Is there a difference between charcoal and electric?

[flyboys]

I currently use a charcoal smoker and have never tasted smoked meat from an electric/ propane smoker. Is there any difference in taste, and if there is, is it noticible? I know with a grill I can taste the difference, but wasn't sure with a smoker.

 

[pigcicles]

You can make excellent Q on most any cooker. But in my opinion you can tell the difference between them. Others may disagree, but I think most of the time you can tell.

 

[deejaydebi]

I agree but then I prefer charcoal and wood to all wood.

I don't know if it hold true on all smokers but I recently had the oportunity to smoke with someone who used and electric smoker. When using the same rub and amounts of rub on both the electric and an charcoal smoker the rub all but disappeared on the charcoal smoker flavor wise. It was excelent on the electric smoker.

Now I have to add that this electric smoker was a professional resteraunt smoker not a little home model and baked more than smoked so that could have been the reason. Both where cooked at about the same temperatures.

When using a rub designed for a real smoker would it taste to heavy on an electric? I can't say, but you seen t be able to use a lot less rub in an electrci and a lot more sugar without burnng.

 

[smoked]

if done right, there will be no notice in taste......now in smoke ring yes, the electrics tend not to give much of a smoke ring, but taste wise......no difference at all

 

[bbqpitstop]

Having the commercial electric I can say that all the smoke rings I've seen from my buds that smoke with wood or charcoal and wood are definitely on the "redder" side that what I'm capable of with the electric.......when Debi was here, we kept the smoking on the light side due to time constraints as well as pumping out product as the "northerners" prefer the lighter smoke flavor 90 percent of the time.

When I have smoked butts heavier with the wood chips I do get a real nice distinct smoke ring, but it is more pink than bright red. Not sure what the process is that makes the difference as my oven does act as more of a convection roasting unit with smoke generator than the "campfire" approach of the purist wood and charcoal units.

There is, for anyone interested a new course available at Texas A&m called barbecue 101 that delves deeply into the science of why meat does what it does..........check out the National Barbecue Association Web site for more info on that...

There's also a book called sausage making secrets and another called Smoke n Spice that get into the science of it as well...........I don't care how ya get there, so long as it tastes good when its done........lol

 

[flyboys]

Thank you very much for your replies. Bbqpitstop, do you know if that course at Texas A&M available online? I went to their website and was unable to locate it.

 

[bbqpitstop]

Fly, this is all that is on the National web page right now, but I'll look through my barbecue news and get the instructors name for you and some contact information. Remind me of this promise in a pm this week will you? It's late at night right now (1:57 a.m. actually) and it will take me a little shuffling of the papers on my desk to find it. At the National show last year this course was just debuting but the intensity of it was intriguing.........apparently texas a & m has a whole college course and degree based on meat processing for agricultural and dairy farmers and this is a spinoff or component of that and is open to the public.

 

[gypsyseagod]

there are many ways... and i have turned out some great smoked meats on a horsetrailer sized silver box & others... but to me- if it don't come out of a big black pit w/ wood burning - it just ain't bbq.....it's just hard to buy/sell or advertise " real pit smoked bbq" if it comes out of anything other....but thats my opinion. kinda like the wendy's commercials of a burger- but then what ya get out of the drive thru- lost in translation....

 

[muddy pond]

I find that if using a log style pit, the main attraction is the aroma that it infuses around the area that is a real draw for the customers of the BBQ. It also makes a great conversation piece when removing any meat from a pit smoker as it will light on lookers and just maybe their appitites.

Now as far as taste....... that really is the million dollar question.... as most of the real famous BBQ joints in Memphis and there abouts use log pits for a reason......

 

[bbqpitstop]

I used to think the same about the black box and the log fed versions of smokers.......haven't used a small or retail version of an electric so I can't comment on those.

But I will tell you this. For some reason the Friedrich I have emitts the sweetest smelling smoke I've ever smelled.....now everything I smell that is log fed just has a "campfire" edge to it wrapped around the wood flavored smell.....with mine, I'm getting just pure white hickory smell, no campfire aftertaste but a nice smoke flavor.........I can control it real well with how many times I fill the woodchip basket.

