Didnt mean to be rude and not reply after asking a question, but my computer died. Anyway, the liquid rub was from the FIRST batch, and didnt allow the smoke to penetrate that piece of meat. The other pieces turned out fine. It is the second batch that was nasty. Maybe a couple of you hit the problem. I did not clean the smoker between batches. And, since I only did a couple steaks the first time, I didnt replace the foil or anything. So maybe I was burning some grease off the foil. Sound like that may be my problem?