Poor Smoke Production

I know that people cooking on the FEC's in the past have cooked their butts or briskets at 170 for about the first four hours then set the hold temp to 250. Some believe that this creates a better smoke flavor. Bottom line is that the sole heat and smoke source is from natural wood. Perhaps its a matter of personal taste an adjustment from your stick burner.

You bring up something that comes up when people switch from a stick burner to an FE.

Smoke production.

If you're basing the amount of smoke on the smoke you can see, that's actually not a good thing for smoke. The best smoke is actually clear or "blue". The smoke you see, white or gray is actually an inpure smoke that is carrying off the impurities in the wood or from a fire that's not burning clean.

I don't know what your flavor is like, I can only go based on my discussion with a lot of stick burners. Many/most stick burners are actually used to oversmoked foods. Not a bad thing, just what they're used to.

That's why a lot of stick burners have difficulty repeating that flavor in an FE.

You can't easily get a lot of gray/white smoke in an FE. It's really hard.

However, you can get more smoke flavor, there are just some ways to do it in an FE.

1. Type of wood. Go with the heavier woods, like hickory, pecan or mesquite

2. Temp. Start with the initial temp lower, you get more of the gray smoke. Around 170/180 for a period of time.

It's just a function of how clean the FE burns the wood, there's not a lot of gray/white smoke production. You get plenty of smoke. It's just of the clean/clear/blue type.

Try the lower setting to generate more smoke and see how that goes.

The subject of what's good smoke and to much smoke is on going for ever. Some say that if your'e not burping smoke later, it's not smoked. As a CBJ I have sampled chicken that could have been cooked in an home electric oven while the next piece would numb the mouth from too much smoke. I believe that an FEC100 will produce a product somewhere in the middle. At least mine will.
On my big cooker, a Traeger COM200, I can produce massive amounts of food with just the right smoke flavor with almost no smoke at all, or I can smoke out the neighborhood if I want.

I have had good luck with BBQers delight and I'm now burning through a ton of Fast Eddy pellets. My next order will be his 100% pellets.

Amazing stuff. After 10 hours of cooking with little or no smoke from the flue pipe, I served my guests the products of the smoking. A couple of pieces remaied in the cooker to finish. About this time the flue started pouring out copious amounts of smoke. I guess I need to talk to tech support.

If you had the door open for an extended period of time, you dropped a lot of heat. After you took out the meat that was done, did you drop your temp back, and then let it build back up gradually.

If not, it probably dropped a load of pellets trying to maintain your set temp causing them to smolder.

quote:

Originally posted by Nekked Pig BBQ:
Amazing stuff. After 10 hours of cooking with little or no smoke from the flue pipe, I served my guests the products of the smoking. A couple of pieces remaied in the cooker to finish. About this time the flue started pouring out copious amounts of smoke. I guess I need to talk to tech support.

I don't think it's a tech issue.

Like EZ said, if you open the door and the temp drops, the IQ will sense this and dump a bunch of pellets trying to get back up to temp. Watch the fire and you can see this happening.

The door was open for awhile to remove the meat but the increased smoke continued for the next 2 hours while the last of the meat finished cooking. The meat I served had very little or no smoke flavor but a decent smoke ring. Had I had that kind of smoke production early in the process I would have had a much better product to serve. Just have to keep toying with the process.

For heavier smoke taste try a heavier wood like hickory or miskete(spelling?). The FE produces a mild smoke that is easier to control than stick burners. Try this, smoke something with a strong wood and ask a few ladies to sample it. I'll bet a few of them will complain about the strong bitter taste. Remember this also, a lot of KCBS judges are ladies too.

Not meant to offend but it is spelled mesquite.

Have been using hickory in my stick burner for 15 years with no complaints about too much smoke taste. Using hickory in my FEC100 also. Converted my wife, a non meat lover, into a BBQ fanatic with my stick burner. Now she's disappointed with the milder taste from the FEC. I guess these North Carolina women like it a little heavier than your gals up North.

