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Is it Still smokin' ?

by Peggy
(Florida)

We have put Ribs, Turkey, chicken, Fish, Veggies...
in the Smoker, it starts out smoking visibly and then for awhile, you can't see any smoke.
My Question is; Is it still smoking it, and is the flavor still getting into it even tho we can't see it smokin?

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Is it Still smokin' ?

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starstarstarstarstar 		Different Kinds of Burn
by: Alexander

I've seen a lot of confusion on the net about this, so this might be a good spot to clear this up:

"Burning" is a fast chemical process where gases mingle and combine in such a way as to give off heat (exothermic reaction). Usually this is oxygen in the air joining the gases coming off the wood. This joining takes a little energy to get started and then it gives off more than it uses. The keys to a good fire are Fuel, Temperature, and Oxygen (air).

When we add a log to the fire (fuel), the log has 30-50% water still in it (even dry seasoned wood). Until it's heated to ignition, the wood won't burn. As it heats up, water vapor, steam and gases are given off, but there's not enough heat to get a clean combustion of these gases, thus we get white smoke with lots of little particles in it (like TAR). After the surface of the wood has heated to a high enough Temperature like 400 deg, then the gasses have enough heat to self ignite, and we get a cleaner combustion with Air. The "blue" comes from the burning of the tars in the wood, much like burning oil in a car engine.

However, there's only so much fuel in a piece of wood, so when the log is empty of gases, the main heat comes from burning of the cellulose in the wood. Cellulose combustion isn't hot enough to sustain a fire, so we end up with a small bit of charred, dry, light wood in the fire. Time to add more wood.

The fire box idea shown on the site is an excellent way to keep the coals together to stay hot, and still get plenty of air to them. I've added one to my smoker and it has become much more stable in temperature.




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starstarstarstarstar 		If you can smell it...
by: Anonymous

If you can Smell the smoke, it's smokin'. You don't have to see the smoke in order to be "Smoking BBQ". What you want is a very thin blue smoke. The thick white smoke you say you see at the beginning is in fact the fuel burning to ash, but you don't want to have that smoke for the entire cook. Think White Smoke causes creosote build up on the meat and the smoker, this can and will impart a heavy, overpowering smoke flavor. You want the smoke to "kiss" the meat, not Overpower it.

I would only add chips about once every couple of hours.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Add wood!
by: Ben Molloy

The initial smoke you see is the coals burning down to ash. To keep smoke going, you need to add wood chips to the coals to get more smoke. Soaking your chips for a few hours before adding them will make the wood smoke longer because it burns slower. There is a useful guide here for what kinds of woods to pair with different meats. If you're doing many different kinds at once, I would suggest using a combination of hickory and mesquite.

http://www.texasbbqrub.com/wood.htm

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