# What should my smoke look like?



## aftershox454 (Dec 6, 2010)

Now that I have figured out the temp problem with my smoker it is not SMOKING (big plumes of white) like it is now-(very faint hard to tell if it is doing anything smoke)

which is better? is it now doing what it is supposed to?

thanks,

Alex


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## tom37 (Dec 6, 2010)

Depends what kind of wood you are feediing it, but thin and blue is the best.

Sometimes you may not see it, But if you are smelling it then all is good most of the time.


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## jirodriguez (Dec 6, 2010)

Thin blue smoke.... meaning veary hard to see hard to tell if it is smoking. Basically if you smell the smoke you are getting smoke, but you want it to be a nice light, thin, grayish blue smoke most of the time. Obviously as you add more wood chunks or chips it will get thicker whiter smoke till the new wood or chips get hot enough, but it should settle back down to thin blue smoke within 5 minutes or so.


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## scarbelly (Dec 6, 2010)

aftershox454 said:


> Now that I have figured out the temp problem with my smoker it is not SMOKING (big plumes of white) like it is now-(very faint hard to tell if it is doing anything smoke)
> 
> which is better? is it now doing what it is supposed to?
> 
> ...


Sounds like you ae getting TBS - thin blue smoke and that is what you are striving for -


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## aftershox454 (Dec 6, 2010)

Good!

right now i'm feeding it Mesquite smaller chips-

how will this change based upon what i'm feeding it? different woods should yield different smoke? or different texture (chunks vs chips vs sawdust) will yield different smoke?

anybody got a little spreadsheet or somthing to look at?

this is news to me....


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## tom37 (Dec 6, 2010)

If you were to burn split logs with bark on them you are gonna get way more smoke then with a sac of chunks of the same type wood. Mainly due to the bark but the moisture content will affect it also.

I can't really say how much difference there is between the different woods other then I do know white and red oak don't smoke as much as say apple and cherry. In my opinion that is.

I have never used the saw dust burner so that one I don't have a clue.

As far as a spreadsheet, I cant say that I have ever seen one. Doesn't mean someone don't have one tho.


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## realtorterry (Dec 7, 2010)

Someone here posted this pic for me when I had that same questions years ago. I hope this answers it for you. The good smoke is on the right!


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## rbranstner (Dec 7, 2010)

If you can smell it you are smoking. You would much rather have little to no smoke that you can see but you can smell it than having thick white smoke. Thick white smoke will make some very nasty tasting meat.


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## aftershox454 (Dec 7, 2010)

awesome example! thanks guys

yeah the newest batch that had the TBS going the whole time was MUCH better than the thick white smoke I used to have


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## pintobean (Dec 7, 2010)

I got a good pic of some TBS in the dark a few weeks back...the flash made it easy to see.


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## rookiesmoker863 (Feb 2, 2012)

I'm new to the world of Smoking meats. I built a smoker and this is what my smoke looked like when I was smoking some wild game (Hog).


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## sprky (Feb 2, 2012)

Terry gave ya a great example. You want it to look like the smoker on the right, normally if ya can see threw it clearly its TBS. Here is the way a guy put it to me, and it made since. you don't want to be engulfed with smoke when you open your door, you should be able to see threw it clearly.


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## venture (Feb 2, 2012)

Pintobean did better than I have done?

With my camera, I have never found a way to capture TBS in a pic.

Good luck and good smoking.


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## pops6927 (Feb 2, 2012)

Thin and blue!


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## rookiesmoker863 (Feb 5, 2012)

OK, I have a stupid question...how do I get my smoke to be TBS and why TBS other smoke and what is the difference. The wild game that I smoked turned out good now this is coming from all my friends that ate it.


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