Like all said,it sometimes is what folks are used to tasting.

Many stickburner converts, to FECs,worry about that at first-but the judges don't seem to have any trouble.

There are also a lot of judges that want the product to taste like what it is-with the smoke,etc. to accent/enhance the flavors.

Just a thought.

My friends and family are all happy about it. The more I practice and experiment, the more they get to eat.

I have yet to have too much smoke in my cooking. I have with chicken gotten what I feel is the correct amount of smoke but chicken takes smoke really easy. Just test and fiddle, your get it, that's the way I go about it.

Some guys will place a chunk(s) of wood along the top edge of the firepot or on the heat deflector shield in an effort to add more smoke. It's not something I do, but it might help you to acheive more smoke flavor.

Has anyone here tried this ^ ^ ^ ^ ???

Thanx for all the input. Will go forward with your suggestions and fine tune the process. Hope my stick burner doesn't get too lonely.

Nekked,

The smoke will be very clean as it is working to come up to temp. Then as everything gets hot, it will back down on the fan, that is when a more visable smoke will be produced.

I had a stick burner before I had the FEC's. I always had a clean smoke, and it really could not be seen. The smoke from the FEC is just about the same.

If the FEC didn't produce a good smoke, teams wouldn't be winning with it.

RandyE

Tried a bunch of things from cooking very low at first to adding chunks around the firebox. Broke my cherry in competition with butts last week and performed miserably. Meat just had no smoke flavor. Had Traeger pellets because that's what's available locally at a reasonable proce. Spoke with tech guys at Cookshack and they advised that the Traeger pellets were a mix of hickory and alder. Just ordered several bags of Cookshack pellets which are a mix of hickory and white oak. Will experiment with these to see if I can get better flavor profile. Before my next competition.

Don't want to say anything negative about some other folks pellets ,that you may have used,but they may suit the taste well of folks that do a great job of cooking fish,etc?

The pellet you are moving to will be different/better/more suitable-but don't spend all your waking hours trying to make it a stickburner.It is no better,or worse,but different.

I would recommend that since you are changing a style/technique/COOKER/and flavor profile from your stickburner days-as MOST of us have,you be openminded and follow our lead as to what comp judges may find preferable.

Trust me,we have heard your conversation from every other new FEC cook[me included],and now they all tell the new guys what we are telling you.

Maybe, it is the balance of the overall product,rather than each part of our old technique?

Besides cooking all thru the Carolinas,and achieving the same successes as other" pellet munchers",we are all Master Judges,so we have been in the judges tent to try them all.

Cook your product,and see how the judges feel,and worry less about what you remember.

You'll do fine.

Well the brand of pellets could have something to do with it.

I know in Koxville this past weekend. Four of the top 5 teams were using FEC100's. Only Mike Davis in second place broke up the FEC train.

I know we all had a good smoke flavor. We took 4th overall.

With a 1st in People choice, 2nd brisket 8th in pork and ribs. Fell short in chicken, but that was the cook.

RandyE

Congrats on the outcome. There may be hope for me yet. Should know more this weekend when the new pellets get here.

As far as Mike Davis goes and his placement,Johnny Trigg spent a lot of time teaching him all he knows,so he will do good presentation,and understands how to cook his product correctly.

His placement could have a lot to do with what experienced FEC teams were on hand.

Sounds like ya'll did yourselves proud.

Got my Cookshack pellets andf have had three runs including Mother's Day dinner. I am happy to report a much nicer smoke ring in all the products I've cooked and a pronounced improvement in the flavor. Just a nice smoke flavore that accentuates the the flavors of the ribs, fowl and butts. No more Trager pellets except maybe for fish. Cookshack all the way.

I noticed that when I cook with a small load of meat the smoke production is great. When I pack the smoker with meat it dosen't smoke as much. I thought that maybe because of the temp of the all that meat is low. The FEC is trying to keep up with the temp setting and is having to work the fan more to acheive that temp setting. Has anyone else found this to be true. I still enjoyed the flavor of the product I put out. I did notice less smoke and more fan use.

