Smoking Aficionado

[jfuchu]

Greeting s everyone, I'm new to smoking, my desired has been inspired by watching food network channels where I first heard about pulled pork and briskets. I live in the Dominican Republic so I had to have my smoker built since I can't purchase one here and importing one from the US would cost me an arm and a leg. I've done several runs;smoked pork butt, ribs and burgers. I've purchased smoked wood(cherry, Apple, hiclkory) online and buy lump charcoal locally. This lump charcoal is crested illegally since it's created by inmigrants that cut down woods from our Forrest and turn it into lump charcoal. I know is bad but on the other hand is way cheaper than a regular bag of Briquettes . I've had the smoker for about 2 months now but was force to wash the cooking chamber because I've notice a weird smell like herring fish in it which seem to be passed on to the meat. Yuck!! . Not sure if that's the taste of creosote or if it has been produce do the me using the minion method for low and slow cook so I'm thinking perhaps the lumps not fully lit is releasing this bad odor that has been lingering on my cook chamber. Any thoughts or suggestions would be truly appreciated. I'm looking forward to learning from you guys and your experiences. I've not been able to find similar restaurants that can do a pulled pork or pull brisket in my area so I know that if I'm able to manage this who knows I may end up opening my own joint.

Regards,
J

[OldUsedParts]

Welcome to the Forum, J

[Sailor Kenshin]

Welcome to the Forum, J

What OUP said!

JF: I think lump is not supposed to give off any bad stuff, but who knows? Did you 'season' the cooker with a dry run? I understand some of them need it. We failed to do this at first with our El Cheapo Brinkmann and were very, very sorry.

[woodenvisions]

Welcome SA,

I can only offer a suggestion on lump, so here it is. I would let it burn a bit longer before you either add ur meat or add ur wood chunks.
Lump takes a learning curve, try to use a fire basket if possible. Either use crumbled up newspaper under it, or use soaked cotton balls with some 151.
If not, u can use an electric Charcoal starter for about 15 $ in a hardware store.
Let it burn a little bit longer and u should be ok.
I'm not sure about the quality of that lump tho.

I've never had a single problem with Royal Oak Lump.

Good luck ok

[jfuchu]

Thank you guy for your quick response. I already feel like I'm in the right place. I did season the smoker with canola oil ro to my first cook but me been a noob probably did not do it appropriately. The way I start my smoker is with a charcoal chimney with around 8 to 10 Briquettes (Kingsfor is the best brand I can find locally). once lit I would add to my charcoal basket that is packed with lump charcoal and some chunks of hardwood. Since I washed my pit yesterday I will do another seasoning of it over the weekend and take your advice of putting the meat on the pit once it reaches a temp of at least 250 and stable. Added a few pics of my smoker and my runs.

[Txdragon]

Very nice!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Nice set-up!

[OldUsedParts]

Good "Q" goin on in the D.R.

[TX1911]

Welcome!

A thought: Are you aware what sort of hardwoods they are turning into your lump? While I've heard of mahogany being used (rarely) as fuel, I've never heard of Caoba being so used.

My suggestion would be to change up your fuels, as that's a fairly easy thing to do, and see if that gets the fishy flavor out. If not, you've at least eliminated that as the source.

[Boots]

when I was in the DR, I saw an abundance of acacia like trees that look like our mesquite trees. Your situation is probably like Hawaii where these semi arid but tropical trees are very resinous. One possibility is try and look for some of this wood that has been cut and laid up and cured to drive all summer long. Say a 6 months to a year at least. At that point, with your hot weather, it should have dried and cured out a lot of the resin. Then you might try that in some open container aside from your smoker, likely just a common open Grill, and try some chicken on it to see if it imparts a flavor. Chicken is one of the more sensitive meats to pick up whatever flavor is in the wood. If that works well, then you probably have a wood you can actually use for smoking in combination with your lump charcoal.

[jfuchu]

Good suggestions tex and boots. Since its done illegally usually by our Haitian neighbors I'm assuming the type of hardwood that is been used may be ones that contain lots of resin. It's pretty hard for me to find oak lump charcoal in this country if any. The chunks that I used to add smoke flavor to the meat are purchased through Amazon. I'm OK with paying for it even though the shipping weight is a killer. At the moment I'm seasoning my smoker at 9:00 pm getting it ready to see if I can put in a pork butt for tomorrow or Sunday. So far I'm using the same lump charcoal I had bought and so far there is no foul smell. Temp has been holding between 225 and 300 for the last hour and a half. But I'm starting to believe that it might be the fuel that caused that foul fishy odor. Let's wait and see what happens once I throw some meat on the put.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Regards,
J

[guyeddie]

Nice setup.

[Russ]

Looks pretty darn good to me. We like pics, they tell a big story. Welcome.

Russ