I just can't seem to "master" hickory?

[realspaazz]

another thing to consider might be your two zone fire setup. If you don"t have a good separation between the live coals and the cooking chicken, the chicken fat dripping and flaming on the partially burned hickory (or even onto the charcoal) can give off some nasty flavors and colors.

 

[rookiedad]

if you're looking for a bacon flavor you might not get it this way because bacon is cured and smoked at far lower temperatures. i've got bacony flavored chicken skin on a kettle with hickory but the temperature was very low, like 225*. i would try to actually make some bacon and see if your getting the flavor you want and then use that as a starting point and see if there is a different result with the same method and a different product. also, don't neglect that misquite you can get at lowes. i like that stuff!

 

[Cabin Fever]

another thing to consider might be your two zone fire setup. If you don"t have a good separation between the live coals and the cooking chicken, the chicken fat dripping and flaming on the partially burned hickory (or even onto the charcoal) can give off some nasty flavors and colors.

I keep a foil pan under the meat side of the grate so there's absolutely no briquetts directly under the meat. Another thing I should point out is that I keep the top vent open 100% during the entire cook. Also, buccaneer mentioned that hickory turns bitter when it actually catches fire and the only time that happens in my kettle is when I take the lid off. At this point I think I'm just gonna try another batch of chicken wings and pre burn the wood like I mentioned earlier. At least that way I won't be wasting a brisket or butt with bitter smoke.

Boshizzle, thanks for the offer buddy. I just put in an application at Downtown Garage so hopefully I'll be out that way a little more in the near future.

 

[Dave Russell]

Could possibly be that the hickory you used is one of the harsh types Chris Lilly talks about, but I wonder if the wood was the cuprit with such a small amount. I was skeptical about Kbb producing much smoke flavor until recently, so I wonder if you didn't wait long enough for the charcoal to start burning cleanly.

Just trying to cover the bases, but that's not much wood and I've never noticed green wood in a store. Such a small amount of wood, even hickory, won't smoke too long anyway... so how long did you say you get smoke?

As far as wood choice though, I prefer pecan over hickory for poultry and ribs for it's lighter flavor.

Good luck with it. I find it much harder to get a good smoke flavor off the kettle than the wsm and so have recently decided to often skip the wood altogether. Did Dougherty's wings recently with no wood and they were smoked just right.

 

[Bbq Bubba]

Thanks for the info so far folks. A couple things that I forgot to mention is that I'm using hickory chunks that I bought from Lowes and I do not soak them..

The only time I got that bitterness is when the hickory flamed and burned.
I'd try it after a soak, that may be all it is.

I think your wood is TOO dry. Get some quality wood to start with or cut your own. Hickory will not give u a bacon flavor, it will give u hickory flavor. :thumb:

 

[DirtyDirty00]

The only time I got that bitterness is when the hickory flamed and burned.
I'd try it after a soak, that may be all it is.

This would be hard tho in my offset. I need flames. I usually burn around 2-3 splits in it at a time.


I've also had this problem with hickory. My first cook on my new smoker I used hickory. Maybe it was bc I wasn't used to the fire control yet on the smoker and I was getting some bad smoke. But this was the only time ive felt that the food was "over smoked". Had a strong and bitter taste. I usually use maple. I get a very smokey flavor but it tastes good.

 

[qapla]

If you really want to know what "bad smoke" tastes like try smoking with Pine or Camphor. Once you have done this, no amount of Hickory, Mesquite or any other nut or fruit wood will taste bitter.

:clap2::thumb::mod::crazy:

 

[Bbq Bubba]

Brothers....

If you are tasting over smoked & bitter it's your fire, not the wood.

 

[Cabin Fever]

Brothers....

If you are tasting over smoked & bitter it's your fire, not the wood.

Would you mind elaborating a bit?

Could possibly be that the hickory you used is one of the harsh types Chris Lilly talks about, but I wonder if the wood was the cuprit with such a small amount. I was skeptical about Kbb producing much smoke flavor until recently, so I wonder if you didn't wait long enough for the charcoal to start burning cleanly.

That crossed my mind as well Dave. I'll give the charcoal plenty of time to completely ash over when I do my next batch of wings. I'll just keep trying new things with each smoke while crossing off the techniques that don't work. BBQ nirvana has to be out there somewhere.