I quit worrying about smoke ring a long time ago. If someone complains, I tell them to shut their eyes and taste the meat.

When it comes to comps, if they judge on smoke ring, they're not doing their job.

I agree about the smoke ring. However, they always look for it and I know they consider it in points for appearance.

Regarding the amount of smoke coming out of the FEC. I had the same problem with my pit. I would cook on it and would only see smoke right at the beginning of my smoke. Everytime I opened the door my fire box would have a nice big flame in it. My brother's (Trucky1008) FEC would sit there and smolder. He would have smoke coming out of his pit after his pit would come back to temp after opening his door. I called TECH Support and we came to the conclusion the fan was running on high speed the entire time. I would have pellets on the bottom of my pit after every smoke. CS sent me a new relay for my fan which regulates the speed of the fan. When the pit reaches internal temp., the fan slows down allowing the pellets in the firebox to sit there and smolder causing smoke. When the fan continued to run on high, the firebox was constantly causing a flame. Well I replaced the relay and on my last smoke, I watched the internal temp come up to the right temp and then heard the fan slow way down. The fan never stops but slows way down. I then noticed considerably more amounts of smoke coming out of the pit. Didn't have any pellets on the bottom of the pit after the new relay was installed. Seems to have fixed my problem. Thanks CookShack's Tech Support.
Trucky9754

That is cool, I get pellets on the bottom as well but its from the pellets sliding down and bouncing sometimes. After a 15 hour cook I will have maybe a half a handfull, I can live with that and I've been placing top 10 in brisket and pork at comps.

Not to be argumentative,about what judges will look for and score about,but we do have at least some experience,about how they are supposed to judge/score.

This in mind,a couple points about the judging process,for the unfamiliar.

Yes,I do like the look of a smokering.

Yes,judges in training are taught to ignore smokering in their scoring.

Yes,judging can be subjective,at times.

Appearance does count about 1/7 of your potential points,so it is possible to get in that 1/7 of the score.

The assorted mentors of our team pushed us hard to not only go to judging school,but do enough judging , during breaks from cooking comps,over the years,to keep a feel for what transpires in the judging tent.

Thus,we are all Certified Master judges,and cross certified for Fl BBQ Assoc[which covers much of the Southeast]and Memphis in May.

My wife/co-cook was also chosen to do Finals at the Big Pig Jig which typically draws the top competitors from Memphis[down on the River] in its 130+ cook teams,two years ago.

We were all certified in ,I believe,the second national class as Cerfied Table Captains- at Dillard-the day before we cooked it.

Table captains get to see all the scores and and join the gossip,as well as hang out at the grazing tables,where all the boxes are set for sampling.

I guess from cooking with enough top teams,and judging enough top cookoffs,I've gotten used to not worrying about it.

Just a couple thoughts.

Tom, I agree 100%. As a senior judge (my wife will soon be also) I have seen judges who score all over the place. Even had a judge scoring categories out to three decimal points. Not sure anyone's taste buds are that sensitive. Have heard judge trainers tell novices to score with a pencil to make4 it easier to go back and change an earlier entry's score if they like something else better. To me that's the ultimate in subjective scoring. My policy is that once I enter a score on an entry that is the score it gets. If two entrys end up with the same score then they end up with the same score. But I will keep on keepin' on with my cooker until I get it right for the judges

Yep,no way it works out perfect,but somehow ,over the yrs,good cook teams seem to rise to the top.

Not to say,everyone hasn't taken a pounding for no explainable reason.

I'm just saying that we can't really fix some things,so we just worry about some of the things we can.

Yep,I agree about not all judges are as professional as they could be.That is one more thing we learned showing up in the tent,every now and then.

Thankfully,there are a few organizers,that know and hand pick their judges-every year.

Could be why cooks stand in line to cook there-even without big purses.Called cook team friendly contests.

Hope to see ya on the trail,soon.