Bad flavor - No flavor Continued

[bewdigger]

I posted earlier about bad tasting smokes and was told to foil my wood. I did that. The bad smell is still there, but the  and the food had little to no smoke flavor.  I was cooking one rack of St. Louis ribs and a rib eye steak. They also came out black as coal on the outside. (This is new).

I am getting frustrated here. I have been smoking meat for over 30 years in a cheap kettle with good results, but now with a much more expensive device I am getting sub par results! Any help appreciated!

True confession here: I used 1 5/8 ounces of big box hickory. Before I get yelled at - I just ordered a box of wood from smokinlicious. 

 

[SconnieQ]

I remember reading that post, and everyone seemed to agree it was probably the wood. When you get your smokinlicious wood, just use the chunks as is. Do not pre-soak. Do not use a foil boat. Do not use a chip screen. You might have to split the chunks in half if they are a bit too big, to get the lid down in the smoke box. I position my chunks down the middle of the smoke box, lined up end to end. Considering you've had lots of bad flavors going on previously, I would give the inside of your smoker a wipe down with paper towels to get any loose stuff off (no need to clean). If there is a lot of loose stuff, you can scrape it with a credit card or plastic putty knife. Then, when you receive your smokinlicious wood, put about 5-6 ounces in there, and run a seasoning cycle (4 hours at 250, no racks or rack guides). Hopefully that should burn out any foul odors from the previous smokes.

I used a Weber Bullet (Smokey Mountain) and cheap wood for about 15 years. (Of course I spent about $8-10 in charcoal for every smoke. ;D) These smokers are really well sealed, and the first thing I noticed was that I got the true flavor of the wood species, not just "smoke". If your wood is overly dry, has a lot of bark, or is just poor quality in some way, these smokers will accentuate the bad, in the same way they accentuate the good. You can get away with bad wood on a bullet smoker because so much of it escapes.