Last weekend, I cooked some sausage and chicken on Bertha, my 20x42 Oklahoma Joe Long Horn offset smoker. It's rusty, the door doesn't fit, leaks, the firebox rusted out so it's just sheet metal on the bottom. Basically headed for heavy trash day. I got it free and am using it to practice before I order an expensive offset smoker. Anyway, the sausage seem OK, except there's a layer of soot that gets all over the plate when you cut it. You don't notice it on dark meat as much as chicken. I usually use my KBQ for poultry, but I didn't feel like running two smokers at the same time, so I also did a couple of chickens on Bertha and you can really see the soot (or whatever it is). The flavor is good, but my wife hates this black film on it. What causes this and how can I be sure the same won't happen with an EOS?
Lang 48 inch Deluxe Patio Model (burns hickory splits)
PK 360 (burns premium lump charcoal with wood chunks)
28 inch Blackstone Griddle (propane)
Rubs I love:
Yardbird by Plow Boys
Killer Hogs by Malcom Reed
AP Rub by Malcom Reed
Meat Church (any)
Three Little Pigs Memphis Style for ribs
Would love to try Meathead's commercial rub
Sauces I love:
Gates'
Joe's
Pa & Ma's
Killer Hogs Vinegar Sauce
Disposable Equipment I use:
Disposable cutting boards
Tumbleweed chimney starters
Aluminum foil
Aluminum pans (half and full)
Latex gloves
Diamond Kosher Salt
Vice-President of BBQ Security, Roy
He's a pure-bred North American Brown Dog
He loves rawhide chewies
My wife calls me "Teddy" and I call her "Princess" and that's where "mrteddyprincess" comes from.
Incomplete combustion. Possibly use a charcoal chimney to make sure all your coals are lit. Add wood chunks when the charcoal is good and hot so that you get clean smoke. I had a COS for years and went through a ton of charcoal on a typical cook. I even used a box fan blowing into the fire box to keep the temps up in the cooking chamber. Good luck!
Typically it is caused by an unclean fire and dirty smoke. Fire management is an art that can take a minute to figure out. Some of the things you mentioned about the leaks etc... make that process even harder.
Yoi want to strive for the thin blue smoke that can be almost invisible. Black and grey smoke often times will end with the result you are describing.
You want a small hot fire. Another trick is to learn either your exhaust vent or intake vent. When I started out with a stick burner I usually just left the exhaust vent wide opened and used the intake vent to control temp. The fire needs a good draft and proper levels of oxygen to burn clean.
Also make sure your smoke is clear and clean before you put the meat on.
I would go ahead and send Bertha to the scrap yard. I'm guessing that running a proper fire is going to make this cooker too hot, so practicing controlling temperature on it will only ingrain bad habits. If you already know you're going to get a better offset, go ahead and do that and learn how to run it.
John "JR"
Minnesota/ United States of America
******************************************** Grills/Smokers/Fryers Big Green Egg (Large) X3
Blackstone 36" Outdoor Griddle 4-Burner
Burch Barrel V-1 Karubeque C-60 Kamado Joe Jr. (Black) Lodge L410 Hibachi Pit Barrel Cooker Pit Barrel Cooker 2.0
Pit Barrel PBX
R&V Works FF2-R-ST 4-Gallon Fryer *******************************************. Thermometers
FireBoard (Base Package)
Thermoworks ThermaPen (Red)
Thermoworks MK4 (Orange)
********************************* Accessories Big Green Egg Plate Setter
Benzomatic TS800 High Temp Torch X 2 Bayou Classic 44 qt Stainless Stock Pot
Bayou Classic 35K BTU Burner Eggspander Kit X2 Finex Cat Iron Line FireBoard Drive Lots and Lots of Griswold Cast Iron Grill Grates Joule Water Circulator
KBQ Fire Grate Kick Ash Basket (KAB) X4 Lots of Lodge Cast Iron Husky 6 Drawer BBQ Equipment Cabinet Large Vortex Marlin 1894 .44 Magnum Marquette Castings No. 13 (First Run) Smithey No. 12 Smokeware Chimney Cap X 3 Stargazer No.10, 12 ******************************** Fuel FOGO Priemium Lump Charcoal Kingsford Blue and White B&B Charcoal Apple, Cherry & Oak Log splits for the C-60 ************************************************* Cutlery Buck 119 Special
Cuda 7' Fillet Knife Dexter 12" Brisket Sword Global Shun Wusthof ********** Next Major Purchase Lone Star Grillz 24 X 48 Offset
So for sure this is NOT what you get on a well-managed EOS? Chicken turns out more brown than black on the KBQ, but has a lot less smoke flavor. My wife told me this morning she had to rinse all that black stuff off before she could use the meat.
