To Much Smoke Flavor

tommyc325

Hey Everyone

Im a newby here and I have been having allot of issues with to much smoke flavor. I have read a good article and I now know that I have to wait longer but, one questions i have is... Do I let the charcoal burn with the top off with extreme heat or do I let it burn at the desired cooking temperature?

Tom

IrishDevl

Please expand on your too much smoke flavor topic.  What got to much smoke?  What wood did you use?  More details and we can help.  Are you using mesquite, etc...  All things we will need to help you with your to much smoke flavor issue. 

Flamethrower

Start chokin it down about 50 degrees before your target temp.an let it sit there for awhile before ya start cooking. Smell the smoke,Good smoke-Bad smoke. You'll be able to tell the dif. My XL starts to get better about 250-300

IrishDevl

Are you cooking poultry?

stike

too much good smoke, or too much bad?

meaning... this tastes great, but the smoke is too strong.  or, it tastes like chemicals

let the smoke clear before putting food on.  i don't mean 'clear' as in 'become invisible'.  wait for it to clear of the VOCs and fumes from fresh fuel.  resued fuel will have less of this.

essentially, smell the smoke before putting the food in. if it smells good, it will taste good.  smells bad, tastes bad.

after that, THEN it becomes a discussion of whether it is too much or not enough

mustgrill

It does not really make any difference what you Q, you can use to much wood to smoke the fare in your smoker. There is a balance of time, weight and type of meat that your cooking. Time and experience will guide you in the ways of Q. I would wait for a red bed of coals for a short cook like fast grilling. For a long cook just get it burning, reduce the air till you get the temp you want. Add the chips or chunks and go from there.

tommyc325

Thanks Guys - Im deff not letting the charcoal cook enough. Its good to know to let it sit 50 deg. under desired temp and let that cook out the bad charcoal taste. Its a nice test of smelling the smoke before placing food onto the grate.

Is it ok if the charcoal is still black or do i want it all glowing red?

OLD NORTH STATE BBQ CO.

Check out the naked whiz's charcoal review. You may be using a charcoal that's too smoky for your tastes.

stevesails

most or a repeat, but I always let the egg burn till the smoke is clear, then wai another 15 minutes.

If you are cooiking chicken and the fat is drippin on the coals. leave the top off and control the temp with the bottom vent.

also. if you reuse the lump the second cook, the smoke will disappear quickly and you can cool sooner.

 

 

stike

tyommy, not all of your charcoal will be burning.  but the VOCs will be mostly driven off from all of it when the smoke is smelling good. which means that there's not much in the way of 'bad smoke' when new lump ignites later in the cook

RichmondBGE

Your problem/taste you are noticing may be from putting the food on too early, but I bet when cooking direct, it's also from fat/grease dripping into your coals, which then burn and create a lot of burnt smoke taste.  I notice this especially with chicken that has skin on it.  Because of this, I tend to cook chicken, especially thighs, with my plate setter and a drip pan.  When I first got my grill, I didn't realize the importancee of the drip pan on top of the plate setter and figured that anything falling onto the plate setter would just burn off, which it does. But when it does burn off, it tends to flavor the food with this burnt grease taste. A clean plate setter with a drip pan is as important as waiting for the smoke to clear, if not more important in my opinion. The only chicken I do without a platesetter are wings, which still produce a little smoke while cooking, but nothing like cooking thighs.