Did I wash off my smoke?

[rw willy]

I did two butts yesterday. Rubbed one w/mustard and Jeff's rub and the other w/Jeff's rub only. They took forever. Put them on @ 5am and coolered them @ 1:30 this morning. Used the "sticky" guidlines, had great success with that earlier.
ONLY, this time I spritzed w/ginger ale and apple cider vinegar 60/40. Forgot to get apple juice! I applied the spray when adding wood, 100% hickory.
The meat pulled great this morning @ 6:00am, but no real smoke smell or taste.
I had good visable smoke through out the smoke and my GOSM gasser was running @ 220-240 all day.
70 F outside with no wind and was smoking in the shade.

All in all it was a beautiful day and smoke until this morning. I am more then a little disappointed in the results.
Can smoke be washed off? If not, any guesses as to what happened?
Thanks in advance.

 

[domn8_ion]

I wonder if the cider vinagar effected the smoke taste. Have you used it as a spritz before?

 

[white cloud]

Beats me, Let someone else smell it and taste it. Maybe you OD'd on smoke you were out there so long

 

[rw willy]

No, I have not used the vinegar prior to this smoke. I was in a pinch and thought, "What the hey".

Good point on the OD on smoke. I crashed early on. And woke up to the chirp of the ET-73.
You got to love the ET-73.

 

[richtee]

19 hours? Oh MY! That MUST have been one mean pig!

Why do you say your smoke was "washed off"? You did not rince the meat, did ya? And I doubt even if ya did all the flavor would go away.

One thing I find... when you have been standing in smoke tending a pit for a long time, your ability to taste the smoke is diminished. What did others say about the flavor?

Also what kind of wood did ya use... the really light flavored stuff like maple isn't enough for a big ole hunk of pork in my opinion.

 

[white cloud]

Sometimes I mix 4 parts water to one part apple cider vinegar and just maybe a tsp of brown sugar or to taste. I only make over a cup at a time.

 

[muddy pond]

I agre with the thinking of White Cloud on the idea of od'ing on the smoke. I cook from 2 am til 12 noon and really just taste the pork where my customers love the smoke flavor....

 

[rw willy]

Good points RichT
No rinse.
I had my wife and kids give the meat a sniff and they concur, hardly smokey.
I used hickory, and from the amount and color of the smoke I thought smoke house nirvana would soon be coming off the GOSM.
I was thinking maybe the vinegar could "rinse" the smoke off?
Can't wait to try my luck again, just when you think you got'er down something rears its ugly head.

 

[cubguy17]

I often use apple cider vinegar and mustard mixed together as my spritzer and haven't had that problem. Wierd I wanna see some other takes on this.

 

[travcoman45]

Fine lookin vittles willy! That's alot of vinegar to spray on yer meat, wonderin if the vinegar overpowered the smoke smell? In a 20 oz bottle I use only 2 oz of cider vinegar. That and I agree with the others, you probably couldn't smell it after workin in it all day. Momma says she loves the smell of the smoker each time she walks by durin the week, harder for me to smell it over the next day or so, but by wednesday I can really smell it, oh so good!

 

[richtee]

That's a weird one allrighty. You should have been fine... I wonder if the airflow was too great, or was vented away from the meat? Naw...jeez bud- I'm kinda at a loss too.

 

[earache_my_eye]

Shootin' from the hip here, but vinegar is used in a lot of cleaning methods and solutions.....for example...how do you clean your coffee pot??....vinegar/water solution.

Now, I don't want to automatically conclude that the vinegar was the culprit, especially since it was "cider" vinegar, but vinegar does get used to neutralize odors and remove stains...etc...

Maybe the combination with the carbon dioxide in the ginger ale could have stripped away most of the smoke smell and flavor......???

that's all I got,
Eric

 

[ron50]

I am leaning towards the vinegar neutralizing the smoke flavor. As Eric said, it's used to neutralize odors and flavors in a lot lower concentrations then you used.

You also said "from the amount and color of my smoke"....

Was it thin blue smoke?

Since this was the first time you used the vinegar and the first time you had this issue I would avoid it next smoke and see what happens.

Did the meat taste strongly of vinegar?

 

[rw willy]

Nothings strong flavored. The pork just tastes like I baked it with some strong rub on it.

I agree, vinegar will not be in my sray for the next smoke.
All I need is another weekend and some meat and I'll be back in it.
Thanks to all.