bitter taste

Greetings to the forum, and congratulations on your SM045, smart move. You posted on that other thread, in the first response I posted a link to THIS wood for sale on eBay, I am not affiliated in any way except I am a repeat customer. First used it on my SM008 and now my SM150. Love it. Great pre dried wood assortment. Buy this and use at the most 2 pieces. You'll have no more problems.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultima...&hash=item27d5e730e1

Again welcome to the forum.

how 'bout some details on the cook??
temperature, pellet type, rub, cook time...

Just a salt and brown sugar brine for 24 hrs. I used a mesquite pellets made for smoking approx a half of cup. The pellets do have a %age of oak in it also. I never found a pellet with 100% of its main content.

I cooked it for approx 4 hrs at 225..

Mesquite is pretty strong flavor, same with hickory. I would be mesquite would be better suited to beef than turkey. For turkey I would use maple or apple wood.

one characteristic of the electric cookshacks is that they are very economical in wood usage.

1/2 cup may have been too much.
(for example, i use a single two ounce chunk for my spare ribs. i uee much more than that in my big green egg type smoker to get the same level of smokiness)

If it was bitter Iwould say to much wood

Thank you ill give that a try... seems like less is better...

I've tried pellets. I have better results with wood chunks.

When using pellets, make a pouch out of aluminum foil and leave a slit at the top to allow the smoke to escape.

Too much white smoke is not a good thing. You want a faint blue smoke for flavoring.

Thanx all for the advise.. i will try these suggestions..

quote:

mesquite

mesquite is one of those woods where a little is good. I have used it, and think there is a fairly fine line between good and too much. You will get a bitter taste from it when you go just a little over the line. I think there is a Wood 101 page here. I will see if I can find it. Being the happy owner of an 045, I can only say congratulations. There was a learning curve for me when I moved up from my 009. Just an FYI; do a search here for "Big Bang". scared the heck out of me and all of the dogs in the neighborhood. This is when I learned to cut way back on the amount of wood I was using, and the taste of my product really improved. Make sure the heating element is in contact with the wood box. You can gently bend the heating element up if it isn't. Remember that these units have a 20 minute override when you start them up. It doesn't mater what temperature you have set, the override will cause the unit to go to High for 20 minutes. If you have to take something out, and then put it back in, simply leave the temp setting where it's at. If you turn it off, you will go back into the override for 20 minutes. If you look at the inside back of the smoker, you will see a small tube looking thing sticking into the cooking chamber. This is the temperature sensor for the smoker. Don't let anything get up against this. It will cause problems with what the real temperature is in the smoker, and what this sensor is reading. Welcome to the forum.

Mike thanx for the info, but i cant stop laughing. Several times i heard like this loud explosion coming from the yard with a long whistling sound.. i ran out in a panic and had no idea what it was till you mentioned this. It was a mystery to me. I had nooooo idea. My wife and i are hysterical right now..

My 045 was brand new. I got it just before Thanksgiving, and my first smoke in it after doing the seasoning thing. I had 2 turkeys in the smoker, and had been in the house about 45 minutes into the smoke when "the BIG bang" happened. My wife was in the back of the house, and came out screaming about What did you blow up, and are you alright? All of the dogs in the area are going nuts, and all I can think about is my shiny new smoker is going to be round, and covered in turkey pieces parts. My girls have had the local pizza place on speed dial since I started cooking. I got out to the patio, and everything looked normal, yanked the door on the smoker open, and discovered the turkeys were fine. Finished the smoke, and once everything was cooled down put a square on the smoker. Everything was fine. I did go out and buy a scale so I can weigh things including the wood. I will simply say that my eyeball was way off on the wood. 2 to 6 ounces of wood is all these things need. By the way, the "big bang" is what Firefighters call a "smoke explosion".