@@MadScientistBBQ I was waiting in line for Jirby's and I had a perfect view into their fires and could see the smoke they were burning throughout the cook as I waited.. he's got it dialed down. the smoke flavor on his birsket and beef ribs was incredible
I noticed EVERYONE in the bbq community was singing the praises of aaron franklin. then I came across a podcast with Jirby as the guest, and he basically said that franklin was overrated. everyone was doing the same thing as everyone else. f#ck that. Jirby gained my respect for being different, and just being himself, and speaking his mind. and He has a video on his channel on how to build an offset smoker out of cinder blocks for less the $200😆 Jirby is legend just for staying true to himself. the quality of his food is a reflection of that
@@lobsterbisque7567 When he was starting his offset he squirted a bunch of lighter fluid in there and he said he didn't have all day to wait. I was like... I like this guy.
Best compliment I ever had on my bbq pulled pork was, "I don't think you can do much better." That was very encouraging. Thanks for passing on your experience and wisdom.
thank you. I've been searching for someone to explain it to me just as you have. more air, higher temps, cleaner smoke. less air lower temps level 3 smoke. perfect!!!
Great to see someone saying this. 'Dirty' smoke is needed for good BBQ. Since I've added a cold smoke generator to my pellet grill the difference is night day. Getting alarmingly close to stick burner flavor on my ez-bake-oven.
So many videos tell you WHAT they did, I really enjoy the Mad Scientist because he EDUCATES me. At this point in my smoking journey I’m a sponge. Thanks Jeremy!!
I've had my Pit-boss for about 3 years now. I have come to start smoking a brisket at 160° for about 3 to 4 hours before I turn it up to 225°. It takes way longer, but it makes for an awesome cook. Just something I've found that works. Love your videos, you are definitely the best!!!
Excellent stuff Jeremy. I have been messing with my smoke as well and have found similar results. I bit of a "dirty" fire in teh beginning has been giving me a better final product.
I have a low budget smoker and it just does this. At first it has a dirtier smoke because it does not hold heat well and the fire is somewhat hard to manage. As time goes by it finally get's hotter and the fire cleans up. I love my smoke flavour and it seems to cook just like you describe (with some "dirty" smoke at the first few hours) ... 🙂
Try preheating a little longer. I also saw a trick that I am about to try: bricks wrapped in foil as thermal mass in the bottom of the smoke chamber. Water pan also helps even things out.
Funny story. Just this past weekend I smoked 2 butts. One for my famiily and one for my neighbors. I followed your 2 videos going back b4 this video. I didn't see this video until today, 4 days after the cook. One video was on how to smoke a boston butt and the other one was on fire management. I had always cooked with level 2 smoke without any thought and the butts seemed decent for me in terms of smoke flavor level.On this last smoke though I thought the smoke flavor was lacking. My wife liked it though just fine and the neighbors raved about it but I thought some of that smoke flavor was missing as I burned a level 1 smoke almost the entire time. Now I know why. Thanks for the update!!
I wouldn’t call this a “BBQ Mistake”, hell I wouldn’t even say that you were wrong. You have a good and informative channel with what seems to be a sizable following. At the end of the day, good Q comes down to 2 things (3 if you have a business): How we were taught, what we are still willing to learn, and preference of your customers. My grandfather taught me one rule for the burn and it seems to work for me with either a stick or pellet burner. If you can’t see your smoke, just put it in the oven but if you can’t see THROUGH your smoke, just eat the wood instead (with the exception of a cold smoke of course)😂😂. And I learned something from you when I found your channel. Just like you, I prefer the salt and pepper but some of the clientele like the rubs and It had never even occurred to me to add the salt separately when doing a rub and that was a MASSIVE game changer in the seasoning. Love your channel brother and Cook On!!!
I've always struggled with getting smoke flavour onto my meat in the offset! Was just thinking about playing with a smokey first hour to see if it helped! Glad you've validated my idea! Thanks Mate.
@@MadScientistBBQ When you did a collab. with Harry Soo, there was the following teaching moment, that has just come to fruition: ua-cam.com/video/xi89UCoaTl4/v-deo.html
I recently watched a video on the Eater UA-cam channel on Lavaca BBQ in Port Lavaca, TX, which made the Texas Monthly Top 50. It was interesting to see the pitmaster reveal that she deliberately runs dirty smoke at the beginning of the cook in order to enhance the flavor. In fact, she does not even start the fire until after she puts the briskets on the pit. Thank you for exploring this subject and having the courage to challenge the conventional wisdom of cooking BBQ.
I have an Brinkman offset smoker and coverted the firebox to a burner with propane, I added a charcole basket which I fill with my favorite wood chunks, I light the bunner and dial in the perfect temperature. I get all the smoke I want, i also put a try of water inside the cook chamber. It works for me everytime.
Here's another reason I'm an advocate for using mesquite. You can burn a fairly clean fire using mesquite. But it's not hard to get great smoke flavor. When I first started taking smoking a little more seriously. Following most of the suggestions provided here on UA-cam. Using post oak. I wasn't completely happy with the smoke flavor. Here in south Texas we use a lot of mesquite. I went to what my Dad, Mom, Uncles ext, used when I was growing up. Mesquite. And that's what I was missing. Good ol great mesquite smoke flavor. I suggest giving it a try. You don't have to change much of what you've been doing. Just change your fuel source. My 2 cents. Hope it works for you as well.
Great point, mesquite is pretty good when running a very clean fire. However It is a bit more arduous to achieve clean fire with mesquite. It takes using smaller logs, being fed more frequently. That is part of the fun of playing with fire. At times I cook with mesquite alone, other times I start with mesquite, then switch to something else after couple hours, introducing just a slight dirtier smoke, if using lighter tasting wood. Jeremy makes it sound like there is right and wrong. Cooking is an art, and one has to tweak and adjust to fit their liking. It ain't about right and wrong. It is more about one's cooking skills.
Nuke, in Florida, we mostly use oak or Pecan. I run a very clean fire, I get the smoke flavor but it's not as strong as I like. I'm gonna try mesquite and run it clean. Thanks for the tip
I'm in south Texas and I've heard bad things about mesquite, but I think it's misinformation. Next time I smoke some meat, I'm trying mesquite for sure. Thanks for the encouragement
I’m glad you brought this up. I was at a backpackers lodge in Alaska over a decade ago. The owner smoked some Salmon. I remember a whole lot of smoke coming out of his smoker. He had a smoke shed. The fire was in the ground about ten feet away. Their was a pipe that carried the smoke from the fire to the smoke shed. ( I just watched your video from 8 months ago about cured smoked salmon) The salmon from that smoke ; along with his seasoning was the best. I was so drunk and high when I first tasted it. Everything taste good when under the influence. The next morning when I woke up; I decided to taste it again ( considering it was my first time the previous day). I cannot explain how good it was. It made every body that stayed at the lodge go to the salmon run and fish. Everybody over fished that day. I had 17 salmon. Their was another 35 people who did the same thing. We over ate the following day. Good times. Wish I had that recipe. I also believe that your level one smoke is the best way to do it for the whole cook. Just when I thought I had everything dialed in. You pull me back in to experimenting. LOL I know this is long response but; if you are reading this and smoke salmon? Tell us your favorite seasoning. Mine is spice world salmon rub and spice world Pacific seafood mixed together with old bay. I first layer the salmon with butter and add the seasonings.
I love your videos. Glad you actually tried it. Ppl fall into the trap of how things need to be bc some one says so. Everyone jumps on the band wagon. I didn't know about "dirty smoke" when i started cooking years ago. Ive tried both after learning about dirty vs clean. I can say ppl have picked the heavier smoked "dirty smoked" food over the other every time! It's a winner by a landslide . I get is personal preference, but ppl need to experiment and do their own thing. Learn on your own, don't be afraid to mess up. I glad you put this out there for those that want a little push. Growing up in South Texas, i never really heard of these terms to later on life and after moving from that area. Have fun enjoy grilling/smoking. Don't be afraid to get a lil "dirty"!
I still consider myself a novice even though I’ve been smoking food for a couple of years now. I have experimented with chunks at different temps in my Chargriller offset. I have learned how to start cold with the right amount of wood chunks and fuel. Especially with my ribs that have become out of this world. Everything you’ve said is spot on. Love the videos.
Hey Jeremy. Well like you it took me quite some time to figure this out as well. I totally agree with the "dirtier" smoke early on and the clean to finish. Thanks for all of the BBQ knowledge you and many others have contributed to me and others to up our BBQ game.
