Grilling is one of those hobbies that requires neverending practice. You start by learning about the types of grills and smokers, temperature control, seasonings, charcoal, and smoking wood. Then, as you advance, you begin to learn techniques you never considered before, like how to control smoke and how that smoke impacts your food.
Few things are as mysterious to the untrained griller as smoking techniques for BBQ. Many beginners and even well-versed cooks don’t realize how smoke affects their meals. Managing smoke intensity when grilling can transform the quality of your food from good to expensive steakhouse-great, but not without lots of practice and finding your way through the heat.
We’ll clear the air on BBQ smoking techniques, how to control smoke on a Big Green Egg. and have you using smoke to your benefit in no time.
Introduction to Smoke in Cooking
So, what is smoke anyway? Well, it’s exactly what you’ve always known it as. Smoke is the visible gas that occurs when a material is burning. When it comes to grilling, smoke is more than that. Smoke (when used correctly) adds flavor and enhances food to make it taste better without adding seasonings or other marinades.
Another surprise to the novice griller is that not all smoke is the same. Surely, you’ve seen smoke of all different colors, like black, gray, or blue. The colors aren’t random; they have pretty individual meanings when coming from your grill.
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Black smoke: Black smoke from the grill means something is wrong with the grill, like a lack of airflow.
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Gray smoke: When something non-edible, like grease, smokes, it’s typically gray. Gray smoke doesn’t make food taste good.
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White smoke: You need to be careful with white smoke! Often referred to as ‘dirty smoke’, you want to wait until white smoke has cleared before adding your food. Prolonged White smoke can lead to a harsh, bitter, or "over-smoked" flavor to your food when exposed for long periods of time.
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Blue smoke: Blue smoke (it looks almost nonexistent) is the ideal color smoke for grilling!
Like campfire smoke, which leaves a scent on your clothes, grilling smoke leaves flavor on your food. The easiest way to enhance the taste of your food with smoke is to use charcoal or wood chips. The flavor of the smoke depends on the type of wood or fuel, and you can alter the taste of your food just by using different types.
The hotter the grill (and smoke) the crispier the outside of your food will become. It’ll likely appear (and taste) charred, too. Cooking with live-fire results in the flavors from the smoke, charcoal, and smoking woods you use to be combined with your food - bring a browning, aroma, and flavor to each cook.
Types of Smoking Woods
The type of smoking wood you choose matters. When a particular wood variety catches fire, the smoke has a distinct flavor that enhances (or detracts from) the food you’re making.
Some smoking woods are best paired with certain meats; likewise, it’s best to avoid pairing certain woods with certain foods. For example, if you’re grilling chicken skewers, maple will give it a mild and sweet flavor, perfectly accentuating the meal.
Apple, cherry, hickory, and mesquite are common wood varieties found in most grocery or hardware stores. However, many specialty grilling stores carry all the varieties, including pecan and maple.
Techniques for Controlling Smoke
Airflow
Smoking is all about managing the airflow in your grill or smoker, as smoke will vary drastically by which cooking method you are taking.
To control the smoke on a Big Green Egg, you’ll use the top (rEGGulator) and bottom vents (Draft Door) to maintain a steady temperature. The air movement regulates the temperature inside; air comes in the grill from the bottom vent and out through the top vent. More air flowing = higher temperature.
You can use the rEGGulator and Draft Door to maintain high temperatures for quick sears or low temperatures for slow smoking, but you don’t want to open your Big Green Egg throughout the cook. Adjusting it minimally allows you to achieve a more precise temperature, resulting in a more flavorful and tender cook.
Another hot tip for smoking on the Big Green Egg is to use the ConvEGGtor, which is one of our quintessential smoking accessories. It’s a ceramic heat shield that helps the Big Green Egg provide indirect heat for slow smoking.
Fuel-to-Wood Ratios
You can also adjust the fuel-to-wood ratios inside your grill to create custom smoke intensity. As you spend more time cooking, smoking, and grilling with your Big Green Egg, you’ll identify your personal preferences for fuel-to-wood ratios. Smoking takes trial, error, and little tweaks along the way.
Using less smoking wood (and more charcoal) will reduce your food's smokey taste and flavor while using more wood will increase the flavor and smokiness. Typically, smokers start with around 30% wood and 70% charcoal and work their way up on the wood side of the equation.
Clean Smoke vs. Dirty Smoke
Remember when we talked about the different colors of smoke? Clean smoke is thin, bluish, and nearly invisible, and it is the type you want to see (and taste) when grilling. Dirty smoke (a dense white and gray color) makes your food taste like ashes.
Dirty smoke is a sign that the fire isn’t burning properly. It’s caused by low-quality fuel (charcoal and hardwood), improper ventilation, dirty or unmaintained grills, and moisture inside the grill.
