Getting a bitter taste...


 
A

Andrew P

New member
So the other day I did a butt which was really good. I then tried my hand at some ribs and a turkey breast. They both were just 'okay'...nothing special. I wasn't particullary fond of the bitter taste. Now, I've searched the forum a decent amount and saw the white smoke causes this. Should I assemble smoker and wait for it to run out of the thick whtie smoke and then put meat on?

Thanks for any help.
 
Sometimes you get a bitter taste when you use too much wood. You shouldn't get a thick white smoke by the time you bring your smoker up to cooking temp. By that time the smoke should be thin.
 
Tony,

What's considered "up to temp" in your mind? I've read/heard differing opinions about when meat should go on the smoker. Both times I've used my WSM, I've let the dome temp come up to about 200F before adding any meat. I have heard of others that light their coal, add their smoke wood, add their water, add their meat, and then close up their cooker. Being a newbie this has left me with a bit of confusion.

So what is your feeling on the matter? Does the WSM need to come all the way up to your target temp before adding meat? Most of the way (i.e. 200F for a target of 225F)? Or do you just add everything, including the meat, right away?

Thanks.
 
Brian Johnson said:
Tony,

What's considered "up to temp" in your mind? I've read/heard differing opinions about when meat should go on the smoker. Both times I've used my WSM, I've let the dome temp come up to about 200F before adding any meat. I have heard of others that light their coal, add their smoke wood, add their water, add their meat, and then close up their cooker. Being a newbie this has left me with a bit of confusion.

So what is your feeling on the matter? Does the WSM need to come all the way up to your target temp before adding meat? Most of the way (i.e. 200F for a target of 225F)? Or do you just add everything, including the meat, right away?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Brining to temp to me is my cooking temperature...225 or 250. Then I add my meat. I don't have a dome temp but I did add a temperature gauge at grate level to get a more acuurate temp.

Here is my typical cook when using the WSM.
Fill the charcoal ring and get my chimney half full of blazing hot coals.
Set up my WSM add water or foil my water pan depending on what I'm doing.
Open all vents and leave it alone for 30-45 min. By then my smokers is usually at 250 -275. Then I close 1 vents to get a lower temp And I add my meat. There shouldn't be a thick white smoke by then..
 
Brian Johnson said:
I have heard of others that light their coal, add their smoke wood, add their water, add their meat, and then close up their cooker.
Click to expand...
This is exactly how I do it, with Kingsford Competition charcoal and 3-6 fist-sized chunks of wood.

You can get bitter from over-smoking, and you can get it from creosote. Creosote comes from poorly burning wood or charcoal, I know guys with stick burners have to worry about it, but I've never run into that issue. Typically people do too much smoke wood, either at the start or they keep adding it if they don't see smoke coming out of their smoker. That's a mistake, you should load up with however much wood you want at the start then just add charcoal if necessary later.
 
Like others are saying, I like to let the charcoal start burning clean (very little visible smoke) before putting the WSM together. Then after I assemble I make sure it's burning clean again. Then I add smoke wood and meat to ensure any smoke I see is my smoke wood. You're lookin for TBS (thin blue smoke). I plan for this to take a hour from start to finish: lighting the chimney to cooking.
 
Last edited:
" I have heard of others that light their coal, add their smoke wood, add their water, add their meat, and then close up their cooker."

This is how I do it also. This is a good thread and I'll be curious to see how others do it.
 
there have been other threads posted here about this...
I believe it is all up to the cook/chef... how do you want to do this?
I fire everything up, add my protein and walk away.
i'm old, so my taste buds are also old. however, I can still tell good barbecue from CapitalS***!
yes, fuel can, in my opinion, add bad taste to food...
butt, as the old saying goes: To Each, His Own.
how ever you like to do it, do it.
 
My target temp is 225-250. I'm using kingsford blue. I think next time I will take my Time putting the meat on. Usually by the time I dump the chimney it's less then 5 minutes till meat is on. I'm going to wait a little longer lock in my temp and make sure I have a good smoke then add meat.
 
Like Dave A mentioned, sounds like creosote to me.
Wet meat and/or fire not getting enough air, maybe top vent closed, or closed too much.
 
