Amount of Smoke

[Ghawtho]

Saturday afternoon watching barbecuing on Man Fire Food on the cooking channel and their letting the smokers BOIL OUT white smoke like the smoker is an 75MPH locomotive freight train but this is highly discouraged. I am thinking as long as the fire is burning with good amount of air and hot this is acceptable. Their showing the briskets and they look great. There must be something am not getting.

[smokin fool]

My explanation is simply white smoke is cooler dirtier smoke.
Let your fire/coals get more established, a grey smoke, and you get a hotter cleaner smoke that tastes better on the end result.

[Mosca]

I think smoke makes good TV, is all you’re seeing. There isn’t a lot of drama in watching cooking, and lots of white smoke makes it look dynamic.

Regarding smoke colors, I’ve decided anything that isn’t gray soot is okay. I get impatient waiting for smoke to clear, and sometimes the waiting upsets my timing, and I put my ribs (because it’s always on a rib cook, for really long cooks the wait doesn’t matter) on while my rig is still belching whiteish smoke. It never matters. The smoke always clears in the next 15-20 minutes, and the food is always great. 15 minutes of white smoke won’t hurt anything.

[smokin fool]

Better explanation than mine....

[Jessterr]

Same here. Light blue smoke is a beautiful thing, but as long as the lit charcoal is burning in a nice robust way and things are rolling as they should, it’s all good. A healthy fire is all that matters, IMO.

[Ghawtho]

Thanks Mosca, A few months ago started my barrel smoker and an emergency phone call took place which took me away from the barrel smoker and the fire burned 90 minutes before getting my ribs on the pit and my ribs turned out the best. I no longer have the barrel smoker and let my son in Colorado have it. I don’t like not being able to view fire burning (blind sided) and it’s
almost impossible adding fuel to the fire.
My son really enjoys the barrel smoker but not me, it’s just not my thing.

[Huskee]

Don't do what you see on TV, it's cleverly (or deceptively) edited for TV. Read & re-read what Mosca says.

[bunky2021]

Is it only me, or does watching folks smoking meat on TV or YouTube often feel like watching Bill Dance catch trophy Largemouth Bass, one after the other?

Entertainment, for sure. But real life?

[Starsky]

I don't understand why the briskets on TV take 16 hrs. And their crust is always very dark. Looks like it would be bitter at that stage. Maybe it's the style of smoker they use