White smoke question

SaintJohnsEgger

I know I should wait until the white smoke clears and all I see is clear blue smoke.

So, my question is this; what makes the smoke change color? Is it the temperature of the burning lumps? Is it the fact that the lumps no longer have flames and are down to coals? How does adding chunks of wood for smoking affect this? Should that be clear blue smoke also?

I function better when I understand the science of how and why things work the way that they do.

JustineCaseyFeldown

white is steam.  i never worry about it

tikigriller

JustineCaseyFeldown said:

white is steam.  i never worry about it

I was under the impression it is much more than just steam and it will cause flavor issues in your meat.  It must be more than just steam, as everything you read from cookbooks, to most around here, to even the instructions on my pellet grill all say to wait for the smoke to clear up, so I would assume it is much more than just steam.

What exactly it is, I have no idea and will be curious to the answers, but I have a hard time believing it is just steam FWIW.

Now watch.....it will turn out to be just Steam, that for some reason, effects flavor.  

Ozzie_Isaac

JustineCaseyFeldown said:

white is steam.  i never worry about it

St!ke is on to something.  If smoke smells good, you are fine.  Dirty white smoke is bad.  Clean white is usually ok and close to thin blue.

SaintJohnsEgger

I am with @tikigriller on this. Everything I have read or seen on Youtube says the white smoke will leave a bitter taste on your food. 

tikigriller

I think @Ozzie_Isaac is on it with more detail....it's more about the smell than the color.  Heck....when it's cold out, it's always white!

SaintJohnsEgger

So why does everyone talk about how long it takes for the smoke to clear?

Ozzie_Isaac

SaintJohnsEgger said:

So why does everyone talk about how long it takes for the smoke to clear?

The real heavy dirty white smoke, sometimes even gray needs to clear.  That will be bitter.

After 5-10 minutes (based on lump, dryness, temp, etc) will begin to change smell and clear up.  When you get to the clear white (15-30 minutes) you are almost there.  You will notice the smell begin  to mellow.  At that point you can usually throw your protein on, especially brisket or shoulder.

If doing chicken let it go a bit longer and what for thin white or blue smoke.

JustineCaseyFeldown

SaintJohnsEgger said:

I am with @tikigriller on this. Everything I have read or seen on Youtube says the white smoke will leave a bitter taste on your food. 

every thing you have seen or read tells you white smoke is bad.

well, everything i have ever tasted or smelled has proven otherwise.

if the smoke smells good, it will be good.

there is absolutely a wonderful pale blue smoke that you get during a long cook.  good stuff. not denying that.

but when smoke is good, it is good. white or not.  and i am only talking about the BGE. if you are running a stick burner, that's a different animal.

part of the problem here is that ONE type of white smoke is from charcoal burning in the egg, during start up.  that stuff is bad.  wait until that clears, and you are good to go.

but gee if you added some wood later in the cook (which would give you white smoke), or you saw white smoke start up again (as the fire found some of your smoking wood buried in the lump), you might see some white smoke again.  that white smoke isn't 'bad'.  it's wood smoke.


the pale blue/purple smoke benchmark is something that predates the BGE.  it came from pit BBQ, offsets, stick burners, etc. and applies to them

in a charcoal smoker, once the so-called 'bad' smoke is gone you are good to go.  older lump, reused, won't have this problem for example.  yesterday's lump. 

with a fresh load of lump, of course we let that burn clean.

but once the charcoal is burning clean, the minor amount of steam in whatever your smoking wood is, is not going to be a problem.

smell the smoke.

i long ago quit taking youtube videos and broscience as the gospel.

nothing better than just trying it out yourself

we have sh!tcanned quite a few myths over the years.  time for this one to die too. as pertains to the BGE anyway

JustineCaseyFeldown

SaintJohnsEgger said:

So why does everyone talk about how long it takes for the smoke to clear?

charcoal vs wood.

depends which you are talking about

Hans61

Agree with smell test for smoke. 

Killit_and_Grillit

This post is super racist. 

Im going back to my safe space. 

Ozzie_Isaac

Killit_and_Grillit said:

This post is super racist. 

Im going back to my safe space. 

Trump causes white smoke.

SaintJohnsEgger

I thought white smoke signaled a new Pope.

Botch

Something that @SaintJohnsEgger touched on, that never made sense to me.
 
Lump is made by heating raw wood until it becomes "lump", carbonized but still burnable.  It still has, however, "volatiles" that taste bad and haven't burned off yet; we complete the process by heating the lump enough in our Eggs, before adding the pound of flesh.  I understand that.
 
The part I don't understand: those bad-tasting volatiles are surely still in the raw wood chips or chunks that I add just before cooking, yet they don't adversely affect the taste.  I know this from my own experience, not from EweTube videos or "broscience" (sooo stolen!  ), but again like the OP, I wish I understood the Why.  
 