Thanks for this video. I learned this by accident. I was doing a brisket on a CharGriller 980 and after over an hour the smoke would not clear up. After putting my hand by the exhaust and smelling it I noticed it wasn’t bitter like I expected so I threw the brisket on. It eventually cleared up (I think the chunks of post oak I used were to large) but I noticed it had the best smoke flavor of anything I had cooked on the 980 up to that point. Since then I use the same method to determine when it’s time to put my food on.
Really impressed with what Jirby has shared, now I put my brisket on the pit, start the fire, and add tallow to the fire. Very happy with the results on brisket and ribs thus far.
I have kicked this idea around for a bit, I think it would be like the flavor you get from the meat dripping onto the fire. can you taste the difference ? How are you adding the tallow and how much? also are you using new tallow or are you taking it from your drippings can? @Mad Scientist BBQ please test this out!!!!!!!
I have a WSM, but the majority of my smoking is in a Weber kettle. I start the charcoal, and almost immediately put the meat on. The smoke is the dirty smoke. As the meat is cooking, more of the coals ignite, and the smoke goes blue. For the last 1/3 of a cook, all the coals are lit, and burning clean, and I get no smoke. My chicken thighs and tri-tip always come out awesome. I agree with what you’re saying, some dirty smoke up front, some blue smoke in the middle, and clean burning at the end has worked for me.
So I have been cooking beef ribs correctly according to your methods in my bge xl. Semi dirty smoke in beginning w ribs a little cold then thin blue smoke after 3/4 hours.
I've heard in general the same thing, colder stuff absorbs smoke only until the product reaches a certain temperature. I think it was ~135 where the outside doesn't take much more. I could be wrong on that number but it's interesting that clean/ dirty fires are also a factor... I'll have to do some serious testing 😎
Really appreciate your humble nature and admitting doing something wrong along the way. I don't have an offset but an electric 40" Masterbuilt and the smoke is always heavier at the beginning (20 minutes- half hour), then none the rest of the time. Turns out excellent- salmon and pork. Don't have the funds to do a brisket so I couldn't say for beef. All the best to you and I watch every one of your vids. Have learned so much!
I've got both a Weber smokey mountain and a pellet grill. Next brisket I do I might try building the bark and smokiness for the first half or so in my weber. Then I'll finish it off in my pellet with a cleaner burn. I wonder how that'll turn out.
I intuitively stumbled on this method. I usually put my proteins on at Smoke: lv-2. Really, just because I’m too impatient to wait until until I have a completely Smoke: lv-1. As the cook progresses the fire burns cleaner. Thanks for confirming what I just chocked up as “my process.”
Always one to strive for clear heat I’ve always freaked out when the stack started producing visible smoke, level 2, and when looking in the firebox the culprit is always the end of the stick that’s not quite as lit as the central portions. The reaction was always to move stuff around to heat up the end of the stick and stop the smoke. Now I don’t think I’ll worry so much about it. Thanks!
I’ve found we stress it because of the emphasis on not producing bad smoke. When I do long cooks there are periods of heavy smoke but not for long periods of time.
@@TheBond4574 The truth is, most cooks can stand "level 3" smoke for 10-15 minutes and have it not significantly effect the protein. Running "level 3" for an entire cook is a different issue.
I have the same reaction as you to seeing pillows of smoke. If I have to throw water on the fire or open/close vents? I would move the food until the smoke is at a level I consider safe to smoke at.
Jeremy, I've been watching your content for years and I'm glad I did; I learned a ton over time either directly or indirectly by questioning things, or wondering how to do things differently. You were not the only one recommending a clean fire at all times, so that's what I tried to do to my best of my capabilities and I was able to after getting familiar with my offset. Although, I must admit, while the food tasted great (clean or dirty, you can't beat the flavor an offset gives to the food) managing the fire was becoming a stressful chore rather than a nice, chill activity. I happened on Jirby's channel and tried his relaxed approach to things, letting the fire do its thing without necessarily doing a ton of micromanagement to ensure a clean burn-not only did the food improve in flavor, but every cook became much more enjoyable with zero stress. The same happened last year once I dropped digital probes and relied on the Tel-Tru exclusively instead of chasing temps all day. Truth to be told, I tried one turkey breast cook with the dirtiest fire I could muster: the turkey turned out just fine, but maintaining such a dirty smoke for hours required much more effort than just letting it be and do its thing where the first few minutes of combustion are smokier, then it becomes thin-blue, then transparent. The smoke profile from letting this three-stage process happen naturally is just beautiful. That also means that it's best to let the fire die down and build another on the coal bed, rather than adding splits as it goes to maintain temps as constant as possible. If you haven't, give it a try!
Thanks for the video Jeremy. In the future, would you consider doing one about using the damper on the stack? For a while I thought the best way was ‘always wide open’ but I recently watched a video from a guy who makes smokers who said that running the stack damper 1/2 or 1/3 shut would cause smoke to back up in the cook chamber (rather than just rushing straight out because the draw is so good with a fully open stack), which would help increase smoke flavour on the meat. I tried my last cook like this, and it did seem to make a bit of a difference. What was surprising was that it also caused my temp at the stack side of the cook chamber to equalise to what it was on the firebox side - this meant that my wood consumption was reduced a fair bit. I’m still very much an offset beginner, but it seems to me like there’s some mileage in experimenting with / commenting on how to use the stack damper and why.
I lived with wood heat for the first twenty years of my life. Balancing the dampers, cold air into the fire and hot smoke up the chimney, was always key to extracting heat from the wood. In the case of making heat, you don't want smoke because that means you didn't get complete combustion. But, if you whack open the air intake and the damper to clean up the smoke, all the heat goes up the chimney. With wood heat, you do want to get the chimney hot to avoid creosote and get your draft going, then throttle that back. You balance that by watching for vacuum in the firebox, if the chimney damper is closed too much there won't be any and there will be smoke leaking from the stove. When smoke is what you want, and you need a certain amount of heat, your smoke damper holds back smoke and heat. The fresh air damper controls the combustion by holding back atmospheric pressure. Obviously if this is throttled too much the fire will smoulder more, but not all smoke is good smoke. Just like distilling whisky, the first part through the condenser is no good, and the same at the end. There are things coming out that either don't result in good tastes or make for headache fuel. As your wood is burning down and smoking less intensely, you can close the smoke damper to hold back some of that good smoke, and you may see a temperature rise and smoke coming out around the door. If you close the air damper, that smoke coming from the door will stop and the fire will cool off. If the fire temperature drops too much, you will get into the smoke flavors you may not want. This is why people just say to run the smoke damper wide open, then control their fire with the fresh air. But: if you're running a clean finishing fire, your food has already absorbed all the smoke it can take and you've wrapped it up to keep it moist, closing up the smoke damper and balancing the air damper to hold the heat in the right range can really stretch out the life of a load of fuel. Especially on a smaller smoker running charcoal in the firebox.
Thank You Jeremy!! You have confirmed what I was wondering about. I have been working my way towards more visible smoke myself lately 👍. In fact some of my best ribs were when I was learning fire management and was “screwing up” with greener wood. Lol. Thanks again!
This is also a LARGE part of the reason pellets don't produce the same type or amount of smoke you would get from a traditional smoker. I run a Woodwind Pro as my primary smoker, and I've found that using wood chunks with a bit of bark still on them makes a HUGE difference. There's more lignin in the bark, so you get a dirtier smoke than backless, but if you keep it burning instead of smoldering, it has excellent flavor. I spent a long time running offsets with my dad as a kid, and even running pellet grills, that fire management still has its uses. Great video.
Jeremy. You've finally addressed an issue I've had with all of the advice on clean smoke. I've used "level 2" smoke and I've always enjoyed the taste better Thanks.
I have a Cabelas pellet grill/smoker, I've learned that I have to cold smoke for about 4hrs 160-180 Degrees before going up to 220-225. If I don't I get little smoke flavor because whatever I'm smoking gets skinned over and wont let in any smoke. Thinking about trying a pan of water to keep things from skinning over.
This video is on point. I have been waiting on my Weber Summit Charcoal for the smoke to be transparent to put meat on, and have had very lacklustre smoke flavour. I will try putting the meat on when it's still a bit dirty since it inevitably will go clean and remain that way.
i prefer the clean burns, ive found my offset is too small to get a good fire going and i always get a slightly acrid taste. always get great results on the old Timberline pellet grill. Also im in the UK and we cant get decent wood easily
I find that as long as you cook with dry wood chunks, you should be ok. I produce lots of white smoke with little problem. Only time I ever oversmoked was some extreme humidity screwed over my fire management and I had wild temperature swings.
