PBC meat-drippings smell

[Anthonyf]

I've just had my second cook on the PBC. I made 4 half-chickens today and 6 st. Louis pork rib racks last week. Before getting the PBC, I had read, either on this website or PBC's website that the meat drips onto the coals and creates a nice-smelling fog of evaporated meat drippings. When cooking last week and this week, I put my hand near the rebar holes where the smoke comes out and I noticed it was a very humid and wet smoke, probably because of the meat drippings.

The thing is, in these two cooks, I found that that fog didnt smell very good at all. I actually didn't like that fog smell.

Do y'all notice this as well? The food comes out pretty well and tasty, but while cooking it, the smell isn't good in my opinion, even when I put apple wood chunks on this week, the meat fog smell still was overpowering.

Whenever I would cook on the Webber kettle, I wouldn't really try to smell the smoke but it wasn't that noticeable like the PBC meat fog smell.

In fact, whenever the apple wood started going on the kettle, everything smelled incredibly good.

What do y'all think?

​

[Jerod Broussard]

I've never tried to smell the fog up close and personal. I know from a distance it is pretty sweet. Law of diminishing returns for sure.

[SoCalTim]

Hi Anthony, personally i really like the ‘smell’ you mentioned. In fact if you go on their website this is a selling point, so to me it wasn’t a surprise. My buddy got a great deal on a ‘new/used’ PBC on CL because the owner didn’t care for ‘the smell’.

In short, what your experiencing is normal, oh .. Welcome to The Pit! Tim

[Anthonyf]

I was expecting it to be there, but I thought it would smell better.

[FireMan]

Now I’m gonna have to sniff my barrel. I hope nobody’s watching. But I dare say, from a distance, erect & about 2 to 3 ft away, it’s ok by me & the neighbors love it.

[Anthonyf]

I'm trying to think of what it could be. Maybe I'm not used to Kingsford briquettes and that's what I'm smelling? Before that, I had only used royal oak lump charcoal. I think the smell is the meat fog, but I'm just throwing this out there.

[JimLinebarger]

I have been wanting to discuss that smell for a while but didn't want to discourage others. When I do brisket or pork butt the results are great. However, when I do chicken, that smell gets on the meat. I have done a few batches of thighs to freeze for snacks. That smell has made me want to get rid of the PBC. I now do chicken on my Weber (like tonight and it was just fine.) I use the same charcoal in the PBC and Weber kettle. The only difference is that the juices drip down and sizzle and make the "fog". I was going to put a drip pan on the handle of the basket to see if that would help but was afraid it might hinder the airflow and put the coals out. Still might try it. I scraped the crud off of the bottom of the drum before my last brisket and the smell was a little different. I also put the meat opposite where I started the coals. Since it was a 9 hour cook it did finally consume the coals under the meat. I asked my wife if she noticed the taste on the chicken and she said no. I was also wondering if I was more sensitive because of the meds I have to take.

I just did 2 pork butts, one in the PBC and one on my Weber. I put the same amount of smoking wood in each (and Alder chunk and a couple of apple chunks.) They held the temp about the same throughout the smoke. I did notice that the PBC had smoke much longer than the Weber. I kept the butts separate and had a taste test with my wife. Both of us thought that the Weber butt was more moist but that the PBC had a much better and intense smoke taste but was a little more dry. Both had great bark. And there was no "fog" taste on the PBC butt.

[Nate]

LMAO!!!!!!! There is material for a few cartoons here....

medical attemtion for burnt nose from getting to close and trying to smell the meat fog.

eyeball seared out from poking it with the rebar trying to do the same thing

group of guys standing round trying to sniff the four holes and debating.

Doc blinder with some sort of nose smell sensor sniffing the barrel for a science experiment

and so on

[FireMan]

Yeah Nate, if only we could draw.

[fzxdoc]

I scraped the crud off of the bottom of the drum before my last brisket and the smell was a little different.butt.

The PBC has a moist environment--that's part of the science of why it does what it does so well, according to the PBC website folks.

But if you have meat drippings on the bottom of the barrel from previous cooks, I'm not surprised that you experience off-smells/flavors. If you don't want to invest in the PBC ash catcher (I have one but took it off because the grease ran under it), then I would recommend cleaning the bottom of the barrel and then covering it with a double layer of heavy duty aluminum foil for each cook, and wrapping it up and tossing it at the end of the cook. That way the bottom of the barrel stays clean and there is no carryover of flavor from possibly rancid grease/drippings from previous cooks.

And I agree with you in part, Jim. I've done taste test comparisons between my WSCGC and the PBC. The WSCGC stops smoking way early (there are ways to fix that which I am investigating) and the PBC has a deeper smoke flavor--not at the front of the bite, but it certainly comes through by the end of the bite, at least for me. Between the two, the PBC usually has the edge on moistness, though, but not by much.

Kathryn

[JimLinebarger]

I have had the ash catcher since day one. But the foil at the bottom under the catcher would collect the shmutts from each cook, even the stuff that runs under it. That's a good idea. Thx.

[abandonedbrain]

My only comment would be on the foil. When I didn't have the ash plate, I used foil. It's OK, but I would always rub the rim of the barrel with my jacket trying to grab that foil, and that "breaks" the lid seal (the gunk warms and helps seal). PITA.

[fzxdoc]

I drape my cleaning cloth over the edge of the barrel as I lean in to fold up the aluminum foil, abandonedbrain , so no dirt comes off on what I'm wearing. With a gasket in the rim of my PBC's lid, I don't worry much about a grease seal any more. I wanted the ash catcher to work, and while it would catch ash, it wouldn't catch the grease drippings that would then collect underneath it.

K.

[Rusbry]

I have noticed that if the outside temperature(80) and humidity (90) are high the moisture inside the chamber is much more. It was to the point of keeping the cook temperature down and the fog was not so pleasant. I think the next time I cook in those conditions I will let the fire heat up a bit before starting the cook to make sure the bed of coals will stand up to the moisture. Has anyone had a like experience?

[abandonedbrain]

I think you're spot on. The temps definitely drop when cooking in high humidity, and with such a cool running bed of coals, the extra drippings A) aren't getting burned, and B) cool the bed MORE, leading to temp drift.