My pit has a fairly thick, shiny, tar like glaze on the inside of it. I have
heard of that happening with certain types of wood (green mesquite for
example) but I only burn Oak and pecan in my pit. I am wondering if I may
have burned some wood that was either green or not seasoned enough. Would
green pecan logs do that? The pit smells good and the food I take off of it
always tastes great but lately I have noticed that this glaze is getting
thicker and I am wondering if I should remove it. What is the best way to
clean that stuff out of it?

Thanks,

A

Alan S wrote:
> My pit has a fairly thick, shiny, tar like glaze on the inside of it. I have
> heard of that happening with certain types of wood (green mesquite for
> example) but I only burn Oak and pecan in my pit. I am wondering if I may
> have burned some wood that was either green or not seasoned enough. Would
> green pecan logs do that? The pit smells good and the food I take off of it
> always tastes great but lately I have noticed that this glaze is getting
> thicker and I am wondering if I should remove it. What is the best way to
> clean that stuff out of it?
>

Shiny? Hmmm. Back when I heated my house with wood, I became familiar
with a shiny deposit in stove pipe and chimneys. If what you see is the
same stuff, it is creosote. It caused by burning green wood or
excessively wet wood in an oxygen deficient fire. Most smokers run
oxygen deficient because we are trying to control the temperature by
restricting air flow.

I'm a bit surprised that you don't have foul tasting food, but maybe
what you are seeing is something else. If it is creosote, there are two
ways to remove it. Water and fire. Creosote is water soluble and a long
soak in hot water will soften it. A hot water pressure washer could
work. The other method is to build a roaring fire in the cooker.
Creosote is flammable (it's the fuel that causes chimney fires) and if
you get it hot enough in the presence of sufficient oxygen, it will burn
away.

Either way, you will probably end up with a lot of rust. If it isn't
affecting the taste of the food and doesn't flake off, I'd ignore it.

--
Matthew

I'm a contractor. If you want an opinion, I'll sell you one.
Which one do you want?

On 4-Aug-2005, "Matthew L. Martin" > wrote:

> Alan S wrote:
> > My pit has a fairly thick, shiny, tar like glaze on the inside of it. I have
> > heard of that happening with certain types of wood (green mesquite for
> > example) but I only burn Oak and pecan in my pit. I am wondering if I may
> > have burned some wood that was either green or not seasoned enough. Would
> > green pecan logs do that? The pit smells good and the food I take off of it
> > always tastes great but lately I have noticed that this glaze is getting
> > thicker and I am wondering if I should remove it. What is the best way to
> > clean that stuff out of it?
> >

I have similar deposits in my offset. I don't mess with it until some of it starts
to flake off and threaten to fall on my food.

>
> Shiny? Hmmm. Back when I heated my house with wood, I became familiar
> with a shiny deposit in stove pipe and chimneys. If what you see is the
> same stuff, it is creosote. It caused by burning green wood or
> excessively wet wood in an oxygen deficient fire. Most smokers run
> oxygen deficient because we are trying to control the temperature by
> restricting air flow.
>
> I'm a bit surprised that you don't have foul tasting food, but maybe
> what you are seeing is something else. If it is creosote, there are two
> ways to remove it. Water and fire. Creosote is water soluble and a long
> soak in hot water will soften it. A hot water pressure washer could
> work. The other method is to build a roaring fire in the cooker.
> Creosote is flammable (it's the fuel that causes chimney fires) and if
> you get it hot enough in the presence of sufficient oxygen, it will burn
> away.
>
> Either way, you will probably end up with a lot of rust. If it isn't
> affecting the taste of the food and doesn't flake off, I'd ignore it.
>
> --
> Matthew

What Matthew said. Mine does eventually loosen up and begin to
flake off. By the time that happens, it's always overdue for a big
fire to burn the grease residue out of my cook chamber. I knock
what loose stuff I can from the top of the cook chamber. Then I
set a fairly large fire in the cookchamber. The resulting fire when
the grease begins to ignite is both spectacular and thorough.

And yes Maynard, it does promote rust. No low end pit that I
know of has a coating that will withstand that much heat.

--
The Brick said that (Don't bother to agree with me, I have already changed my mind.)

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