Wood chunks incinerated in first hour!


 
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Grim

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I'm trying to follow the turkey smoking recipe as close as possible. It calls for 2-3 medium sized chunks of wood right at the beginning of the cook. But when I did this last time, the smoking wood was GONE within an hour.

Should the wood be burning off so quickly? When I do ribs or beef, I constantly add wood throughout the cook. When I did this on my test turkey a couple of weeks ago, it turned the skin black.

Any advice?

Grim
 
Hello Grim

What kind of wood ?
Are you using a WSM ?

A medium sized chunk of wood is about the size of a baseball. I find that 2 is sufficient, it looks like charcoal after an hour or two, and the amount of smoke *appears* to decrease, but the flavour is still there. Less is better.

Hope that helps

morgan
 
Also, when you run a hot WSM your smoke wood will be consumed faster. I'd suggest keeping an eye on it, add wood as necessary to apply smoke for 2 - 3 hours.
 
Shawn is right. Higher temps mean the fire is burning hotter, which can mean the chunks will actually burn instead of smolder. You can soak the chunks a little and then add them. Chips will go almost instantly. You may simply end up using more wood than you wood for ribs or butts at lower temps. No biggie. Just keep the smoke flowing.
 
I really think you'll come to find that with poultry less is more, and a milder wood is better. If you refer to most of the cooks in the Cooking section of the website, you'll almost always see the phrase: "This single application of smoke wood will be all that's necessary for the entire cooking process."
 
I agree with Doug,
I use pecan as a subsitute for hickory with poultry it is about as strong a smokewood as I would want to go.
 
I'm right there with Doug L and Doug D. Apple wood is the strongest wood I'd use for poultry. Today's Apple/Orange worked out perfectly for the turkey.
 
I am in the group of heavy smokers. Not cigs mind you. Most people probably think I over smoke but thats what I prefer. Everyone has their preference and I have to watch myself not to overdue the smoke for everyone else that eats free around here..
DP
 
Doug, is pecan smoke between oak and hickory? We have a pecan tree on our property that needs to come down... sound like we should save the wood for smoking Q, not heating the house!
 
Mike I would say that it is similar to Oak in strength .But it has a bit of hickory's "bacony" flavor. All in all it is an excellent wood that goes with just about anything. Poultry, pork, beef .I haven't tried it on Salmon however.
 
I agree with Doug D in regard to smoke wood and poultry. The first time I did a chicken I used hickory... way to much hickory. It wasn't that it tasted that bad, the problem was that I tasted it for the entire next day.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> ...Also, when you run a hot WSM your smoke wood will be consumed faster. I'd suggest keeping an eye on it, add wood as necessary to apply smoke for 2 - 3 hours.... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I too have over smoked poultry ... 10 chunks made my turkey black. And the time I did chicken with mesquite <shudder> ...

What I was thinking when I made this post was like 1 chunk / hour 2 - 3 times if the wood was being consumed quickly due to hot fire.

Ultimately, Grim, what I should have suggested I think is to use your previous experience as a guide and it should be OK to add a bit given the conditions. ... Use the same amount you would like to just spread it out a bit...


Nehow, next time I smoke over a hot fire I think I'm gonna try wrapping the CHUNK(S) in foil so it can't burn unrestricted.
 
Well... I happen to like hickory on poultry. Just not so much. 2 medium chunks at most no more than that.

Been doing that on my turkeys for years. This thanksgiving switched to cherry for a change and my family asked me to go back! No argument from me.

Grim, I've always soaked mine if I've been planning a high temperature cook.
 
Soaked my medium chunks. 1 cherry, 2 apple, 3 hickory. Turkey was not oversmoked, but then, I think that we prefer more smoke than a lot of the board contributors. Ran the early part of the turkey cook at 250 about even with the bird. (clipped the probes onto the probe stuck in the breast, having learned my lesson about clipping onto the grate under meat.)
 
Vernon, congrats on the win over ECU. I'm a Tar Heel native who now lives in Myrtle Beach.
Glad to see another Carolina smoker on board here.
 
I've used pecan wood on a turkey before and we did not like the flavor. It was milder than other woods, with a nutty taste. It just didn't go with the turkey.

On Thanksgiving I used hickory and it wasn't at all overpowering. I solved the problem of all my wood burning up at once in a very high-tech way: I didn't put all the smoke wood on in the first hour. I just put on one medium-sized chunk per hour, so it kept the smoke going throughout the cook, but didn't over smoke.

Even though it tasted great, I was a little disappointed in the WSM's performance on a turkey. Any time I've done a turkey on my grill with indirect heat, the turkey has looked nicer and had crispier skin.
 
I used two chunks of sugar maple on my Thanksgiving turkey and was pleasantly surprised. The turkey had a mild smoke flavor which the family loved. Got smoke for only about an hour but this was enough. I agree with the other members that less is better when smoking poultry.
 
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