I made this barbecue mistake for years. Here's how to fix it.
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love the jirby shout out, jonny is the goat and his techniques are awesome - his approach is "do whatever you want" and it always works
Haha well it’s hard to argue with #1 in Texas
@@MadScientistBBQ I was waiting in line for Jirby's and I had a perfect view into their fires and could see the smoke they were burning throughout the cook as I waited.. he's got it dialed down. the smoke flavor on his birsket and beef ribs was incredible
I noticed EVERYONE in the bbq community was singing the praises of aaron franklin. then I came across a podcast with Jirby as the guest, and he basically said that franklin was overrated. everyone was doing the same thing as everyone else. f#ck that. Jirby gained my respect for being different, and just being himself, and speaking his mind. and He has a video on his channel on how to build an offset smoker out of cinder blocks for less the $200😆 Jirby is legend just for staying true to himself. the quality of his food is a reflection of that
@@lobsterbisque7567 When he was starting his offset he squirted a bunch of lighter fluid in there and he said he didn't have all day to wait. I was like... I like this guy.
@@TheBradleyd1146 I prefer the flamethrower method, same principle, more fun.
Excellent stuff Jeremy. I have been messing with my smoke as well and have found similar results. I bit of a "dirty" fire in teh beginning has been giving me a better final product.
Much respect Jeremy for admitting you were wrong. Your passion for the best product is why I am a Yuge fan!
Best compliment I ever had on my bbq pulled pork was, "I don't think you can do much better." That was very encouraging. Thanks for passing on your experience and wisdom.
Working on watching all your videos. New to smoking and need the help you provide. THANK YOU!!!
Hey Jeremy. Well like you it took me quite some time to figure this out as well. I totally agree with the "dirtier" smoke early on and the clean to finish. Thanks for all of the BBQ knowledge you and many others have contributed to me and others to up our BBQ game.
Great video about different smoke levels. Very informative and I have a WSM so it was helpful!
One of the most informative videos you have done to date - Thank You!
Awesome information Jeremy! Great job!
I appreciate that you're always learning and providing your findings to us. A scientist indeed
Makes sense (which explains why my pellet smoker has a low temp smoke mode). Thanks for sharing your knowledge Jeremy
Jeremy. You've finally addressed an issue I've had with all of the advice on clean smoke. I've used "level 2" smoke and I've always enjoyed the taste better Thanks.
I'm glad you did this. I noticed little to no smoke flavor as I burn cleaner fires. Also had a theory that the smoke could be too clean...
Cooked a pork loin today and part way through I wrapped it in butcher paper with smoked lard. You taught me that trick for ribs but works great on loins as well! However my fire was to clean at the start so the ring wasn’t very prevalent. Love all your experiments and thanks for sharing !
I learned a lot from you and jirby love the bbq community 🍻
Thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful!
I've always struggled with getting smoke flavour onto my meat in the offset! Was just thinking about playing with a smokey first hour to see if it helped! Glad you've validated my idea! Thanks Mate.
I definitely wasn’t the first one to figure it out. I was wrong for years 😂
@@MadScientistBBQ When you did a collab. with Harry Soo, there was the following teaching moment, that has just come to fruition: kzhead.info/sun/q81xabl7ppOKn2w/bejne.html
Thanks for the great information you shared. It really helped my brisket come out awesome!!
Thank You Jeremy!! You have confirmed what I was wondering about. I have been working my way towards more visible smoke myself lately 👍. In fact some of my best ribs were when I was learning fire management and was “screwing up” with greener wood. Lol. Thanks again!
Do you know what your moisture was m trying to figure this offset out before I sell it to many cooks with no smoke flavor
I had read about this on Amazing Ribs but it's certainly nice to have a more visual reference, great work.
So many videos tell you WHAT they did, I really enjoy the Mad Scientist because he EDUCATES me. At this point in my smoking journey I’m a sponge. Thanks Jeremy!!
So helpful, thanks!
Thanks man. I appreciate the explanation helps me out a lot!
This was amazing advise, thank you!
Thanks!!! Your videos are great. I have burned too clean of a fire recently and my briskets dont have much smoke flavor. Im going to try to go more smokey next time!
Most honest and real bbq video in a while.