The issue with pellet smokers is the volume of smoke produced. The firebox is typically tiny compared to the firebox of an offset so the amount of smoke produced is less. Newer programming in the nicer pellet grills are producing more smoke now when using higher quality pellets but people are still having to use smoke tubes or placing wood chunks on the heat deflector to get the desired level of smoke
I look at it like a scrape on your arm. When fresh ( raw) it absorbs all kinds of things (smoke) after it scabs ( cooks and barks) it has a barrier there for harder to absorb and smoke..so I smoke in the first hour or so
Thanks for this and all your videos, which have been a huge help to me. One question though: What do you do if your wood is too dry? Is there any way to "up" the moisture content?
Cooked a pork loin today and part way through I wrapped it in butcher paper with smoked lard. You taught me that trick for ribs but works great on loins as well! However my fire was to clean at the start so the ring wasn’t very prevalent. Love all your experiments and thanks for sharing !
When u say moderate amount of smoking wood in the wsm how many chunks deck of card sized would u use.... Thank you for this video majority of barbecue places I eat at have way too much smoke flavor I thought it was just me being over picky almost gives it a creosote flavor in my opinion
Webber smokey mountain, Kingsford, hickory chunks heavy early smoke 200 to 225 for pork. Hickory or mesquite for chicken. Pecan for beef. Seems to do pretty well. But I'm out in west Tennessee. Not sure how other locals do it.
I run lump charcoal in a serpentine pattern in my Hasty Bakes fire grate. It gives a burn time enough for a full brisket cook. In the first half of the coal pattern I place large fist size hickory chunks. Meat turns out phenomenal. The second half only gets lump for clean smoke to finish cook.
I do the same kind of method on a Weber Kettle. Snake briquette method with wood chunks for the first half of the cook and then none for the last half. Lower temps to start and working up to 270F for ribs, for example. I get great smoke flavor without overdoing it.
But doesn't that make dirty smoke? Chunks on charcoal for me on my grill has made puffy white smoke. Or is that OK if it burns one chunk at a time, i.e. not overwhelming? I haven't ruined anything, and I get smoke flavor, but my brain's paralyzed with the notion of perfect smoke. Maybe good is good enough.
@@tonybernard4444 Jeremy does a great job on wood pyrolysis. Green or “wet” wood takes time and btus to ignite. That lag time produces the heavy puffy “bad” smoke. You don’t want wood that’s kindling dry, you want wood that’s around 20% measures with a moisture meter. And you don’t want to smother the fire causing smoldering.
I own a BGE and you totally nailed it. A reasonable amount of chunks will do the job. In my first cooks I added like 6-7 chunks and it was way too smokey and bitter. Now I learned that 3 to 4 chunks strategically placed are plenty.
This is the content I have been desiring from MSBBQ! Next we need a more comprehensive fire building video, the last one you did at Fatstack focused more on starting the fire then maintaining it. We need in depth take on wood selection, sizing, when to add wood, where you place the wood, etc.
Clear smoke makes good heat with little flavor distortion - good for cooking delicate foods like eggs and vegetables. But you can get excellent smoke flavor from a clear smoke fire on any wood/charcoal burning BBQ. Simply start your fire - get it to where the smoke is clear - add your meat of choice - then add a 12oz cup of presoaked smoke wood. It will smoke heavy for about 10 minutes then will clear up and the best smoke flavor will be there at the end of the cook without bitter dark tones. Using this method on a 19 hour brisket generated a 3/8 inch Smoke ring and the bark was awesome. Now I used an old weber kettle with Kingsford charcoal and indirect heat keeping the temperature to 225 - 235 F feeding the fire as necessary to maintain temperature. I have also used this method on vertical smokers as well. I just bought a Old Country Brazos offset so will see how it works on it. My first cook on the Brazos is Picanha and looking forward to it. Thanks for making the information on your channel available - I watch it frequently; I can always learn new things.
I actually found this way was better myself. I always heard people say not to soak the chips, but I always thought my food tasted better. After seeing so many videos about dry wood and always clean fire I wondered if it was just in my head
Good stuff. I'm not at the point of getting an offset smoker just yet. I've been using an SNS Kettle. To get the smoke flavor I want, I have to run it somewhere between level 2 and level 3 for the first 4 hours (give or take). Doing this, I've never had one turn out bitter or too smoky.
Jeremy, you did NOTHING wrong.....what you did right was be open enough to learn something. We're always improving and learning. I love how you rub science onto Q'ing. Your content is solid, you don't drone (like so many others) and your presentation is sharp! Thanks for all the videos.
I think a lot of this will be when the meat has enough surface moisture to be tacky, not wet, not dry. I remember learning this from a sausage short course at the ISU meat lab. Later in the cook you'll have a crust forming and a dry surface so that's why you can't get the smoke to penetrate.
This was from a company that makes liquid smoke extracts. He said the moisture level on the surface of the meat was the most important thing to smoke penetration and flavor.
Thanks, I’m doing my research before my first cook. I think I have an idea on how to make my propane smoker… smoke.. as good as it can. This is useful; I’ve heard many people say the smoke is important for the first three or four hours then you can finish it with clean fire. I recon wood chips will go farther than I had thought.
I am certainly no expert on this and don’t claim to have near the knowledge that Jeremy and other pitmasters have but I can say with 100% certainty, based on personal experience, the absolute best bbq I’ve ever had has always been smoked with level 2 smoke. Sort of a hazy blueish white smoke.
An interesting experiment I did on my last bacon smoke was to set my chimney in the firebox with hot coals and put 1 log over the top of the chimney that burned at level 2 and dropped it in the chimney when the coals we’re burning down. I’ll go back to this method on smoking I wasn’t under 200 again! Of course new log on when the other goes down.
Thank you so much for getting right to the point. I don’t always have a lot of time, and typically consume most of my UA-cam in the bathroom now… I also typically don’t comment on videos… Thank you. 🍖❤️
I use a pellet smoker as i live in a community that an offset would not be welcome. I have found it does produce level 2 smoke at 190 degrees. I smoke ribs and butt for the first 3 hours 190 and finish with 250. Smoke flavor not as good as an offset, but better than the entire cook at 250 on the pellet smoker. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for the videos. Learning a lot from them. Robert.
It was the last thing I put time into learning - should've been the first. Fire management is so much more important than what's in your shaker bottle. I'm just now getting there - self taught for nearly four decades. Thankfully UA-cam has some great info and has helped me take it to the next level. I wish I'd learned early: Start with the fire and salt and pepper. Build your flavors after you figure that out.
Thanks!!! Your videos are great. I have burned too clean of a fire recently and my briskets dont have much smoke flavor. Im going to try to go more smokey next time!
I made the same discovery a few years ago good to know I'm not crazy I start and a smoke level of 2.5 "according to you demonstration witch in amazing might I add" and and gradually clean it up as the cook goes ending at a level one.
I’d like to add that the whole smoke color thing, as presented here, applies very largely to a particular type of cooker/cooking: offset - whether in an offset pit or in the Weber kettle/egg type coals offset to one side (I.e. where meat is not above fire). For folks smoking in elevated pits (boxes or brick structures) or barrels (PBC, OKJ Bronco, Gateway, Hunsaker, etc.) or even, but to lesser degree, reverse flow offsets, maintaining this blue or clear ideal is not possible. Rendered fat burning in the coal bed of an open-style pit is part of the flavor and experience and will, definitely, generate visible smoke. The only way to avoid it is a shelf with a drip pan (like stock WSM - but not Harry Soo WSM method which is more barrel/open style).
You are absolutely correct, I smoked some chicken last night on my okj broncho, and my smoke was clean for about 30 mins, then it always changes once the fat starts dripping off your food. It never fails, thankfully on mine it usually doesn’t affect flavor too much
In most cases, Harry Soo uses the water pan but empty in the WSM. However, there is a video, Harry cooking a brisket hot and fast at 400 F with the water pan removed.
Agreed- I also had a problem with Hickory as a novice until I started making hotter smoke. I was getting a sour/bitter flavor with it until I got my rig making hotter smoke you need a little fire sometimes but not so much you go up in temp and "cook" the meat.