Usually by the time I dump the chimney it's less then 5 minutes till meat is on
Click to expand...

IMO that's your problem. You've got cold coals getting hot coals loaded on top. It takes a while for those cold coals to come up to temp. They may not burn yet but they will exude those funky smells that K-Blue puts out when getting going.

I've found that firing up the cooker about an hour (or more) before putting the meat on will get all that funkiness out.

Russ
 
Russ Sylvester said:
IMO that's your problem. You've got cold coals getting hot coals loaded on top. It takes a while for those cold coals to come up to temp...
Click to expand...

Isn't that the whole point of the Minion method? As the hot coals go out the cold coals are igniting and coming up to temp. Now I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything, but most everything I've read has recommended either the Minion method or some other variation on the theme wherein you add lit coals to unlit coals and assemble your cooker prior to the unlit coals being fully lit. Again not an expert, but it seems to me that when you have 200 fully lit coals in your cooker you're gonna have a hard time keeping your temps down in the 225F-250F range.

That said, if you're waiting an hour (or more) before putting on your meat, are all of your coals burning at that point? If so, do you typically have to add more coals part way through the cook?
 
The other variable to consider is the type of wood used. Personaly I find mesquite to have a bitter flavor, and I'm not a fan of Hickory either. I prefer fruit woods (apple, cherry, peach).

FWIW, I agree with Brian Johnson, the whole point of the Minion method is to mix lit with unlit briquettes to have an extended low temp cook.
 
Unlit coals in the cooker will pre-heat to at least 225 (the internal temperature of the cooker) and quite probably much higher since the unlit is right next to the heat source. Putting lit coals on top of room-temp coals and then immediately adding meat does not allow for that pre-heating period to take place.

Waiting an hour should not have all of the coals burning. The whole theory of the Minion method is that the igntion moves outward across each briq. The briq outboard of the currently burning briq won't catch fire until the ignition edge reaches it. By the time the most outboard coals finally get lit, the inner coals are very probably spent or close to it. So theoretically there never is a point where all of the coals are burning at once or at least not at full intensity.

But let's assume for a moment that they all are lit at the same time or even you filled the ring with two chimneys of fully lit coals. Choking down the air flow will bring the combustion rate down to where it's not difficult at all to maintain temperature. In fact, a number of Chris's example cooks show him using all lit in the ring. No big deal.

I've yet to have to add coals to a single cook session even with a full load in the cooker. I have had to add coals to a cook that followed a previous cook.

Russ
 
Russ Sylvester said:
Unlit coals in the cooker will pre-heat to at least 225 (the internal temperature of the cooker) and quite probably much higher since the unlit is right next to the heat source. Putting lit coals on top of room-temp coals and then immediately adding meat does not allow for that pre-heating period to take place.

Waiting an hour should not have all of the coals burning. The whole theory of the Minion method is that the igntion moves outward across each briq. The briq outboard of the currently burning briq won't catch fire until the ignition edge reaches it. By the time the most outboard coals finally get lit, the inner coals are very probably spent or close to it. So theoretically there never is a point where all of the coals are burning at once or at least not at full intensity.

But let's assume for a moment that they all are lit at the same time or even you filled the ring with two chimneys of fully lit coals. Choking down the air flow will bring the combustion rate down to where it's not difficult at all to maintain temperature. In fact, a number of Chris's example cooks show him using all lit in the ring. No big deal.

I've yet to have to add coals to a single cook session even with a full load in the cooker. I have had to add coals to a cook that followed a previous cook.

Russ
Click to expand...

I understand this. So your saying by allowing an hour or so I am allowing those completely unlit cold coals to be preheated so when they are actually ignited that funky white smoke wont be there?
 
Russ Sylvester said:
IMO that's your problem. You've got cold coals getting hot coals loaded on top. It takes a while for those cold coals to come up to temp. They may not burn yet but they will exude those funky smells that K-Blue puts out when getting going.

I've found that firing up the cooker about an hour (or more) before putting the meat on will get all that funkiness out.

Russ
Click to expand...

I can't help but wonder-- if using an all natural charcoal (briq) such as K-Comp or Stubbs, one shouldn't have that same possible issue, with the "funky smells" of the charcoal getting started-- right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top