Hey all. First time posting!
So I got my first Kamado, a standard size classic Kamado Joe about six months ago. Loving it, but still working on getting my smoke technique right. Seems to be the main challenge with a Kamado as opposed to other types of smoker, as its hard to get the wood to burn hot enough to produce nice quality smoke without it burning out too quick or spiking the temperature. It's definitely possible and I have achieved it from time to time but consistency definitely seems to be something everyone struggles with, judging from the amount of posts on the topic and the huge variation in techniques.
Anyway, I had a thought. Would it be possible to produce charcoal that wasn't quite finished combusting, so that a certain percentage of the tasty non-carbon wood compounds remained? Just enough that you could simply use this instead of regular lump + regular wood, and you'd be pumping out a small but consistent amount of wood smoke throughout the burn? No more fretting about chunks vs chips, where to place and whether & how to add partway through. Plus no worries about either sudden belching of thick smoke or its total disappearance!
Or am I misunderstanding the process, and any such 'incomplete' charcoal, while producing some smoke, wouldn't necessarily be producing the right type to make those butts delicious?