Tips for more smoke?

Instead of lifting the grate / drip pan and plate setter to add wood, I'll slide a few chunks in the bottom vent up against some of the hot lump pieces that fall through the fire grate.  It doesn't disturb the cook, and you can keep the smoke rolling the entire cook this way if you want.

Layer the lump and chunks. I don't wait till the smoke clears... Just when it smells clean. 

When I want more smoke, I use my offset stick burner. no but seriously. I think it is a combo of what was said above. You don't think it is smokey but it is. One of my biggest issues when I started using the BGE (which was my first experience with smoking altogether) was the "lack of smoke taste." I used to load tons of wood chunks which worked but it would billow smoke for 3-4 hours which also is not good. I learned with the egg less is more. Too many chunks of wood and the smoke will taste bitter.

Don't bother soaking. It just delays smoking. They won't ignite anyway. 

The egg smokes a bit more at 250 than 225 or lower. And even more the higher you go. More air, bigger fire. 

I don't wait for the smoke to clear either but as @henapple says, only until it smells good

hickory is pretty strong. If you don't get any flavor from that, you're maybe using too little, or have it in the wrong spot

put it in the middle of the egg, rather than spread around. And instead of on top, put it up and down intermingled with the lump so it burns throughout the cook

there is no truth to the idea that smoke stops being "absorbed" after the dabled first hour. If you want a lot of smoke flavor, you meed a lot of smoke

rather than a lot at the beginning, or running too hot to generate the most smoke, it's better to go gentler for longer. 

You ARE getting smoke on your cooks. The thing is, (go with me on this) a person who smokes cigarettes can't smell the smoke on his or her body, but the person next to them who doesn't smoke - can.

Same way with smoke on food, your cooking on your egg or Weber or whatever all day ... you can't smell it, but the person who later eats it - can.

At least, that's what I think.

It might be true that we can get a bit desensitized to smoke while cooking, but I've had exactly the same experience as the OP and I urge him to keep trying things until he gets what he wants.

Some things (like chicken) I like only a little smoky, but some things, like ribs, brisket, pork butt, I like as smoky as I can get them.  I was even thinking of buying one of those perforated pipes by A-Maze-N Smoker that they fill with wood pellets to add more smoke.  But what finally worked better for me, anyway, was this, for a low-and-slow:

1. I fill lump to the top of the fire ring with NO wood, start the fire in one place in the center, no plate setter, bottom vent open full, dome closed but top vent off completely.  Wait 15-20 minutes and start checking the dome temp, also keeping an eye on white smoke.
2. When the dome temp is getting around 250°, I close down the top and bottom vents to my best guess as to where they'll need to be to maintain 250° to 275°, and let the Egg stabilize maybe another 15-20 minutes.
3. Then I add hickory chunks, 4-5 or more, radially around the central fire, so that as the fire widens, more and more of the wood will smolder, add the plate setter, add the meat.  I don't usually find a huge drop in dome temperature, and pretty quickly I'm back to 250° or so.

For me, anyway, this method seems to give me nice blue smoke for several hours, and my ribs are MUCH smokier than they were when I tried mixing chunks or chips throughout the lump, which seems to make more sense, but for me, didn't work as well.  Like @Darby_Crenshaw, I find that I get better smoke at 250° or higher, much less below 250°.  He seems to be much more experienced than I, but again, for me, anyway, I seem to get better results this way than mixing wood in the lump.  It sounds like he might concentrate the wood more centrally than I was, though, so that might make the difference.

Anyway, my biggest point is that whether other people insist your food is smoky or not, if YOU don't find it smoky enough, keep on trying different things!  I was in the same boat, and I'm very happy now with the smokiness of my cooks.

@Theophan I am going to try your method next time. The hard part I have visualizing is that my fire always burns straight down and to the back. If all the wood is on top of unlit lump, how is it burning to produce smoke?

busmania said:

my fire always burns straight down and to the back. If all the wood is on top of unlit lump, how is it burning to produce smoke?

That's where ou should put the wood. In the middle, up and down. 

Fire doesnt crawl around the top of the lump or the sides. 

People used to advocate putting wood on top in top in a spiral. Think about that for a second. Let me know when you are done laughing

imagine the area occupied by the fire grate extended up thru the lump. In that space is where moat of my chunks or chips are

I have an old chimney starter that the handle has broken off...When I have some time, I'm going to cut it in half with a grinding wheel and test that using a variable burn in a circle alternating every few inches between lump and smoking wood. I am fairly certain that this will NOT work without a draft system (the wood may smolder out without it)..in theory, it will burn around the circumference of the cut in half chimney started getting a few hrs of coal, then wood, then coal, then more wood. 

SmokingPiney said:

Instead of lifting the grate / drip pan and plate setter to add wood, I'll slide a few chunks in the bottom vent up against some of the hot lump pieces that fall through the fire grate.  It doesn't disturb the cook, and you can keep the smoke rolling the entire cook this way if you want.

Isn't this kind of how the gravity feed smokers work?  I may have to try this as well.

stike says...

He's probably right, but I'm too lazy to "arrange" things.

2 things not mentioned above.

1st, less consequential. At lower temp in the minimal oxygen flow of an Egg, the wood won't burn. The purer charcoal of the lump grabs the oxygen. The wood slowly bakes, releasing the gases that produce the flavor. If you put a big enough chunck of wood in the Egg, at the end of 6 - 7 hours, its lump itself.

2nd, more important for taking smoke flavor is how wet the surface of the meat is. If its really wet, the smoke doesn't stick well. What is best is a "tacky" surface, called a pellicle. Happens naturally as meats, fish most notably, become a little dry. I've been complemented on the amount of smoke I get, and my method is to blot the meat w. paper towels maybe 10 min. before putting on the rub. I also do not mop the meat, or have it above a drip pan. If it looks like its getting to dry, I use a basting brush to add a very thin layer of water, while pressing down.

Hope this helps.

I'm like Carolina Q.  I start in 3 places, let the fire get up to about 250 and the smoke clears, put in the wood chunks, and then add the meat indirect with a medium woo.   Have never had a problem with inadequate smoke.

nolaegghead said:

I was about to make a comment here but realized I'm too fkd up.  Carry on, gents.  Looks like some mtherfkn science n sh!t. Love it.

Oh yeah, Wednesday.