I have a Smokette Elite and was wondering... is it recommended to empty out the ashes in the fire box after each smoke? Would not doing so negatively impact the flavor eventually? I'm asking because I notice I can get a small smoke ring when leaving the ash in.
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First- you can't taste smoke ring, so most people ignore that it is there. In competitions, it isn't part of the judging criteria. You can put a piece of charcoal or use Cure #1 to get a smoke ring, do a search for smoke ring and you should get a lot of results.
I empty the left over charcoal and ash after every smoke from the wood box. Even though stainless steel is resistant to rust and corrosion, it isn't totally impervious. Ashes can be caustic so I remove them.
Thanks for the response.
The smoke rings is for guests : )
I find that people who aren't familiar with the intricacies of smoking (99.9% of my guests) associate smoke ring with quality bbq. It's something they don't get in their home cooked meals and they see it whenever they go to an awesome bbq joint. We know that it has no impact on flavor, but they don't. Their visual perception of it literally changes the way they perceive its quality. So one could argue that indirectly it does impact flavor (triggered through physiological reasons, not literal changes to the meat).
Does anyone know if leaving too many ashes in the box eventually would negatively impact flavor?
A bed of ash MIGHT prolong the production of smoke by insulating the wood from the heat in a minor way. As for negatively impacting flavor? I doubt it.
What Lonzinomaker said; the smoke ring isn't meaningful, maybe educate your guests by the amazingness of your flavor? 
What oldsarge said; Possible insulation of the wood for a new smoke. IMO, just leaves you with more of a mess next time.
But, you should experiment as seems good to you, it's what BBQ is all about! Good luck!
This is a good read on what causes a smoke ring: https://www.thespruceeats.com/...d%20by%20the%20smoke .
Good article.
The article is technically correct but doesn't address the question of whether the "smoke ring" matters in terms of taste or quality of the result. IMO, it doesn't. It is an irrelevant piece of BBQ urban fantasy (maybe not so urban). I wish people would understand that it really isn't indicative of anything.
I agree Jay. Here is another link:
People keep pointing out that smoke ring doesn't impact flavor at all, which is technically true and I agree with. There's more to it though... in case people missed my post above to address this...
I find that people who aren't familiar with the intricacies of smoking (99.9% of my guests) associate smoke ring with quality bbq. It's something they don't get in their home cooked meals and they see it whenever they go to an awesome bbq joint. We know that it has no impact on flavor, but they don't. Their visual perception of it literally changes the way they perceive its quality. So one could argue that indirectly it does impact flavor (triggered through physiological reasons, not literal changes to the meat).
I got your point, and I recognize the problem. I actually found it pretty easy some years ago, to demonstrate the reality to my guests: no smoke ring, no problem, still great que!
