Great turkey but not enough smoke flavor?

Steve-O

My turkey turned out great this year except I would have like more smoke flavor. I used a V-rack on the grill, drip pan beneath inside inverted platesetter. When the temp first hit 300° I added three huge chunks of pecan and put the bird on. Temp dropped to 200° and slowly rose through 250° during the first hour of cook. Smoke was thick and pouring out the daisy wheel. After an hour smoke was tapering off, so I added two more large pieces of pecan and opened vents to raise temp to 300°-325°. Lots more smoke for another hour or so. Bird was done a little early, but turned out very juicy, tender and good taste but not very much smoke flavor. Only stuffing was an apple, orange, onion and celery stalk all cut in half. I had tons of smoke, but not much smoke flavor. How could I have gotten more smoke into the bird?

mad max beyond eggdome

SteveO,
wow, sounds like you had a lot of smoke. .. just curious, did your guests think it was smokey tasting?. ..i.e. was it a case of you had plenty of smoke, just not enough for you?. .. only thing i can think of is to soak your wood first.. .or do a real low and slow (250 degrees till done, laying in the wood so that it would smoke all day long. ..

Lance

SteveO,[p]I'm not sure that you can get more smoked flavor "into" your meat. The outside of the bird should have tasted real smokey, but the inside will always taste less.

Lance

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]Do you think that maybe his heat was too high and burnt the wood up faster than normal? Also, pecan isn't as strong tasting as mesquite and hickory.

mad max beyond eggdome

Lance,
that could be it too. . .i've never used pecan, so i don't know how much flavor it gives. . .hickory, at low temps, certainly outa give enough smoke for anyone's taste buds. . .personnly, i like to know my food was cooked with wood, but i don't want to taste it, if you know what i mean. . .one thing we were a little dissapointed in last night was our dressing. . i think the 'wet bread' absorbed too much smoke (we were only using some apple wood chips, not a lot), but the smoke flavor tended to be too prominent for the other flavors in the dressing (chestnuts, apples, onion, celery, mushrooms). .. .

Lance

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]I agree with you on the smoke issue. Hickory is strong, but IMO too strong for a turkey. I used pecan yesterday and it seems to give the bird a "softer" smoke flavor.

mad max beyond eggdome

Lance,
i used apple chips. .. again, you knew wood was involved, but the meat didn't taste smokey. . .i had meat from both the legs and the breast.. the thigh/drumstick meat absorbed a little more smoke, but not much. .. and yet the turkey had a real nice pink smoke ring on the breast. . .i wouldn't change a thing next time. ..

myronmixonwannabe

I have had the same problem, with all the meat I have cooked on my XLBGE. I have tried everything and am beginning to think that the BGE science prohibits a good "thick" smoke flavor due to moisture content. Someone show me I am wrong, please.