One of the best vids you have done.....if I lack anything on my briskets its the bark. I cook on a lang and it makes really clean smoke. I'm gonna start adding more fruit wood as a test. Cherry and Apple just inherently add more smoke. I'm gonna go unwrapped on next one too
blue smoke = no bitterness but lighter smoke flavor. I think the first 2 hrs of the smoke is when the meat absorbs it the most depending on chamber temp . When I throw a split on the smoke turns kinda grey-blue which is stronger than blue smoke
Love the methodology of shaping your coals for you starting coal bed. Question: where did the ash go and how did you separate the coals from loose ash? Shovel with holes in it?
I use lumpwood charcoal for my fuel and to get that smoke flavour I have a smoke tube that I fill with wood chips...One fill of it produces enough smoke at the beginning of the cook to be perfect everytime...
I'm not even close to being on your level but I recently started running lower temps with more wood chunks early for smoke then bumping temps up with great results. I'm limited to a masterbuilt gravity smoker but it has been a great new process. Keep up the great vids. Helping a lot of of 👍
Was going to comment the same. I started adding a lot more wood chunks lower in the chute on my Masterbuilt, right on top of the first few coals, then adding greener chunks into the ash hopper. Last brisket I did came out fantastic.
Just goes to show you why you are the people's favorite. So many people become entrenched in their opinion and defend it to the very end. I do not have the luxury of green vs dry wood, but I am assuming I can get similar results by adjusting, wood size and airflow??? All the best to you and your family!
Now I want to see smoke level 2 from an offset, once bark is set and you are about to switch to smoke 1 instead throw it on a pellet grill. Do you even need to tend the fire for all that extra time or can you shortcut?
this one really helpful cuz I've noticed with my Tritips on mt offset that there are times it has no smoke flavor (or very little) and I was was burning pure history wood and making sure the fire was as clean as possible. then the times I couldn't get it to burn clean and thought I ruined the TriTip it was amazing smoke flavor. so this makes a lot of sense. thank you
I'm still refining my brisket with my Brazos smoker, I'm still working the plate steel that you slide at the bottom to adjust the internal flow & smoke. Last cook I made it super clean smoke and wasn't happy with the bark and the smoke flavor. Also I find that fat side down I had better results with the bark that i like. So each time it gets better and better but not quite at the level I'm shooting for. This video does help me because I think letting in a little "Dirty" smoke when first starting gave me the best results. One day I'll get it perfected LOL!
Agree 💯. Got obsessed with chasing TBS & discovered I lost ALOT of smoke flavor doing so. Smoked Salmon one day, busy in the yard, lost track & smoke was mainly “level 2” every time I’d look accross the yard at it…probably the best Salmon I’ve ever had 🤣. This is absolutely the way I go now…not awesome clean smoke until later 👊🏻
Great video! I completely agree with burning a dirtier fire at the beginning… the whole “maintain blue smoke the entire cook” isn’t ideal. I disagree that you use less wood with smoke level 1… more efficient combustion means you’re burning the wood faster. If you choke the fire more the wood will last quite a bit longer than a more open firebox door
And, here I thought I was letting you down by letting my fire burn a little dirty, because it was still an open flame and it was easier to let it go than to keep messing with things that may or may not cause temperature spikes and the like. It still always turned out good, and now I know why. 👍
You might look into creosote formation when burning wood. It is the bane of chimney sweeps and fire departments but also causes bitter flavors in smoked meats.
I think air velocity - which I'm differentiating from airflow - matters. I sometimes use a fan on my pit w/ a PID controller. In these cases, I often find I get a lot more "level 3" white smoke than I like, and I get deeper smoke flavor without the bitterness. If I use my offset without the fan and rely on only natural convection only, the white smoke definitely makes things bitter. So I wonder if what we might call "dwell time" matters. In a low-velocity (draft-only) smoker, the bigger molecules (I assume more aromatic compounds) you discuss have more time to "settle" on the bark. In a powered-draft smoker, they don't. Knowing that I more often use a powered draft on my smoker than not, when I rebuilt it, I intentionally down-sized the stack to 2.5" rather than a big 4" stack. With pressure created by the input fan, I get a much higher air velocity than I would with a bigger diameter stack and I think I get less bitterness and more smoke flavor with a dirtier fire. One of these days I'll try and test it, but I was really surprised by this.
I’ve always wanted to try mesquite in the beginning and then transitioning to a lighter hard wood such as oak/hickory/pecan to finish out. Same concept as starting out low and smokier to start out but you skip some of the acrid flavors of low combustion
For briskets, I always start out throwing an oak log on a bed of coals to get the pit up to temp, then use mesquite for this first four hours (protein won't take more than 4 hours of smoke). After that I transition back to oak, wrap at 170 and continue to fuel the fire with oak unless I have something else I'm throwing on that needs flavor. Regardless of the "smoke levels" I always look for thin blue smoke coming out of my stack, that way I'm not feeding acrid tasting food to my guests, and most importantly - I'm not burping smoke the next few days.
I’m using a wsm and I have trouble getting the heat once I put the pan in the temp drops hugely. But I’ve had huge success with dirty smoke especially with hickory.
Thanks so much for this. Got a Yoder Cheyenne and thought wasn't managing the fire properly because I was at smoke level 2. Everyone says you should hardly be able to see the smoke and this is misleading. The only problem I do have with this smoker is that I can only truly fit two racks of ribs on it. The first 6" on the grill from the fire box are extremely hot and it "cooks" the meat, even at 200 degrees. I am however using the diffuser smoke plate. Should I maybe remove this? Thank you.
Since at the wrapping stage you're not looking to add anymore smoke, I'd like to know how much of a taste difference there is (ribs/brisket) if you finish it off in the oven where you have a better control of temp. I wonder this because I have a cheapo smoker then does great adding smoke but lousy at high temp control for finishing.
I have a pet barrel which is where I start my brisket on a low smoky heat for the first three hours then I move it over to my pellet smoker for the rest of the cook and it’s perfect.
I you want a great hickory flavor, try throwing in around 15 to 20 green in hull hickory nuts. I've been doing this for years and everyone that's ate my food has loved it.
I commented about this discussion yesterday. I just happen to smoke some chicken today. I have a sns grill. I had to add charcoal to the cook. I normally pull everything out when adding wood and charcoal. This time I left everything in. I feel it would have tasted better if I just pulled all the food out until I seen that number 1 smoke. This was for chicken wings. Maybe the grill size matters. I have seen smoked salmon with heavy smoke. Maybe it depends on the size of grill. I don’t have a clear reason. It was not bad. It just missed expectations. It also stopped the skin on the chicken from crisping up. It was not rubbery. It was like Jim beams beef jerky. I was smoking somewhere between 210F-280F.
OMG Thank You Sir! I've been thinking that smoke and fat combine to make an umami flavor that's what's so desirable about bbq. This particular video has me so excited about what I can make on my pit. I also need to look into cold smoking with my offset.
love the jirby shout out, jonny is the goat and his techniques are awesome - his approach is "do whatever you want" and it always works
Haha well it’s hard to argue with #1 in Texas
@@MadScientistBBQ I was waiting in line for Jirby's and I had a perfect view into their fires and could see the smoke they were burning throughout the cook as I waited.. he's got it dialed down. the smoke flavor on his birsket and beef ribs was incredible
I noticed EVERYONE in the bbq community was singing the praises of aaron franklin. then I came across a podcast with Jirby as the guest, and he basically said that franklin was overrated. everyone was doing the same thing as everyone else. f#ck that. Jirby gained my respect for being different, and just being himself, and speaking his mind. and He has a video on his channel on how to build an offset smoker out of cinder blocks for less the $200😆 Jirby is legend just for staying true to himself. the quality of his food is a reflection of that
@@lobsterbisque7567 When he was starting his offset he squirted a bunch of lighter fluid in there and he said he didn't have all day to wait. I was like... I like this guy.
@@TheBradleyd1146 I prefer the flamethrower method, same principle, more fun.
Best compliment I ever had on my bbq pulled pork was, "I don't think you can do much better." That was very encouraging. Thanks for passing on your experience and wisdom.
Much respect Jeremy for admitting you were wrong. Your passion for the best product is why I am a Yuge fan!
thank you. I've been searching for someone to explain it to me just as you have. more air, higher temps, cleaner smoke. less air lower temps level 3 smoke. perfect!!!
Great to see someone saying this. 'Dirty' smoke is needed for good BBQ. Since I've added a cold smoke generator to my pellet grill the difference is night day. Getting alarmingly close to stick burner flavor on my ez-bake-oven.
