haste makes waste

[desert rat]

I ain’t sure what I did but I won’t be doin’ it again. I got a 10 lb. shoulder thawed and rubbed but the weather would not cooperate and it sat in the fridge 3 days, finally got a break from the rain and wind but not for long. I split a 6 inch pecan round and tossed it in the bottom of my offset, covered it with about 10 lb charcoal. fired it up with my torch and in about 30 minutes had 300 degrees in the smoker. tossed in the meat and closed up the bottom draft. thanks to the wind (I wish those people in kalifornia and mexico would just keep their wind and not sent it here when I am trying to cook). it took awhile to get a steady 150- 160. great googley moogely, you oughta seen it smoke. casey jones woulda been proud. I continued to watch it for awhile and it smoked like crazy. I did the only thing that made sense to me,,, had a couple beers and took a siesta. about 8 hours later internal 180,, (it’s only tamale meat) but the outside 1 inch tasted like creosote or tar or something strange. the moral of the story is, nothin’ beats a couple brews and a siesta on a dreary day.

[copkid]

What a bummer! I have had several smokes like that! Usually from me thinking, 'one more chunk of hickory won't hurt anything!'
Hopefully the inside tasted okay for you.
Laura

[OSD]

Sounds like a reasonable plan to me.( the siesta and the brews )

[DATsBBQ]

What kind of offset on you cooking on? Wind, rain, snow..... shouldn't matter if you went with the 7P program.

[JamesB]

great googley moogely, you oughta seen it smoke. casey jones woulda been proud. I continued to watch it for awhile and it smoked like crazy.

Hey there, just what color was that smoke? You really don't want to see all that much smoke coming out or your cooker... If you have much more than just a thin wispy, very light colored smoke, you probably ain't got a very clean burning fire... usually means a smoldering fire that'll produce all kinds of nasties that land on your meat and gunk up your pit... that is what produced that creosote on yer meat... the same nasty stuff they they use to coat rail road ties ya know... now that ain't good eats... next time around, try to get yer self a small hot clean burning fire and you be all set... small fire, plenty of air = clean smoke and good tasty vittles...

Now I do have some experience in this area as I made the same mistake a time or two. There was a time that I had to trim so much of the outside of a brisket to get down to an edible stage that all that was left was a hockey puck sized piece of meat...

So good luck to ya next time around... and oh yeah you ain't got some super secret tamale recipe that you need to be sharing with us do ya?

James.

[Allie]

Our first cook turned out that way. We really didn't know what we were doing and used way too much wood. In addition, we closed all the dampers trying to keep the temp down. The meat wasn't good! James's advice is right on!

[TX Sandman]

great googley moogely, you oughta seen it smoke. casey jones woulda been proud.

Well, *there's* yer problem. I think James hit it right on the button. Seems to me ya choked the fire off when ya closed the bottom damper. Ya probaby shoulda started a smaller fire and worked up to your cookin' temp, not cranked 'er up and tried to cool 'er off.

Course, yer "brews and siesta" plan was right on.

[desert rat]

yup, i'm sure James is correct. in answer to DATsBBQ, it's a brinkman pitmaster. the weather doesn't affect the cooker as much as me. i hates cold weather and just didn't want to fool around outside hence the reason for trying to git the fire started quick. and no, no fancy tamale recipes,, just pork and chiles etc.
thanks ya'll

[Papa Tom]

I too subscribe to the gospel according to James..... ya gotta let the fire breathe.