Getting your Smoke Right

A critical mistake a lot of people make when first learning to smoke is the type of smoke they have passing over their food, and the misconception around what the smoke should look like. Firstly you need a good quality smoking timber that's well seasoned. Unsuitable timber like pine kindling for example gives off an extremely bitter, billowing type smoke that not only tastes unpleasant but will douse your food in black soot. That black soot can also happen with quality smoking timber if you're not careful with your fire management.

Look for a clean burn without any white smouldering smoke coming from your chimney. It’s long been a myth with smokers new to the journey that they need to maintain a heavy white smoke coming from the chimney, it should in fact be the opposite. The smoke coming out of your chimney should be a thin stream of light blue, almost invisible smoke. If it looks like this, you can be happy your food is getting flavoured with the best possible smoke. If you see big plumes of white smoke billowing from your chimney, open your door and vents and breathe some oxygen into your fire.