I've been having a hard time lately with my electric. I'v e been getting
dense smoke clouds along with a very bitter finish on whatever is in there.
If I open the top vents to try and keep the smoke flowing and not
condensing I get a roaring fire and huge temp spikes. This is even with the
bottom vents closed.

Can anyone with experience on this unit offer some tips?
__________________________________________________ _______________
JG... Jeff Givens


"My hovercraft is full of eels."

On Tue, 25 May 2004 20:27:19 GMT Bob in socal
wrote:

Roaring fire with an electric ? Surely you're not piling wood on the
electric element are you ? I have an ECB electric and wrap no more
than 2 small pieces of smoking chunks in aluminum foil and place in
between the electric elements for smoke.

Bob in socal..

Bob, yes against the element to get them started and then I usually poke
them around a bit to keep things smoldering. But even just sitting there
when I pull the lid they will burst into flame within a minute, generally.

Funny, but I have been playing with some mesquite chunks today trying to
find good airflow settings for moderate smoke and no flame, and it hasn't
really been a problem. I pull the lid off and they just sit there and
smolder. Hickory is what I've used up until today.

How much smoke do you shoot for in your ECB? Just faint wisps - enough to
barely be seen, and I mean 'barely', or a slightly steadier smoke
production?

I did some chicken that, once the creosote outer covering was removed, was
damn fine, but obviously less is the way to go.
__________________________________________________ _______________
JG... Jeff Givens


"My hovercraft is full of eels."

I never could get anything decent out of mine and drilled a bunch of holes
in the bottom and started using lump charcoal.

Everything was dry and soot coated.

Spud

"Jeff Givens" wrote in message
...
Funny, but I have been playing with some mesquite chunks today trying to
find good airflow settings for moderate smoke and no flame, and it hasn't
really been a problem. I pull the lid off and they just sit there and
smolder. Hickory is what I've used up until today.

The mesquite chunks aren't green are they?

You should barely even notice any smoke if at all.

-CAL

"Jeff Givens" wrote in message
...
Funny, but I have been playing with some mesquite chunks today trying to
find good airflow settings for moderate smoke and no flame, and it hasn't
really been a problem. I pull the lid off and they just sit there and
smolder. Hickory is what I've used up until today.

The mesquite chunks aren't green are they?

You should barely even notice any smoke if at all.

-CAL

On Wed, 26 May 2004 01:22:56 GMT Bob in socal
wrote:

As I said before, I wrap one or two fist sized chunks of hickory,
cherry or pecan in aluminum foil and poke a couple small hole
in the top. I position them in between the heating element coils,
not touching the element. Some like mesquite, some, myself
included, find mesquite to be a mite bitter. You shouldn't see
that much smoke coming out of the thing and certainly won't
see creasote on the food. Pecan or Cherry is my choice for
chicken and I use Hickory for beef and pork butts. YMMV.

See: alt.binaries.food for a photo named ECB_wood.jpg

Thx for info. I started a shoulder this morning and am taking the gradual
approach and wasn't getting anything from the two chunks I had in the pan
(uncovered) until i got them against the coils for a couple a minutes then
pulled them off. Am now getting very wispy smoke with top vents mostly
open.

Can't quite get to 220 tho - it's 59 out right now plus the load of meat (5
lbs.) and water is a huge heat sink.
__________________________________________________ _______________
JG... Jeff Givens


"My hovercraft is full of eels."