So I smoked my first chicken on my new ProQ 20 Excel which took around 5 hours at 220 and was very moist HOWEVER came out tasting so smoky
I only threw one small handfull (less than a 3rd of a cup) of orange wood on the smoker at the very start of cooking. Do you think it tasted nasty becouse I used too much wood (I dont think so) or because I used orange wood pelets?
Or could it have something to do with the lump wood charcol I used or the method of lighting it?
Personally I've never smoked with orange wood, but I have read that it's a medium strength wood with a hint of fruit.
You say that you used pellets, do you mean chips or compressed sawdust pellets?
I normally use large chunks of wood because they burn nice and slowly, when I use chips I make a foil pouch for the chips and pierce it with a skewer a few times, this slows down the burning of the wood. If you used chips, from the amount you say that you used I wouldn't have thought it would have over smoked your bird but you never know.
What charcoal did you use? I assume it wasn't instant lighting? If so, there's your problem, also how did you light it? If you used any lighter fluid then there's your issue. Did you use the minion method for your charcoal?
If you can give us some more info we might be able to help.
I used the compressed sawdust pellets and threw them direct onto the coals, do you think I should use these in a tin foil pouch then? and how much do you think I should put in the pouch?
I used lump wood charcoal, I placed a good layer of un-lite charcoal in the bottom of the grate and made a small well in the middle large enough for me to place the charcoal I had lite in my chimney. Once the chimney was ready (20 mins after lighting) I added this to the un-lite charcoal. There was enough charcoal to last the whole cooking time and I didn't need to add any more for the whole of the cooking time. What is the "minion" method?
Firstly, the way you lit your charcoal was pretty much the minion method. You did it exactly as I used to do it, however a few of us (me included) got some comments at a competition about an acrid taste that we think may have been attributable to the minion method. These days I put unlit at the bottom then cover with lit but I ensure my lit charcoal completely covers the unlit and this seems to have improved the flavour.
Secondly, your wood. I've never used compressed sawdust pellets on a charcoal smoker, only on pellet cookers. If it were me, that would be the first variable that I changed, I'd switch to wood chips in a foil pouch or a small amount of wood in larger chunks straight on the fire (this is my preferred method). I'm not saying discard your pellets, for all I know they could be brilliant.
If you want to give the pellets another go straight away, I would suggest trying a foil pouch so that they burn slower, a small handful will be good to start with then adjust on subsequent cooks according to taste. It's better to start with lighter smoke and work your way up to the level of smoke you like, undersmoked food will always be more enjoyable than oversmoked food.
Are you UK-based? If so where did you get your pellets from, I might have to get some and try them out.
Garden XL are just up the road from me so I might pick some of these up to try out.
If you want good wood look up Goulden Hardwoods. Paul is a member on here and he sells oak, beech, alder, cherry etc from his wood in Hampshire. I get all my wood in large chunks from him.
Apart from when I manage to acquire some free oak from my mate Sorry Paul!!!!
If you're down this way then you will probably be able to pick some up from him, I think he will post it out though.
Tucker wrote:Also has anyone every found a butcher in the UK who sells "short-rib-of-beef" i.e not the complete rib; which is very expensive...
I have heard that short-rib-of-beef is quite cheap £3-£4 per rib
I too am having difficulty getting even basic products fromthe butchers.
I called and asked for pork loin ribs or baby back ribs and my butchers said he had no idea what iwas talking about.
There seems to be a farm a shop in Doncaster that knew what i was talking about but he said i had to give him at least two weeks notice for what I would have thought was quite a common cut of meat.
He told me it was going to cost about £4.50 a kilo. ( Does this sound like a rip off ?)
Also Costco have Vac packed baby backs, 4 racks for a tenner.
£4.50 per kilo sounds pretty good (based on southern prices) I pay around that for pork shoulder and belly.
I've also seen racks of baby backs in Morrisons, they're pre seasoned but I asked the butcher in store and he had some unseasoned out the back. They were dirt cheap but they might have been poor.
I've never done beef short ribs so I don't know what they cost. I'll ask my butcher next time I'm in there.
I think I have found a butcher who can get small rib of beef, his supplier didn't have any this week however next week they are going to try and get me 4 pcs. I will let you know how I get on.
I am getting a whole rib of beef this week to smoke with a nice simple BBQ rub. I will let you all know the outcome
Sorry Paul!!!!