Smoke Control?

sooners3210 · January 2012

I have had my BGE for awhile now and I love it but I have a question about prolonging the smoke. Today I'm making spare ribs and I soaked the wood chips in water for 30 minutes and placed them in the BGE in a cicrular pattern. Once the wood chips hit the charcol smoke was coming out of the egg very fast but after 5 mins all the smoke was gone. I put about 3 handfuls of wood chips down. I guess my question is does the meat get enough smoke flavor in that first 5 mins or do I need to add more chips later on in the process of smoking the meat?

ironman · January 2012

I had the same thing happen to me when I was using the wood chips. I started using the wood chunks that come in a mesh sack. It seems to smoke longer and more steadily.

stike · January 2012

put the chips vertically in the middle. the fire will burn downward, not out. soaking not required. there's no extra oxygen after the air has passed thru the lump, and so the wood can't burst into flame anyway.

if you like smoke flavor, i don't think 5 minutes will do it. add smoke whenever you want.

there's always going to be some wood smoke anyway, even if you don't see it. there's plenty of uncarbonized stuff in the lump, too.

stilllaughing · January 2012

What you see in the first few minutes after putting a handful of wet wood chips into the fire is steam more than smoke. Unless you have a raging fire you'll be burning the wood chips for longer than that. You just won't see the smoke.

sooners3210 · January 2012

Should I add more wood chips while the ribs are smoking or should 3 handfuls be enough for a 6 hour smoke? Do you ever need to add more chips to the BGE?

GreenhawK · January 2012

I guess the question is, Do you like the taste of what you are cooking? If you don't feel like you are getting enough smoke flavor, add some more next time. Also adding chunks instead of the chips may help too. That is entirely up to your taste.

Also like said before. Just because you can't see smoke, doesn't mean that there isn't any smoke. It just means that you are burning good and clean.

I believe that to much white smoke during a cook can cause a bitter flavor.

stilllaughing · January 2012

If you spread the chips throughout the lump you will get smoke the entire time as the lump burns.

Smoke Control?

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