Got Smoke?? Need Smoke??

[MadMedik]

So I have had my Komodo for 3 years or so. LOVE it....

I don't always add "wood chunks" for additional smoke, but when i do, I will add 2 or 3 chunks of "wood" in to the coals. As the fire burns it will burn up the chunks...pretty basic I guess.

My issue is the following: If you want to Heat Soak your grill for an hour or 2 before the cook, most of the wood chunks will burn up and I wont have smoke during the actual cook. I have tried to stage the lumps around the fire pit so they will burn at different times. However, sometimes the smoke effect is not that good. Often i am done with a cook and I have complete unburned chunks of wood. So why not put coals on after the Heat Soak, then they will smoke with the food?? Sounds like a good question, but i generally have the grills on and the heat deflector on during the Heat Soak, so then I have lots of very hot grills/stones to remove, add 'wood chunks', then reload. This can be hot and difficult. How about drop the chunks down the side of the grill and let chunks roll / fall into to hot coals and smoke...doesn't work well with very low temp cooks....a Very hot bed of coals, this will generally work.

I have often thought of other methods of adding smoke. While hunting around on the internet, I came across a Smoking Website.... A-Maze-N Smokers with PELLETS. I saw this web site some time ago but never did anything. I had a friend who wished for more smoke with his gas bbq, and I went back to web site and bought the smoking device. You will see "flat maze like trays" that will burn pellets or "wood dust". Check it out...burn a very long time.

The web site also has steel tubes, 6", 12", and I think 18" in length. These tubes can be filled with Wood Pellets that can be used on any Pellet Stove. You light one end of the tube, let it burn for about 5 minutes at one end...then blow out the flame and the smoke goes crazy. The website, as well as all over the internet, sells 2 pound bags of pellets with different woods or 'flavors'. these prices seemed cheaper than what i could find on internet.... like 8.00 for 2 pounds....versus 10.00 for 1 pound all over amazon.

I bought the 6" tube. I measured the Komodo "air draft" opening in the front, lower part of Komodo. Between the 2 steel tubes that holds your front draft lid is about 7 inches. So I thought, hey, the 6" tube will fit between these tubes. It looked like it would be deep enough. With the Coal deflector directly above this area, i figured no hot coals would drop down on the tube.

IT WORKS GREAT....

I have added a You Tube video showing the device on my Komodo. Check this out:

A couple of comments/thoughts:

I have not used it with a cook yet. I don't think the additional heat from coals above will change the smoking effect...I hope it will not "over heat" the tube and cause the pellets to burn faster....this is possible I suppose.

I can easily add smoke whenever I want during a cook. Should the smoke run out and I want more 5 hours in to the cook, I can reload the Tube and add more.

I had this tube about 2/3 of the way full....it Smoked for 3 1/2 hours inside my Komodo. I did not cook. I had only the tube in and watched/timed it while doing chores.

With Pellets, you can add so many smoke profiles to your cooks. The 2 pound bags are small. they are suppose to be 100% of whatever wood you choose, so it is very easy to store and keep dry, without bigger, larger bags of wood chunks, and easy to have lots of 'flavors'. This web site has an impressive amount of pellet types.

I can use the tube in my Kitchen Island infrared/gas bbq to add smoke to any meats.

Pellets burn something like 96% of the wood content...so there is very little ash in komodo or gas grills....less ash on to my gas burners.

Anyway, that is what I did for Labor Day...actually I will cook some spatchcock chicken tonight and use the A-Maze-N Smoking tube with "corn on the cob" Pellets....

Website for the Smoking Tube:

http://www.amazenproducts.com/

Let me know what you think!

Check out the video !!

MadMedik

[dstr8]

Very good 411!   Can't wait to hear how it does with a cook-smoking session.   Seems the tube and pellet route would also be the perfect and simple solution for "cold" smoking on the KK too!  

 

I find it amazing the pellets would smoke in the 'little' 6" tube for 3-1/2 hours; I would not have guessed it would output smoke for that long...

[rwalters]

Love the idea! Have seen other guys try the tube on various Kamado's...every attempt I have seen has been a failure at low n slow temps. The low amount of oxygen flowing through a Kamado is simply not enough to keep the tube burning. Can't wait to see you do an extended low n slow and prove the others wrong

[jeffshoaf]

I've had good luck lately just distributing the wood chunks thru the charcoal, but I've seen temperature fluctuations as the large chunks catch fire. That has got me wondering if soaking the chunks might help - I know it won't make the chunks produce more smoked, but it might help delay the wood from starting to smoke during preheat and/or help delay ignition.

[EGGARY]

I just saw your video.  It would have been interesting to see what the temperature would be with the lid closed.  If using the A-Maze-N Smoker for cold smoking just wondering what kind of temp is would get up to.  Cold smoking at 70-90 degrees.

