Newbie here

[jrsquared66]

Hello, My name is Joe. I live in Kimberly, Wisconsin. I have a Smoke Hollow gas charcoal grill with a smoke box on the side. I smoked some chicken today and the meat had an acrid taste. I was using cherry wood. Any ideas on why?

 

[noboundaries]

Joe, welcome to SMF!  Glad you are here and using your equipment. 

It doesn't matter what kind of wood you are using, an acrid taste is due to loading the meat before the smoke was ready.  If the smoke is white or grey when you load the meat, creosote from the wood will quickly buildup on the exterior of the meat and give you an acrid taste.  Wait until the smoke is starting to turn blue before you add your meat. If you start your smoker going, then wait about an hour before loading the meat, you'll be fine. 

Don't let the fire fool you either.  I've seen blue smoke after 20 minutes, then when I loaded the meat the smoke turned heavy grey.  That is caused by the cold meat cooling off the chamber and the wood starts burning dirty again.  Just wait it out and you'll be in the smoking zone!

Have fun!

Ray  

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF!

Glad to have you join us!

Al