Smoked food

[thesnow]

Hi all,
When I cook on the smokenator my wife doesn't like the smokey smell and taste , she starts coughing when she smells smoked food.
Is it possible to make it less smoked. I noticed different charcoal helped reduce the meat being too smoked.

Would it also help or work , if I leave the top vent fully opened on the dome and use the bottom vent to adjust the temperature.

Thanks.

[jerkylips]

Jun 15, 2010 16:25:47 GMT -5 thesnow said:

Hi all,
When I cook on the smokenator my wife doesn't like the smokey smell and taste , she starts coughing when she smells smoked food.
Is it possible to make it less smoked. I noticed different charcoal helped reduce the meat being too smoked.

Would it also help or work , if I leave the top vent fully opened on the dome and use the bottom vent to adjust the temperature.

Thanks.

my wife doesn't like smoked food either. some people just don't. when you cook food on a smoker, it's going to be smoky. That said, you may be able to make a somewhat milder. keeping the top vents opened will prevent creosote & bitterness. I did a turkey breast last summer & used only charcoal, no wood. That had a somewhat less smoky flavor. My guess is that it's just your wife's preference, though..

[thesnow]

I'm new at this and Yes, I do like smoked foods, I'm starting to believe there is good smoking and bad smoking. My first smoked ribs were awful. I believe I may have used maybe bad quality of briquettes that made the food tasted like chemical, it tasted like I was smoking cigarettes and the tasted was stuck in my throat.
I've been looking around for a good quality mild lump charcoal that's good for smoking.
Yes, I will try to use the lower vent to regulate the temperature and leave the upper dome fully opened, maybe I should also wrap my wife's food in foil if it will make it less smoked.

[bigsteve]

If your wife doesn't like the smoke, she doesn't like it. But make sure you're doing it correctly. You should NOT have lots of smoke billowing out of your cooker. The best is when you barely see thin wispy blue smoke coming out. It's not always easy to get that. But at least if you've had smoke billowing out, cut way back on the chunks. Even if you can't see the smoke, if you can smell the wood smoldering, you'll get the taste.

As far as opening the top, and regulating with the bottom. That's the way just about every other smoker is done. However, Don went to great lengths to figure out how to precisely regulate temperatures using the top vent. It doesn't hurt to try. I'd suggest experimenting with cheap meat though.

Let us know how it works out.

[thesnow]

Ribs...
Well it was really amazing, Believe.., and it could be done!!
As mentioned in the previous posting my wife doesn't like smoked foods, BUT she did Today! her mouth fell to the floor she couldn't believe how good the Ribs tasted.
After scrapping three cooking Rib session's, don't trust the temperature from your dome's thermometer.
I went out and bought a Maverick ET-73 Redi-Chek.
Also buy quality Charcoal, I used lump charcoal only with no wood chunks. Temperature was hard to control.. but I guess trial and error will overcome this..