After doing some ribs with 3-2-1 method and deciding they had a bit of a sharp bitter taste or oversmoked flavor, I think I'm starting up my 18.5" WSM incorrectly. I'm not sure if the taste was creosote btw, there was no numbing before tasting the bitter and it wasn't metallic either. So, here's what I did..........
filled charcoal ring with lump
placed good sized chunk of pecan in middle under about 1 inch of small lump chunk
placed 2-3 chunks around outside of ring
Lit 1/3rd chimney of lump with the chimney on top of the charcoal (had seen others do this and it seems less messy than on top of my gas grill grate)
dumped chimney on top of middle of charcoal, assembled smoker and waited for 225ish.
As soon as the smoker hit 225 I put the ribs on. I notice, especially this time (don't normally put a chunk of wood in the middle though I've seen it done on youtube) that I will get a good amount of white smoke for up to 30 minutes or more after I hit 225, put the meat on, and start shutting down the vents. I'm thinking it's this period of white smoke that I'm messing up on and I should be instead closing down the vents and waiting for the smoke to die down before the meat goes on? I'm also curious if I should have put that chunk of wood in the middle. My final question is a general meat smoking question. I've read that you should plan to smoke for 1/2 the cook time. With ribs and 3-2-1 my thought was smoke for the 3, and then the 2-1 parts no smoke. Do I have that wrong and I should only smoke ribs for 1/2 of the first 3 hour chunk?
filled charcoal ring with lump
placed good sized chunk of pecan in middle under about 1 inch of small lump chunk
placed 2-3 chunks around outside of ring
Lit 1/3rd chimney of lump with the chimney on top of the charcoal (had seen others do this and it seems less messy than on top of my gas grill grate)
dumped chimney on top of middle of charcoal, assembled smoker and waited for 225ish.
As soon as the smoker hit 225 I put the ribs on. I notice, especially this time (don't normally put a chunk of wood in the middle though I've seen it done on youtube) that I will get a good amount of white smoke for up to 30 minutes or more after I hit 225, put the meat on, and start shutting down the vents. I'm thinking it's this period of white smoke that I'm messing up on and I should be instead closing down the vents and waiting for the smoke to die down before the meat goes on? I'm also curious if I should have put that chunk of wood in the middle. My final question is a general meat smoking question. I've read that you should plan to smoke for 1/2 the cook time. With ribs and 3-2-1 my thought was smoke for the 3, and then the 2-1 parts no smoke. Do I have that wrong and I should only smoke ribs for 1/2 of the first 3 hour chunk?
