Bitter Tasting Turkey

[Big Shaker]

I smoked a turkey today and it came out creosote looking on the outside skin. Came off my gloves onto the meat while handling it.
-Propane smoker.
-Injected with Butter and Honey.
-Smoked at 275*-300* with competition blend pellets for smoke.

 

[912smoker]

Did you have the top vent wide open?
How did the meat taste?

Keith

 

[SmokinEdge]

Poor ventilation?

 

[JIMSMOKES]

What color was the smoke? Did you enough airflow

 

[Fueling Around]

Low airflow in combination with too much smoke production.

 

[Big Shaker]

Did you have the top vent wide open?
How did the meat taste?

Keith

The vent was 1/2 open. The meat was good but, as I was handing it the black got on my meat. Not real appealing.

 

[Steve H]

Sounds like dirty smoke to me. Poor airflow.

 

[jcam222]

As others said poor air flow could have been the issue. I've also found that if the surface of the raw bird is too wet it tends to get bitter too.

 

[gmc2003]

Besides dirty smoke you may have oversmoked the bird. Poultry takes on smoke rather quickly(in my opinion) and if not careful you may have oversmoked it without knowing.

Chris

 

[schlotz]

Definitely with Chis, it's way too easy to oversmoke a bird. As a result my preferred way these days is to spin the bird on my grill with a smoke tube full of pellets. Two advantages, the bird bastes itself at a higher temp which produces excellent crispy golden skin and the amount of smoke is just right.

 

[JckDanls 07]

And another vote on bad airflow... Also... Is the burner burning clean ??... As in a nice blue flame instead of a big orange flame...

 

[normanaj]

Also... Is the burner burning clean ??

This was also what I was thinking.