What is the best way to get more smoke?

[djsams]

We got away from the grill-type smokers (except a couple of old, huge Louisiana Smokers that are big enough to cook a pit) and gone to verticals. We run them all almost always on "smoke" setting (about 130-160, depending on model) and we get plenty of thin smoke (the kind you want).

Keep in mind a fundamental "law" of smoking - temperature and smoke volume/quality are inversely related. So, he hotter you run, the less good smoke you get, and the lower you run, the more good smoke you will get. So, if you want good smoke, run "low and slow". Also keep in mind that meat pretty much stops absorbing smoke when its surface temp hits about 130, so cooking at a lower temp will keep your meat from hitting that temp for longer, allowing it to absorb more flavor.

Back when we had more grill type smokers, we experimented with a wide variety of smoke tubes/trays/etc. to try to let us smoke at higher temps. We still have a bunch of them around (mostly prototypes) that Todd Johnson gave us over the years. We also experimented with some smoke generators. They are great products and they helped, but we found that just running the pellet smokers at the lowest temp and letting "low and slow" work gave us plenty of smoke flavor.

So, The challenge (IMHO) is that many people want to smoke at a much higher temp (above 160) and expect to get the same flavor as "low and slow", and when they don't get that, they turn to things like smoke tubes, smoke generators, etc. (I confess, we did.) Unfortunately, I think the grill-type smokers naturally tempt people to run hotter because the unit can run hotter (verticals just don't).

I think in most cases, if you will just run at the lowest smoke temp for the initial part of your smoke, you won't need those extra generators. In other words, run at lowest smoke for several hours, then finish the meat at a higher temp.

So, for example, we usually do ribs with 4 hours on a smoker at lowest setting, then wrap and roast in the oven (at about 320) for 1 1/2 - 2 hours ( check them by seeing how much they flex when picked up by one end), then sauce and finish on the broiler (or in a gas grill, etc. if we are "on location") to tighten them up/brown the sauce. Based on size, briskets/chucks usually get about 8-10 hours of lowest setting smoke, turkeys get about 4-6, etc.

Sorry for the long post. I am sitting in a waiting room bored out of my skull.

After several cooks on my PBV3P1 and struggling to get that smoke flavor, I tried a variation of this method and it worked very well. Full rack of spare ribs. Instead of the usual mustard binder and rub(s), I went with SPG only, theorizing that this may let more smoke penetrate the surface. I did 4 hours on the "Smoke" setting which is 130 degrees on my model. (LumberJack Char Hickory pellets.) I sprayed a 75/25 mix of water/apple cider vinegar about every 30 minutes. After 4 hours wrapped with butter, brown sugar, honey, diet Mt Dew and turned the heat up to 275. Let it go another 2 hours. At that point they were done (200-205) but I spread on some Sweet Baby Rays and put them in the smoke for about 20 minutes. Overall, the smoke flavor was relatively mild but it was definitely there.

Next time I would possibly reduce the "Smoke" time (maybe to 3 hours?) and increase the wrap time and/or temp as they were hard to keep moist for the full 4 hours up front. (With that fan blowing constantly it seems the air movement had a tendency to dry them out even though I had water in the tray.)

This was the first time I didn't use a 2-2-1 method at 250 degrees. They always turned out great but with little or no smoke flavor even with a smoke tube. While this new method wasn't perfect it certainly opens the door for a few tweaks to try to improve. (Feel free to toss in your ideas here!) Not a bad learning experience. Thanks Private!

 

[Saul D]

A 6-inch smoke tube will smoke for about 2 hours. That’s plenty of smoke for me. Now I just start in SMOKE mode for first 2 hours, no more smoke tubes.