how long should wood smoke

[Piglatin]

Hi,

I recently received my #2 smoker.  Very impressed with it and looking forward to getting some ribs on it this weekend.  When I was seasoning it, it seemed the wood pieces burned out after about 1 hour or so.  There was one big belch which I understand is normal.  Soon after that, I noticed no more smoke coming from the unit.

Is this normal?  Should I refill the wood when I notice no more smoke coming out?

thx
Ken

 

[swthorpe]

The smoke is the strongest in the first hour or so of the smoke, and then it tapers off to almost nothing that can be noticed.  Nevertheless, the smoke is still there, just not visible.  With a small pan of apple juice, etc in the bottom of the smoker, you will see I guess steam coming out from the smoker, and perhaps some smoke.

You definitely do not want to add wood after you start the smoker!  The smoke box is very hot, and should not be removed until the meat is done.  As a general rule, 4oz or so of wood should be sufficient for most smokes...for longer smokes (like boston butts), you might want to increase this to 6oz.  If you have a food scale, you can weigh your wood to know how much you are using on any smoke.

As for the belch, that happens when the wood catches fire...for me this happens at around 180F, and then all is well afterwards.  A couple of ways to avoid this are to slowly ramp up the temp, or I have found recently that putting the wood in foil and punching small holes in it works to restrict air to the wood, thus avoiding the wood catching on fire.

 

[DivotMaker]

Congrats, Ken, and welcome!  How much wood did you add when seasoning?  If you just put one small dowel in there, it might have only gone an hour.  Steve is spot-on about "visible" smoke, though.  Once the heavier smoke stops, there is still smoke being produced in the box.  And, as meat cooks and gives off juices, that fall onto the smoke box, you'll have smoke and steam from that, too.  Definitely weigh your wood.  2-3 oz for ribs or chicken, 5-6 oz for butts and briskets is a good rule of thumb.

 

[Piglatin]

thx, I have 4 slabs of St. Louis cut pork spareribs ready to start cooking later today.  I've measured out 3.75 oz of wood.  Can't wait to see how they come out.

 

[es1025]

Be careful with that much wood.  I typically smoke with 2 to 2.2 oz. You might have a bit too much unless you like the smoker profile.

 

[DivotMaker]

I usually use 2.5-3 oz of wood for ribs.

 

[Smokster]

Hey Ken, usually 2 ozs of wood is more than enough for ribs, anything more is over kill and you may have too much smoke taste for your liking.  As well, if you add more ribs, you don't have to add more wood.

I also recall reading on a past post that meat will stop absorbing smoke when the internal temperature of the meat reaches 140 degrees.  After thank you are basically slow cooking for the remainder of the smoke.

 

[Piglatin]

I didn't see everyone's replies on the amount of wood before I started cooking.  The smoke flavor was definitely very heavy, but wow did the ribs cook nicely!  Will cut the wood in half next time, I'm surprised it needs so little.  Everything went great, plugged it in, went to a sporting event for the kid, came home to an amazing meal.

 

[Smokster]

Totally agree, it is smokin made easy. Definitely an amazing new hobby that will entice you to get creative.