VIDEO- Dr. Greg Blonder: "Wood, Smoke, & the Smoke Ring" (1hr:39m)

[David Parrish]

If you have trouble seeing the illustrations, here they are in pdf form for you to download.

http://amazingribs.com/images/blonder/smoke_seminar.pdf

​Dr. Blonder's August seminar on salt was such a huge hit we have asked him to come back and teach us about wood, smoke, and the smokering. How much do different woods differ in flavor? What is smoke and is some better than others? How does smoke flavor food? How do I make good smoke? And more.

Dr. Greg Blonder, is an amazing polymath and the AmazingRibs.com resident science advisor and mythbuster. He has a physics BS from MIT and a physics PhD from Harvard. In his life as a physicist he rose to become the Chief Technical Advisor at AT&T's legendary Bell Labs and he holds more than 80 patents in the areas of optical disk recording, integrated fiber optic devices, displays, computer systems, software, and user interfaces.

As an entrepreneur, he has been a partner at the Morgenthaler Ventures, a technology centric venture capital firm that has supplied funds to Apple among others. He has also lectured at Columbia University and Wharton, written a number of articles for Business Week, and teaches Scenario Planning part time at Parson's The New School for Design.

His love of food, especially barbecue, has brought him to food science where he conducts original research for this website, and patiently answers my dumb questions. He has enough grills and smokers that he could open a retail business, and nobody Meathead knows understands better than Dr. Blonder what happens when heat hits meat.

Update 5.28.2015 - Many thanks to richinlbrg for coming up with time tags for some of the topics discussed.

At 21:06 They discuss "oversmoking" and what it really is - stick burners don't oversmoke, so how can wood chunks oversmoke?

At :28:30 they talk about how smoke interacts with food and meat penetration.

At 38:15 they discuss the timing of the adherence of smoke to the protein and how it happens - AT THE BEGINNING of the smoke.

At 40:00 they discuss the smoke ring.

At 48:00 why a smoldering fire wont give you a smoke ring - fire management.

At 52:00 they discuss the impact the acidity of the protein and rubs have on the smoke ring.

At 1:03:30 the meaning of the smoke color.

At 1:10 they return to the smoke ring.

[smarkley]

Yay!WOOT WOOT!

[David Parrish]

Iknowright? =)

[Deuce]

This will be another good one for sure.

[Huskee]

THE most interesting topic for me personally. I enjoy Dr B's take on the ins & outs of smoke, and the mythbusting behind it. I am looking forward to this.

I wonder if he'd have time to cover some of his experiemts on humidity and its effect on various cooker environments, cooking time, meat tenderness, etc; I know he has written in-depth articles on it as well. (Maybe a subject for a future seminar...)

[CandySueQ]

Agree! Couple of years back most of my competitions were in the rain. Meat cooked faster. But that's only anecdotal!

[Jon Solberg]

heck to the YES!

[Flavorsavor]

This is awesome. I really can't hear too many times all the factors that go into smoke flavor and smoke rings. Getting a consistent smoke flavor during different cooks is huge deal, and there are many things that could be forgotten along the way.

[Henrik]

Yes! Bring it on, Doc. Really looking forward to this.

[Gumby6506]

Yeah this for sure is one im looking forward to. I got lots of questions ready.

[Gumby6506]

THE most interesting topic for me personally. I enjoy Dr B's take on the ins & outs of smoke, and the mythbusting behind it. I am looking forward to this.

I wonder if he'd have time to cover some of his experiemts on humidity and its effect on various cooker environments, cooking time, meat tenderness, etc; I know he has written in-depth articles on it as well. (Maybe a subject for a future seminar...)

I agree, I primarily cook on a Primo XL and I don't get that smoke ring like everyone else does. I wonder if it is a humidity thing because ceramic cookers are so dang efficient, but definitely something I need answered.

[David Parrish]

I agree, I primarily cook on a Primo XL and I don't get that smoke ring like everyone else does. I wonder if it is a humidity thing because ceramic cookers are so dang efficient, but definitely something I need answered.

Gumby I think lack of combustion is to blame. Kamado cookers run efficient, so they don't need as much heat from the fire to maintain temp. Less heat equals less fire. Less fire, less smoke, less smoke ring.

[Chriscrna]

Looking forward to this!

[Agnost1C]

Thank you.

[Jerod Broussard]

Gumby I think lack of combustion is to blame. Kamado cookers run efficient, so they don't need as much heat from the fire to maintain temp. Less heat equals less fire. Less fire, less smoke, less smoke ring.

I also think it has to do with design. I see the same thing with WSM's, unless people spritz, or use really cold meat.

By design, I am referring to the deflector blocking the gases from going straight to the meat, and thus they (gases) just follow the sides, then up out the top, without ever contacting the meat enough to produce a ring.

[Bill P]

Don't know guys. I always got a nice smoke ring on the Big Green Egg. The challenge was to get the wood chunks where the fire was. But like Jerod said, I sprayed the meat occasionally.

[3DJ]

This place is the best! Thanks for this. Jim

[docblonder]

The smoke seminar is a week away- submit your questions now, and we'll try and cover them during the talk.

Click this link to submit on the main seminar page- thanks.