So many videos tell you WHAT they did, I really enjoy the Mad Scientist because he EDUCATES me. At this point in my smoking journey I’m a sponge.
Thanks Jeremy!!
I've had my Pit-boss for about 3 years now. I have come to start smoking a brisket at 160° for about 3 to 4 hours before I turn it up to 225°. It takes way longer, but it makes for an awesome cook. Just something I've found that works. Love your videos, you are definitely the best!!!
Just got a pit boss on July 4th myself! Excited to try some cooks. Do you have a pellet preference?
@@BFMwithStackhouse traeger pellets for me, it's just convenient. I get them through my job. The quality is undeniable though.
Excellent stuff Jeremy. I have been messing with my smoke as well and have found similar results. I bit of a "dirty" fire in teh beginning has been giving me a better final product.
Same thing I found out, just did some drumsticks!
I have a low budget smoker and it just does this. At first it has a dirtier smoke because it does not hold heat well and the fire is somewhat hard to manage. As time goes by it finally get's hotter and the fire cleans up. I love my smoke flavour and it seems to cook just like you describe (with some "dirty" smoke at the first few hours) ... 🙂
Try preheating a little longer. I also saw a trick that I am about to try: bricks wrapped in foil as thermal mass in the bottom of the smoke chamber. Water pan also helps even things out.
Funny story. Just this past weekend I smoked 2 butts. One for my famiily and one for my neighbors. I followed your 2 videos going back b4 this video. I didn't see this video until today, 4 days after the cook. One video was on how to smoke a boston butt and the other one was on fire management. I had always cooked with level 2 smoke without any thought and the butts seemed decent for me in terms of smoke flavor level.On this last smoke though I thought the smoke flavor was lacking. My wife liked it though just fine and the neighbors raved about it but I thought some of that smoke flavor was missing as I burned a level 1 smoke almost the entire time. Now I know why. Thanks for the update!!
I wouldn’t call this a “BBQ Mistake”, hell I wouldn’t even say that you were wrong. You have a good and informative channel with what seems to be a sizable following. At the end of the day, good Q comes down to 2 things (3 if you have a business): How we were taught, what we are still willing to learn, and preference of your customers. My grandfather taught me one rule for the burn and it seems to work for me with either a stick or pellet burner. If you can’t see your smoke, just put it in the oven but if you can’t see THROUGH your smoke, just eat the wood instead (with the exception of a cold smoke of course)😂😂.
And I learned something from you when I found your channel. Just like you, I prefer the salt and pepper but some of the clientele like the rubs and It had never even occurred to me to add the salt separately when doing a rub and that was a MASSIVE game changer in the seasoning. Love your channel brother and Cook On!!!
I've always struggled with getting smoke flavour onto my meat in the offset! Was just thinking about playing with a smokey first hour to see if it helped!
Glad you've validated my idea! Thanks Mate.
I definitely wasn’t the first one to figure it out. I was wrong for years 😂
@@MadScientistBBQ When you did a collab. with Harry Soo, there was the following teaching moment, that has just come to fruition: ua-cam.com/video/xi89UCoaTl4/v-deo.html
I recently watched a video on the Eater UA-cam channel on Lavaca BBQ in Port Lavaca, TX, which made the Texas Monthly Top 50. It was interesting to see the pitmaster reveal that she deliberately runs dirty smoke at the beginning of the cook in order to enhance the flavor. In fact, she does not even start the fire until after she puts the briskets on the pit. Thank you for exploring this subject and having the courage to challenge the conventional wisdom of cooking BBQ.
I have an Brinkman offset smoker and coverted the firebox to a burner with propane, I added a charcole basket which I fill with my favorite wood chunks, I light the bunner and dial in the perfect temperature. I get all the smoke I want, i also put a try of water inside the cook chamber. It works for me everytime.
Here's another reason I'm an advocate for using mesquite. You can burn a fairly clean fire using mesquite. But it's not hard to get great smoke flavor. When I first started taking smoking a little more seriously. Following most of the suggestions provided here on UA-cam. Using post oak. I wasn't completely happy with the smoke flavor. Here in south Texas we use a lot of mesquite. I went to what my Dad, Mom, Uncles ext, used when I was growing up. Mesquite. And that's what I was missing. Good ol great mesquite smoke flavor. I suggest giving it a try. You don't have to change much of what you've been doing. Just change your fuel source. My 2 cents. Hope it works for you as well.
Great point, mesquite is pretty good when running a very clean fire. However It is a bit more arduous to achieve clean fire with mesquite. It takes using smaller logs,
being fed more frequently. That is part of the fun of playing with fire. At times I cook with mesquite alone, other times I start with mesquite, then switch to something else after couple hours, introducing just a slight dirtier smoke, if using lighter tasting wood. Jeremy makes it sound like there is right and wrong. Cooking is an art, and one has to tweak and adjust
to fit their liking. It ain't about right and wrong. It is more about one's cooking skills.
Nuke, in Florida, we mostly use oak or Pecan. I run a very clean fire, I get the smoke flavor but it's not as strong as I like. I'm gonna try mesquite and run it clean. Thanks for the tip
I like mesquite cooked with an open flame like a campfire. If I'm using my off set smoker I like Pecan.
I'm in south Texas and I've heard bad things about mesquite, but I think it's misinformation. Next time I smoke some meat, I'm trying mesquite for sure. Thanks for the encouragement
But man is mesquite my least favorite wood of all
I’m glad you brought this up. I was at a backpackers lodge in Alaska over a decade ago. The owner smoked some Salmon. I remember a whole lot of smoke coming out of his smoker. He had a smoke shed. The fire was in the ground about ten feet away. Their was a pipe that carried the smoke from the fire to the smoke shed. ( I just watched your video from 8 months ago about cured smoked salmon) The salmon from that smoke ; along with his seasoning was the best. I was so drunk and high when I first tasted it. Everything taste good when under the influence. The next morning when I woke up; I decided to taste it again ( considering it was my first time the previous day). I cannot explain how good it was. It made every body that stayed at the lodge go to the salmon run and fish. Everybody over fished that day. I had 17 salmon. Their was another 35 people who did the same thing. We over ate the following day. Good times. Wish I had that recipe. I also believe that your level one smoke is the best way to do it for the whole cook. Just when I thought I had everything dialed in. You pull me back in to experimenting. LOL I know this is long response but; if you are reading this and smoke salmon? Tell us your favorite seasoning. Mine is spice world salmon rub and spice world Pacific seafood mixed together with old bay. I first layer the salmon with butter and add the seasonings.
I'm glad you did this. I noticed little to no smoke flavor as I burn cleaner fires. Also had a theory that the smoke could be too clean...
I love your videos. Glad you actually tried it. Ppl fall into the trap of how things need to be bc some one says so. Everyone jumps on the band wagon. I didn't know about "dirty smoke" when i started cooking years ago. Ive tried both after learning about dirty vs clean. I can say ppl have picked the heavier smoked "dirty smoked" food over the other every time! It's a winner by a landslide . I get is personal preference, but ppl need to experiment and do their own thing. Learn on your own, don't be afraid to mess up. I glad you put this out there for those that want a little push. Growing up in South Texas, i never really heard of these terms to later on life and after moving from that area. Have fun enjoy grilling/smoking. Don't be afraid to get a lil "dirty"!
I still consider myself a novice even though I’ve been smoking food for a couple of years now. I have experimented with chunks at different temps in my Chargriller offset. I have learned how to start cold with the right amount of wood chunks and fuel. Especially with my ribs that have become out of this world. Everything you’ve said is spot on. Love the videos.
Hey Jeremy. Well like you it took me quite some time to figure this out as well. I totally agree with the "dirtier" smoke early on and the clean to finish. Thanks for all of the BBQ knowledge you and many others have contributed to me and others to up our BBQ game.
Thanks for this video. I learned this by accident. I was doing a brisket on a CharGriller 980 and after over an hour the smoke would not clear up. After putting my hand by the exhaust and smelling it I noticed it wasn’t bitter like I expected so I threw the brisket on. It eventually cleared up (I think the chunks of post oak I used were to large) but I noticed it had the best smoke flavor of anything I had cooked on the 980 up to that point. Since then I use the same method to determine when it’s time to put my food on.
Really impressed with what Jirby has shared, now I put my brisket on the pit, start the fire, and add tallow to the fire. Very happy with the results on brisket and ribs thus far.
