Where's the smoke?

There should be a ton of response to this one. But what type of pellets are you using?

I think some will also comment about what your used to. I had a stick burner before I got my FEC's. and I always had a good clean smoke using oak and cherry and apple. But others may use even green hickory, which will produce a very strong smoke. Over powering to me. So it may depend onthe type of flavor your looking for. Many teams use the FEC for comps and win on a regular basis. So the unit will produce great food.

As the unit comes up to temp, the fan will force air into the pot and produce a small very hot fire with little smoke, because it is so clean. The flavor of the smoke is still there, just not the visable signs of it. Once the temp gets to were it is needed, the fan will back off and the fire will begin to smoke moredue to the lack of air. The flavor is the same, just now it is visable.

Hickory and mesquite will both put out more smoke than the fruit woods and oak. May want to try them, or let the unit run at a lower temp for a longer time to get more of the smoke flavor your hunting for.

Did two whole prime rib loins last week, at 300 for three hours, and everyone made comments about the smokey flavor being great. To each his own.

Don't think I would mess with the exhaust, I think it will play with the effects of the controller and the air to the pot.

Good luck

RandyE

Welcome,

Hate your first post to be a problem, but we'll try to help.

The temp comes from burning wood, so it's smoking. One thing about smoke. Gray smoke is bad, clear / blue smoke is good. So just because you don't see a lot of gray smoke, don't be fooled that it's not smoking.

Don't affect the exhaust, you could end up with a reverse flow that will snuff out the fire and it won't cook. Some people put a vent/exhaust on there and that is a common side problem it creates. You could try, but watch the fire.

The key, as Randy says is what your flavor profile is. There are MANY posts in here, in the Owners forum and the contest forum about getting more smoke flavor.

Realize what's happening, it's an offshoot of how the smoker burns. It burns pellets effeciently. The fan is necessary to keep the fire inside the pot from dying out.

And as Randy says, what pellets are you using? All pellets are NOT the same. many of them have filler/base woods that just won't give much flavor.

I will say you can get more smoke flavor, but if you're trying to recreate a heavy/oversmoked meat from another pit, that may 1) take a lot of work to achieve or 2) never be achieved.

I say maybe never because some people are used to oversmoked food. Not that it's bad, that's just the flavor they like. You won't be able to oversmoke.

Have a read through the forum, give us more details on what you're cooking, what pellets, etc. The more details the better.

We'll help whereever we can.

Thanks guys,
Pellets came with the unit pn# WD300 Cookshack hickory. We purchased this unit from a European distribitor as we needed 50Hz electric. Not really sure what we can do different,this is really a "plug and play" system. We have some pretty astute q'ers here, so flow was about the only thing we could think of. Do pellets have any kind of shelf life? Color and presentation was spot on, just 0 smoke flavor. We have smoked 2 turkeys first try, pork ribs, ( we followed your ribs 101 ) and some whole chickens. The control panel came with preselected cooktime and temp options. We will go with Randy's suggestion and try a lower temp. We have 600lbs of pellets on order direct from Oklahoma, so we will try the mesquite next. We really want this to work out, so convenient with everyone busy in the field.
Will advise. M

Two tips:

1. Set the initial temp for 180...allow 30 minutes for the temp to stabilize (it will overshoot to begin with). The lower temp setting produces more smoke with minimal heat. This is referred to as 2 staging and is commonly used for brisket and pork butt cooks, though it can be used for ribs or cicken as well. Try the FIND feature using "two stage". There are numerous topics on this point.

2. Add meat that's as cold as possible.

There's a few more tweaks but start with those and let us know how that works.

Mesquite (CS/FE) will provide the stoutest amount of smoke flavor.

quote:

Originally posted by MaxQ:

SNIP

Mesquite (CS/FE) will provide the stoutest amount of smoke flavor.

I agree and all I use is the CS Mesquite pellets for all my cooking - reminds me of when I lived in Tx!

You say your unit came with pre set temp and time. Well these can be changed once you turn the unit on. It can be set to run upto 24 hours, and can be set to any temp you want. The unitis totally up to you.

RandyE

For more smoke flavor try something like a can with a few holes in the sides with pellets in it. Light the center of the can with something like a propane torch, blow out the flame and let it smolder in the FEC while it's cooking. I'll try and post a picture of what I use when I get home but it's nothing more than a stainless steel utensil cup with holes in it. It puts out a lot of smoke.

Just wondering if the folks with you may have come thru oilfields in the SW.From past busts,there was a lot of pipe left around and many offset logburners were made with the salvage.
Many of these produced oversmoking,etc and they used tricks to attempt to prevent it from getting to the meats.Often it didn't work.

Folks can get used to that taste and can also adjust away from it.

Just a thought,and the folks above have given some good tips as a compromise.

We thought the same when ours was new. One trick we came up with was to make a foil "tent" over the meat. This pocketed some smoke which added smoke flavor.

I came across this on the internet regarding boosting smoke flavor on pellet smokers:

Dr. Greg Blonder, is a physicist, entrepreneur, former Chief Technical Advisor at AT&T's legendary Bell Labs, food lover, and the AmazingRibs.com science advisor and mythbuster. I asked him about the problem (he has a **** ****). He explained that smoke sticks to wet surfaces, and meat's surface dries out after a few hours. When he wants more smoke flavor, he uses a strong smoke wood like hickory or mesquite, and then he keeps the meat moist by painting or misting it with apple juice or a mop like Lexington Dip or East Carolina Mop.

That's us Tom, SW oil field guys. we have a 30" offset cooker from old pipe as well. We went for the oven concept for convenience and big appetites. A lot of suggestions from all, thanks. Will advise.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom:
Just wondering if the folks with you may have come thru oilfields in the SW.From past busts,there was a lot of pipe left around and many offset logburners were made with the salvage.
Many of these produced oversmoking,etc and they used tricks to attempt to prevent it from getting to the meats.Often it didn't work.

Folks can get used to that taste and can also adjust away from it.

Just a thought,and the folks above have given some good tips as a compromise.