My 22" Weber plus SnS seems to have two "levels" of smoke: whitish (and thick) and pretty much not visible. I typically intermingle wood chips in amongst the briquettes and I tend to use a good bit more wood than Meathead recommends. Is my "not visible" level what youse guys are calling "clean smoke"?
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The clear smoke is the clean smoke. But do not kill yourself to make the whole cook all clean smoke. I've still had some great bbq that was not cooked 100% clean smoke. -
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Thin Blue smoke to clear are most often considered clean smoke and what most of us strive for.
The whitish smoke could be caused by new charcoal briquettes igniting, airflow issues, fire not being hot enough, etc...
Doc Blonder has a video in the video series section of the pit on Smoke and it is a good watch.
Here is Meathead's article that talks about Smoke.
Last edited by Nate; January 5, 2017, 11:25 AM.Comment
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Does this mean if you go with minion or snake method, you are unable to get clean blue smoke until the last of the coals are lit? -
OneCharmingPig , not necessarily but when charcoal ignites it can put off a heavier smoke. Depending on setup with those methods it is such a low volume of briquettes at any one time that are igniting slowly over a longer period of time that it can be less of an issue.
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A quick run through the washer on gentle cycle should clean that smoke up nicely. Don't forget - hot cycle if you are smoking hot, and cold cycle if you are cold smoking.
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An interesting phenomenon about smoke and winter humidity: At the beginning of winter on cold wet days I have to remind myself that the smoke exiting my smoke stack is more visible and will "hover" giving the impression that it is not as clean. Conversely, on warm spring days with a breeze, it can be a bit more difficult to tell that the smoke is "dirtier" because it dissipates and blows away so quickly.Comment
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Meathead responded to my question about this more than a year ago. He said white smoke is ok, but not as good as thin blue smoke.
I made a smoke pot for my Kamado over Christmas, hoping to get more of that clean burn (blue/clear smoke) and less of that white smoke. But, my white smoke cooking still is pretty good!Comment
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If you put a stick on the fire and the smoke smells bad -- take it out of the firebox!Comment
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Willy, oh wait a minute, Willy, I have a dumb question. Do you have the week off from work or what?Comment
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I still say there are no dumb questions here. Err maybe some but this is not one of them. I believe the thin white or blue smoke is what you strive for. That's a clean burning fire. It's the thick heavy whitish grey brownish smoke you try to avoid. When that happens to me I will generally (on my LSG offset) open the fire box door and sometimes the main chamber and let the fire rip for a few minutes to get the burn hotter. Than bring things back to where I want them. Opening the main chamber helps to keep the bad smoke from penetrating the meat. Than all is good, usually.Comment
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Early morning smoke with a lil steam cause it was cooler that morning. Took that in the fall. Nov 16 at 415 amComment
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Lately I've had some difficulty getting thin blue smoke in both my WSM and my kettle + SnS. Last few cooks it took almost an hour in "preheat" mode to get thin blue smoke. I definitely recommend a heat sink like a water pan. This allows the vents to be more open thus feeding more oxygen to the fire. Depending on the cooker, if you keep the lid off for a minute or two right after adding the lit coals it speeds up the process for getting your small fire hot enough to create blue smoke.Comment
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