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Smoking

Rzeancak
Rzeancak Posts: 193
edited September 2012 in EggHead Forum
Hey guys,  I've been trying to smoke on the egg with little success. I tried to do pork belly for bacon and little to no smoke flavour.  I've use apple, mystique, cherry and some store purchase stuff like Jack Daniel's.  When tried chicken it wasn't smoky at all!  I read here that poultry takes kindly to smoke but not in my case.

So i'll describe my process.  I get the egg to the temp I wish; add the chips (2 cups) that have been soaked for 24 hours; add my meat of choice and remove when internal temp is to my liking.

Is i type this out is 2 cups enough chips and should i be adding more chips over the process?  I usually smoke pork, poultry, turkey.  I've done salmon on cedar plank and that turned out very well .

I would like to try a smoked turkey for CDN thanksgiving holiday.  I'm still a little green(new) with the egg and worried about maintaining temp if I have to add chips over the full cooking time.

   
A child can ask questions a wise man can't answer!!!
Canada
Large @ Small BGE 

Comments

  • Maybe it is due to the mild wood types you are using.  Also try to smoke without soaking the chips.  I think when you soak you get too much steam from the wood drying out before you actually get wood smoke...does that make sense?
  • Stop soaking. 1) not needed on egg 2) 24 hours is way too long. You can add chips to cook if you want but will not change temp to point where you need to adjust. Even a drop will work its way back to,your stable temp.
    Boom
  • Like chunky mentioned try something stronger like mesquite. I personally love the jack Daniels chips,tho. Can always add more than 2 cups. I just grab by handful. No idea what equates to. I love a strong smoke flavor and I've never had an issue with how I do it.
    Boom
  • thailandjohn
    thailandjohn Posts: 952
    edited September 2012
    I might be able to help you.......I have been Qing for over 30 years and have been using he Egg for about 3 years and with the Egg I had the same problem you are having.......what I do now has solved this problem .........send me an email with your phone number and best time to call and I will explain what I do....too complicated to explain here on the forum Email jvancepatterson@gmail.com
  • U_tarded
    U_tarded Posts: 2,042
    More wood more smoke mix it in all over before you light, I use 6-8 chunks medium sized chunks throughout for 6-8 hours of smoke and I mix it all through the lump so as the fire crawls there is smoke. 2 cups is maybe an hour at most worth of smoke.
  • +1 on no soaking and more chips.  I now use 2 or 3 fist sized chunks and have wonderful smoke flavor on my food.
  • Thanks guys.... I'll try dry chips.  That make sense with chips that have been soaked so long to creating steam and more quantity.  

    The real upsetting thing this my brother! He has a Bradley electric smoker and it works well!  I smoke whole chicken for him and his family, like I said it didn't turn out well.  It was nice and juicy but not much smoke flavour.  I told him and my parents that i'm smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving and all the talk is about his Bradley. "your brother smoker works real good" "do you remember the ribs he made".
      
    I want to get him this Thanksgiving!

    I'm so desperate I was thinking of injecting the bird with liquid smoke!  LOL  
    A child can ask questions a wise man can't answer!!!
    Canada
    Large @ Small BGE 

  • Duganboy
    Duganboy Posts: 1,118
    Rzeancak said:
    Thanks guys.... I'll try dry chips.  That make sense with chips that have been soaked so long to creating steam and more quantity.  

    The real upsetting thing this my brother! He has a Bradley electric smoker and it works well!  I smoke whole chicken for him and his family, like I said it didn't turn out well.  It was nice and juicy but not much smoke flavour.  I told him and my parents that i'm smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving and all the talk is about his Bradley. "your brother smoker works real good" "do you remember the ribs he made".
      
    I want to get him this Thanksgiving!

    I'm so desperate I was thinking of injecting the bird with liquid smoke!  LOL  
    You will get it just keep working on it.  Got to tell you though, those Bradley's are pretty nice outfits.  I had one for years (along with the BGE) and I gave it to my son who still uses it.
  • I might be able to help you.......I have been Qing for over 30 years and have been using he Egg for about 3 years and with the Egg I had the same problem you are having.......what I do now has solved this problem .........send me an email with your phone number and best time to call and I will explain what I do....too complicated to explain here on the forum Email jvancepatterson@gmail.com

    John,

    I for one would be greatly indebted if you would try to explain it.

