First pulled pork...why such a bitter taste?

[The Big Kahuna]

Hi all,

I've been practicing with my new smoker for weeks, I felt as though I'd finally got to grips with the temperature control so my first butt went on at 5:30 am this morning.

I got a cosistent 250F for about 10 hours and took the meat out of the smoker to rest when it reached 185F. It pulled great and was really juicy. The problem was with the taste...sooooo bitter!

I had the damper on my exhaust open all the way for the entire time. My charcoal came from a local supplier, it was all hardwood (Alder I think).

Any suggestions as to why my dinner tasted like crap?

Thanks.

[Steve]

The first reason that springs to mind is oversmoking. What wood did you use and how much?

[The Big Kahuna]

Ok apologies if this is a dumb question but do you actually need to use wood as well as charcoal? I know you can add wood or chips to get some extra smoke but is it actually required...? I only used the charcoal. It came from a local landscape gardener who makes it himself.

I noticed everyime I put fresh charcoal on it gave off a lot of white smoke for about 5 minutes or so then there was very little smoke coming out the exhaust, until I topped up the charcoal again.

I made my own basic rub, which I kind of made us as I went along. I tested it on a pork chop which I cooked under the grill and it tasted ok:

Salt, Brown Sugar, Garlic Salt, White Pepper, Chili Powder, Paprika and pinch of cinamon. No oregano.

Cheers.

[British BBQ Society]

Sure you will have already posted the answer somewhere, what smoker are you using? I think the obvious answer is over smoking, the rub looks fine. I tend to stay away from alder, just a preference thing. Style of smoker will depend on the amount of wood you are using, in general a smoker will only need wood on for the first couple of hours, the meat has sealed after this and wont absorb much more so you are just coating the outside. Also you should only need to top up the charcoal once on a 10 hour cook (bullet style) and a couple of times in an offset if the firebox isnt insulated, maybe you were adding too little too often?

[Steve]

I think the nail was hit on the head above, White smoke is a sign of the fire burning dirty as stated above. This is often due to it choking back, you add charcoal, it takes but there's not enough oxygen to feed the burning matter. Was the charcoal you added freshly and fully lit? At that point charcoal just screams out for oxygen, put it in a smoker and it's just going to choke like crazy.

[The Big Kahuna]

Thanks for the replies.

I used the minion method for the charcoal, so lit coals that had been burning for a while were put on a basket of unlit coals. In my practice runs I found I really had to restrict the amount of air getting in otherwise all the coals would be burning within 30 mins or so. So I actually had the damper on the firebox closed most of the time.

Should I ditch the minion method and only add lit coals...? I've got a cheapo off-set smoker and reckon I'd probably have to change the Charcoal about 5 times for a 10 hour burn If I only add lit coals.

Cheers.

[Zippy]

Thanks for the replies.

I used the minion method for the charcoal, so lit coals that had been burning for a while were put on a basket of unlit coals. In my practice runs I found I really had to restrict the amount of air getting in otherwise all the coals would be burning within 30 mins or so. So I actually had the damper on the firebox closed most of the time.

Should I ditch the minion method and only add lit coals...? I've got a cheapo off-set smoker and reckon I'd probably have to change the Charcoal about 5 times for a 10 hour burn If I only add lit coals.

Cheers.

Only thing i'd add to the doc's advice is do your best to make sure you're using a decent quality charcoal or briquette that produces very little ash. If you're using supermarket quality briquettes (which I made the mistake of doing when I started out on my cheapo offset) then that fire box is gonna become difficult to manage within 3 hours with all the crap that builds up below the charcoal grate. I had hot used ash literally spilling out of the air intake at times. I got on better with the coconut husk briquettes.

[Vic.]

bark bitters the taste quicker than over smoking, so get rid of all bark.