I made green chile cheeseburgers for lunch today, except the chiles weren't thawed yet so I had cheeseburgers.  Threw a small palmful of Jack Daniel's barrel chips on right before the patties, lotsa thick white smoke, and they were delicious.  I guess that's the final determinant.   

Ozzie_Isaac

Botch said:

Something that @SaintJohnsEgger touched on, that never made sense to me.
 
Lump is made by heating raw wood until it becomes "lump", carbonized but still burnable.  It still has, however, "volatiles" that taste bad and haven't burned off yet; we complete the process by heating the lump enough in our Eggs, before adding the pound of flesh.  I understand that.
 
The part I don't understand: those bad-tasting volatiles are surely still in the raw wood chips or chunks that I add just before cooking, yet they don't adversely affect the taste.  I know this from my own experience, not from EweTube videos or "broscience" (sooo stolen!  ), but again like the OP, I wish I understood the Why.  
 
I made green chile cheeseburgers for lunch today, except the chiles weren't thawed yet so I had cheeseburgers.  Threw a small palmful of Jack Daniel's barrel chips on right before the patties, lotsa thick white smoke, and they were delicious.  I guess that's the final determinant.   

Magic

(I worried about that for a long while.  I got a head ache, so I just work of observation now)

JustineCaseyFeldown

Botch said:

Something that I don't understand 
 
The part I don't understand: those bad-tasting volatiles are surely still in the raw wood chips or chunks that I add just before cooking, yet they don't adversely affect the taste.  I know this from my own experience, not from EweTube videos or "broscience" (sooo stolen!  ), but again like the OP, I wish I understood the Why.  
 .   

[Preface edit: there are no 'volatiles' in the wood. The volatiles are created as a by product, when charcoal is made. They are in the smoke, and the smoke permeates the wood and resulting charcoal]

You are using very little wood to smoke as compared to the making of lump

and. The biggest issue. Even though our eggs are relatively air tight, the smoking wood does still have the ability to burn cleaner than when you cook wood to make charcoal

Wood in a retort is not fully burning. So like with incomplete combustion, the smoke is pretty noxious. 

It's probable though that your few chips of wood, when the fully-burning lump touches it, is allowed to burn more fully. Cleaner smoke

it is my tired 'candle smoke' analogy. 

Burning candles have little visible smoke (clean smoke).  Lots of oxygen allows more complete combustion. 

Blow it out though, and that weak ember isn't enough to fully burn the wick. You get crappy noxious smoke

Botch

Thanks Justine, that makes sense.  

JustineCaseyFeldown

Botch said:

Thanks Justine, that makes sense.  

i need to speak to the person in charge of making up my accounts, because "Justine" is another woman's name.

maybe "Seymour Buttz" or "Howie Doone"

stlcharcoal

JustineCaseyFeldown

stlcharcoal

gdenby

stlcharcoal said:

When certain temps are reached, a fusible link holding a small door open melts and the O2 passageway for that spot is cut off.

Now that is interesting! Thanks, lump crafter.

stlcharcoal

gdenby said:

stlcharcoal said:

When certain temps are reached, a fusible link holding a small door open melts and the O2 passageway for that spot is cut off.

Now that is interesting! Thanks, lump crafter.

It's pretty primitive, but here's a pic with the wire drawn on there b/c you can't really see it otherwise.  It's attached to a piece of wood on the inside of the kiln.  Whenever that wood breaks apart (or the wire melts), that door slams shut cutting off the O2.  There's about a dozen of those around the kiln.

 

zaphod

yesterday I had a plume of white smoke the size of the regulator vent pour out of the egg for about 35 minutes. This was a solid shaft of smoke like you'd see from a commercial machine.

I had a 1/2 bowl of used BGE oak/hickory lump that I topped up with more of the same bag. I built the fire in the usual way, two speedilights to the left and right sides with teepees of new lump over each, but the new lump teepees flamed up much higher than usual - well above gasket level. Then the smoke started. When the coals got nice and red I closed the lid and the smoke REALLY started. I should have taken a picture, but I was just gobsmacked expecting it to stop and settle down. I tried opening the vents wide to stop any smoldering with oxygen, but no help. My one peek into the bowl saw a lot of tall flames (and even more smoke).

At 350, I put in the plate setter and pizza stone. Smoke continued. Not until 400F did the smoke slow down and disappear to the usual waft or two in the heat currents.

The day before I had done a cook of potato wedges in oil so a lot of scrapings on the plate setter from the perf pan went into the firebowl during clean up, perhaps they were burning.

My son, braver and more stubborn than me, sat out by the egg in the smoke and heard a huge bang/pop/explosion at one point. That makes me think wet or weird lump. I keep my lump dry (in a BGE bag under a deck) and it's not a new bag. Really unfair to my neighbours to smoke them out like that, I'd love to know what happened.