Way too much charcoal flavor - help!


 
I was watching an episode of "How It's Made" on the Discovery Channel and they went through the process. I was surprised to learn that lime is added to the bricks and it is what provides the white ash.

I've also been to a pecan processing plant and asked them what they do with the leftover shells. They said charcoal manufacturing plants compress them into their bricks. I don't know which ones they were selling to.
 
A cleaner burn will certainly help, however, something new to add to the discussion is that the previous life of the wsm may play into this.

This is from page 10 of the Harry Soo pdf:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Seasoning your smoker: It takes a while for a WSM or any pit to develop the right aroma and bark/gunk on the sides and dome. I wouldn't recommend you enter a contest with a new pit. I season my new pits by cooking bacon strips or scrap pieces of meat (e.g. pork trimmings) to generate oil vapors, smoke, and grease to coat the inside. I think it takes at least 10 cooks for a WSM to develop the right "seasoning" for consistent flavor. Whatever you do, never cook hot dogs or fish in the same WSM that you use for cooking ribs, chicken, pork or brisket. Get a separate Weber kettle for hot dogs, hamburgers, fish, lamb, etc. If you've ever tried smoking meat in a pit that was previously used to cook hotdogs, you'll know what I mean. I find cooking ribs and chicken in a pit previously used to cook hamburgers affects the rib and chicken flavor. Remember my frame of mind is winning contests. Aunt Martha probably wouldn't notice much. A CBJ on the other hand, would! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm not sure how much of this I buy into, but I do know that my bbq has a certain flavor, that no matter what I do, I can't shake. I'm considering giving one of my wsm's a serious cleaning and starting over with a new brand of charcoal.

I'm thinking that its possible that your meat is picking up flavors from the wsm as it heats up.

just another hypothesis for you to consider
 
That's the thought of a lot of folks. I was talking with my cousin about the difference between a clean fire in a stickburner and a water smoker. He seemed to think that the seasoning of the pit mattered as much or more than the type of wood smoke. He used the example of a seasoned cast iron skillet. Must be something to it, but I don't know how much. I remember an old Texan telling me that if you cleaned the inside of your pit you'd ruin it.
 
I tend to agree with Harry and Chris both.

Harry is correct. It takes a while to get that layer of 'seasoning' inside the WSM and it needs to be the right 'seasoning'. I thoroughly cleaned out my WSMs last year and that was a mistake. It took me a long time to get back to the point where the cookers cooked right. To those of you that are making that Ewwwww face right now, I do completely clean out the bottom section after each cook, and brush out the lid when it starts to flake.

Chris is also correct in his article when he eludes to each person making their own decision between briq or lump. I personally exclusively use lump in the WSMs. I normally will use lump in the OTG for the chicken but if I run short I have no problem with using CompK. I just be sure to let it fully ash over before cooking on it.

My $0.02

Russ
 
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