PBC flavor...

[bryceQ]

So! I'm 10'ish cooks into my PBC. I've got the lighting tricks and heating tricks pretty much figured out. I'm struggling with one thing.

The flavor...

I did a butt Sunday with my old vertical gas smoker using hickory chunks. AWESOME! I've used the same method with the same smoker with cherry or apple and all were good. The PBC gives a heavier (Charcol) flavor. Do I need to get used to that flavor or am I missing something? I'm just confused because so many are bragging on their PBC and the flavor is nothing like any BBQ I've had anywhere.

(yes, I'm using the Kingsford)

Should I ask my guests to redefine their thoughts on what BBQ should taste like?

[DWCowles]

I rest my case

[Jerod Broussard]

PBC is pure BBQ because you have so much drippings hitting the coals, igniting, then coming up and adding flavor.

I smoked plenty meat with wood, charcoal and wood, cherry, hickory, etc....Once I lit the PBC , it knocked peoples' socks off.

Of course, they thought they knew what good BBQ was.

With smoking you are trying to impart some smoke flavor to the meat, in the PBC, that meat is IN the boiler room getting constantly attacked.

If your folks like mellowed out Q'.....can't hate 'em for that.

[Ernest]

PBC is real caveman BBQ.
I guess you could place the lit coals away from underneath the food to avoid the drippings hitting the hot coals (that's where the majority of the flavor is coming from).

[DWCowles]

Ernest I'm pretty sure the caveman didn't have charcoal or a barrel to put it in I bet they cook with WOOD

[Ernest]

HAHAHAHAHA!! DWCowles , I'll leave you alone.

[fzxdoc]

Several months ago on the PBC open forum (not on the Pit) someone perfected a lighting technique for the PBC that eliminated the "charcoal flavor" that he found objectionable. Here is his method:

I don't want to throw anyone off, but I've been experimenting with a lighting procedure that will minimize charcoal smoke. The PBC lighting instructions video is foolproof, so start there. For my PB cook yesterday, I filled my big Weber chimney and let most of the coals ash over before I dumped them. I did not put any unlit coals in the bottom. Temp peaked around 420, I closed the lid and waited until the temp started to drop and then hung the meat at 330. Temp stabilized at 270 for most of the cook. This kept the charcoal smoke down which allowed me to add apple chunks and the smoke flavor was perfect.

HTH,
Kathryn

[Ernest]

I bet you it's the blue bag that produce the nasty flavor.

[Huskee]

LOL DWCowles preach it bro! Cavemen probably held sticks of meat over fires... not in enclosed barrels. But who knows, we weren't there were we. (Although a guy I used to work with I think was left over from that era, lol)

bryceQ Only the tongue will tell. It's what you like not what others tell you to like. Maybe you had some blue charcoal smoke polluting your flavor a tad, maybe not. Pellets will give you your light smoke flavor, wood chunks much more (depending on how many you use and for how long of duration of course), all logs more pervasive yet, and charcoal not much by itself, IF it's well lit.

Like Jerod says the PBC is a drippings flavorizer mostly, very similar to how grilling works more so than smoking as far as flavor. I do not own one but I think of it as a grilling oven I guess, more than a smoker. If you had a good Minion method going you may just have some legit charcoal flavor which would probably be the least desirable of all options to most people.

A water smoker has a water pan barrier between the meat and the heat, so the cooking and flavorizing comes mostly from the smokey heat. If you have no water pan you stand to get some drippings vaporizing on the heat source which will contribute. Many if not all expensive offset stickburners have heat management plates (HMPs) or tuning plates in them under the food grate, which get blistering hot, and therefore drippings will still vaporize when they drip on them, giving you that grilled and smoked flavor in unison. I have a short video of a chicken cook where the drippings are sizzling and smoking on the HMP.

The fun is in the experimenting to find your preferred method!