results will most likely be bitter.


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## smokinclt (Apr 4, 2013)

What Dave said. Build an insanely large fire in the FB first then let it come down to temp slowly and use small splits. The large ones wont light up as well. My splits after the raging fire are about 2x2 and about 8 - 10 inches long. Very small. If your wood is not well seasoned you can throw a whole mess of them on the grill of a propane grill and turn on a couple burners set to low. This will essentially kiln dry them. Keep a hose handy in case you get the grill too hot 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





  The ones that are ready set on the top of the FB and keep nice and hot so they ignite when you put them in.


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