I have kicked this idea around for a bit, I think it would be like the flavor you get from the meat dripping onto the fire. can you taste the difference ? How are you adding the tallow and how much? also are you using new tallow or are you taking it from your drippings can? @Mad Scientist BBQ please test this out!!!!!!!
I have a WSM, but the majority of my smoking is in a Weber kettle. I start the charcoal, and almost immediately put the meat on. The smoke is the dirty smoke. As the meat is cooking, more of the coals ignite, and the smoke goes blue. For the last 1/3 of a cook, all the coals are lit, and burning clean, and I get no smoke. My chicken thighs and tri-tip always come out awesome. I agree with what you’re saying, some dirty smoke up front, some blue smoke in the middle, and clean burning at the end has worked for me.
So I have been cooking beef ribs correctly according to your methods in my bge xl. Semi dirty smoke in beginning w ribs a little cold then thin blue smoke after 3/4 hours.
I've heard in general the same thing, colder stuff absorbs smoke only until the product reaches a certain temperature. I think it was ~135 where the outside doesn't take much more. I could be wrong on that number but it's interesting that clean/ dirty fires are also a factor... I'll have to do some serious testing 😎
It seems to me that that is true but I think a lot more testing and 💰 has to be thrown at the problem
Really appreciate your humble nature and admitting doing something wrong along the way. I don't have an offset but an electric 40" Masterbuilt and the smoke is always heavier at the beginning (20 minutes- half hour), then none the rest of the time. Turns out excellent- salmon and pork. Don't have the funds to do a brisket so I couldn't say for beef. All the best to you and I watch every one of your vids. Have learned so much!
I've got both a Weber smokey mountain and a pellet grill. Next brisket I do I might try building the bark and smokiness for the first half or so in my weber. Then I'll finish it off in my pellet with a cleaner burn. I wonder how that'll turn out.
I intuitively stumbled on this method. I usually put my proteins on at Smoke: lv-2. Really, just because I’m too impatient to wait until until I have a completely Smoke: lv-1. As the cook progresses the fire burns cleaner.
Thanks for confirming what I just chocked up as “my process.”
One of the most informative videos you have done to date - Thank You!
Always one to strive for clear heat I’ve always freaked out when the stack started producing visible smoke, level 2, and when looking in the firebox the culprit is always the end of the stick that’s not quite as lit as the central portions. The reaction was always to move stuff around to heat up the end of the stick and stop the smoke. Now I don’t think I’ll worry so much about it. Thanks!
I’ve found we stress it because of the emphasis on not producing bad smoke. When I do long cooks there are periods of heavy smoke but not for long periods of time.
@@TheBond4574
The truth is, most cooks can stand "level 3" smoke for 10-15 minutes and have it not significantly effect the protein. Running "level 3" for an entire cook is a different issue.
I have the same reaction as you to seeing pillows of smoke. If I have to throw water on the fire or open/close vents? I would move the food until the smoke is at a level I consider safe to smoke at.
Me too man i agree!!!
Jeremy, I've been watching your content for years and I'm glad I did; I learned a ton over time either directly or indirectly by questioning things, or wondering how to do things differently. You were not the only one recommending a clean fire at all times, so that's what I tried to do to my best of my capabilities and I was able to after getting familiar with my offset. Although, I must admit, while the food tasted great (clean or dirty, you can't beat the flavor an offset gives to the food) managing the fire was becoming a stressful chore rather than a nice, chill activity.
I happened on Jirby's channel and tried his relaxed approach to things, letting the fire do its thing without necessarily doing a ton of micromanagement to ensure a clean burn-not only did the food improve in flavor, but every cook became much more enjoyable with zero stress. The same happened last year once I dropped digital probes and relied on the Tel-Tru exclusively instead of chasing temps all day.
Truth to be told, I tried one turkey breast cook with the dirtiest fire I could muster: the turkey turned out just fine, but maintaining such a dirty smoke for hours required much more effort than just letting it be and do its thing where the first few minutes of combustion are smokier, then it becomes thin-blue, then transparent.
The smoke profile from letting this three-stage process happen naturally is just beautiful. That also means that it's best to let the fire die down and build another on the coal bed, rather than adding splits as it goes to maintain temps as constant as possible. If you haven't, give it a try!
Thanks for the video Jeremy. In the future, would you consider doing one about using the damper on the stack? For a while I thought the best way was ‘always wide open’ but I recently watched a video from a guy who makes smokers who said that running the stack damper 1/2 or 1/3 shut would cause smoke to back up in the cook chamber (rather than just rushing straight out because the draw is so good with a fully open stack), which would help increase smoke flavour on the meat.
I tried my last cook like this, and it did seem to make a bit of a difference. What was surprising was that it also caused my temp at the stack side of the cook chamber to equalise to what it was on the firebox side - this meant that my wood consumption was reduced a fair bit.
I’m still very much an offset beginner, but it seems to me like there’s some mileage in experimenting with / commenting on how to use the stack damper and why.
I lived with wood heat for the first twenty years of my life. Balancing the dampers, cold air into the fire and hot smoke up the chimney, was always key to extracting heat from the wood. In the case of making heat, you don't want smoke because that means you didn't get complete combustion. But, if you whack open the air intake and the damper to clean up the smoke, all the heat goes up the chimney. With wood heat, you do want to get the chimney hot to avoid creosote and get your draft going, then throttle that back. You balance that by watching for vacuum in the firebox, if the chimney damper is closed too much there won't be any and there will be smoke leaking from the stove.
When smoke is what you want, and you need a certain amount of heat, your smoke damper holds back smoke and heat. The fresh air damper controls the combustion by holding back atmospheric pressure. Obviously if this is throttled too much the fire will smoulder more, but not all smoke is good smoke. Just like distilling whisky, the first part through the condenser is no good, and the same at the end. There are things coming out that either don't result in good tastes or make for headache fuel. As your wood is burning down and smoking less intensely, you can close the smoke damper to hold back some of that good smoke, and you may see a temperature rise and smoke coming out around the door. If you close the air damper, that smoke coming from the door will stop and the fire will cool off. If the fire temperature drops too much, you will get into the smoke flavors you may not want. This is why people just say to run the smoke damper wide open, then control their fire with the fresh air. But: if you're running a clean finishing fire, your food has already absorbed all the smoke it can take and you've wrapped it up to keep it moist, closing up the smoke damper and balancing the air damper to hold the heat in the right range can really stretch out the life of a load of fuel. Especially on a smaller smoker running charcoal in the firebox.
Thank You Jeremy!! You have confirmed what I was wondering about. I have been working my way towards more visible smoke myself lately 👍. In fact some of my best ribs were when I was learning fire management and was “screwing up” with greener wood. Lol. Thanks again!
Do you know what your moisture was m trying to figure this offset out before I sell it to many cooks with no smoke flavor
This is also a LARGE part of the reason pellets don't produce the same type or amount of smoke you would get from a traditional smoker. I run a Woodwind Pro as my primary smoker, and I've found that using wood chunks with a bit of bark still on them makes a HUGE difference. There's more lignin in the bark, so you get a dirtier smoke than backless, but if you keep it burning instead of smoldering, it has excellent flavor. I spent a long time running offsets with my dad as a kid, and even running pellet grills, that fire management still has its uses. Great video.
Jeremy. You've finally addressed an issue I've had with all of the advice on clean smoke. I've used "level 2" smoke and I've always enjoyed the taste better
Thanks.
I have a Cabelas pellet grill/smoker, I've learned that I have to cold smoke for about 4hrs 160-180 Degrees before going up to 220-225. If I don't I get little smoke flavor because whatever I'm smoking gets skinned over and wont let in any smoke. Thinking about trying a pan of water to keep things from skinning over.
This video is on point. I have been waiting on my Weber Summit Charcoal for the smoke to be transparent to put meat on, and have had very lacklustre smoke flavour. I will try putting the meat on when it's still a bit dirty since it inevitably will go clean and remain that way.
i prefer the clean burns, ive found my offset is too small to get a good fire going and i always get a slightly acrid taste. always get great results on the old Timberline pellet grill. Also im in the UK and we cant get decent wood easily
I find that as long as you cook with dry wood chunks, you should be ok. I produce lots of white smoke with little problem. Only time I ever oversmoked was some extreme humidity screwed over my fire management and I had wild temperature swings.
Most honest and real bbq video in a while.
The issue with pellet smokers is the volume of smoke produced. The firebox is typically tiny compared to the firebox of an offset so the amount of smoke produced is less. Newer programming in the nicer pellet grills are producing more smoke now when using higher quality pellets but people are still having to use smoke tubes or placing wood chunks on the heat deflector to get the desired level of smoke
I use a Webber kettle, usually burns kinda dirty, then throughout the cook, it's a level 2. Only when I add charcoal or wood, it gets dirty...
