1st ribs - jummy but all black - offset smoker question

SwissSmoke.....Pine for smoking??? I'm surprised that you could eat them! I'm certainly no expert but I'm sure that those that are will jump in and give you their thoughts on it. BTW, I'm not a CS owner either but I've been made to feel welcome here...I't's all about "Q".
CS

Don't think you should be using pine - stick to what in the US are called hardwoods, like oak, hickory, maple, fruit trees, pecan, ash,...

Pine smoke probably put some tar on your ribs, surprised they were even edible.

One good reference is CBBQA Wood for grilling

Thanks folks - I will not make this mistake any more!

looking forward to trying out the different hardwood types - after I found them

cheers

Reto

swiss the only thing i can think of that would go good with pine wood smoke is retsina the greek wine that is stored in pine barrells. just kidding. if you have any fruit wood trees there like apples or cherrys or pears those woods make good smoke. also if you have any nut bearing trees like walnuts that works well too. the rule of thumb i use when experimenting is does it have leaves that fall of in winter. if it does you are normally pretty safe. as far as non cs questions go i have found everyone here to be great and any question is answered
jack
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!

SwissSmoke, this Kansas City BBQ forum may be the biggest of them all, and mostly charcoal people.

http://www.rbjb.com/rbjb/rbjbboard/

Yes, you can theoretically smoke meat using only wood. But, it would take 10 times more wood than charcoal in kilos to do the same ribs.

And more work. It's bad enough without a Cookshack.

Generally, ignite a quantity of hard wood as you ignite your charcoal. How much? About 1/2 a baseball bat? Let it flame for awhile with plenty of air. That allows some resins and gasses to burn off. Avoids what they call a "creosote" flavor.

You must have learned about creosote when you burned that pine!

Once the charcoal is grey with ash, and the wood is ignited, reduce airflow by 95%, and start smoking.

SwissSmoke, got a book? You need a basic BBQ book. We can name some for you.

No more pine.........please.

(I had an Australian friend who cooked a shark on a burning rubber tire. Terrible food!)

SwissSmoke
Burn a load of hardwood through the pit or take a weed burner and burn off all the residue from the pine you put through the pit. You will taste that pine for some time to come if you do go through this step.
Jim

I'm thinking prisonchef is referring to the "english" variety, when talking about smoking with walnut. Smoking with Black Walnut would be very strong and in my opinion a nasty bitter result.

Happy Trails

SwissSmoke - Take Jim Minion's advice. Fire your smoker up as hot as you can get it to get rid of that pine residue. The creosote and resin stick to the walls of your smoker like leeches. You have to get it really hot to get rid of it. And, it would probably be worth your while to re-season your off-set once you've gone through this process.

Best of luck & Good Q to you!

thanks all for your advice - certainly a mistake that I will not make any more!

As I type I am firing up my smoker really high with charcoal to get rid of the pine residue.

again - thanks - I appreciate your help to a newbie

Reto