In my last tip I talked briefly about air flow, the reason why you want your smoke stack damper wide open most of the time is because of a little thing called creosote. Creosote is a byproduct of the fire and without good air flow this will cover your food. Why is this bad? Chances are you have experienced this and never even knew what exactly it was. I don’t know how many times someone has invited me to eat something they have smoked and it gives what we call in my house “Dragon Breath”. It’s that BBQ, smoked jerky, smoked whatever that has a very burnt/bitter taste and literally will numb the tip of your tongue.
So now that you know how bad creosote is and know what it is (like I said chances are you have made BBQ that was covered in it or have had some that was), let’s make sure you never have that issue again. The easiest way to identify a smoker that is creating creosote is by looking at the smoke. If you have a thick dark or heavy white (what I call stale smoke, smoke that has been trapped in the smoking chamber too long due to lack of air flow) you are heading down the road of dragon breath. The smoke that comes out of you smoke stack should be almost a blueish color and thin, this is where the term “blue thin smoke” comes from. Trust me it don’t take much smoke to get smoked BBQ and a PERFECT smoke ring, you DON’T need to have your smoker barreling with smoke.
Next time you are smoking anything do yourself the favor keep it thin and keep it blue, if it does get out of hand open the main chamber for a quick clear out, this will add to your cooking time but will keep the dragon at bay.
- From no to know
Nathan Conner
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