I look at it like a scrape on your arm. When fresh ( raw) it absorbs all kinds of things (smoke) after it scabs ( cooks and barks) it has a barrier there for harder to absorb and smoke..so I smoke in the first hour or so
Makes sense (which explains why my pellet smoker has a low temp smoke mode). Thanks for sharing your knowledge Jeremy
Thanks for this and all your videos, which have been a huge help to me. One question though: What do you do if your wood is too dry? Is there any way to "up" the moisture content?
Cooked a pork loin today and part way through I wrapped it in butcher paper with smoked lard. You taught me that trick for ribs but works great on loins as well! However my fire was to clean at the start so the ring wasn’t very prevalent. Love all your experiments and thanks for sharing !
quebracho blanco charcoal Is my go too for bbq, burns clean, hot and long. I do use mesquite for very specific flavour profiles.
When u say moderate amount of smoking wood in the wsm how many chunks deck of card sized would u use.... Thank you for this video majority of barbecue places I eat at have way too much smoke flavor I thought it was just me being over picky almost gives it a creosote flavor in my opinion
Webber smokey mountain, Kingsford, hickory chunks heavy early smoke 200 to 225 for pork. Hickory or mesquite for chicken. Pecan for beef. Seems to do pretty well. But I'm out in west Tennessee. Not sure how other locals do it.
Wow. That is pretty good to know! I always learn something important from your videos!
I learned a lot from you and jirby love the bbq community 🍻
I run lump charcoal in a serpentine pattern in my Hasty Bakes fire grate. It gives a burn time enough for a full brisket cook. In the first half of the coal pattern I place large fist size hickory chunks. Meat turns out phenomenal. The second half only gets lump for clean smoke to finish cook.
Sounds like the same principle on a different smoker
I do the same kind of method on a Weber Kettle. Snake briquette method with wood chunks for the first half of the cook and then none for the last half. Lower temps to start and working up to 270F for ribs, for example. I get great smoke flavor without overdoing it.
But doesn't that make dirty smoke? Chunks on charcoal for me on my grill has made puffy white smoke. Or is that OK if it burns one chunk at a time, i.e. not overwhelming? I haven't ruined anything, and I get smoke flavor, but my brain's paralyzed with the notion of perfect smoke. Maybe good is good enough.
@@tonybernard4444 Jeremy does a great job on wood pyrolysis. Green or “wet” wood takes time and btus to ignite. That lag time produces the heavy puffy “bad” smoke. You don’t want wood that’s kindling dry, you want wood that’s around 20% measures with a moisture meter. And you don’t want to smother the fire causing smoldering.
This explains so much! My 1000 gallon likes to produce clear smoke, so it's no wonder I've had some trouble producing enough smoke flavor!
Just use green wood and you’re 90% there
I own a BGE and you totally nailed it. A reasonable amount of chunks will do the job. In my first cooks I added like 6-7 chunks and it was way too smokey and bitter. Now I learned that 3 to 4 chunks strategically placed are plenty.
Wood chips is also another thing to experiment and learn just like wood chunks.
This is the content I have been desiring from MSBBQ!
Next we need a more comprehensive fire building video, the last one you did at Fatstack focused more on starting the fire then maintaining it. We need in depth take on wood selection, sizing, when to add wood, where you place the wood, etc.
Clear smoke makes good heat with little flavor distortion - good for cooking delicate foods like eggs and vegetables. But you can get excellent smoke flavor from a clear smoke fire on any wood/charcoal burning BBQ. Simply start your fire - get it to where the smoke is clear - add your meat of choice - then add a 12oz cup of presoaked smoke wood. It will smoke heavy for about 10 minutes then will clear up and the best smoke flavor will be there at the end of the cook without bitter dark tones. Using this method on a 19 hour brisket generated a 3/8 inch Smoke ring and the bark was awesome. Now I used an old weber kettle with Kingsford charcoal and indirect heat keeping the temperature to 225 - 235 F feeding the fire as necessary to maintain temperature. I have also used this method on vertical smokers as well. I just bought a Old Country Brazos offset so will see how it works on it. My first cook on the Brazos is Picanha and looking forward to it.
Thanks for making the information on your channel available - I watch it frequently; I can always learn new things.
I actually found this way was better myself. I always heard people say not to soak the chips, but I always thought my food tasted better. After seeing so many videos about dry wood and always clean fire I wondered if it was just in my head
Good stuff. I'm not at the point of getting an offset smoker just yet. I've been using an SNS Kettle. To get the smoke flavor I want, I have to run it somewhere between level 2 and level 3 for the first 4 hours (give or take). Doing this, I've never had one turn out bitter or too smoky.
Jeremy, you did NOTHING wrong.....what you did right was be open enough to learn something. We're always improving and learning. I love how you rub science onto Q'ing. Your content is solid, you don't drone (like so many others) and your presentation is sharp! Thanks for all the videos.
I think a lot of this will be when the meat has enough surface moisture to be tacky, not wet, not dry. I remember learning this from a sausage short course at the ISU meat lab. Later in the cook you'll have a crust forming and a dry surface so that's why you can't get the smoke to penetrate.
That sounds like something I should test
This was from a company that makes liquid smoke extracts. He said the moisture level on the surface of the meat was the most important thing to smoke penetration and flavor.
@@Bradimus1 This is accurate. The smoke flavour compounds are water soluble, so if there's no moisture, you'll get little to no flavour.
Thanks, I’m doing my research before my first cook. I think I have an idea on how to make my propane smoker… smoke.. as good as it can. This is useful; I’ve heard many people say the smoke is important for the first three or four hours then you can finish it with clean fire. I recon wood chips will go farther than I had thought.
I am certainly no expert on this and don’t claim to have near the knowledge that Jeremy and other pitmasters have but I can say with 100% certainty, based on personal experience, the absolute best bbq I’ve ever had has always been smoked with level 2 smoke. Sort of a hazy blueish white smoke.
An interesting experiment I did on my last bacon smoke was to set my chimney in the firebox with hot coals and put 1 log over the top of the chimney that burned at level 2 and dropped it in the chimney when the coals we’re burning down. I’ll go back to this method on smoking I wasn’t under 200 again! Of course new log on when the other goes down.
Thank you so much for getting right to the point. I don’t always have a lot of time, and typically consume most of my UA-cam in the bathroom now… I also typically don’t comment on videos… Thank you. 🍖❤️
I use a pellet smoker as i live in a community that an offset would not be welcome. I have found it does produce level 2 smoke at 190 degrees. I smoke ribs and butt for the first 3 hours 190 and finish with 250. Smoke flavor not as good as an offset, but better than the entire cook at 250 on the pellet smoker. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for the videos. Learning a lot from them. Robert.
It was the last thing I put time into learning - should've been the first. Fire management is so much more important than what's in your shaker bottle. I'm just now getting there - self taught for nearly four decades. Thankfully UA-cam has some great info and has helped me take it to the next level. I wish I'd learned early: Start with the fire and salt and pepper. Build your flavors after you figure that out.
Thanks!!! Your videos are great. I have burned too clean of a fire recently and my briskets dont have much smoke flavor. Im going to try to go more smokey next time!
I made the same discovery a few years ago good to know I'm not crazy I start and a smoke level of 2.5 "according to you demonstration witch in amazing might I add" and and gradually clean it up as the cook goes ending at a level one.
I’d like to add that the whole smoke color thing, as presented here, applies very largely to a particular type of cooker/cooking: offset - whether in an offset pit or in the Weber kettle/egg type coals offset to one side (I.e. where meat is not above fire). For folks smoking in elevated pits (boxes or brick structures) or barrels (PBC, OKJ Bronco, Gateway, Hunsaker, etc.) or even, but to lesser degree, reverse flow offsets, maintaining this blue or clear ideal is not possible. Rendered fat burning in the coal bed of an open-style pit is part of the flavor and experience and will, definitely, generate visible smoke. The only way to avoid it is a shelf with a drip pan (like stock WSM - but not Harry Soo WSM method which is more barrel/open style).
You are absolutely correct, I smoked some chicken last night on my okj broncho, and my smoke was clean for about 30 mins, then it always changes once the fat starts dripping off your food. It never fails, thankfully on mine it usually doesn’t affect flavor too much
In most cases, Harry Soo uses the water pan but empty in the WSM. However, there is a video, Harry cooking a brisket hot and fast at 400 F with the water pan removed.
