Yes, I know it’s not a Kamado Joe—but it is a Kamado, and this is the most active Kamado group on Reddit, so I figured this is the best place to ask.
I’m having trouble getting that clean, thin blue smoke—even when the grill is ripping hot. Looking for some suggestions.
Here’s my typical setup:
• I use Jealous Devil lump charcoal
• I add 2–3 small wood chunks around the outer edge
• I build a mound in the center and light it with a Jealous Devil Boom starter
• I let it heat up to around 250°F
• I knock the coals around a bit, install the deflector plate, let the temp stabilize at my target, then start cooking
I don’t get complaints about the food, but the smoke color still bugs me. So today I really cranked it—held 500°F for 30 minutes—and still couldn’t get that nice clear smoke.
Any ideas what I might be doing wrong? Appreciate the help.
by JST-BL3ND-1N
18 Comments
That seems like nice clean smoke to me. You dont want dark or black smoke. That white/blue IS the clean smoke you want, from my experience. What you burning? Charcoal or post oak? You’ll get some variation there too. But smoke looks good
Looks solid, it’s the grease fire white billowing smoke you want to avoid.
It looks just a tad blue to me. Almost like 10 or 20 minutes and you would have burned off whatever is causing it.
Could also be the time of year as well. I had blue smoke for a good 30 minutes after bringing it up to temp but I’m in a cold damp climate.
That’s the correct color and flow. You want bluish white smoke. Not blue. Not white. In the sun it literally appears bluish-white.
What you DON’T want is anything sooty or black. Even if you have a weird dark and white mix of smoke. How does this happen, you may ask. Well, oftentimes we don’t always use or can afford the top tier charcoal brands. And if you’ve ever discovered a piece of pine (Cowboy) or plastic (Royal oak) the little burning yellow piece that’s giving off tendrils of black smoke are the giveaway. The pine or other resin wood seem to be more and more common in the past 10 years or so. Maybe because all this comes from Brazil now.
People complain (and rightly so tbh) about chunks of clay or rock.. hell, today we heard about gigantic teeth???!!! To me, I’ll take a rock over a chunk of plastic any day.
I’ve been a BGE/KJ smoker for a long time now
Looks good to me!!
When you knock the coals you’re igniting other coals. Don’t make a mound. It’ll burn cleaner but this is pretty good
If it’s really grimy in there, you won’t get “clear” ish smoke until that grime is burnt out. If it is, give it an hour at 600F that will clean it. I pile and poke flat for hot cooks, and leave the mound to the back for low and slow. Tuck the wood into the coals and ensure they are fully covered.
Looks good to me m/
I always put my wood chunks at the bottom underneath all the charcoal.
Also if I’m going for smoking temps I wouldn’t stir the charcoal, I don’t think that would be important here though
The conclave hasn’t made a decision yet, clearly.
the color does seem to be ok to me (and I agree with most of the others who commented above). sometimes the camera can show the colour/density slightly different than your naked eye so I presume this is the almost transparent smoke you get after the initial thick white smoke has cleared out. How does it smell if you hold your palm over the vent for a few seconds. After a number of experiments I found that clean smoke would have a pleasant smell when you do a palm test.
Also place your smoke wood at the bottom of the charcoal.
The biggest misdirect ever given to newcomers is the idea that smoke should be “blue”. It should really just not be pure white or black. Even blue smoke appears white depending on the lighting.
You want to be ready to send out smoke signals when they elect a new pope?
How does it smell? Good smoke smells like you want to eat it. Bad smoke smells acrid. If your smoke smells good then your food will taste good too.
Clear smoke? Get a gas grill.
I don’t go by color so much as smell. The good smoke smells like something you would want to eat. The bad smoke does not.
Sometimes I just let the fire breathe and open up the vent for a couple minutes and it helps me. But this is great smoke. Smell is king like others have said.
I had a cook where the fat drippings were giving off a ton of white smoke. It could be from the meat or residue