Where's My Thin Blue Smoke?

[boar_d_laze]

I'm pretty happy with my fuel choices. HIgh quality mesquite lump for heat, Fruitawood splits for smoke.

However, whenever I add wood I get thick white smoke for a long time before it settles down and burns thin and blue.

That's not a big problem with a single meat and a short smoke, but getting into longer burns with new meats going into the cooker after old ones have already been going for a while it means a lot of contact time with the white smoke. It's somewhat acrid, and I'd like to find some sort of technique to limit the white smoke... if there is one.

Some times these things are very pit specific, and I'm really hoping for some help here.

Anyone have a formula for adding wood without it taking so long to burn clean?

C'mon fellas, can't someone help a brother out?
BDL

[Bite Me BBQ]

When I first started BBQing, I found mesquite lump at Smart&Final 14 bucks for a 40 lb. bag. What a deal.
Later I learned that mesquite was to harsh for smoking. Better use would be grilling tri-tips, chicken or steaks. Check Royal Oak lump or other all natural lump.
I 've heard pre-heating the smoke wood by leaning it against the firebox will help it to catch faster and burn cleaner. Also use sticks without bark on them. One stick per hour on long smokes. When meat temp reaches 160-170 degrees it won't take anymore smoke,so stop adding sticks or chunks.
Hope this helps. I wish I had a backwoods to prove my points. Someday. For now it's an offset and a WSM.
Smoke should be light and thin. What kind of fruit woods? Apple,cherry,peach or pecan and some hickory for balance.

[boar_d_laze]

Smart and Final mesquite lump is re-branded Best of the West. Your review of that sounds right on the money, or at least it's the same as mine. Don't be in such a hurry to throw all mesquite overboard, though. Other mesquite charcoals are usually mellower, and don't produce so much spark, burn as peaky, or get as much ash on the food.

Lazzari mesquite is very good and is mostly what I used for the past few seasons -- but for grilling only as my last smoker burned propane for heat. However, the last 20# bag of Lazzari had way too many small pieces and chips and no one likes paying for waste. The good news is that medium/small pieces light quicker and start pumping out some serious therms PDQ. I'll get a new 40# bag tomorrow and see how that goes over the week.

I've been using CalChar's commercial mesquite off and on over the years, and like its taste -- especially along with oak chunk. The problem with CAlChar is too many big pieces. Because even the average size pieces run large, the charcoal can be a little slow. On the other hand, it's easier to break big pieces up than stick little ones together, even huge pieces work well in my monster grill, and there's little to no waste. CalChar is even cheaper than Smart and Final. $12 for 40#. Of course, it's only available (as CalChar anyway) from the source in SoCal.

As for the non-mesquites...

Royal Oak can go from pretty good to pretty bad, depending (it seems) on where the wood was sourced and the charcoal made. At its best, I've never found it nearly as good as Lazzari. At its worst, pretty awful.

There's supposedly a NEW and IMPROVED Cowboy. About time, too; as there were all sorts of serious issues with the old and unimproved version although it usually had a pretty sweet taste. People are saying good things about the new iteration and I'll try it soon.

Barbeques Galore (re-branded BGE) has moved their SGV store to a large mall, making shlepping big bags of charcoal a huge pain. Not bad charcoal, not cheap, and probably not happening.

You may be right about doing some sort of pre-burn on the wood; but I'm hoping for something that's a little less trouble. Pre-burning chunks and splits is not the same as pre-burning a stick. The smaller pieces catch fire too quickly and are too hard to throttle down. Also, not only am I not sure where or how you'd lean a split against a Fatboy, I don't think it would do much good either.

Adding the first batch of wood earlier and letting it settle down before adding the food might be the answer for the first part of the cook. I could do a better job of timing the wraps and introducing new food too. For instance, I could have waited til I had the ribs wrapped before adding fresh splits, and waited for them settle down before adding the chicken -- but for some stupid reason was trying to get everything to come out at more or less the same time. Too many concussions, probably.

This is going to be a little tricky, I don't want to be offensive or seem like I think I know more than I do... But... BUT... Even if I'm new to a BWS Fatboy, I've been doing this for more than thirty years -- including some catering and some comp -- and I'm asking for answers to equipment specific questions more than for general barbecue advice. Not that I can't use both.

BDL

[ThatsmyQ]

BDL,
It seems this turned into a mesquite charcoal discussion. I don' think that is the issue at all. To me type of charcoal is not the issue. On my Party model, I get the white smoke as well but it is during the initial burn to get up to temp. No meat goes on until after the initial burn. On longer cooks, my Party requires a reload. I add both wood chunks and charcoal at that stage and get very little white smoke. I assume the wood you are using is well seasoned? I do push all the remaining charcoal and wood to the back of the basket and add the new charcoal and wood to the front so the fire slowly works its way back toward the front to the new stuff. Don't know if this helps but that is what works for me.

I used this approach this past weekend for a brisket, a butt and ribs.

[boar_d_laze]

That'sMyQ

Thanks for your post. I think you're right about everything.

After one more cook since opening this thread, I think the wait for good smoke seemed longer than it actually was simply because of impatience. The splits I'm using came from Fruitawood and are fresher and less seasoned than what I've used in the past.

For the cook described earlier, the second set of splits was probably unnecessary. That said, white smoke and all, the chicken was neither acrid nor over-smoked -- but mild and sweet. The ribs were not exactly over-smoked, just a little on the smokey side, slightly missing my target. But that was bad timing on my part. I could have managed it better. It's not so much that I don't know what's right or how to do it, as that I'm pushing my new toy against the edges of the envelope to see what I can get away with.

The whole mesquite thing must seem confusing, but I never thought it was the problem. There are a few brands which can be pretty awful --but as I said -- I've been doing this for a long time and know which ones to avoid. I talked about mesquite partly to give an accurate picture of what was in the fire chamber and partly because I've been trying to answer whether the new pit makes a difference in terms of what I (think I) know about mesquite. BiteMe got the bit between his teeth and just ran away with it.

Bottom line: The Fatboy is forgiving as pits go; it's certainly not idiot proof; it's general design and tight construction give you some leeway, but it's not infinite.

BDL

[Captain-que]

BDL,
I'm not a fan of mesquite charcoal, but it will burn clean and probably isn't the issue. The Fatboy is nice for loading your wood due to the size of the firebox. I always lit one corner of the coals and allowed the fire to burn across the pan. I placed about 4-5 wood chunks in a straight line from the lit corner across to the opposite corner. This allows the wood to preheat before burning, lets them burn individualy and keeps you from having to add wood until reloading the charcoal. Preheating was a trick I picked up cooking on a large offset and it always worked well in my Fatboys.

[RickC]

BDL,
I'm not a fan of mesquite charcoal, but it will burn clean and probably isn't the issue. The Fatboy is nice for loading your wood due to the size of the firebox. I always lit one corner of the coals and allowed the fire to burn across the pan. I placed about 4-5 wood chunks in a straight line from the lit corner across to the opposite corner. This allows the wood to preheat before burning, lets them burn individualy and keeps you from having to add wood until reloading the charcoal. Preheating was a trick I picked up cooking on a large offset and it always worked well in my Fatboys.

That's the way I do it on my Chubby. I just scatter the smoking wood chunks evenly across the firebox and then light the corner next to the Guru intake with a starter cube.