Let's talk about smoke and TBS.....

I'm with you. Nothing goes on until it stops smelling like an ashtrays a-hole. :heh: I'm not changing either.

I'm with you on getting the TBS. Have I been known to throw a butt on a little earlier than that, sure. I don't taste, smell, or find a difference if it goes on with some less than ideal smoke as long as it thins out pretty quick.

I think often we get too anal about it, I know I have on certain cuts. But if it's working and making the Q delicious, I say don't fix something that ain't broken!

A year or so ago I had decided that I really didn't like the flavor coming off charcoal. Wasn't bad on beef but not my favorite and really dislike it on chicken. Pretty much stopped using the KJ and was planning to give it to my daughter when she gets a house.

I've since discovered that if I wait longer to start with the meat the results are great. I know budget about an hour to get the Kamado up to temp and clean.

I still may give it to her next month when she moves in the house but it won't be because I'm not enjoying it.

Say you have identical meats, seasonings and cook on the same smokers all side by side. The food will most certainly taste different depending on fire management.

I'm glad most of my food gets cooked on an open air stick burner because the smoke is always thin and un obstructed.

When I use charcoal especially briquettes (KBB) Small hot fires is what I go for. You can see and most importantly taste the difference. If I build a smoldering type of fire that produces more white smoke then the ash tray taste shines through.

Agree that there's a difference but my wildcard is the kids. A lot of times, I light the fire and put the meat on whenever I can, even if it's billowing dirty white smoke like a locomotive

I have tried a lot of different ways of doing it. I do wrap but not for keeping out the smoke. I wrap to impart flavor. Also to help tenderize it and skip the stall.
Waiting for thin blue smoke is a good idea. It works great but the time to do it is a pita. I also heard it wasn't important to wait as long as you got tbs eventually. That imo is false on any pit I own. Possibly just works for certain pits and not others.
Now imo the best way to do it is the way Bill Gillespie has said in his book. Put.the wood on the pit before the meat goes on. You have to have your pit preheated to temp though. Don't add wood until you want to put meat on. Then put it right on. You will get a really deep smoke ring and no off taste. This is what works best for me. Preheating your pit is key.
I have tried many different methods.
We all do it differently.
At my age I am still learning and I didn't grow up with barbecue. So I am open trying anything. I am not set in my ways.
My opinion is do what works.

One of the things that imo really let's me develop as a barbecue cook is that I have no childhood memories of my father or grandfather cooking barbecue. I think sometimes that makes it So I am able to experiment because I am not preserving a family tradition.
For most, barbecue is part of their heritage and family history. For me, I am starting family traditions with my kids that involve barbecue. So for me no boundaries to hold me back. I can understand why some people won't cross certain boundaries. I just don't care about the rules.

For example. I made pulled pork in 4 hours. I used a pellet grill cranked up to 450 degrees. I used an amazen smoke tube to impart smoke for two hours and wrapped my butts in foil pans with a bit of Apple juice in the pan. Perfect pulled pork in 4 hours. If that doesn't horrify a lot of barbecue guys I would be shocked. I don't know of anyone cooking that hot but probably someone has done it. No mushy bark either. A nice perfect bark imo packed with flavor. The bark has to be set before doing this.

I am not trying to change your mind. Experimenting is how I develop as a barbecue cook.
At 29 I am still developing and learning.
My methods are always evolving.

Now that i'm cooking strictly with lump in my 270 I tend to get clean smoke fairly quickly. I have a brisket and a pork but on now. I let it preheat for about 30 minutes, put the meat on and then I throw in 2 big chunks of pecan to get the smoke rolling. This is what works best for my cooker to get that smoke flavor early on in my cook. Been doing this for a year + now with good results.

Now when I was rolling a UDS i would use briqs and that took forever to get any clean smoke. I didnt have a diffuser either so I would also get that white smoke from the fat hitting the coals. It would rarely be clean but some good pit flavor grub off the UDS.

For those of you cooking with briquettes, how long does it typically take for your smoke to clean up, from the time you dump your lit chimney until it turns TBS?

I do combined charcoal for the bed and then add sticks on top. My TBS off the charcoal is 40 minutes on a good day. I've had it push to 75 minutes if we're going for that strictly transparent wavy-line clean-heat TBS!!

Chris, you are on the right track, for sure. I don't wrap anything except for a stall. My coal bed is RO lump, started with RO briqs. When the lump is fully envolved, I add splits that are pre-heated and rarely have any white smoke. By the time the cooker is up to temp, the splits are going good, so no problem. Pre-heating IMO is the way to go.

Missed you at the bash, stay in touch, Joe

I will put meat on light white smoke- soon as hits temp and Heavy start up smoke is gone........

Depends on timing...If I have plenty of time, I wait for thin blue. If I will be pushing it close, I may not wait for TBS, but I do wait til I see noticeable dissipation of the smoke. A thin white smoke beats a thick white to black.

I dated a girl that smoked 40 years ago. Sometimes when conditions are just right, and after 1 or four beers, that ash taste can make me smile. Honestly I would never strive for it, but all is not lost.

Fire and meat- I don't overthink.

I like to think of smoke as a by product off bbq.

smoke ninja said:

I like to think of smoke as a by product off bbq.

Click to expand...

Ninja-son is very wise....very wise indeed. :becky:

Most consider bbq a bi product of smoking!

When cooking on the PBC I usually apply lighter fluid to a full basket of charcoal, place the basket in the PBC, light 'em up and wait about 15-20 minutes before adding two fist size wood chunks and hanging the meat. Then I put the lid and on and wait for the cooker to do it's magic. Don't really pay much attention to to the color of the smoke, but I guess in most cases it is thin and a light gray color.

I use the minion method with KBB for smoking, never have a problem with dirty smoke. If grilling you have to let the charcoal completely ash over before cooking.

If it's blowing like an old time locomotive, waiting is a great idea.
But there's a reason that "optimal" and "realistic" sometimes mean different things.

Temps are good AND stable but you can still see the smoke: smells like ashtray- stay away. Smells like something you might eat- drop some meat.