Great to see someone saying this. 'Dirty' smoke is needed for good BBQ. Since I've added a cold smoke generator to my pellet grill the difference is night day. Getting alarmingly close to stick burner flavor on my ez-bake-oven.
Love your informative videos. This one blew my mind. Trying this method next time I smoke 🇳🇿
I think you've created a new scale for types of smoke! Excellent concept and explanation!
Really appreciate your humble nature and admitting doing something wrong along the way. I don't have an offset but an electric 40" Masterbuilt and the smoke is always heavier at the beginning (20 minutes- half hour), then none the rest of the time. Turns out excellent- salmon and pork. Don't have the funds to do a brisket so I couldn't say for beef. All the best to you and I watch every one of your vids. Have learned so much!
Jeremy, I've been watching your content for years and I'm glad I did; I learned a ton over time either directly or indirectly by questioning things, or wondering how to do things differently. You were not the only one recommending a clean fire at all times, so that's what I tried to do to my best of my capabilities and I was able to after getting familiar with my offset. Although, I must admit, while the food tasted great (clean or dirty, you can't beat the flavor an offset gives to the food) managing the fire was becoming a stressful chore rather than a nice, chill activity. I happened on Jirby's channel and tried his relaxed approach to things, letting the fire do its thing without necessarily doing a ton of micromanagement to ensure a clean burn-not only did the food improve in flavor, but every cook became much more enjoyable with zero stress. The same happened last year once I dropped digital probes and relied on the Tel-Tru exclusively instead of chasing temps all day. Truth to be told, I tried one turkey breast cook with the dirtiest fire I could muster: the turkey turned out just fine, but maintaining such a dirty smoke for hours required much more effort than just letting it be and do its thing where the first few minutes of combustion are smokier, then it becomes thin-blue, then transparent. The smoke profile from letting this three-stage process happen naturally is just beautiful. That also means that it's best to let the fire die down and build another on the coal bed, rather than adding splits as it goes to maintain temps as constant as possible. If you haven't, give it a try!
Appreciate the humility! That is a rare trait these days. Along similar lines, although I currently cook on the Brazos for the backyard and a 288 gallon with 3/8 inch steel for large events, I’ve produced some better quality BBQ on a cheap offset with flimsy metal because of the inefficiency. Essentially you have to burn more fuel and there is poor quality intake but if you tend the fire well, it is amazing. When is the modified Brazos comparison video coming out?
Awesome information as usual. Jeremy, I'm interested in your thoughts on that Pitts & Spitts pellet grill in the back. Can't wait to see some content on that!!
This is the content I have been desiring from MSBBQ! Next we need a more comprehensive fire building video, the last one you did at Fatstack focused more on starting the fire then maintaining it. We need in depth take on wood selection, sizing, when to add wood, where you place the wood, etc.
Great information, thank you for your efforts sir
Saying hey from across the 64 bridge in Indiana! My coworkers love the BBQ I've been bringing in thanks to your vids!
You're videos continue to fix my BBQ mistakes....Appreciate it...Cheers brother
This is why I love ur channel man
Another great video. Love your channel
Excellent info. Thank you
Super usefull video Jeremy!! In a common grill can I use different size of wood chunks to have the same effect??
I intuitively stumbled on this method. I usually put my proteins on at Smoke: lv-2. Really, just because I’m too impatient to wait until until I have a completely Smoke: lv-1. As the cook progresses the fire burns cleaner. Thanks for confirming what I just chocked up as “my process.”
That was an awesome video. I have run a level 2 for most of my cooks on my homemade reverse flow smoker
Great tips man just starting out with this journey just switched over too reverse offset from a pellet grill soo definitely some learning curve coming up but as far as trying to get smoke number 2 what would you say the amount of wood you would need to achieve this I been cooking and only vetoing like a number 1 then when I add more logs it’s goes straight to number 3 so need any tips or advice
this one really helpful cuz I've noticed with my Tritips on mt offset that there are times it has no smoke flavor (or very little) and I was was burning pure history wood and making sure the fire was as clean as possible. then the times I couldn't get it to burn clean and thought I ruined the TriTip it was amazing smoke flavor. so this makes a lot of sense. thank you
It was the last thing I put time into learning - should've been the first. Fire management is so much more important than what's in your shaker bottle. I'm just now getting there - self taught for nearly four decades. Thankfully KZhead has some great info and has helped me take it to the next level. I wish I'd learned early: Start with the fire and salt and pepper. Build your flavors after you figure that out.
