smoking Ash tray meat

[rjacobs]

continuously feed your fire small amounts of un-burned charcoal.  Like 3-4 pieces an hour.
 
I always had a mental problem with burning a chimney of charcoal and then adding it.  Wasted a good amount of the burn time on the charcoal IMO.  So I just kept adding 3-4 chunks of charcoal every hour or so.  If you dump a ton of un-burned on you will smother the fire and get the thick white/black/yellow nasty smoke.
 
Or cook hot and fast.  325-350, foil at 160, finish at 190(Brisket) or 200(pork).  Thats the ticket with wood burners IMO.
 
 
I cheat now and switched to electric.  23 hours, never touched the smoker.  Ridiculously good.
 

Have to learn how to have a nice hot fire but still keep my cooking/smoking temperature in the 230 - 250 range.
I get lots of white/gray smoke when I add charcoal at 2/3 or 3/4 mark in my smoke.

 
you need a very small, hot fire that you tend often.  If you try to have 20lb of charcoal to start, you cant control it.  If you are using huge logs of wood, you also cant control it and the wood tends to burn instead of smoulder.  If you have big 12" pieces of wood, I suggest cutting them down to 3" pieces at most.  Use your charcoal for heat and small amounts of wood for the smoke.
 
What you see people do on giant smokers that cook hundreds of pounds of meat doesnt necessarily relate to small smokers cooking a pork shoulder or brisket.
 
Ive run a big smoker before that had a lot of baffles and tuning plates and doors and what not and it was run on straight wood, lots of it, BUT there was a TON of control to be had over what that wood would do.  On your WSM you have none of that except an intake and an exhaust.

 

[winland]

I just wish it was easy to cook some meat.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

LOL add burned coals only, add unlit coals only, lolzzzz. Less wood, more wood this is too funny.
 
Use natural charcoal only and there should not be issues but the chemical (not vegetable) binders in regular can cause off flavors. Don't put food on smoker until you see thin blue smoke, a couple minutes in the white smoke will immediately turn it bitter.
 
Good fuel burning hot = clean burn, so you are better with a hot fire with vent control than pulling it with open vents, then the fire is too low and smoldering, so it is more ashy. 
 
Experiment with the puzzle above lol.

 

[grantmichaels]

continuously feed your fire small amounts of un-burned charcoal.  Like 3-4 pieces an hour.
 
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you need a very small, hot fire that you tend often.

 
You are speaking my language ...
 
http://amzn.com/B001U0O2UI
 
I picked up those three, one in each size, and most of cooks have fires that burn in those baskets down in the box ...
 
Small fire FTW!

 

[rjacobs]

I just wish it was easy to cook some meat.

 
it is, buy an electric smoker and a wireless Maverick ET733!

LOL add burned coals only, add unlit coals only, lolzzzz. Less wood, more wood this is too funny.
 

 
And they are ALL legit techniques depending on what kind of smoker you have IMO.  Big smoker can tolerate different things than a small smoker.  Things that you do in a big smoker will kill your small smoker and things you do in your small smoker, a big smoker will laugh at. 
 
I wouldnt think about using small chunks of wood in a monster smoker cooking a couple hundred lbs of meat, I would use whole logs(or splits).  Throw a split or whole log on a WSM and it will be disaster city. 
 
Big smoker would probably tolerate a 25lb bag of unlit charcoal tossed onto it without choking, but throw a chimney of unlit on a small smoker and you will kill it.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Yes, it is good to point out the OP has a WSM.
 
Minion method with natural coals and a large lit source should work fine.

I don't have one though. Maybe JHP can chime in, I think he uses snake method.

 

[pepperguy1]

How do you start your smoker?Do you use charcoal fluid?I my self smoke with oak wood.My favorite wood is blackjack oak to use.If you use pecan or hickory go easy on it.I stack the smoker box with wood and let it burn down.        

 

[Kikaida]

Pepperguy1 brings up a good point...Never use fluid, always use a chimney.
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I got a 22" WSM and have never had the issue you described. I use plain ol' Kingsford blue bag and have literally gone through to 6-700 pounds of the stuff. Entered my first competition last month and took first place, so I have no problems with it. It burns long and is easy to control...stinks when lighting in the chimney but that's a fast hot oxygen rich ignition....The slower starts in an oxygen starved smoker cuts that stink out.
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My suggestion is change your wood. I've piled in a lot of wood in the past and thought "uh-oh" but things came out fine. If you're using hickory, that could be your issue, its a very pungent wood. Also if your wood isn't cured all the way, that could be a huge problem. Have to remember some of the bigger pits use only wood logs to do their thing and they're Q is amazing. Green wood would cause the issue you speak of as well.
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I use mesquite as my primary wood and fruit woods as my secondary. Around 1 mesquite to 2 fruit wood is a good balance (for me). I usually start with 5 fist sized chunks after the smoker has settled down from the initial coal dump (remember, 22")...Toss them on and let that initial blast of smoke thin a little, then put your meat on. That should last a long time. Roll them around after a few hours and they'll put out faint blue smoke again for a good while. Some say the bark can make things bitter, I've never experienced that....But wood varies from region to region so I can't completely dismiss that premise.
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After years of BBQing and trying all sorts of methods and recipes...Its the simplest efforts and least complicated techniques that make the best Q. You'll dial it in, just keep at it.