Do more racks of ribs require more wood chunks


 
J

Jim Mathews

TVWBB Member
When I make baby backs, I usually only make 1 rack, and I usually use Kingsford briquettes with 3 large hickory chunks, usually gives me a great smoke taste and ring. Neighbors over yesterday, so I made 4 racks, used 4 hickory chinks (only 1 more than when I make 1 rack) and not much smoke flavor and no smoke ring. Do I needto use proportionately more wood when I cook more racks?
 
I've always read about smoke ring set up process due to:
Meat temp not higher than 140F so it's much better starting with cold meat
Moistness enviroment so some water is much better than nothing!
Low cooking Temp helps a lot
And some nitrate added to, like celery salt or celery seeds really helps. I use celery seeds powdered.
Imo, I don't believe you have to multiply chuncks number depending on slabs number. You risk over smoking / bitter taste.
 
I agree with Enrico. I would not ad more wood. The reason your current ribs did not taste smokey, I think is due to something else. I would review the 2 cooks and besides the extra rack of ribs, see if there was any other difference:, cooking heat,rib rack locations in the in cooker, opening the lid more, cosmic events in your area?

Mark
 
Sometimes when you use chunks, they burn up when starting the WSM. I don't add any chunks until the food is on. I open the door and toss them in. They're the last thing to go in
 
ChuckO said:
Sometimes when you use chunks, they burn up when starting the WSM. I don't add any chunks until the food is on. I open the door and toss them in. They're the last thing to go in
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I respectly disagree! i always noticed that at the beginning the chips/chuncks make white smoke. After 20 min that kind of white smoke disappear and the thin blue smoke arrives! This my steady experience.
 
For some reason, my food never tastes smoky to me and I use plenty of wood. I read a thread about your nose getting desensitized after cooking all day around the smoke.

Did your food taste less smoky to you, or to everyone that ate it?
 
When it's a normal smoke session I do 4 chunks. But if I load up the smoker I use 6. Not sure if there would be a big diffrence buy experiment and see what you like.
 
your tastes may have changed a little too - more exposure to the smoke or more smoked meals eaten might have adjusted your personal sensitivity. ......I see Rick already addressed this..
 
Rick Body said:
For some reason, my food never tastes smoky to me and I use plenty of wood. I read a thread about your nose getting desensitized after cooking all day around the smoke.

Did your food taste less smoky to you, or to everyone that ate it?
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Rick save some of that food for the next day. bet it will taste smokier then.
I know that the desensitized nose happens to me sometimes.
 
What a few others have said, if I'm hanging around the smoker all day I really don't get much of the smoke flavor. But if there are leftovers and with just the two of us that's almost all the time I can really taste it the next day.
I've had great smoke rings with little smoke taste and no smoke rings with great smokey flavor, there are much more experienced smokers out there than me but I don't think the smoke ring is directly proportional to the smoke taste in all cases.
 
Interesting question. In theory you would think that since there is more meat to soak up the same amount of smoke it would be prudent to add more chunks. I personally use the same amount of chunks for each of my cooks but now i may have to experiment and see if there is any difference.

And i get a smoke ring when cooking sausages with straight blue bag kingsford so to me that proves that the smoke wood is not the cause of the smoke ring but rather the whole nitrate deal that i have read about a bunch of times :)
 
I like a heavy smoke taste. How many chunks depends on the size of the chunks. For I long cook I'll do as many as 8. Depends on the type of would too. I don't think having more food means you need more smoke, though.
 
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