Cabin Fever
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2011
- Location
- Orange, VA
First off, I don't currently own a dedicated smoker so I use my 22.5" Weber OTG. Whenever I smoke anything I always use the indirect minion method and regular Kingsford blue. The problem I'm having is that I just can't seem to get that light bacon type flavor out of the hickory chunks I use.
I know hickory is strong so I only use one or two small chunks depending on what type of meat I'm smoking. I even go as far as to pre-burn the chunks a bit in the chimney starter to achieve thin blue smoke right off the bat. Oddly enough though, the meat still turns out too harsh and bitter almost every time.
For example, I smoked a small batch of chicken wings Thursday night using a single hickory chunk the size of two fingers and while they weren't unedible, they just had a harsh burnt wood type taste. I don't get it. I'm getting thin blue smoke the entire time. Could it just be that hickory is simply too strong for my taste? I've never had this problem with cherry wood in the past. Any tips or advice you guys and gals could throw my way would be greatly appreciated.
I know hickory is strong so I only use one or two small chunks depending on what type of meat I'm smoking. I even go as far as to pre-burn the chunks a bit in the chimney starter to achieve thin blue smoke right off the bat. Oddly enough though, the meat still turns out too harsh and bitter almost every time.
For example, I smoked a small batch of chicken wings Thursday night using a single hickory chunk the size of two fingers and while they weren't unedible, they just had a harsh burnt wood type taste. I don't get it. I'm getting thin blue smoke the entire time. Could it just be that hickory is simply too strong for my taste? I've never had this problem with cherry wood in the past. Any tips or advice you guys and gals could throw my way would be greatly appreciated.