British BBQ Society Forums

I've recently (since switching to wood chunks) started getting a shiny buildup of creosote on the inside of my smoker, is it wise to remove this somehow or should I just leave it? I've not noticed any off taste on my food as a result and I figure it'll help prevent rust. The only problem is that it does seem to make the wheel of the lid vent stick once it's all cooled. If I should remove it, how would I go about doing it? It dries to a hard, shiny layer and oddly a finger ran over it comes away completely clean

Before anyone starts saying I need to use seasoned wood, I'm burning a dirty fire etc etc - It's well seasoned wood, the top vent's completely open and I get zero smoke from my charcoal

I noticed the same thing inside the lid of my Weber OTP the other month, and decided to give it a good scrub off as when I was adjusting the top vent some of it would crack off and fall on the meat so I wanted to stop that happening. Same as you though, I have clean fire, top vent open etc.

yes that's normal. It can spall off and fall on the food - that does happen sometimes in my kettle but never in my smokers. It does come off in big enough chunks to not be a problem.
When I first got my smoker I used to religiously clean it out and clean off that build up after every cook. You can imagine how often I do it now. Don't worry about it!

That's good to hear, I too passed the compulsive cleaning stage fairly quickly thanks for the input