Thank you so much for this information 👍🏻🙏🏻
Great explanation! Keep ‘em coming.
Thanks!
I learned this the hard way. I'm glad to see you bring it up.
Love the methodology of shaping your coals for you starting coal bed. Question: where did the ash go and how did you separate the coals from loose ash? Shovel with holes in it?
OMG Thank You Sir! I've been thinking that smoke and fat combine to make an umami flavor that's what's so desirable about bbq. This particular video has me so excited about what I can make on my pit. I also need to look into cold smoking with my offset.
Fire management is an art! 🔥🔥🔥
So much good information 😬
I have an Brinkman offset smoker and coverted the firebox to a burner with propane, I added a charcole basket which I fill with my favorite wood chunks, I light the bunner and dial in the perfect temperature. I get all the smoke I want, i also put a try of water inside the cook chamber. It works for me everytime.
this was very helpful. i believe in one of your previous videos i was asking a similar question and this video answered it for me. i use an Oklahoma Joe Longhorn. i tend to run a "clean" fire through the entire cook, i dont mind if when i add wood that it smokes up. i typically always smoke around 275, but i have lately been putting the meat on a little early and letting it smoke early (220 and up) until my pit reaches 275 then i try to hold it around there. i dont let it drop under 250 once it hits 275 though.
Love Jirby, Chuds and the Mad Scientist.
This makes me so happy and reinforces my beliefs. Thank you!
Crazy, I was about to hit you up to ask this exact question. Great video just like always.👍
I still consider myself a novice even though I’ve been smoking food for a couple of years now. I have experimented with chunks at different temps in my Chargriller offset. I have learned how to start cold with the right amount of wood chunks and fuel. Especially with my ribs that have become out of this world. Everything you’ve said is spot on. Love the videos.
i have a memphis elite and i see smoke billowing out of it often.. seems to go in cycles, as you would expect as more fuel is added. i know that cooking on an offset is more OG and imparts more flavor than a pellet grill. but removing 1 aspect from the equation has really helped me not ruin food. thanks for the awesome vid as usual Jeremy.
Really impressed with what Jirby has shared, now I put my brisket on the pit, start the fire, and add tallow to the fire. Very happy with the results on brisket and ribs thus far.
I have kicked this idea around for a bit, I think it would be like the flavor you get from the meat dripping onto the fire. can you taste the difference ? How are you adding the tallow and how much? also are you using new tallow or are you taking it from your drippings can? @Mad Scientist BBQ please test this out!!!!!!!
Would love to see a video on how you manage the fire and air intake to control the smoke to the levels that you’re talking about. I have a brazos and have a hard time keeping the temperature from getting too hot.
I have a low budget smoker and it just does this. At first it has a dirtier smoke because it does not hold heat well and the fire is somewhat hard to manage. As time goes by it finally get's hotter and the fire cleans up. I love my smoke flavour and it seems to cook just like you describe (with some "dirty" smoke at the first few hours) ... 🙂
Try preheating a little longer. I also saw a trick that I am about to try: bricks wrapped in foil as thermal mass in the bottom of the smoke chamber. Water pan also helps even things out.
I recently watched a video on the Eater KZhead channel on Lavaca BBQ in Port Lavaca, TX, which made the Texas Monthly Top 50. It was interesting to see the pitmaster reveal that she deliberately runs dirty smoke at the beginning of the cook in order to enhance the flavor. In fact, she does not even start the fire until after she puts the briskets on the pit. Thank you for exploring this subject and having the courage to challenge the conventional wisdom of cooking BBQ.
Thanks 🙏 I Learning a lot form you :) May GOD bless you :) That’s exactly what I was doing in the pellet smoker is the same way :( I was smoking for a couple hours on one 160-180 for a couple hours then run to 235 - 245 :) My offset smoker it’s not finished yet so I’ll try it see how it works
Thanks for this video. I learned this by accident. I was doing a brisket on a CharGriller 980 and after over an hour the smoke would not clear up. After putting my hand by the exhaust and smelling it I noticed it wasn’t bitter like I expected so I threw the brisket on. It eventually cleared up (I think the chunks of post oak I used were to large) but I noticed it had the best smoke flavor of anything I had cooked on the 980 up to that point. Since then I use the same method to determine when it’s time to put my food on.