    Respectfully

    Steve

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • I might be able to help you.......I have been Qing for over 30 years and have been using he Egg for about 3 years and with the Egg I had the same problem you are having.......what I do now has solved this problem .........send me an email with your phone number and best time to call and I will explain what I do....too complicated to explain here on the forum Email jvancepatterson@gmail.com

    John,

    I for one would be greatly indebted if you would try to explain it.

    Respectfully

    Steve


    I 2nd this. Love chance to learn something.
    Boom
  • dtun1
    dtun1 Posts: 32

    First time I smoked on my egg I used 4 cups of wood chips soaked for 30 minutes just like I did on my gas smoker. I too was disappointed in the smoke flavor. After reading the forum I determined it was the amount of wood. I now use 8 cups of wood chips soaked for 30 minutes & it works great. I think the 30 minute soak helps a little.  Just what I have found to be working for me.

  • Skiddymarker
    Skiddymarker Posts: 8,522
    edited September 2012
    I might be able to help you.......I have been Qing for over 30 years and have been using he Egg for about 3 years and with the Egg I had the same problem you are having.......what I do now has solved this problem .........send me an email with your phone number and best time to call and I will explain what I do....too complicated to explain here on the forum Email jvancepatterson@gmail.com

    John,

    I for one would be greatly indebted if you would try to explain it.

    Respectfully

    Steve


    I 2nd this. Love chance to learn something.
    All of us love to learn and share, that's what makes this forum great. When i see something like this I think, "Perhaps if you send a stamped self addressed envelope with a cheque in it"...) Shouldn't say that, because it could be for real, and if so I apologize, but this looks like a scam.

    @Rzeancak, sorry to hijack your discussion. You have a wealth of information here. Don't soak your chips/chunks and if you are doing a turkey, I suggest spatchcocking it and use a mild wood like apple or cherry. Spread the wood throughout the lump, some suggest in a star fish pattern, the fire will come to it. It will flare if you have the dome up, I did a 3.6 Kg (8#) bird yesterday, about one cup of apple chunks (1"X2"), some complained it was too smokey. Done in about 70 minutes at 350, indirect. I have cooked a pork loin, where my wood chips were spread around the outside of a full fire box. No smoke because the fire never made it to the wood. Take care in how you build your fire. Good luck. 

    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    Low and slows:  Place your wood mixed throughout the column of lump defined by the bottom of the firebox.  The fire burns down more than out.  This should give you smoke throughout the cook.  Light the top center.  You don't need a sea of lit coals to start a low and slow.

    Courtesy stike, low res, his drawing.


    image
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    xactly.  Thanks fred.
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • You're welcome.  Anything to cut down on all the squinting out there. 
    Flint, Michigan
  • Don't soak the chips.
    LBGE
  • I just cooked some chicken with hickory chunks at 400-425. A single large chunk of dry hickory placed on the center of the fire just before I put the chicken on the grate worked very well. Smoked more than I could use. Wood chips tend to burn off quicker than chunks. Also,buy a bag of pellets for a pellet grill. Put ~1/3 up in a foil packet. Poke a single small hole in the top and place the packet on top of the coals before you add the grate. Works great.
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    I remember the last infamous heated discussion on "chips burn faster than chunks" a while back.  The conclusion was - they burn at the same rate in an egg during a low and slow.  
    :D
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • Chips or chunks?  Doesn't make a whole lot of difference.  Soaking vs. dry.  Now that seems to be a real issue.  I figure what's the use of steaming the meat when I'm cooking it over a charcoal fire?  If the wood stays dry, you get smoke and that's where the flavor's at.

    All you soakers out there, yield to my unsailable logic!  Keep your chips and chunks dry.

    Hey, this Maker's Mark tastes real good!

    Flint, Michigan