Making a BBQ smoker more "neighbours friendly"

[phatmanace]

Folks,

I've just bought a smoker (Lanmann Kentucky)

I live in the 'burbs - we have a reasonable sized garden, it's not central London, but not rural devon with a field either. Having fired it up a few times, I'm slightly conscious that it might be annoying to the neighbours. Does anyone have any suggestions around making it a little less "asbo?"

Having played with different temperatures, I think I've found a compromise with more charcoal and smaller bits of wood (that I have to keep feeding it, obviously) so that its a more modest smokestack that dissipates more quickly when it leaves the chimney

.. I wondered if anyone had thought of some kind of bubbling device to channel the smoke from the chimney through water or anything so that it doesn't "billow" quite so much



...or is it a case of "Its a smoker, it smokes, "

--Ace

[Blown2CV]

subscribed. Would be nice to get an idea of how i can avoid smoking my own house too.

[phatmanace]

Blown2CV said:

subscribed. Would be nice to get an idea of how i can avoid smoking my own house too.

Found this thread here...

https://www.reddit.com/r/BBQ/comments/45llex/will_...

Reddit said:

The first thing that comes to mind is:
If you have too much smoke then you are doing something wrong.
Yes on initial light up you will get thick smoke, but when you are cooking your smoke should be wispy coming out of the stack. When adding wood, you will get a little bit of extra smoke but that should regulate out quickly. This can be alleviated a bit by pre-heating your wood, so it does not take as long to get to combustion. I preheat my wood by reseting the next sets of logs on top of the firebox.
Now, there will be an enormous aroma. One that makes my mouth water when I smell it.
As others have said, I wouldn't do any modifications to the stack.
Good luck to you in your decision.

I think the point is to learn how to regulate the smoke - which I think comes down to mostly using charcoal and not much wood. Conversly, lighting up loads of charcoal, and then dumping on 3 or 4 logs means you get plumes of white smoke as the wood comes up the temperature.

[Pferdestarke]

I worry about this too. Not only that but my wife moans every time I open the door and a tiny waft gets in the house.

The time I used my garage as a fish smoke house saw my anxiety levels soar.

[Evoluzione]

Extend the chimbly (Victorians had the same problem).

[fredt]

Pferdestarke said:

I worry about this too. Not only that but my wife moans every time I open the door and a tiny waft gets in the house.

The time I used my garage as a fish smoke house saw my anxiety levels soar.

Left the car running and hung a few haddocks from the rear spoiler?

[Pferdestarke]

fredt said:

Pferdestarke said:

I worry about this too. Not only that but my wife moans every time I open the door and a tiny waft gets in the house.

The time I used my garage as a fish smoke house saw my anxiety levels soar.

Left the car running and hung a few haddocks from the rear spoiler?

My Uncle tried to commit suicide under similar circumstances. Alarmingly he's de-catted ever since!

Just kidding.

[phatmanace]

did some more research last night. I think the reddit thread is probably on the money. Point being - more heat and less smoke, which should have the double advantage of tastier food and happier neighbours.

[Blown2CV]

how did the nazis manage it?

[prand]

Blown2CV said:

how did the nazis manage it?

Poor "taste" for the Food & Drink forum perhaps....

I agree with the posts above - I'd say if you are getting enough smoke to annoy the neighbours, you've got too much smoke.

I've experimented with hunks of cherry and oak on my Weber and I have got it down to two fist sized chunks of wood - enough for a decent smoke flavour, not enough to make the meat go acrid or smoke the neighbourhood. I put these on top of the pile of charcoal or briquettes once they are lit. I might get a bit of smoke to start with but then it settles down to a nice blue haze, which is not annoying in any way.

I also understand that smoking meat is really only effective at the start of the cooking process (possibly first 90 mins or 2 hrs) as it gets up to a certain temp. You don't then need to keep adding wood after this.

[oscmax]

OP - are you making sure the wood is sufficiently dry/seasoned when you add it? What you describe is often what happens if you use wood that has too high a moisture content (and too much of it).

[Blown2CV]

I thought smoker wood chips had to be soaked?

[don4l]

I wonder if you are simply producing too much smoke?

When I hot smoke, I wrap some wet wood chips in tinfoil and chuck this onto the charcoal. This doesn't produce too much smoke, but the food gets more than enough.

[mikal83]

Best smokers are electrical with damp wood chips. temp around 200 f, and I wrap the smoker in old towels. start at 10 pm after a hunk of pork has been marinated the previous 24 hrs. renew chips in the morning, take a temp reading of the pork butt or whatever, then leave it alone till you want to eat later that afternoon/early evening. I usually do 2 butts, one more salty, t'other a wet BBQ sauced one.

[phatmanace]

don4l said:

I wonder if you are simply producing too much smoke?

When I hot smoke, I wrap some wet wood chips in tinfoil and chuck this onto the charcoal. This doesn't produce too much smoke, but the food gets more than enough.

Yes - did some more research on other forums and basically the smoke should be barely visible. so more charcoal, more heat less smoke.