smoke flavor

Something does not sound right, Ronny. That meat should be smoked up like nobody's business with that much mesquite. Anyone else?

ronny, i dont have a cookshack but there are a few things to look for. *too much air flow will let all the smoke escape without flavoring the meat, *the meat gets too hot too quick thus closing the pores before they can absorb smoke flavor, and *is there actually smoke coming off the smoker or is the wood just burning. along with other things, these are the top problems.first step, figure out which applies to you. second step, make ammends. try closing air vents (if you have any) only after wood is smoking. try using almost frozen meat and possibly stabbing it alot. definitely check the temperatures with a secondary thermometer to ensure accuracy. lastly, try different wood. sometimes the mesquite needs a boost from hickory or apple or cherry or pecan. or, try a piece of green wood in the mix to add heat to the dry stuff(green wood of any flavor burns hottest). well, these are all i can think of right now. anybody else with ideas?

I agree with both GLM & CB/S....something isn't right. Sounds like you used enough wood to build a house! You didn't mention cooking temp's in your post...maybe that's an issue. I agree that ice cold meat is the way to go and I prefer to start the "cook" with just enough heat to get the smoke going and then raising the temp. when the internal meat temp reaches the "danger zone".

This is an interesting thread for me, but I seem to have the opposite behavior. I did a load of chicken breasts at 225 for 45 minutes with 4 oz of mesquite. They came out tasting way too smoky with a bitter outside and a taste that wouldn't leave your mouth for an hour. Now I do the same load with 0.8 oz and it's perfect.

In another thread GLH did a load of wings, but with 6 oz (!) of wood. I was waiting to hear the result fearing they'd be ruined. No, they were gobbled right up! In this case, though, he had them in for 3 hours. Is it the extra cooking time and the fact that the CS is a moister environment that maybe steams the smoke back out of the meat?

The brisket I cooked was set at 230 degrees and the sausage was set at 190 degrees.Both of the meats were thawed out but were cold from the frig.I also noticed that a person better get the wood smoking before you put in the meat,because I can tell when the wood first starts to warm up before it starts smoking it has that funny smell.I'll bet that is what puts the bitter tast on some of the meats.I also am wondering if maybe to get a better smoke on the meat maybe I need to keep the exhaust fan off for awhile to get more smoke in the meat.The brisket tasted like a good roast but nothing I thought I could bring in customers with of being great smoked meat.When I open my business,I want everything to be exceptional.Thank you all for your input.I really don't understand when I used as much wood as I did and no smoke flavor and ya'll are saying it should have been really smoked?????

Robbi, keep in mind, the 40 wings were coated heavy with olive oil and thick rub and there was 10 pounds of them. They were real smoky, but everyone seems to like that smoke 'wang' here. Ronny, try preheating the oven with the wood in at the highest temp. for 20 - 30 minutes, then turn down to where you want it after putting in the meat. This might help, although I don't know why.

Ronny - couple of questions:
Which CS smoker do you use?
Is the unit seasoned?
Your wood - is it seasoned? i.e. dry
You mentioned an exhaust fan...how much cubic feet of air/minute does it evaculate? Is there a "make-up" air source? Bottom line, is it removing ambiant smoke from the room vs "sucking" smoke from the CS.
Your Mesquite is large chunks?

At this point, I am wondering if the smoke baffle is in.

Mornin' Ronnie,

I ain't no pro,so I'll sneak on an' off here before Smokin' or Stuart catches me.

All the folks above had had some good thoughts.

I'll touch on a couple more.

If it is a large packer,that is a lot of meat and not much surface to lay smoke on.

Some folks feel that unless it is really good south Texas mesquite,it will impart a bitter flavor.

Especially on long cooks.

Some folks will let it burn the yellowish smoke off, before they put the meat in ,and feel that helps.

You could start that cold packer down around 190� for a few hours.

I don't know that 8 ounces is too much wood for a 150 and you can always add some more,half way through the cook.

Maybe consider some oak and pecan ,early on,and add a little mesquite later.

Texas folks like smokering,so throw ya three or four Kingsford briquettes in with your starter wood.

I'd think about a good heavy rub.

There are some out there with some hickory or chipotle added.

You could wet the brisket with some Lee & Perrin's wooster before applying your rub.

After several hours and your rub is set up,you could mop with something like a combo of beef broth,butter,apple juice,maybe carmelized onions,a little balsamic vingar,and some of your rub.

This sorta came from Jeff Wheeler and some other folks.

Just kinda fling it on every couple hours after the half way mark.

Hopefully, these steps will add to your overall brisket flavor.

As to sausage,I'd have to know a little more to speculate and we have some fine sausage cooks on the forum that might help.

I think you mentioned small summer sausage.

If it is already cured/ cooked,I don't know that it will take on much smoke.

If it has pretty thick casing,it will only take what is drifted onto the surface.

I'm sure you have some of those good old German sausage makers out there ,that could steer you to some good ol' Texas "hot guts".

Hope this helps a little.

An offset put smoke on a piece of meat by moving large amounts of air and smoke through the cooker, to reproduce that flavor with a CS, a water cooker, ceramics or pellet feeder is very hard to do. The other side of this is cooks that use offsets use foil or place the meat in brown paper bags to stop putting smoke on meat because it can be overpowering.
What you have here is a new cooker and your trying to apply techniques that work on offsets to this cooker.
All the cookers I mentioned above move much less air so if you use large amounts of wood you will more than likely end up with bitter produce.
I know a lot of cooks and one thing I have noticed is that the level of smoke flavor is a personel taste thing, you may be of those folks that like a stronger smoke flavor.
Try more cooks and adjust the amount of wood you use to meet preference.
I find with CS, watercookers, and ceramics a little bit of wood goes a long ways, personel taste I guess.
Jim

I do not find it hard to produce good smoke flavor in a CS. I do not think that is a fair assessment. I find it very easy to consistently cook and produce a good smoke flavor and smokering in a CS, especially with venison, beef, and pork.

Ronny,

One thing you might try is adding some charcoal to the wood box. I find that the flavor most people miss from a wood fired smoker is the charcoal taste you get as the wood burns down. Give it a try and let us know how it turns out.

wow...4 years and thousands of loads with a 150 and perfect every time. I have never used mequite though as we have a lot of hickory around here. I always filled the box full of "green chunks" when doing a full load (plus 1 or 2 charcoals). Always had great smoke and flavor. I never used the hood fan until it got thicker in kitchen!

May want to try hickory--may be poor quality wood. Also may want to wet the wood down a little. Leave exhaust fan off until build up a good smoke...think you are sucking smoke right out of smoker.....plus a wood issue.

Good luck.