[mcyork28]

Hello,

I picked up a used Sapphire Kamado cooker last week and smoked a rack of ribs. I had some issues with temp. control but I will get that worked out. The bigger problem I saw was the meat had a very acrid smoke flavor and I had absolutely no smoke ring. For the last couple years I have been cooking on a Masterforge propane smoker with pretty decent results. My first smoker was a cheap Brinkman charcoal version. I have smoked using charcoal before but never had this happen.

I was using Kingsford Competition briquettes and used no lighter fluid. I am planning to smoke a chicken today and picked up a bag of Royal Oak Natural Lump (people seem to speak highly of it here).

My question is what caused the acrid smoke flavor. I hear people talking about waiting until the smoke is "clean". As soon as I had smoke the meat went on. I also reloaded with additional wood chunks and chips (a mix of pecan chunks and apple chips) after about 45min.

Any help you can give me will be appreciated. I don't want to ruin another meal.

Thanks,