Thanks for the video Jeremy. In the future, would you consider doing one about using the damper on the stack? For a while I thought the best way was ‘always wide open’ but I recently watched a video from a guy who makes smokers who said that running the stack damper 1/2 or 1/3 shut would cause smoke to back up in the cook chamber (rather than just rushing straight out because the draw is so good with a fully open stack), which would help increase smoke flavour on the meat. I tried my last cook like this, and it did seem to make a bit of a difference. What was surprising was that it also caused my temp at the stack side of the cook chamber to equalise to what it was on the firebox side - this meant that my wood consumption was reduced a fair bit. I’m still very much an offset beginner, but it seems to me like there’s some mileage in experimenting with / commenting on how to use the stack damper and why.
I lived with wood heat for the first twenty years of my life. Balancing the dampers, cold air into the fire and hot smoke up the chimney, was always key to extracting heat from the wood. In the case of making heat, you don't want smoke because that means you didn't get complete combustion. But, if you whack open the air intake and the damper to clean up the smoke, all the heat goes up the chimney. With wood heat, you do want to get the chimney hot to avoid creosote and get your draft going, then throttle that back. You balance that by watching for vacuum in the firebox, if the chimney damper is closed too much there won't be any and there will be smoke leaking from the stove. When smoke is what you want, and you need a certain amount of heat, your smoke damper holds back smoke and heat. The fresh air damper controls the combustion by holding back atmospheric pressure. Obviously if this is throttled too much the fire will smoulder more, but not all smoke is good smoke. Just like distilling whisky, the first part through the condenser is no good, and the same at the end. There are things coming out that either don't result in good tastes or make for headache fuel. As your wood is burning down and smoking less intensely, you can close the smoke damper to hold back some of that good smoke, and you may see a temperature rise and smoke coming out around the door. If you close the air damper, that smoke coming from the door will stop and the fire will cool off. If the fire temperature drops too much, you will get into the smoke flavors you may not want. This is why people just say to run the smoke damper wide open, then control their fire with the fresh air. But: if you're running a clean finishing fire, your food has already absorbed all the smoke it can take and you've wrapped it up to keep it moist, closing up the smoke damper and balancing the air damper to hold the heat in the right range can really stretch out the life of a load of fuel. Especially on a smaller smoker running charcoal in the firebox.
enjoyed this a lot
Just fing good work man.
Always new nuggets to crack. Good job!
I always run dirty for the first two hours. YS640s, starting at 180°f, then increase temp every two hours, until I get clean smoke. Great flavor
That totally makes sense. I cold Smoked a brisket and it turned amazing!
Great video. Do you think it'd be possible to make a smaller fire to reduce the chamber temperature, get that "Level 2" smoke, and keep the temp low enough to cold smoke in an off set smoker?
Video on setting up the draft please
I’m glad you brought this up. I was at a backpackers lodge in Alaska over a decade ago. The owner smoked some Salmon. I remember a whole lot of smoke coming out of his smoker. He had a smoke shed. The fire was in the ground about ten feet away. Their was a pipe that carried the smoke from the fire to the smoke shed. ( I just watched your video from 8 months ago about cured smoked salmon) The salmon from that smoke ; along with his seasoning was the best. I was so drunk and high when I first tasted it. Everything taste good when under the influence. The next morning when I woke up; I decided to taste it again ( considering it was my first time the previous day). I cannot explain how good it was. It made every body that stayed at the lodge go to the salmon run and fish. Everybody over fished that day. I had 17 salmon. Their was another 35 people who did the same thing. We over ate the following day. Good times. Wish I had that recipe. I also believe that your level one smoke is the best way to do it for the whole cook. Just when I thought I had everything dialed in. You pull me back in to experimenting. LOL I know this is long response but; if you are reading this and smoke salmon? Tell us your favorite seasoning. Mine is spice world salmon rub and spice world Pacific seafood mixed together with old bay. I first layer the salmon with butter and add the seasonings.
I'm not even close to being on your level but I recently started running lower temps with more wood chunks early for smoke then bumping temps up with great results. I'm limited to a masterbuilt gravity smoker but it has been a great new process. Keep up the great vids. Helping a lot of of 👍
Was going to comment the same. I started adding a lot more wood chunks lower in the chute on my Masterbuilt, right on top of the first few coals, then adding greener chunks into the ash hopper. Last brisket I did came out fantastic.
