First post, old member

[Low n slow3891]

What’s up fellas! Been a while since I’ve visited here, forgot all my login info so I had to start from scratch! Anyway, I recently had my smoker sandblasted and repainted (just the outside, didn’t touch the inside), done a few burn ins and had my first smoke on it today, with that being said; the food had a grainy feel and a kind of bitter taste to it. Any help or solutions would be greatly appreciated

[zippy12]

Oh lord!

I am rehabbing my stick burner!

did you give your smoker a good 500F for 3hr?

Glad your back!

[Low n slow3891]

Thanks! If you’re referring to temp, on the first burn in I went between 300-400 for about 4-5 hours. The second burn I went with a hotter burn then sprayed with cooking oil once it got below 300

[Texas-Hunter]

Welcome back, if you PM me what you thing would have been your old email I can look it up and see if we can recover your account.

[zippy12]

Thanks! If you’re referring to temp, on the first burn in I went between 300-400 for about 4-5 hours. The second burn I went with a hotter burn then sprayed with cooking oil once it got below 300

what oil exactly
I am doing fresh lard in my burn in

[SMOKE FREAK]

Welcome back.

[crusty ol salt]

Okay I will take a stab at this. Please don't kill the messenger

Bitter = creosote

grit = ash carry over or the seasoning layer failing.

In my mind I am visioning too much air flow and to much smoke. May be even high temps.

First lets discuss seasoning of our smokers. At least once a year I rinse the inside of the smoker with a good stream of water to knock down all the loose stuff that could fall into my food and do a season run. This layer of seasoning goodness dries out over the winter or a period no use. that good be a part of the grit issue.

Second I have noticed during runs that I feel like I am losing the smoker temps I try to recover to quickly and stoke the fires a little heavy trying to recover. this results in more air flow being drawn thru the smoker. Next thing I know I adjust my coal bed and add more coal or a chunk for smoke and wham, ash carryover. Thats grit too.

Lets go back to losing the smoker again. This can cause a low flow, high smoke condition. This is in creosote carryover from uneffective burning of fuel.

My solution, I never start the season with a cook of foods. It is always an empty smoker run to practice maintaining temps and air flow.

I hope this helps.

Good luck

PS - I never do a high temperature run. Most of my smokers, maybe all of my smokers barely break 300°F.

[jwbtulsa]

bitter food? Grainy? I'm betting you have a bunch of creosote flaking off and/or you are running way too much smoke. Clean that interior with a good wire brush and try it again. Keep your airflow strong. If it's too slow you can get ash falling on your food as well. Take some pics of your smoker and we can all chime in our opinions.

[jwbtulsa]

Marcus, great minds think alike!

[crusty ol salt]

Marcus, great minds think alike!

Of course we do. Once a sailor, always a sailor....

[Low n slow3891]

I use my smoker year round, I used it less than 2 weeks prior to sending it off. Once I got it back I knocked off and swept out any and all that fell off, did a hot burn in first then, went back and started with another hot burn and once it got below 300 I started spraying with cooking oil for a few hours. I did have a new charcoal grate made that sits a little higher therefore resulting in more airflow. I’ve had this pit for 10 years and have never had a taste or feel like this come off of it

[crusty ol salt]

Like I said dont kill the messenger....

[DanMcG]

First thing I thought of when you said grainy is sandblast sand. could the bitter taste be burning paint being sucked into the air intake?
Just throwing some stuff out there.

[low n slow83]

Same thing I was thinking as far as it being grainy. I did a couple of burn ins before cooking on it. Any ideas on correcting this would be greatly appreciated!

[HawgHeaven]

Pressure wash the inside real good... sounds like you got sand in there.