Enough is Enough

[btsholes]

How do you know when the meat has taken on enough smoke? I usually cook with all oak. Some of the meat tastes a little bitter. So i tried charcoal with adding enough misquite just to get a little smoke. The meat on the butts was great, but with the bark chopped up with it you got a taste of bitterness. My question is when does the smoke stop doing good and start to be too much?

 

[gooose53]

It's possible you are not letting the smoke out fast enough. It shouldn't hold the smoke in the cooker for a long time but just kiss the meat on it's way out.

 

[irishteabear]

How much smoke are you getting? You basically want to smell it and barely see it. You may also want to add some fruit wood to help cut the taste a bit.

 

[jamesb]

If you are getting bitterness, you are getting creosote. Usually caused by a number of things like incomplete combustion of wood, unseasoned or water soaked wood or not enough drage in the pit. I always strive for for a small, hot, clean burning fire. There will be plenty of smoke flavor in the food without that over smoked flavor.

In my offsets, I cook with the intake and exhaust wide open and control the temps with the size of the fire...

 

[werdwolf]

Sounds like you are getting to much of a good thing!

Thin blue smoke is key. to much smoke, not enough draft, or green wood and you will get Creosote.

It seems you are using some strong flavored woods. Try adding fruit wood or Alder also.

Let us know if these suggestions improve things for you.

 

[jirodriguez]

I have a fairly large offset (Smokin-Pro 800), and use primarily Hickory. I find that if I add about 3 fist sized lumps per hour for the first 3 hours it works quite well. I add all three pieces at one time - billows a little bit when first added then settles down to that perfect thin blue collor

 

[forluvofsmoke]

If the smoke is giving off a bitter taste, or it numbs your lips & tongue, your smoke is stale or too heavy. The smoke can't be white very often or for extended periods, and the smoke chamber ventilation must allow enough exchange of air to keep the smoke fresh.

Also, once the internal temp of the meat is up to 160* (sometimes lower), I stop the smoke and finish cooking without it. For ribs or other smaller items which you don't probe for temps, 3 hours smoke time is sufficient (the smaller it is, the less smoke it needs). Exceptions may include the smoking of pork belly (bacon), kielbasa sausage, salami, etc. Just follow the recipe's instructions.

Keep it thin & blue...if you can smell smoke, you're smokin'...

Eric

 

[meat hunter]

When the smoke has become too much, more than likely you passed the internal temps you want. With that said, creosote is the culprit here, and not so much the smoke as it is stale stagnant smoke. The smoke should enter your cooking chamber and leave thru the stack without any interuptions. You just want it to kiss the meat as it goes by. In fact, when you look at the top of your stack when the smoker is going, you should see the heat waves, just like looking down a hot blacktop road, and the smoke should look like you just blew out a couple of matches. Many factors at play. Is your wood seasoned enough? 6 month minimum. Has it been kept covered and out of the rain? Have you tried preburning or heating the next stick that goes in? Is your chimney wide open? Do you have a small manageable fire or do you have smoldering coals? How tall is your stack? Does the stack go into your unit all the way down to the grates? Who would have guessed so many factores come into play when smoking meats LOL. Not to worry, I went thru the learning curves as well as everyone else. Thats the fun/frustrating part of this endeovor. Luckily we have a big family here to help. Why dont you post some pics of your rig so we can see your setup, inside and out. Maybe some members here can offer you some benificial modifications or pointers to maximize your smoker.