"Dimitri" > wrote in message
. ..
> Is it possible to get too smokey a flavor?

Really it all depends upon what you like.

>
> I am using an electric smoker with very tender results.
>
> How do you gauge how much wood and how long door the common type of
smoking?

I thought that quite a few of those electric jobbies came with a small pan
that set on the element, the manf. usually say to place sawdust in the pan.
I'd start out with 1/2 cup of sawdust for small pieces of meat such as
chicken parts, burgers etc, then go to 1 cup for bigger/thicker/longer
cooking cuts of meat. Don't be afraid to experiment, starting out with easy
small stuff. If it seems like the dust burns up too fast, you could cover
the pan/dust with foil which has pencil size holes punched in it, say about
6 holes.


--
Mike Willsey (Piedmont)
The Practical Bar B Q'r at,
http://groups.msn.com/ThePracticalBarBQr/_whatsnew.msnw

>
>
> Thanks
>
> Dimitri
>
>

Yes, you can have too much smoke. Ask my wife. She didn't like my BBQ
until I took some peoples advice and toned down the smoke. Another thing,
smoke doesn't have to be visible to impart taste to the meat. The visible
part of the smoke is not where the flavor is. If you are seeing white smoke
you are producing creosote which is bitter. You want a very wispy, thin
blue smoke. It's actually more of a haze than a smoke. If you find your
meat is too Smokey you can wrap it in foil after a couple of hours and
finish the cooking that way.

Doug

"Dimitri" > wrote in message
. ..
> Is it possible to get too smokey a flavor?
>
> I am using an electric smoker with very tender results.
>
> How do you gauge how much wood and how long door the common type of
> smoking?
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Dimitri
>

"Dimitri" > wrote in message
. ..
> Is it possible to get too smokey a flavor?
>
> I am using an electric smoker with very tender results.
>
> How do you gauge how much wood and how long door the common type of smoking?
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Dimitri


Thank you all -

Very good information.

As usual I am/was overzealous.

Dimitri

One thing that you shouldn't overlook is the amount of fat in the meat.
A fatty brisket or piece of pork can handle lots of smoke, provided
that it's not the rendered fat making the smoke. Too much of that 'fat
smoke' can make any meat downright nasty tasting. I've actually had
some pork butt come out tasting like bacon. That piece didn't last very
long, and the fatty parts went the quickest.

The Ranger wrote:
> Dimitri > wrote in message
> . ..
>
>>Is it possible to get too smokey a flavor?
>
>
> Most definitely! I equate it to too much oak in chardonnays; there's a
> point of diminishing returns.

Have you ever had an over-oaked red wine? Such things exist,
and it's much more than running past a point of diminishing return.
It's like too much salt or too much pepper or too much of any
other seasoning. It's probably worse in red wines that we're
accustomed to a decent dose of oak in - too much and it quickly
turns terrible.

(For example, I once had an August Briggs Cab that was just so
over-oaked as to not be pleasant. I'm not talking about splitting
hairs, I'm talking about a wine with overwhelming "butterscotch"
flavors).

Dana