First batch - way too smokey

[Michael Davidson]

Hey this is our first smoke and we've never eaten slow smoked food before really...

I used 3 fist sized hickory wood chunks. Put the meat in cold. It took about 4 hours before it got up to 200.

We did 3 different cuts of beef. All came out too smokey. Either that or we're not used to the flavor.

The flavor of the smoke overpowered all the beef flavor to be honest. I guess that was the problem. It was like eating 'smoke dirt'.

That's how I would I descibe it.

Is this normal flavor?

 

[Jim Lampe]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">It took about 4 hours before it got up to 200. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
did you use charcoal?

 

[MKEvenson]

Michael, welcome to the world of Smoke, but not too much. Would be nice for you to tell us what cuts of meat you cooked. What type of cooker?, You must have cooked at a pretty high temp to get your

meat to 200 degrees in 4 hrs. HH cook?

As far as smoke wood is concerned I don't think I have ever used as much as you describe. I am not surprised at your result. My advice is to use small pieces and sparingly until you know what you like. Each type of wood will also be different in it's effect.

Mark

 

[Michael Davidson]

Sorry I have an 18.5 WSM.

I used half briquette charcoal, half lump charcoal.

Sorry I meant that the WSM temp got up to 200 in 4 hours. It was a very, very slow rise in temp. I put about 16lbs of meat all together in cold from the fridge.

I had a small point brisket.

sirloin tip roast.

ribey roast.

then some beef ribs.

The smoke overpowered all the meat flavor.

It's not quite 'throw away', but dang.. anymore smoke and it would be.

 

[MKEvenson]

Michael, ah the plot thickens. Seems that quite a few folks have been having problems with cooker temps not going up lately. One cook had a bad thermometer, one covered his lower grate with foil. I wonder what you did? Please describe your WSM set up, ie vents, amount of hot vs cold coals, any other variations to the norm. Personally I let my cooker get to temp and stabelize before adding meat. I don't use water. I use a full basket of cold and add about 1/4-1/2 hot using a modified Minion Method. I start with all vents 100% open and close down lower vents about 25-50 degrees from my target. HH cooks are a bit different. You were cooking a lot of meat and all that cold meat was a giant heat sink.

Mark

 

[Noe]

Michael i only start with 10-12 briquettes and have never had a problem with temps rising to slow, sounds like you are smothering the air flow some how, check vents, also if using lower rack make sure you do not have meat hanging over the water pan, any piece of meat hanging over the water pan restricts air flow. As for the to smokey flavor imo the temps were just to low for to long.

 

[Geir Widar]

Just to give you a time frame, my WSM uses 20 minutes to go from cold to 225 degrees, using a lit chimney if charcoal, full water pan with cold water.

I usually add meat and wood when the smoker is hot.

 

[Chris E]

I would experiment with a lot less meat on there. Smoke 2 or 3 chickens or a couple racks of ribs. I put 12 lbs of butt and ribs on top and it took an hour and a half to get the temps up to 225 with all vents wide open and no water in the pan..

Bury some wood chunks in the unlit charcoal--they get consumed later in the cook and throw a chunk or two on top of the hot coals. Or just use one chunk and add through the door when the smoke stops. Should be wisps of smoke coming out of the vent, not billowing clouds of it.

If you are smoked food newbie use apple, mixed fruitwood or maybe oak wood. Hickory is pretty strong smoke flavor but sounds like you had too much smoke anyway.

 

[Doug Wade]

I like the suggestion to try some apple or similar woods. Also some lump charcoals put out a fair amount of smoke depending on how carbonized it is. Some of the oak lumps in particular you don't really need to add any wood at all. I might start with just the charcoal to start, see how you like that, then adding in some different wood and seeing which ones you do and don't like. It's a process.