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Bitter over smoked taste from my UDS.

J

Joe Dirt

Knows what a fatty is.
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I am having trouble with food getting a bitter, bad taste in my UDS. Pork doesnt seem to be affected but I just did chicken breasts and a top round and all pieces have a terrible bitter taste. I used Stubb's charcoal with only a few pecan chips. Most times I dont even use wood with Stubbs because it seems to give a good flavor anyway. Intakes and exhaust full open, thin smoke, 275-300. What am I doing wrong?
 
Are you letting the smoke clear up before adding meat? Everything else seems good. Never used chips before but i know that some people soak them but that is not necessary.
 
yes. I always let the puffy white smoke clear out. Sometimes depending on how much charcoal in the basket, I may have to wait an hour for smoke to clear after adding starter.
 
might be the drippings. I know some like the flavor of drippings on the coals and some don't. do you use a diffuser? if it was everything you cooked I might think about cleaning out the uds. I hope you get it figured out. I imagine it's pretty frustrating.
 
very frustrating. I have had trouble with beef and chicken together before where the beef drippings gave the chicken a "grease in fire" taste. But that was not the case this time. the top round is very lean and did not have much in the way of drippings. I dont have a diffuser. The drum is fairly new. probably only 100 hours cook time. Does it need to be cleaned?
 
Chicken breast cooked on the pit always taste over smoked to me. I think they absorb a lot of smoke. I never use wood chips with chicken breast. I never messed with top round, so I won't comment there.

Stop using chips and see if you like the smoke level.
 
not unless you can't figure out what it is. i have a vertical similar to a uds and have never cleaned it. i do clean out the ash after every cook but it is made out of 1/4" pipe and has a firebox door so it is really easy to clean the ash out. somebody has had this problem before. hopefully they will chime in soon.
 
Guest said:
Chicken breast cooked on the pit always taste over smoked to me. I think they absorb a lot of smoke. I never use wood chips with chicken breast. I never messed with top round, so I won't comment there.

Stop using chips and see if you like the smoke level.
Click to expand...

This has happened before using Stubbs alone, no wood added.
 
Joe Dirt said:
A memphis style rub
Click to expand...

I only ask, because chicken will take up seasoning much more than beef or pork. I am not really familiar with any Memphis rubs. If it contains a lot of chili powder and or paprika it may cause some bitterness, regular salt with iodine may also do that. I am probable wrong about this being the problem, just thinking outside the box a bit since almost everyone else is talking wood and vents, but if I read your post right is sounds like you got all that right.
Dave
 
Well, i tried to save the chicken by slicing off all the skin...it didnt help. Matter of fact, I think the bitter taste is worse now that the food rested. Its so potent that beer wont wash the taste out!
 
One other thing, make sure to look over your charcoal. It is not unheard of to find odd things in it, like plastic, insulation plywood ext, although that is more prominent with lump.
Dave
 
Joe Dirt said:
Well, i tried to save the chicken by slicing off all the skin...it didnt help. Matter of fact, I think the bitter taste is worse now that the food rested. Its so potent that beer wont wash the taste out!
Click to expand...


Well that would not stop me from trying to wash it down with beer.:-D
Dave
 
Mo-Dave said:
I only ask, because chicken will take up seasoning much more than beef or pork. I am not really familiar with any Memphis rubs. If it contains a lot of chili powder and or paprika it may cause some bitterness, regular salt with iodine may also do that. I am probable wrong about this being the problem, just thinking outside the box a bit since almost everyone else is talking wood and vents, but if I read your post right is sounds like you got all that right.
Dave
Click to expand...

actually I did one piece of chicken naked. It is just as bad. I am wanting to blame the charcoal but I doubt that was it.
 
I cook at those temps all the time from the time I dump my coals until I load the meat is less than 30 min.
When you dump your hot stuff leave the lid off and watch the thermo when the temp gets to 250 or more put the lid on. To cook at 300-325 I let the temp go to 275 and I close down the ball valve to 3/4 open and it settles right in at +300ish. YMMV bitter is usually creosote from a starved fire.
 
Bludawg said:
When you dump your hot stuff leave the lid off and watch the thermo when the temp gets to 250 or more put the lid on. To cook at 300-325 I let the temp go to 275 and I close down the ball valve to 3/4 open and it settles right in at +300ish. YMMV bitter is usually creosote from a starved fire.
Click to expand...

I did put the lid on shortly after I dumped the hot coals. A few mins later it was puffing white smoke so I took the lid off again and let the smoke clear and allowed fire to build up to about 275. I didnt put the meat on until the heat settled and the white smoke was gone. So did I cause the problem by putting lid on too soon before fire was hot enough?
 
Has it been happening since you built the uds? What was in it ?
If it's constant, try washing it out and re-seasoning it. Can't hurt anything.
 
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