On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 04:52:52 GMT, "Brick"
wrote:


On 18-Jan-2008, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:

"Dave Bugg" wrote in message

grin I know that, Ed. The thing that is baffeling is that the
Cookshack produces plenty of wood smoke in the combustion chamber, but
it
still produces a minimum smoke ring. Personally, I don't care a bit
'cause the product it produces is decent, although not quite as good as
what my Ole Hickory produces. But it is a puzzle. If one were to read
through the Cookshack forum it would be seen that a lack of smoke ring
is
accepted as part-n-parcel of using an electric pit.

Could be a temperature thing. Burning wood at different temperatures
produces different mixes of chemicals in the smoke. It may have to be
hotter to get the nitrates flowing. The electric element may be making it

smolder more than burn. Any way to get the wood going better?

I hate theories and speculation about cooking but I think Ed is tracking in
the right direction. I would sum it up like this; cooking wood to make it
smoke is not the same as burning wood to get smoke. When I throw
logs on my lump fire, they burn and produce a nice ring. When I wrap
chips and put them on the burner in my gas bullet they don't make a ring
for shit. Same with using foil pouches in my grill. Lots of smoke, but no
smoke ring. I have to consider that the gasses produced by cooking vs
burning are entirely different.

No arguments there, but a question: do you notice a difference in
flavor and/or texture between what you get from the lump & log combo
vs what you get from the gas bullet with chips?
My bullet's gas-fired, but I can run it with lump, though the
(sand-filled) water pan sits awfully close to what would be the fire
pan in that case. Thus far, I've used lump with it only for grilling.

Still doing the mental "WSM or some variant of offset" debate, here.
(and not discarding the idea of a BGE or other kamado-type unit)

"Every single religion that has a monotheistic god
winds up persecuting someone else."
-Philip Pullman
--
-denny-
(not as curmudgeonly as I useta be)