Help! Creosote Issues When Smoking

[Tommy]

I suppose we are all novices somewhere, sometime. I'm 74, been around the block a number of times over the years. Camped out, built many fires in fireplaces, cooked on many different grills, and in that time, smoked my share of meat. Currently, my pre-occupation is smoking buckboard bacon. I am on my second attempt to perfect this craft. I've been following the "old fat guy" on YouTube. Plus checking out all I can on this forum. You are never too old to learn, though it can be painful and expensive, sometimes. Recently (within the past week), I have posted replies to a number of folks on this forum regarding generating sufficient smoke when using a 575 Pro or other models. I suffer from the same misconception as most....... that if a little is good, then a lot has got to be better. I have not been satisfied with one smoker tube, so I now have two. And since unlike some, I have never had a problem keeping them lit and doing what they are suppose to do, I have tried to reduce the amount of smoke escaping from my Traeger thinking that it was a good thing. I have sealed my door with felt strips to reduce heat and smoke escape. I have screwed my chimney cap down as far as it can go. Yes, smoke does escape via the chimney and the grease spout, and my smoker tubes continue to generate smoke... a lot of smoke.

Then I read this morning about issues connected with smoking pork belly and the danger of not permitting sufficient smoke to escape causing a creosote build-up not only inside your smoker, but also on the meat itself! For the novices among us, creosote is a black tar residue that can coat the inside of chimneys and Traeger smoker/grills, generally found in wood fires. The downside of this substance is that it can cause chimney fires that if left untreated, can actually burn your house down, if a chimney fire occurs. So, getting back to smoking meat.... so this morning I opened my 575 and low and behold, it is liberally coated with this black goo. (The good news is that my meat doesn't seem to be affected). At first I started wiping it down with my Traeger spray cleaner, but then realized that given time, it would harden and flake off, which we all have seen with all our grills. What I then did (right or wrong), was to start my grill and set the temp to 500 degrees and monitored it for 15 minutes at 500 and then shut it down. I am going to do a maintenance clean and see what it looks like. Why am I telling you all this? I would like to know your thinking about smoke generation and your experiences with creosote and what you believe are the do's and don'ts. I thank you all in advance.

 

[Slimpicker]

My entire smoker is black inside from the grill surface on up.
At least nothing is rusting!!! Took my stack cap off last week and it had a build up of crap under it I was surprised to see.
It was at the peak of the cap and about 3/8 in thick creosote... I washed the cap all up, no problem.
Otherwise so far it's just like a coat of thick paint right now, it's not a 'build up' anywhere else.

 

[Holden]

Funny you mention it. I finally had a large chunk fall on my steak the other day in my kamado. Flicked it off and kept on cooking. After the cook, I scraped all the loose stuff off the lid. The chimney is so caked that it's hard to operate when cold. I intend to take the lid apart and clean it well.

That said, I usually think of creosote in my woodstove and am quite serious about having it cleaned. As for the food, I accept that smoking things and cooking the way we do, I'm going to ingest a certain amount of carcinogens. Hopefully I can keep that to a minimum and still have really good smoked food.

 

[RemE]

I saw this coating most pronounced when I ran my cold smoke generator overnight making smoked salmon. The smoke condensed on all the surfaces in the cold grill, it cuts well with Traeger grill cleaner. Since I cook over 400F often the insides do flake after.