NOTE: This article is primarily intended for users of the Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Grill. However, the science applies to other wood-based smokers as well. (edited: 12/11/2024) If you're noticing a bitter, almost "spicy" flavor to your smoked foods, don't worry. You're not alone...You're simply doing it wrong!
Most people see all that billowing white smoke and think that's a guarantee of great food to come. It's not.
The thick white smoke and resulting bitter flavor come from byproducts of "incomplete combustion" that commonly occurs during the initial stages of cooking with wood products. It happens with charcoal grills (many people misattribute it to starter fluid or chemicals in the charcoal) it happens with traditional wood-burning smokers. And it happens with the Ninja Woodfire.
At the start of your cook, the wood product is at room temperature, and during the first several minutes will produce that thick, billowy white smoke. If you put your food on during this stage, your end product is going to taste like an ashtray.
Wood fuels ignite more quickly and burn much more cleanly once they're heated nearer to the point of combustion.
This image shows the difference between dirty smoke (left) and clean smoke (right). Notice the difference in transparency?
After about 10 minutes, and increasingly more so as you get nearer (and beyond) 20 minutes, the bulk of the wood product in the cooker (or hopper in the case of the Ninja Woodfire) will have warmed up and will be burning much more cleanly. The smoke coming from the exhaust will be more transparent, sometimes with an almost blue tint. THIS is when you know it's time to add your food (NOT when the display says "add food" and MOST DEFINITELY NOT just after you press "start") And you'll be in for a TREMENDOUSLY improved flavor experience. SIDE NOTE 1: It's a common misconception that since a Ninja Woodfire hopper only burns for about an hour, this wait will drastically reduce the smoke effect. UNTRUE! The woodfire only uses the pellets for color and flavor. And that effect happens early in the process and comparatively INTENSELY! You can read about that in this article. SIDE NOTE 2: Users of full-size pellet smokers don't typically experience the "white smoke" situation. This is due to the fact that since they use the pellets as the heat source, they burn the pellets 2x+ hotter (with the assistance of a fan - think blast furnace!) than the Ninja Woodfire does. And by the time the smoker reaches cooking temperature, the initial white smoke has burned off, and the pellets moving along the auger tube have heated to just below the combustion point.
Good luck! - W
When waiting after the add food instruction, should you re do the ignition sequence or not