Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg to Experience our World of Flavor™ at:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  Youtube  |  Vimeo
Share your photos by tagging us and using the hashtag #BigGreenEgg.

Want to see how the EGG is made? Click to Watch

Smoking

I know you wait for thin blue smoke before starting a cook, but is this still the case when smoking? I did this and had no smoke flavor, I'm totally lost here.

Comments

  • Spaightlabs
    Spaightlabs Posts: 2,349
    edited November 2017
    What were you smoking, for how long, what temp?

    You want the VOCs to burn off, that's why you are waiting for the thin blue smoke - it won't deposit soot on your food.
  • I actually cooked a pork loin and started cooking as soon as I added the wood chunks. It has a nasty wood flavor. I also tried a pork butt and waited for thin blue smoke and had no wood flavor.
  • berndcrisp
    berndcrisp Posts: 1,166
    Welcome! The thick blue acrid smelling smoke are the VOCs burning off. They dissipate throughout by the heat. The smoking chunk and chip VOCs will also dissipate. Then, when the smoking wood burns it leaves just the wood flavor.
    Hood Stars, Wrist Crowns and Obsession Dobs!


  • SoCalTim
    SoCalTim Posts: 2,158
    Think of smoke as a spice, it's supposed to be subtle .. not overpowering. Imagine if you poured a ton of salt on your meat, you'd absolutely taste it. The thing is, you don't put a crapload of salt, you put 'just enough' to compliment your food.

    Also, don't know about the wood you are using, is it a good quality wood?, just because you bought the wood from Home Depot doesn't guarantee it's been dried and seasoned properly.

    My suggestion is to try again, and make sure the wood is properly 'paired' to the protein on your BGE.

    Good luck on your BGE journey, I look forward to hearing from you and all your successes - Tim


    I've slow smoked and eaten so much pork, I'm legally recognized as being part swine - Chatsworth Ca.
  • lkapigian
    lkapigian Posts: 10,706
    ^^^^^^This^^^^^^ Also I fell I get the smoke flavor I like on the Egg without even adding additional wood.........we are in fact already using a hardwood for the energy source
    Visalia, Ca @lkapigian
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,657
    hanging around the egg when smoking seems to lessen my taste of smoke, if im out on the boat during the cook its more pronounced to me. do others taste the smoke of your cooks.  if im cooking just for myself i sometimes add a hint of mesquite to notch up the taste, doesnt take much with mesquite
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    I would fill her up with mesquite chunks and maybe add a little Royal Oak mixed in (not too much!).  Should give you some pretty smokey flavor.
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    Just messin' with ya.  The smoke flavor isn't something you can always see.  
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,162
    Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
    If you add smoke wood, layer it in with the lump load concentrating around where you light the lump and then toward the back.
    The key to when to load the protein for the cook is to trust the nose-if the smoke smells good, then it is good.  FWIW-
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,657
    Just messin' with ya.  The smoke flavor isn't something you can always see.  
    off the web.......One of the most popular woods in the country, mesquite is a scrubby tree that grows wild in the Southwest. Sweeter and more delicate than hickory =)
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it