I’ve done all of those things y’all are suggesting: charcoal coal bed, small splits measured at 15% moisture or less, pre-heated in the firebox, intake wide open plus had to keep cracking the door. Instead of monitoring the temperature, I watched to make sure the flame didn’t go out. Seemed to be an earlier indicator for me. The smoke would billow if I closed the door all the way, even if the damper was wide open. I’ve been told the chimney is undersized; maybe that has something to do with it.
Lonestar Grillz 24x36 offset smoker, grill, w/ main chamber charcoal grate and 3 tel-tru thermometers - left, right and center
Yoke Up custom charcoal basket and a Grill Wraps cover.
22.5 copper kettle w/ SnS, DnG, BBQ vortex, gasket and stainless steel hinge kit.
Napoleon gas grill (soon to go bye bye) rotting out.
1 maverick et-733 digital thermometer - black
1 maverick et-733 - gray
1 new standard grilling remote digital thermometer
1 thermoworks thermopen mk4 - red
1 thermoworks thermopop - red
Pre Miala flavor injector
taylor digital scale
TSM meat grinder
chefs choice food slicer
cuisinhart food processor
food saver vacuum sealer
TSM harvest food dehydrator
Photos would help. Birds nest in the stack? Sounds like the stack is gummed up or too many leaks to function. Toss it and it will save you on ruined meat.
Can't wait to see the new smoker. Do you get clean smoke from Bertha? The thin blue stuff Nate talked about?
Thin smoke but I don't know about blue. It white-smokes a lot on startup and if the fire snuffs out. Comes out everywhere - firebox door, firebox lid, cook lid. Looks like it's breathing. Once it's up to temp, the smoke thins out, I put the food on and feed it every 15 minutes or so. That's how long it takes for those little sticks to burn up. I've used larger splits, but they don't light, I have to blow on the coals, turn the wood over, blow some more, and if I go inside for five minutes I come back to a bellowing mess, open all the doors, blow on it some more, add some kindling, etc etc etc. Having a cheap offset is really strenuous. I hear stories of using full-size splits and feeding one or two every hour. Man, that would be like a vacation.
When you are blowing on the coals you are blowing ashes into the air stream. Be careful how you blow or better yet add some more lit charcoal to the fire or larger logs when you start out. Also can you get some gasket material for your doors.
I never fought that hard when I had my good offset. You really are not learning much on this cooker due to what you are having to do and the results you are getting.
Good luck and hang in there.
Last edited by mountainsmoker; August 6, 2019, 10:25 PM.
Well, my wife has put the proverbial foot down. She refuses to eat anything that I cook on Bertha. So, now to choose a replacement. I've been drooling over the vertical offsets at Lone Star Grillz. I'm also considering the Jambo Backyard model. Both very different approaches. On a vertical, smoke rises, which seems to me a lot more natural than making it go sideways down a barrel. The Jambo is tempting because it has such a good reputation and uses so little fuel. Price is equivalent, although with the LSG I'd probably jack up the price with upgrades. I wonder which one would produce the most smoke flavor with no soot? Has anyone cooked on both?
Both are good cookers. Remember it is much easier to control differences in temp top to bottom on a horizontal vs vertical. When you get a large vertical cabinet temps can vary 100f top to bottom. Also when have multiple racks of meating it rains grease n goop so your perfectly prepped ribs on the bottom get splattered. Many options available. Post them here for the crowd to fizz over.
It’s just ... I can’t get another smoker that doesn’t produce the smoke flavor. I’ve bought three gold-medal cookers recommended by amazing ribs, and still can’t achieve smoking good results. My Rec Tec could hold temps for hours unattended but very light smoke flavor. My pit barrel wasn’t much better and I don’t like the taste of burnt drippings falling on coals. The KBQ is awesome in a lot of ways, but very little smoke flavor and I don’t like feeding it every ten minutes.
I have gotten the closest to my goal with Bertha, except for this soot problem. My theory with the vertical is that it puts the meat directly in the path of the rising smoke, making it more likely that the particles (not just gasses) will impale on the meat. Can’t test my theory, though, unless I buy one.
Comment