Creosote

[bryan]

"[email protected]"

From last his News Letter.

This is another popular question especially from newbies just learning to smoke meat and those unfamiliar with charcoal or wood smokers.

Creosote is formed on meat when there is too little airflow, the meat is too cold and/or the wood is too green*. With sufficient airflow, you can usually get by with using very cold meat and even green wood so airflow is the most important thing to take note of.

I recommend that you make sure the vent that provides air to the firebox or charcoal area is at least 1/4 open at all times. I also recommend that the chimney or place where the smoke exits is open enough to allow the smoke to exit at a fairly rapid pace.

For some smokers this means an actual vent and a chimney and for others there's a lot less control but if you have the controls available, make sure it's getting plenty of air into the smoker and plenty of air/smoke can get out.

*too green just means that the wood has not had sufficient time to dry. I recommend letting all wood dry for 4-6 months before using it in the smoker.

[TheNakedWhiz]

Re: Creosote

Err, isn't that going to make keeping the temperature down pretty difficult? I think I'd rather let the meat warm up and use seasoned smoking woods.

[bryan]

Re: Creosote

Err' date=' isn't that going to make keeping the temperature down pretty difficult? I think I'd rather let the meat warm up and use seasoned smoking woods.[/quote']

If there are better solutions for newbies just learning to smoke meat and those unfamiliar with charcoal or wood smokers this would be the time to post it.

I smoke with both vents barely open and use aged wood for great results.

[mguerra]

Re: Creosote

That post cannot apply to the KK.

If you open the bottom vent 1/4 and the top vent to allow "rapid" smoke egress the temp will go sky high.

Maybe this could work for a big metal offset smoker or something other than a KK.

I humbly suggest the post be removed and this thread as well.

There is no relevance to our cookers, just a potential source of confusion.

Or, keep the thread to simply illustrate that not all posts at all boards have relevance to us.

[bryan]

Re: Creosote

WOW finally found something the KK can not do.

And all this time I thought I could adjust the vents to get all the needed results.

I also have been staying away from green wood and "DO Not" have a funked up "Komodo-Kamado"

Is there a better way to stay away from Creosote Or are you saying no KK will have the problem?

Is this not a true statement?

"Creosote is formed on meat when there is too little airflow, the meat is too cold and/or the wood is too green".

[mguerra]

Re: Creosote

I was not talking about creosote, only saying that the way to avoid it, by opening the vents wide, will cause high temps.

Yes, green wood should be avoided. Yes, creosote can occur in our KK's or on our food.But the way to avoid it is not to open the vents up wide, that will cause temps way too high for a low and slow.

We have to keep our vent openings very small to keep a low temp. That was my only point.

Creosote avoidance is another issue!

[TheNakedWhiz]

Re: Creosote

Cook_shack, I would say that the way to avoid creosote in a KK is by using seasoned wood and possibly avoiding putting cold meat in the cooker to begin with.

[Syzygies]

Clustersmoke

avoiding putting cold meat in the cooker to begin with.

Putting cold meat in the cooker is a competition trick to increase the smoke ring, which stops forming around 130 F. The judges have lost all sense of taste by partway through a competition, but they can still judge appearance and texture. Adding curing salts also has a dramatic effect, but they can spot this.

[Syzygies]

Smoke Pot

One easy way to obtain a very refined smoke in a KK is to use a smoke pot: Drill a few 1/8" holes in the bottom of a two quart cast iron dutch oven, fill with apple and/or hickory chips or chunks, and seal on the lid with a flour-water paste, mixed in a ziplock bag with the corner then nicked for squeezing out the goop. (The idea is if the lid comes loose, one gets convection, defeating the purpose of the smoke pot.) Now set this over the coals, and light the fire directly under the pot.

This is an empirical observation, not a theological observation. The idea comes from the standard method for making charcoal. I'm not suggesting that those who use this approach are making armagnac, while those using open chunks are making moonshine. This is something you have to decide for yourself, by experiment. So I'll probably have trouble understanding "I can't imagine..." responses (or simply be saddened by the lack of imagination ), but any "I tried both ways and I like open chunks better" response is simply an honest difference of opinion. (Laurie won't ever let me go back to open chunks.)

[bryan]

Re: Creosote

I was not talking about creosote, only saying that the way to avoid it, by opening the vents wide, will cause high temps.

Yes, green wood should be avoided. Yes, creosote can occur in our KK's or on our food.But the way to avoid it is not to open the vents up wide, that will cause temps way too high for a low and slow.

We have to keep our vent openings very small to keep a low temp. That was my only point.

Creosote avoidance is another issue!

Guess you need to read the original post.

And who are you to suggest removal of my post?

[mguerra]

Re: Creosote

I also suggested keeping the post. Perhaps I jumped the gun suggesting you withdraw it, I apologize.

It looked like you were reposting something from a newsletter, which while interesting in general, could confuse some of our newer members in regards to the vent openings that we specifically need on our units.

The creosote issue is interesting in that we can easily have a problem with it for low and slows, because of the tiny vent openings we need to maintain low temps. I do have an enormous amount of tar/creosote myself from doing so many L&S cooks. But I don't get the sense a lot of others here do have the same problem, maybe because of doing a lot more high temp cooks.

We did have that one fellow asking about using wood as fuel, rather than charcoal. That would probably cause a lot of tar/creosote trouble.

For myself, I just use one fist sized hunk of seasoned smokewood directly in the fire for smoke and that undoubtedly adds a little tar, whereas Syz's trick of using a sealed iron smoke pot, vent hole down to direct the smoke in to the fire, probably gives cleaner smoke. No doubt using fresh green smokewood would probably cause the most acrid smoke and the most tar.

I guess the bottom line for us is that using a lot of airflow to prevent creosote won't work in our KK's, at least for low and slows, and we need to control creosote more by our wood/ charcoal selection.

[bryan]

Re: Creosote

I would hope that a couple of long 700 degree cooks would help clear up your tar/creosote problem. It works for me. Scared me when the first chunks came off, but the unit finished up neat and clean. I don't let it go that long any more.

Your 22:17 post is well put.

[Firemonkey]

Re: Creosote

Doc- I thought it was decided that the bulk of your buildup was actually grease, since you do lots of butts and like to do them without a drip pan? Did high temp cooks ever get it clean?

I'm even kind of surprised when cook shack started mentioning enough buildup that it peels. I think I use my kk as much as anyone and have never had more than a little shine on the inside of mine, and even that doesn't last long. I guess I am doing more higher temp stuff than you guys. You guys need to reward yourselves by baking a few potatoes and searing some nice thick steaks on your KKs. An hour of 400 followed by the searing for the meat will keep eveyrhing clean - and you get to envoy some mightyfine by products of your grill cleaning!

[bryan]

Re: Creosote

That is correct. I have done very few cooks other than the many low and slows. You have convinced me to change that.

Just has to be more fun than a burn off.