wood on wsm


 
B

Barry Walker

New member
Hi, I'm using wsm 18.5 inch for first time today, already cooked chicken thighs (2 hours) and am now cooking ribs for a further 4 hours was not sure if you have to keep adding wood for the whole cook as the temperature is ok but the smoke stopped some time ago? I did read that the smoke is penetrated early in the cooking process
 
I suppose you pulled off the wings and throuh in the ribs.
In my opinion you shoud put some chuncks (2-3) semi-buried and let the smoke starts Again and THEN put the ribs in.
If not, you will get some white billowing smoke wich is NOT good
 
Barry, I guess the question would be can you still see wood chunks when you open the charcoal door? And, how much wood did you start with? I usually start with 7-8 good-sized chunks, and they provide all the smoke I need, even for 14-16 hour smokes. Just because you can't "see" smoke doesn't mean you aren't getting smoke...as TBS (thin blue smoke) is not always visible.

I normally use somewhere around this much wood on the bottom layer.

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Then, fill with charcoal, and put 3-4 more chunks on top.

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Then, I just dig out a little hole in the center and pour about 1/3 of a charcoal starter there. And, it normally takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour for the thick white smoke that Enrico mentioned dissipates and I see TBS...then I know it's time to throw the meat on.

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The wood above lasted through a 17 hour brisket cook. Personally, I just wouldn't take a chance on adding wood in the middle of smoke and having to fight the thick white smoke, and possibly ruining your ribs.
 
Thanks for posting the pictures Mick. I am new to smoking and words help a ton but your pictures are priceless in my eyes.
 
how much wood did you start with? the longer I do this, btw, the more I realize that less is more when it comes to wood. we all want that nice smokey flavor, but we want to taste the meat flavor too.
 
I can't figure out from your post if you started ribs and chicken at the same time, and then 2 hours into it took off the chicken and still have 4 hours on the ribs. Or if you did the chicken, off it came, and now putting on the ribs.

if it is the 1st one, I would not add more wood
if it is the 2nd one, I would of added some wood and maybe waited 10-15 minutes if the initial smoke was kind of heavy, and then tossed on the ribs

If making an error between under smoking and over smoking, it is always better to under smoke. I think the charcoal alone gives some great flavor. too much smoke and it is not pleasant (obviously)
 
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