Would love to see some videos on the cold smoking and cooking some other items (like the salmon or cheese)… also have you found a difference in using ‘green’ wood versus dried out wood that you wet?
Agree 💯. Got obsessed with chasing TBS & discovered I lost ALOT of smoke flavor doing so. Smoked Salmon one day, busy in the yard, lost track & smoke was mainly “level 2” every time I’d look accross the yard at it…probably the best Salmon I’ve ever had 🤣. This is absolutely the way I go now…not awesome clean smoke until later 👊🏻
You might look into creosote formation when burning wood. It is the bane of chimney sweeps and fire departments but also causes bitter flavors in smoked meats.
Love your Videos, go on with that. Greetz from Lower Saxony 🇩🇪 💪🏻
This video is on point. I have been waiting on my Weber Summit Charcoal for the smoke to be transparent to put meat on, and have had very lacklustre smoke flavour. I will try putting the meat on when it's still a bit dirty since it inevitably will go clean and remain that way.
Thanks, definitely will put your advice to work. 🇺🇸
I've heard in general the same thing, colder stuff absorbs smoke only until the product reaches a certain temperature. I think it was ~135 where the outside doesn't take much more. I could be wrong on that number but it's interesting that clean/ dirty fires are also a factor... I'll have to do some serious testing 😎
It seems to me that that is true but I think a lot more testing and 💰 has to be thrown at the problem
I made the same discovery a few years ago good to know I'm not crazy I start and a smoke level of 2.5 "according to you demonstration witch in amazing might I add" and and gradually clean it up as the cook goes ending at a level one.
Smoke level 2 is where i like to keep mine.
The trick is that you need to "cook" the dirty smoke on the meat for a few hours to remove the bitterness. So always add the new wood at the beginning. At least that's my experience. Smoke added at the end is bitter.
I do In between 2 and 3 smoke and it’s a perfect ratio!
My rule of thumb is to keep the flames low and gentle, which produces the level 2 smoke. If you run a raging inferno, you'll practically have no smoke favor since the high harsh flames doesn't produce any real smoke.
Thank you so much for getting right to the point. I don’t always have a lot of time, and typically consume most of my KZhead in the bathroom now… I also typically don’t comment on videos… Thank you. 🍖❤️
My dad always smoked his food by loading up on charcoal to get it to temp then he’d pile on wood and close the vents fully. He loved smoking the h*ll out of it. When i got into barbecue I started burning a clean fire. He was amazed about how efficient it ran using just 2 little splits with the vents wide open. I’ll never forget him being so amazed by that the day before he passed, we bonded so much over barbecue even though we had vastly different methods
excellent video by the way
on a okj. your saying to try and cook it on the semi dirty smoke at 200 ish. until I get the bark I'm looking for on mu brisket or pork butter than cleaner smoke around 275. is that correct?
The issue with pellet smokers is the volume of smoke produced. The firebox is typically tiny compared to the firebox of an offset so the amount of smoke produced is less. Newer programming in the nicer pellet grills are producing more smoke now when using higher quality pellets but people are still having to use smoke tubes or placing wood chunks on the heat deflector to get the desired level of smoke
Thank you
Hi Jeremy is smoke number 3 creating creosote smoke or does that only happen when the fire dies ? I've ruined some brisket with creosote like flavour!
Would love to see some WSM videos from you. It’s not as good as an offset but would be interested to know the tips and tricks to getting it close
Great channel Jeremy. Does smoking wood with bark affect flavor?
Thanks so much for this. Got a Yoder Cheyenne and thought wasn't managing the fire properly because I was at smoke level 2. Everyone says you should hardly be able to see the smoke and this is misleading. The only problem I do have with this smoker is that I can only truly fit two racks of ribs on it. The first 6" on the grill from the fire box are extremely hot and it "cooks" the meat, even at 200 degrees. I am however using the diffuser smoke plate. Should I maybe remove this? Thank you.
thanks for the pro tips.
Jeremy, you did NOTHING wrong.....what you did right was be open enough to learn something. We're always improving and learning. I love how you rub science onto Q'ing. Your content is solid, you don't drone (like so many others) and your presentation is sharp! Thanks for all the videos.