[MadMedik]

So yesterday was hot..., but this was from  9:30  to about 1:00.   The video shows  I had the  air vents down low open about 3/4 of the way or so.  I was  wondering what would happen to  the pellet smoke if I closed down the air dial to a 200 degree  to 250 size range......i think i did it for  a few minutes, but then opened the up again.   I  am wondering  at  a  250 degree cook it will still  keep the pellets going?  Perhaps  with the fire above,  perhaps there will be  more of  a heat draft and pull more  air up through the vents, and keep the pellets going.     

 

I looked  at the temperature guage,  and it was about at the "6 o'clock"  position, maybe just slightly less.   After opening i did notice  any  "heat temperature".      It was just  hot outside so i had just the normal ambient temperature from  outside...it was  probably close to 100  at 1:00.    

 

I did  Salmon fillets  last  week...i used the   Coconut Charcoal and set the temp right  at  180.  It fluctuated  to 200 once, then turned it down , back to 180...but   2 hours later my temp  had  shut off and fire burned out.  I had plenty of coals,  just not enough airflow.    I had  used  a lot less coal because  i knew i would not need it,  but this  disrupted  the burn pattern...the coal  burn to side, then no more coals,  and fire went out.   there was tons of coals  "in the other direction" of fire pit...

 

Relating the  pellet tube  to  smoking salmon,  it would have provided  a tremendous  amount of smoke....(1 of my chunks of wood was not burned)

 

i will let you know how  cooks  go...

 

MadMedik

[wilburpan]

My issue is the following: If you want to Heat Soak your grill for an hour or 2 before the cook, most of the wood chunks will burn up and I wont have smoke during the actual cook. I have tried to stage the lumps around the fire pit so they will burn at different times. However, sometimes the smoke effect is not that good. Often i am done with a cook and I have complete unburned chunks of wood. So why not put coals on after the Heat Soak, then they will smoke with the food?? Sounds like a good question, but i generally have the grills on and the heat deflector on during the Heat Soak, so then I have lots of very hot grills/stones to remove, add 'wood chunks', then reload. This can be hot and difficult. 

 

Is there any issue with doing the heat soak without the grills and heat deflector? That way you could do the heat soak, then add wood where you want it after the heat soak is done, and then put the heat deflector and grills in place.

 

I’ve seen a good number of kamado demonstration videos where the guy doing the cook did exactly that. The heat deflector and grills would also have to come up to temperature, but compared to the mass of the Komodo Kamado itself, I would think that this is a relatively minor issue.

[5698k]

I heat mine without the stone or the grates, exactly as stated above. Placing the wood, then stone and grates, give the wood the burn off time needed to get to the clear stage. <br />

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Robert

[tony b]

I've posted several times about using a converted cast iron dutch oven as a smoking pot. It works well and has the advantage that you can put it on top of coals at the beginning, then add your grates/deflectors/drip pan and not worry about disassembly/reassembly when time to put on the meat. The cast iron take time to heat up to the point where the smoke generation starts, so you don't worry about burning up your wood chunks too quickly. It produces a steady smoke - no worries about distributing chunks in the coals that may/may not ever burn and it doesn't affect the temperature control at all. The holes in the bottom direct the smoke back into the fire, so any volatiles are burned off, producing a clean smoke. My only downside is that it's a bit messy setting up - you use a flour/water paste to seal the lid on the dutch oven. However, no complaints on how it works on longer lo & slo cooks (brisket, butts, ribs).

 

I'm curious to hear how this pellet tube does on very low (cold) smoking applications where the dutch oven might not work well. If folks find that this new gadget works for them, my favorite source for wood chunks (www.fruitawoods.com) also sells chips and pellets.

[MadMedik]

Okay,  thanks for thoughts and comments.

 

I cooked yesterday, 2 spatchcock chickens.  Cooked them for 1 hour and 15 minutes at about  375 degrees,  no indirect heat stone,  main grill.  Chicken was great.

 

I used the Smoke Tube described above.  Unlike my test  run for 3 1/2 hours smoking,   during the  cook it last approximately 1 1/2 hours cooking at 375 degrees.  When  i took the chicken off the grill,  there was about 5 non burned pellets remaining, and several other blackened/charred.  It was  almost out.   I filled the tube  to about  2/3  its capacity.   The test  batch with no fire was  filled approximately the same.  

 

So in only 1 cook, the pellets  burned faster when  a fire was cooking above.   At 375  the air vents  are open fairly well.    Did not think  i would not have enough air flow at this temp.   Next  is to try it at the 250  low and slow cook.   My feeling is it will burn until all pellets  are gone and will last longer than 1 1/2 hours.

