First off, who am I to argue against Harry Soo. He has won so much and most I ever go was good job Dad. Having said this, I have been looking at a few of YT videos and I can't really wrap my head around on how he incorporates wood chunks into his cook. My 2 biggest questions deal with how many chunks he uses along with the placement of said chuncks.
So in his videos, he uses about 8 chunks of wood and places them on the grate and then places the unlit coals on top of the chunks. His argument is that he doesn't want the coals to smolder, I can dig that. But my first question is the amount!
I was always told that the you want more or less a "Kiss" of smoke on your food anything more than that and you risk having your food to smokey. This, for the most part, can be done using about 2 to 3 chunks of wood. Secondly, if you are going to wrap, about 5 hours into your cook, then 8 chunks not only seems to be overkill for a smoke taste, but also seems to be a waste of wood chunks. Seems to be if you are going to wrap you don't need 8, you cook will never use that many chunks and if you decided not to wrap then 8 chuncks would simply overpower the meat.
Secondly as far as the placement is concern, he puts them at the bottom which seems to me to be to far down. Again if you are going to wrap, you want that would to start smoking before you wrap. Seems to me if the chunks are so far at the bottom, yes you would get some smoke, but not alot.
At the end to the Harry is winning and he gets tremendous smoke rings on his cooks, its just that his method seems counterintuitive. So I guess this is a more science topic but how does this work. Toughts?
So in his videos, he uses about 8 chunks of wood and places them on the grate and then places the unlit coals on top of the chunks. His argument is that he doesn't want the coals to smolder, I can dig that. But my first question is the amount!
I was always told that the you want more or less a "Kiss" of smoke on your food anything more than that and you risk having your food to smokey. This, for the most part, can be done using about 2 to 3 chunks of wood. Secondly, if you are going to wrap, about 5 hours into your cook, then 8 chunks not only seems to be overkill for a smoke taste, but also seems to be a waste of wood chunks. Seems to be if you are going to wrap you don't need 8, you cook will never use that many chunks and if you decided not to wrap then 8 chuncks would simply overpower the meat.
Secondly as far as the placement is concern, he puts them at the bottom which seems to me to be to far down. Again if you are going to wrap, you want that would to start smoking before you wrap. Seems to me if the chunks are so far at the bottom, yes you would get some smoke, but not alot.
At the end to the Harry is winning and he gets tremendous smoke rings on his cooks, its just that his method seems counterintuitive. So I guess this is a more science topic but how does this work. Toughts?