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Scratching my head tonight.

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    Scratching my head tonight.

    So, 3 weeks ago I got my kamado grill and decided I would fix hamburgers for my first time cook. My reasoning was, hamburger is cheap and I sure didn’t want to mess up a $10 slab of ribs my first cook. Well, I smoked them at 300 degrees for 25 minutes. When I opened the dome they were red and the aroma was astounding! When we bit into these burgers they were just great!!!

    Tonight I decided that we would have burgers again because our son loved them. I put my thermometer on the grate and waited for it to reach 300. Well, my dome thermometer read 225. I decided to leave it be and go by the probe thermometer. In 25 minutes there was a hint of red and they were done.

    I gave them the reverse seer, and put cheese on them. Biting into them, they tasted nowhere near the same as they did the first time. They didn’t have the good smoke ring, they didn’t have that applewood smoke flavor. Why?

    Would the temperature difference effect it that much?

    thank for helping a puzzled smoker,

    Joseph

    #2
    I am not sure I know the issue, but here are my thoughts. First, the first batch were cooked at a dome temp of 300 and the second batch was cooked at a dome temp of 225. Correct? If that is the case I do see where the doneness factor would make that much of a difference. Second, cold meat attracts smoke. If one set of burgers were less cold than the other and smoke flavor was the variant that could be the difference. Otherwise I am at a loss to explain it other than quality of meat.

    Comment


    • bbq_joe
      bbq_joe commented
      Editing a comment
      Ok. Well then I need to be going by the dome thermometer then, and not the probe thermometer of what the temp is. Because there was a major difference.
      The meat, fresh from the refrigerator. Was sat out yesterday to thaw, and right into the fridge. Taken out of the fridge, patted, seasoned, and within 2 minutes were on the grill. Handheld thermometer read 297, but not my dome thermometer. I can only attribute that to being the difference.

    #3
    In my limited experience it does.
    I usually do my burgers at the end of a smoke, I open the dampers to burn off excess charcoal and clean grates.
    The temp in my Keg can exceed 500 that's when I put on my burgers, 5 mins per side, KABOOM.
    Was the meat used Med, Lean or X-lean between the two cooks.
    Plus we all have expectations, as much as we think we have the art of smoking down to a science sometimes its just hit or miss.
    In this case maybe they were the same, even pretty close but not what you remember.

    Comment


    • bbq_joe
      bbq_joe commented
      Editing a comment
      Wasn’t grilling them at 500 though, I was smoking them, apparently between 225 and 300. Lol.

    #4
    Well let’s put it this way, it’s bothering me so much that I just amped up my temperature to 300 and I’m getting ready to fix a burger the way I did my very first time to see if that’s the issue.

    Comment


    • bbq_joe
      bbq_joe commented
      Editing a comment
      Whenever you guys would like. I’m always open to backyard cooking and help, if I learn something.

    • FireMan
      FireMan commented
      Editing a comment
      And we’re always open to backyard eatin! 🕶

    • bbq_joe
      bbq_joe commented
      Editing a comment
      Anytime you’d like!

    #5
    Eliminating the variables can bring consistency. Think about whatever is different in the cook - same thermometer, same quality of meat, even the volume of charcoal, and number of wood chunks. Think variables. Wat was different?

    Comment


    • bbq_joe
      bbq_joe commented
      Editing a comment
      The dome temperature vs the probe temperature.

    #6
    I am pleased to say that I figured it out! It had to do with the temperature. I got the grill up to 300 on the dome temp, added my applewood, and threw them on. 30 minutes later..... nice and red colored and the aroma was just as I remembered!

    Comment


    • LA Pork Butt
      LA Pork Butt commented
      Editing a comment
      You nailed the variable! Score one for persistence and determination.

    • bbq_joe
      bbq_joe commented
      Editing a comment
      Thank you LA Pork Butt. It really bothered me not knowing what was so different. Then I remembered the temp gauge and the thermo pro probe were so different. That was the only difference. So, trial and error, and lucky for me, I got it.

    #7
    Here’s my 2cents. I don’t smoke on my Primo at 225. Throw out all the temp guides you see on this site bc the vast majority are referring to kettles or off sets. The fact is that kamados work very differently. They are very efficient rigs so there just isn’t that much smoke produced at the 225 range. I do most of my smoking at higher temps so that I get enough smoke going through the cooker. If your dome temp was 300 then your grate temp was probably higher on the first cook. I suspect you weren’t creating much smoke on the second cook thus you missed the smoke flavor on the second cook. 🤷‍♂️ The thing is that it also depends on if you heat soaked the ceramic. How long did you have the cooker heating up on each cook? That’ll tell a story. Experiment w higher temps at the grate in order to get more smoke flavor. Don’t rely on anyone else to tell you what temps to cook at. Figure out what you like and how to achieve that on your cooker.

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