Did a piece of lamb the other week n added 4 chunks of apple wood. It was nice but too much bark and smoky flavor, I used 4 pieces

Is the the trick to use less wood, or to remove the wood after x time?

Doing a shoulder/butt of pork tomorrow so need answers from resident pitmasters

More than likely too much wood.

4 chunks? How many ozs/lbs is that?

2.2lbs afair

Yes im a noob

If you are slow cooking meat by...smoking it... then you aren't going to get around that smoky flavor. You can however experiment with different woods which can give different cuts of meat different flavors... or... just smoke the meat for half of the time and put it in the oven for the remainder so its not getting the smoke for the full amount of time you are cooking it

For a 6-8 hour cooking time whats the ideal time to take the wood out?

What kind of pit are you using? What temps can you reasonably maintain? What woods do you have access to? What are you doing for rub/marinade?

Your supposed to start with ounces, like 2 ounces some say, you may read more or less. Not pounds bro lolWhat he said, or at least lurk the place.

I have a basic af weber, probably 320 vents fully open and wood wise I have whiskey chips and apple wood chunks

This was the rub I was planning on using

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...se-recipe.html

There are so many variables here. Your best bet if you don't want bark or a deep smoke flavor is smoke it for maybe an hour then finish it off in the oven. If it isn't smokey enough then smoke it for longer next time. It takes a lot of trail and error to get meat where you personally want it if you're being particular. Also you don't want actual smoke boiling out of your pit. Ideally it should be very light and whispy.

Well simple enough if you are cooking it for 6 hours on a smoker... get the pit up to temp and smoke the cut of meat for 3 hours at desired temp with wood of your choosing for flavor... then put it in your oven for the last 3 hours to simply finish cooking the meat. For that last 3 hours it will only be cooking not absorbing any additional smokey flavor.

I used to wrap my wood pieces in foil and poke some holes in it with a toothpick. You can do the same, maybe remove the foil wrapped wood after an hour. The first hour or two is when the flavor gets in the meat. The additional time is just for cooking purposes.

didn't read the OP but:



Hickory in small amounts goes well too.

My understanding is it's based on the amount of wood chips & ventilation

Apple? I would have used post oak, but I also live in South/Central Texas.

That rub looks not so good TBH. I would start with equal parts coarse kosher salt/coarse black pepper, then add garlic/onion powders + brown sugar to taste, then a little paprika (waaaay too much in that rub, this is more just for good color than anything else) and some cayenne pepper if you want a spicy kick.

If running wide open you might be getting more char than bark, I would drop the bottom vent to about half closed, keep the top wide open, then go from there. What you don't want is thick white/gray smoke. Before you put your meat on it should be thin blue smoke only coming out of the exhaust. With something like a Weber kettle you don't need a ton of wood chunks to get good smoky flavor, sounds like you way overdid them last time. Maybe 1-2 small chunks for the pork butt cook.

Finally if you don't want a lot of smoky flavor/bark, let your meat sit on the counter about an hour or so prior to going on the pit (colder the meat the more smoke it takes on), and wrap tightly in foil with some juice/broth/whatever after about 2-3 hours in the smoke and either finish in the pit or oven, at that point heat is heat.

ty 4 the tips, will look into these

Charcoal grill it with a small amount of wood chips on top. You may not actually smoked meats, this will put a small amount into it. Cooks faster obv