My reasoning on this is pretty simple. The company that made these is reasonable for extremely large capacity smokehouses for the meat processing industry. They've dealt with the science of getting meat infused with true smoke for years and it has to be consistent to boot.

One thing that struck me about the company and their competitors when I researched the industry is that they never use a log fed system in meat processing for sanitary and consistency purposes. It's too hard to control how much bark vs. how much density vs. burn times etc......the chips we use are pure, surface area is identical, and they burn at a very slow rate.

Don't know how this info might transfer to electric units on the retail market today, but I hope it helps. I have heard that pellet fed units tend to leave a distinct off flavor on the meat. Has anyone else experienced that?

 

[bbqpitstop]

Just wanted to add, perception is reality and I'm flabbergasted at the amount of "famous bbq joints" who's owners have fessed up to a log fed unit on display with a commercial pit down the street hidden in a commissary. I've spoken with hundreds of them in the last three restaurant shows we've exhibited in. Smoke n Mirrors they tell me. Those in Texas go as far to say that if they were caught pulling meat out of a stainless steel roaster smoker type pit they'd be lynched, but the ole boys club knows better than to mention it as a business courtesy to other restaurant owners.

As for onlookers standing in line, there's no doubt removing the meat from the pit is quite the show stopper. But from where I sit, I was never so amazed until I saw a commercial unit open up with hundreds of pounds of meat rotating on racks and all the drippings just basting roast after roast. It's especially effective up here in the north I believe, because most people aren't accustomed to seeing so many offset wood box barrel smokers. They're in just about everyone's backyards throughout the midwest and southern states.

When I was single I used to call my rig the "man magnet" cause boy did I have friends. Can I see the wood box? Can I see the schematics? Somehow, in going commercial, I don't think you lose the total allure of the "pit" or the mechanics and science of the "pit", to me, it's just a bigger better form of cooking for more than a few hundred at a time.

 

[gypsyseagod]

i've done que on both styles & i'm sure that 1 "roto monster" was a freidrich by all descriptions- i never made a note cause i was 14-15 yrs old....but what ya say about exas isright.. and for customers in general- pulling slicing & serving is the show- people & me too will just not eat off a booth that ain't big black & steel w/ a wood fire- it's like seeinga rock band w/out thebigamps- i'm sure i took this way offtopic but i'm not only taking my bbq to differentvenues in places that are used todifferent styles- i'm doin celtic,scottish, & ren fairs so i may be smoking haggis w/a texas jalepeno flair.... it's just a different take....

 

[bbqpitstop]

That's what keeps it all so interesting...different strokes.....lol......I'm no barbecue snob that's for sure....I love it all and I'm looking forward to eating my way across the country...so make sure you're ALL ON THAT STICKY PUSH PIN MAP, cause I'll get there eventually.....

Honey, who's at the door, is it Ed McMahon? No it's that crazy bbqpitstop from Buffalo and she's got a box of raw meat with her!

 

[flyboys]

I'm guessing from a commercial stand point, being a restaurant owner, it just wouldn't be financially sound to use a commercial smoker fueled soley by charcoal/wood? I appreciate all of the replies. It seems like there is an endless number of ways to prepare good tastin bbq.

 

[muddy pond]

(But I will tell you this. For some reason the Friedrich I have emitts the sweetest smelling smoke I've ever smelled.....now everything I smell that is log fed just has a "campfire" edge to it wrapped around the wood flavored smell.....with mine, I'm getting just pure white hickory smell, no campfire aftertaste but a nice smoke flavor.........I can control it real well with how many times I fill the woodchip basket. )



You need to try a Meadow Creek wood pit and I will bet you wont smell like a camp fire or taste that acid flavor whether you have bark or green wood. Just ask a few of my customers about the color, taste and tendeness of the meat. We pride ourselves in having meat that has been smoked for 10-12 hrs that comes out a chestnut color that falls apart as it is lifted off the grates and needs no sauce added for it is real sweet hickory flavored old fashioned BBQ.