Color of food/cooking temp

bgeuser

Hello There! First time on forum. Hopefully, my question has not been asked too many times.
1. My smoker is now producing turkeys, etc. with a dark black color. What should I do to cook natural looking turkey, chicken, etc?
2. Also, How to keep temp low at 270 to 275. Mine wants to stay at 300.

gwopy

Answers:

1). Just inject everything with blue dye, and you'll be fine.

2). Give the fire less air.

Very insightful questions. :blink:

Mike in Abita

I think you are burning the skin, unless your lump is sparking too bad and it is soot. Check out the Whiz for temp control?

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/tempcontrol.htm

Kinda hard to diagnose your situation with the limited info.

thirdeye

Welcome to the neighborhood. As far as dark color goes, your pit temp may be too high and just burning, or you may be using a rub with a high sugar content which is burning.

With vent control you can dial in almost any pit temp, start closing the vents down as the pit temp approaches 30° below your target temp.

bgeuser

Thank you for the help. I will make sure temp is low and less air let into bge. I have used it now for about three years. I was thinking that the soot was coming from the inside of the bge.

thirdeye

If you are talking soot, you may be putting the turkey on too soon. By too soon I mean not allowing the charcoal time to burn off any remaining volatile compounds. I allow at least 30 minutes and usually closer to an hour for the fire to become established.

fieroguy

Soot WILL be generated throughout your egg if you are using a non-American made lump...

Temperature is controlled by air flow.

Mike
Wrens, GA

Stanley

That's a sweeping generalization that I wouldn't rely on. Admittedly, there are documented cases where US vs. South American versions of the same brand (Royal Oak) show the characteristics you suggest. I'd look to TNW for data in shopping for lump.

bgeuser

What is TNW?

Stanley

The Naked Whiz:

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/nwindex.htm