brisket tastes too smokey

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brisket tastes too smokey

Postby woodvette » Mon May 01, 2017 7:20 am

hi. new to this forum and to using a stick burner. did my second brisket yesterday. used lump charcoal to get fire going then oak for the rest of the cooking. had brisket in pan. after 3 hours i cover it. it had a very strong smokey taste of the oak. this happened on my first brisket so that is why i covered it this time. it did not help. what am i doing wrong? thanks.
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby Okie Sawbones » Mon May 01, 2017 9:00 am

Is your oak seasoned?
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby TX1911 » Mon May 01, 2017 9:37 am

In addition to seasoned oak, you'll need to look at your fire. A small, efficient fire will produce a better flavor and cleaner smoke. You'll hear a lot about the "thin blue smoke" if you stick around here. What that means is that the impurities have been burned out and you're cooking with almost pure heat. So think back to the smoke coming out of your stack. If it was white and heavy, it's not what you're looking for and either the wood is too wet, you have too much fuel on the fire, or your fire isn't getting enough oxygen.
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby bsooner75 » Mon May 01, 2017 10:24 am

I second everything said above!


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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby Williep » Mon May 01, 2017 10:29 am

I concur to all the above. :salut:
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby OldUsedParts » Mon May 01, 2017 10:32 am

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm with them :tup:
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby woodvette » Mon May 01, 2017 12:43 pm

i am not sure how long the oak has been drying. the smoke was white and there was quite a bit of it throughout the whole cooking. i had the chimney full open and the intake was hardly open at all so i could get the temp regulated around 275. i did have several pieces of the oak in the firebox at once. reason i did was was to try keeping it burning for a long time. so maybe i did not have enough air flow? and too much wood at once?
thanks.
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby bsooner75 » Mon May 01, 2017 12:55 pm

Would definitely start by trying to create a smaller cleaner burning fire. I used an old country pecos in the past, most of the time I cooked with the firebox door open to get the airflow.

Also, knock a couple of those sticks of oak together and see how they sound. If they are seasoned they will be lighter and have noticeable almost hollow sound to them. Sorry I'm struggling to explain exactly what sound they would make. Maybe somebody can help me clarify that one.


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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby OldUsedParts » Mon May 01, 2017 1:08 pm

Do you have a lot of that wood stored? If not then maybe you could consider purchasing enough hickory, mesquite, pecan or even different oak and trying another brisket while getting better air flow as folks have suggested. :dont:

My oldest son is a great off-set barbecuer but occasionally he'll call cussing some recent wood he purchased complaining of the strong smoke flavor and he usually changes sources when that happens. Some cutters will tell you that it's seasoned when it's not so "buyer beware" I guess. Good Luck :tup:
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby woodvette » Mon May 01, 2017 1:41 pm

i got the wood from my dad's firewood pile so i do not know when it was cut and how long it has been drying. i will find some other wood and do a test burn before trying it with meat.
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby limey » Mon May 01, 2017 2:00 pm

Probably using too much wood, I usually add a split to my firebox every 45 minutes. I crack the firebox door a bit to let more oxygen in to get the split burning better then shut the door. Usually have the intake half way open. Good luck on the next brisket.
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby Okie Sawbones » Mon May 01, 2017 4:31 pm

Yep, you want a good bed of coals first, then throw in a split every 30-45 minutes. A bunch of splits at once will not give you the results you want. Here is smoke coming from my offset when I was living in WA.

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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby woodvette » Tue May 02, 2017 6:57 am

i tried a test burn last night. had some scrap oak lumber i know for sure is dry. burned just a few small pieces and observed the smoke. it looked a lot better that the other oak i was using. got the bluish color smoke and it was not big clouds of white smoke like the other stuff. i may try some meat again this coming weekend with some different wood and see what happens. thanks for the help everyone.
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby limey » Tue May 02, 2017 7:00 am

Good deal, hardest part of cooking is having a good fire. Once you learn how your pit burns you should be making great Que.
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Re: brisket tastes too smokey

Postby Chasdev » Tue May 02, 2017 7:03 am

Franklin has some videos that are informative as well...they give a good starting point that covers your topic.
Episode 5 covers fire and smoke, but all of them are pretty darn interesting.

http://video.klru.tv/show/bbq-franklin/episodes/

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