To produce clean smoke, it’s important to light your grill correctly as the manufacturer recommends, clean and maintain it regularly, use high-quality charcoal and smoking woods, and learn how to manage the vents on your smoker correctly.
Timing and Smoke Application
Typically, you want to introduce smoke at the beginning of cooking while your meat is still absorbing flavors. For meat like brisket and ribs, introduce the smoke during the first half of cooking to get the most smoke penetration. Meat absorbs smoke flavor when raw and still moist on the surface. For fish and poultry, maximize the smoke early since you cook both for shorter periods at lower temperatures.
Prolonged smoke exposure can negatively impact the taste of your food. You’ll know an overly smoked meat as soon as you taste it; it has a powerful smoked flavor, but not in a tasty way. Over-smoking can also throw off the entire texture of the meat, resulting in dry and tough meat. Sometimes, you may use the wrong type of wood, leaving the meat bitter or unsatisfactory.
To balance the smoke flavor without overpowering your meal, you may need to run a few trial cooks before you learn the perfect fuel-to-wood ratio or figure out the right type of wood.
Advanced Tips for Manipulating Smoke
Now that you’ve learned the basics of smoking, you can move on to advanced smoking techniques for BBQ, like layering wood or using moisture.
Layering Wood
For complex flavors, you can layer multiple wood varieties. The key is to pair a strong wood with a mild wood to avoid overpowering the meat. Use larger chunks of the mild wood and smaller chunks of the stronger wood. Pairing two complementary woods will highlight the natural flavors and bring a more robust flavor experience.
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For beef, try oak and hickory for a strong, smoky BBQ flavor that’s not overpowering.
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For pork, try pecan and cherry for a slightly nutty but rich, fruity flavor.
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For poultry, try apple and cherry for a mild and fruity flavor.
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For fish, try cherry and maple for a hint of caramelized flavor.
Adding Moisture
Moisture can quickly impact your smoke, so it should be reserved for more advanced and adventurous cooks. Using liquid to your cooking method to guide your flavor profile can add moisture to the cooking environment, keeping meat from drying out. It also produces a milder smoke output.
There are multiple ways to add moisture during your smoke. One is to soak the wood chips and the other is to add water pans. This can be done in water, beer, apple juice or cider, or whiskey, bourbon, or wine. The type of liquid you use to soak the wood chips will add to the overall flavor. Beer creates a malty aroma while apple juice adds a bit of sweetness.
Experiment with Density and Temperature
As you learn more and more about smoking, you can start to experiment with smoke density and temperature. Controlling smoke density is important to producing the perfect flavor without overpowering the meat.
If you feel your meat is under-smoked, use more wood, reduce the airflow, use water pans, or select bolder wood. If you think your meat is over-smoked, use drier wood, increase the airflow, use less wood, and burn a hotter fire.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Over-smoking
The most common mistake when learning how to smoke is over-smoking. Over-smoked meat often tastes bitter, of chemicals, overly smokey, or acrid, which is another way of saying “strongly unpleasant.” It may look black and have a heavy sooty or sticky residue build-up. Too much smoke can make the meat dry.
To prevent over-smoking meat, use the correct type of wood for the meal. Avoid wood with excess smoke, especially for delicate meats. Adjust the airflow to prevent stale smoke and limit the smoking time.
Using the Wrong Wood
As we’ve mentioned, using the right type of wood can make or break your meal. While the right wood will create a balanced, complementary flavor for your meat, the wrong wood may leave it dry, over-smoked, and bitter. Be sure to reference our wood chart to see the best type of wood for your meal!
Issues with Airflow and Heat Control
If the air isn’t flowing properly inside your smoker, you won’t have the proper heat control needed to cook your meal and your meat may come out over- or under-smoked.
Too little airflow creates a bitter, unpleasant taste from stale smoke. It also causes wood and charcoal to burn inefficiently, causing temperature swings and an unstable cooking environment. This may leave your meal with a black, sooty residue.
Too much airflow will make your fire burn too hot, which will cause your wood to burn too fast. This may cause under-smoked meat to lack flavor, and the higher temperature will also cause dry, tough meat.
Don’t let the nuances of smoking keep you from playing the game! Smoking typically comes down to personal preference and taste, just like the great debate of what is too much (or too little) garlic in a recipe.
When smoking, remember the most important parts: choose the right type of wood for your recipe, ensure proper airflow, and play around with your technique until you find the one that works best for you! Half the fun of smoking and grilling is experimenting and refining your technique. As you gain more experience, you’ll learn the ins and outs of your Big Green Egg, like the back of your hand. And your guests will love you for it!