 

As for other comments about  putting the heat stone  and grill on  after  you   reach   the desired pit temp,  yes  that can be done.   Once at temp though,  you have probably added meat and seen the  pit temp drop.  Add  a cold or room temperature stone and  grill and food, i think the  pit temp will drop  a lot and it will take some time to get temps back up.    If you add wood chunks  just prior to cook and you place the chunks on hot coals and thereby get the smoke going...yes  this will work, but it will burn relatively fast.   If you put several chunks of wood on hot coals,  then you  will have  LOTS of smoke that burns really fast.     Placing the coals  around strategically would be the  goal, to have  it burn in stages...but how to do that  I am not sure.          

 

If you had a  hot fire going,  say 350 or more,  dropping the chunks of wood down the side  would  work better than when at lower temps.   There is more  hot coals  and  easier  to get chunks to hot spots.  Plus,  at these  temps you would not be using the indirect stone  so placement of chunks  would still be easy to do.

 

That being said,  using the  Smoke Tub  is  easy to do.  It would  seem I will get  2 to 3 hours of continuous smoke when doing low and slow cooks....for sure....as opposed to  placement strategy for  staged burning that may or may not work.   On very long cooks,  i could  reload the  Smoke Tube  and  smoke for  another couple of hours.    However,  it seems i have read  elsewhere that  the best  smoke  is  toward the beginning of the cook....continuous  smoke  may not  make that much of  a difference  in how the meat tastes??  not sure about that?

 

I will try the 250  cook,  perhaps  not for  another few weeks though.   but when i do,  i will let you now how that goes.     The  type of  wood pellets  available  was  quite nice as i had mentioned previously.   Small bags, not  terribly expensive.   I will mess  around  with mixing  the  pellets....last night on my Spatchcock  chicken  i mixed  'corn on the cob'  along with   Apple pelllets.   It smelled great cooking and the chicken  was very good.  Had   a nice smoke profile,  but  not too strong.  I think I bought 6 different types/flavors of pellets,  so  i have lots to 'play' with.

 

thanks and have  a great day.

 

Oh by the way,  I love gadgets too....the Smoke Tube is  a  Cool Ass Gadget !!!!   Just remember,  on a  Komodo Kamado,  it  is always  going to taste GREAT!!  Thanks Dennis !!!!!!

 

Thanks

MadMedik

[tony b]

You don't need to generate smoke for the entire cook. Absorption stops when the meat reaches 140F, which is before the stall on a pork butt. So, if you could get 3 - 4 hours of smoke out of one of these, you might be fine. Someone will have to experiment with it and see if you need to reload or not. You might just be better off with the 12" or 18" ones and not worry about reloading.

[MadMedik]

I think i am going to do a few  pork butts this weekend.  I will definitely use it,  at 250 degrees,  and see how long it last.    As for the 12" or 18"  tubes, yes that is possible.   The 6" tube loads in the front draft  area.   Bigger ones will have to go inside/near  the coal  basket....i suppose it could fit on the grill itself, or down by the coals?  By the coals,  closer to heat,  may burn faster.

[DennisLinkletter]

Always remember that the flavor transfer is from condensation of the organic material/vapor in the wood or charcoal..

Putting your meat in fridge cold is a big plus.

Imagine two glasses of cold water.. add some ice cubes to one and you will get significantly more condensation.

I'm guessing that there is a huge reduction in the condensation after the meat even hits 100º

[tony b]

Just re-read the "Myth Busters" article on smoke rings over at Amazing Ribs. The process stops at 170F, not 140F, as published other places. Has to do with the myoglobin breaking down at 170F and it no longer absorbs NO and CO in the smoke vapor to form the pink ring. Best way to prolong the process - spritz or mop the meat with water, juice, vinegar, etc. to keep the surface cool as long as possible.

[Syzygies]

I don't always add "wood chunks" for additional smoke, but when i do

 

[tony b]

Funny, Syz! 

[MadMedik]

Syzygies....That is too Funny!

 

By the way.  I did  4 slabs of ribs on Saturday.    I cooked at  250 degrees.   The 6 inch  Smoke Tube  last about 2 1/2 hours.   That is likely the max  for low temp cooks...  I was  happy  with the smoke and taste!

[GoFrogs91]

MM - was that your only smoke choice or were you augmenting chunks? Love playing with new toys

[MadMedik]

That  was  only smoke choice.  I did not add  any other  chunks of  smoking wood.

[tony b]

Syzygies....That is too Funny!

 

By the way.  I did  4 slabs of ribs on Saturday.    I cooked at  250 degrees.   The 6 inch  Smoke Tube  last about 2 1/2 hours.   That is likely the max  for low temp cooks...  I was  happy  with the smoke and taste!

 

Wondering if that's long enough for a bigger cut of meat that takes 8+ hours on the smoker? Any feedback on a pork butt/brisket, etc. would be good info.

 

Also, went back and played the video to check something. MM, I didn't see the ash deflector in there. Did you have it in there when you did the test or cooks? Just wondering if the tube would fit with that in place?