Burning log vs. charcoal

Moving from an apartment to a house later this month, and will have a virtually unlimited supply of oak, including some already seasoned logs. My question is this: I am about to buy a WSM, but want to know if I can burn wood in it--all the instructions seem only to refer to charcoal?
Thanks!

A WSM is not a log burner, you can burn the oak down to coals and add to the cooker. You may find that this is not what your going to want to do for long.
Jim

Thaknks Jim. Do you think I might be better off with an offset coooker? I was attracted to the steadier temps in the WSM, plus I have always loved my 22 1/2" kettle.
By the way, is it a coincidence--your last name and the "Minion method", or are you the one it is named after?

If you want to burn wood then an offset is the way to go, that said, a cheap offset is a pain.
You need to go with a unit that is constructed out of 1/4" steel and well designed.
I own an offset (1/4" steel, good design, and tuned) and it does not get used like my WSMs.
As to the Minion method thing, a few years back I explained how I fired up my WSM (I explained a number of times) and it took on a life of it's own, I'm glad it has been a help and to see it being used with other pits has been interesting.
Jim

Just to add a bit:

You really don't want to be burning raw wood in any bar-b-q cooker. Raw wood emits a number of smoke components that are nasty and gives your food a heavy, bitter, "creosote" taste.

The "ideal" fuel, for any cooker, is wood that has been burned down to coals or embers. At this stage, most of the nasty volatile substances and the resulting gases have been burned away.

Having said that, some cookers (like open air pits and large offsets) move so much air through them that you can probably get away with adding an occasional log to a large pile of red embers and not oversmoke your food, but it's still not ideal. Even on these types of pits, you would rather pre-burn your logs in a separate pit and shovel the glowing coals into your cooking pit.

The reason the WSM is so efficient is that it has relatively little airflow due to its airtight design. Burning raw wood in any significant amount will totally oversmoke your food.

Regarding burning only wood in the WSM, I have tried that in my never-ending search for perfect BBQ--or at least to place in the money.

What I did was use a neighbors portable fireplace (those things are big in the midwest) to build a fire out of logs and branches of apple wood. As the wood turned to coals, I added it to the WSM as needed to maintain the heat at 225 or so.

My results and conclusions--it is not worth the effort. Results were ok, but, the additional work did not produce additional quality. I tried it with pork butt--most forgiving meat around in my opinion. Flavor was as good as always without being too smokey or bitter--but, I had to check the temp every 30 minutes the entire cook. This was before I got my first remote thermometer.

I like the idea of using wood coals--and I still do that to light my charcoal sometimes--a hybrid between the Minion method and using wood. I take 3 or 4 chunks of wood and light them in my chimney or even my little Smokey Joe Weber Baby Kettle and when they get to coals, I put them on top of the charcoal. I only do this when I am cooking purely for fun and have extra time to get the fire going. Not sure if it really makes that big of a difference-but, it feels right, so I do it on occassion.

Regarding the Minion method, Jim is humble beyond description as I know only a few WSM owners that don't use it regularly for cooking. He, and Chris, and Stogie, and a couple others on this list have had a profound impact on the cooking habits of all of us--to the better I might add.

Dale

See my post on 8/21/2000 in the Advanced forum for details on burning wood/coals. I would agree with the others that its not worth the effort.