Agreed- I also had a problem with Hickory as a novice until I started making hotter smoke.
I was getting a sour/bitter flavor with it until I got my rig making hotter smoke you need a little fire sometimes
but not so much you go up in temp and "cook" the meat.
That totally makes sense. I cold
Smoked a brisket and it turned amazing!
One of the best vids you have done.....if I lack anything on my briskets its the bark. I cook on a lang and it makes really clean smoke. I'm gonna start adding more fruit wood as a test. Cherry and Apple just inherently add more smoke. I'm gonna go unwrapped on next one too
blue smoke = no bitterness but lighter smoke flavor. I think the first 2 hrs of the smoke is when the meat absorbs it the most depending on chamber temp . When I throw a split on the smoke turns kinda grey-blue which is stronger than blue smoke
Love the methodology of shaping your coals for you starting coal bed. Question: where did the ash go and how did you separate the coals from loose ash? Shovel with holes in it?
I use lumpwood charcoal for my fuel and to get that smoke flavour I have a smoke tube that I fill with wood chips...One fill of it produces enough smoke at the beginning of the cook to be perfect everytime...
I'm not even close to being on your level but I recently started running lower temps with more wood chunks early for smoke then bumping temps up with great results. I'm limited to a masterbuilt gravity smoker but it has been a great new process.
Keep up the great vids. Helping a lot of of 👍
Was going to comment the same. I started adding a lot more wood chunks lower in the chute on my Masterbuilt, right on top of the first few coals, then adding greener chunks into the ash hopper. Last brisket I did came out fantastic.
Just goes to show you why you are the people's favorite. So many people become entrenched in their opinion and defend it to the very end. I do not have the luxury of green vs dry wood, but I am assuming I can get similar results by adjusting, wood size and airflow??? All the best to you and your family!
Now I want to see smoke level 2 from an offset, once bark is set and you are about to switch to smoke 1 instead throw it on a pellet grill. Do you even need to tend the fire for all that extra time or can you shortcut?
I find my best smoke flavor occurs most in the spring and in the fall, winter is too cold here and summer is pretty hot so everything burns up quick.
I always run dirty for the first two hours. YS640s, starting at 180°f, then increase temp every two hours, until I get clean smoke. Great flavor
This is why I love ur channel man
this one really helpful cuz I've noticed with my Tritips on mt offset that there are times it has no smoke flavor (or very little) and I was was burning pure history wood and making sure the fire was as clean as possible. then the times I couldn't get it to burn clean and thought I ruined the TriTip it was amazing smoke flavor. so this makes a lot of sense. thank you
Love your informative videos. This one blew my mind. Trying this method next time I smoke 🇳🇿
I'm still refining my brisket with my Brazos smoker, I'm still working the plate steel that you slide at the bottom to adjust the internal flow & smoke. Last cook I made it super clean smoke and wasn't happy with the bark and the smoke flavor. Also I find that fat side down I had better results with the bark that i like. So each time it gets better and better but not quite at the level I'm shooting for. This video does help me because I think letting in a little "Dirty" smoke when first starting gave me the best results. One day I'll get it perfected LOL!
Agree 💯. Got obsessed with chasing TBS & discovered I lost ALOT of smoke flavor doing so. Smoked Salmon one day, busy in the yard, lost track & smoke was mainly “level 2” every time I’d look accross the yard at it…probably the best Salmon I’ve ever had 🤣. This is absolutely the way I go now…not awesome clean smoke until later 👊🏻
Great video! I completely agree with burning a dirtier fire at the beginning… the whole “maintain blue smoke the entire cook” isn’t ideal. I disagree that you use less wood with smoke level 1… more efficient combustion means you’re burning the wood faster. If you choke the fire more the wood will last quite a bit longer than a more open firebox door
Agreed. It takes more fuel to burn hotter (which translates to consuming wood faster) to achieve "clear smoke."
And, here I thought I was letting you down by letting my fire burn a little dirty, because it was still an open flame and it was easier to let it go than to keep messing with things that may or may not cause temperature spikes and the like. It still always turned out good, and now I know why. 👍
Saying hey from across the 64 bridge in Indiana! My coworkers love the BBQ I've been bringing in thanks to your vids!
You might look into creosote formation when burning wood. It is the bane of chimney sweeps and fire departments but also causes bitter flavors in smoked meats.
Great video about different smoke levels. Very informative and I have a WSM so it was helpful!
I think air velocity - which I'm differentiating from airflow - matters. I sometimes use a fan on my pit w/ a PID controller. In these cases, I often find I get a lot more "level 3" white smoke than I like, and I get deeper smoke flavor without the bitterness. If I use my offset without the fan and rely on only natural convection only, the white smoke definitely makes things bitter. So I wonder if what we might call "dwell time" matters. In a low-velocity (draft-only) smoker, the bigger molecules (I assume more aromatic compounds) you discuss have more time to "settle" on the bark. In a powered-draft smoker, they don't. Knowing that I more often use a powered draft on my smoker than not, when I rebuilt it, I intentionally down-sized the stack to 2.5" rather than a big 4" stack. With pressure created by the input fan, I get a much higher air velocity than I would with a bigger diameter stack and I think I get less bitterness and more smoke flavor with a dirtier fire. One of these days I'll try and test it, but I was really surprised by this.
Can you do a video on resting times/temps for a mix of proteins, never sure what's best for each, thanks!
I’ve always wanted to try mesquite in the beginning and then transitioning to a lighter hard wood such as oak/hickory/pecan to finish out. Same concept as starting out low and smokier to start out but you skip some of the acrid flavors of low combustion
For briskets, I always start out throwing an oak log on a bed of coals to get the pit up to temp, then use mesquite for this first four hours (protein won't take more than 4 hours of smoke). After that I transition back to oak, wrap at 170 and continue to fuel the fire with oak unless I have something else I'm throwing on that needs flavor.
Regardless of the "smoke levels" I always look for thin blue smoke coming out of my stack, that way I'm not feeding acrid tasting food to my guests, and most importantly - I'm not burping smoke the next few days.
My go to lately has been small handful of peach chips and one small piece of mesquite. Best way I can describe it is bourbon.
@@Barndoor98 I have a few peach slivers and just bought a long butt ton of mesquite, will have to give this a go.
I’m using a wsm and I have trouble getting the heat once I put the pan in the temp drops hugely. But I’ve had huge success with dirty smoke especially with hickory.
Thanks so much for this. Got a Yoder Cheyenne and thought wasn't managing the fire properly because I was at smoke level 2. Everyone says you should hardly be able to see the smoke and this is misleading. The only problem I do have with this smoker is that I can only truly fit two racks of ribs on it. The first 6" on the grill from the fire box are extremely hot and it "cooks" the meat, even at 200 degrees. I am however using the diffuser smoke plate. Should I maybe remove this?
Thank you.
I do In between 2 and 3 smoke and it’s a perfect ratio!
I had read about this on Amazing Ribs but it's certainly nice to have a more visual reference, great work.
Since at the wrapping stage you're not looking to add anymore smoke, I'd like to know how much of a taste difference there is (ribs/brisket) if you finish it off in the oven where you have a better control of temp. I wonder this because I have a cheapo smoker then does great adding smoke but lousy at high temp control for finishing.
I have a pet barrel which is where I start my brisket on a low smoky heat for the first three hours then I move it over to my pellet smoker for the rest of the cook and it’s perfect.
I you want a great hickory flavor, try throwing in around 15 to 20 green in hull hickory nuts. I've been doing this for years and everyone that's ate my food has loved it.
I commented about this discussion yesterday. I just happen to smoke some chicken today. I have a sns grill. I had to add charcoal to the cook. I normally pull everything out when adding wood and charcoal. This time I left everything in. I feel it would have tasted better if I just pulled all the food out until I seen that number 1 smoke. This was for chicken wings. Maybe the grill size matters. I have seen smoked salmon with heavy smoke. Maybe it depends on the size of grill. I don’t have a clear reason. It was not bad. It just missed expectations. It also stopped the skin on the chicken from crisping up. It was not rubbery. It was like Jim beams beef jerky. I was smoking somewhere between 210F-280F.
OMG Thank You Sir! I've been thinking that smoke and fat combine to make an umami flavor that's what's so desirable about bbq. This particular video has me so excited about what I can make on my pit. I also need to look into cold smoking with my offset.