How many wood chunks in your WSM ?


 
Lynn Dollar

Lynn Dollar

TVWBB Emerald Member
This is vid is Harry Soo's WSM set up. It should start where he's putting wood in the charcoal basket. This is far more wood than I ever used, I went with three , maybe four, fist sized chunks.

But I've never used lump in my WSM, always charcoal, and always KBB.

And I've read a theory, that taking a fist sized chunk and splitting it into smaller pieces will get a cleaner burn. Theory is, with the low air flow of a WSM, smaller pieces of wood won't smolder like larger chunks.

 
I've always just thrown my pieces on top and I only use about 3-4 when i smoke a pork butt. I may try this setup next time just to see what the difference is. I've only used lump charcoal, I used regular because where I was at and I didn't like it as much as the lump charcoal.
 
I use 1 fist-sized chunk for delicate meats or small amounts, like the turkey legs I'm smoking today, maybe 2 for ribs, 3 for short ribs, and 4 for pork butt and brisket. If doing a long cook, it's become my habit to bury them in the unlit charcoal, otherwise I just drop them on top of the lit charcoal for short cooks.
 
I'm gonna try Harry's method just to see how clean a fire it creates.

Also, I've always used kiln dried wood from bags bought at the big box store. I've got some pecan and oak I've cut and seasoned, that still has a lot of moisture and see if my fire burns cleaner.
 
If it's too smoky use less next time
If it's not enough use more next time

I let my fire burn for about an hour before I put the meat in I let the white smoke dissipate to where it's thin smoke. So a lot of my wood burns away before I ever put the meat in.

My wood is pretty much buried vertically in the coals... Not just sitting on top

1-2 for chicken and turkey
3 for ribs
5 -6 for pork butt and brisket

I've never had a pork butt or brisket be too smoky.
 
For a long cook, I do 6 buried chunks on the coal grate like Harry. Always use KBB. For shorter cooks, I will use less wood.

I make sure one chunk is uncovered right in the center of the divot so it starts lighting up right when the lit coals go in. For a shorter cook, I put the fewer chunks more towards the center.

And since I don't want to wait an hour, I also put one chunk in the chimney. Sometimes two for a short cook. So I have lit wood/thin smoke immediately. I put the meat on right away and get on with getting the cooker stabilized (which can only happen after all the cold meat has been added).

Never had a complaint of too much smoke (although our house likes smoke).
 
I probably use about half the wood that Harry used. My current supply is in the form of mini-logs, which I split into pieces about 10" long and roughly 2" x 2". I bury two or three of these in my charcoal pile, so one end is at the bottom of the pile and the other at the top. As the fire spreads through the unlit charcoal there is always wood at whatever level is burning.
 
We do the exact same thing , on our big meat cooks brisket and pork butt.... harry is a weth of knowledge , Jealous devil charcoal is #1 give it a try the flavor and clean burn will really surprise you .....
 
I used Harrys Soo's method Sunday on a short whole spare rib cook. B&B Lump and three fist sized chunks of oak I cut from a split . Put a can in the middle and filled with Weber Jr Chimney of lump.

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The smoke was light. It was not as clean as my stick burner but very acceptable. Here's a pic from about 30 to 45 minutes in and the camera could not pic up the smoke. And it was not white billowy smoke, it had more of a grayish blue tint.

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Here's a chart of the cook. I wrapped the ribs 3 hours in, probably waited too long as I think they got too dark, but just before wrapping my temps started dropping off. I thought I was maybe running out of lump, cuz my target temp was 275 and I ran the vents a little over 1/2 open. It had dropped down to 268*.

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But after pulling the ribs , shutting down the WSM, and looking at the burn the next day , I had a lot of lump left and got an odd burn. One of the chunks barely burned. There was very little to no wind.

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Overall I was happy with this method. I think the biggest factors toward getting cleaner smoke is cooking at 275* , lump charcoal, and seasoned wood instead of kiln dried box store chunks. I will do this again, next time I'm gonna shoot for 250* and see if the smoke is heavier at a lower temp.
 
I should be, but I'm not a theory guy when it comes to using my Weber cookers. My day [and often night] job requires much work in Excel and Power Point, so serving dinner is a stress reliever. To me, that means minimal reading and mostly following a 1-2-3 recipe. I buy chunks from Fruita and that's what gets dropped into my cooker. Experienced chefs would put me to shame but they won't steal my enjoyment of cooking as a basic hobby :)
 
I've seen that burn pattern using Harry's chunk and lump method on shorter cooks like ribs. I chalked it up to using an ATC. However, it could be that briquettes are the same size and shape, so that there is more contact between briquettes and less air space in the charcoal chamber as compared with lump charcoal. Thus, the fire spreads more evenly from briquette to briquette as opposed to lumps which have fewer contact points to ignite the next piece of lump. I have not noticed any difference in smoke level in that 250-275 temperature range since switching to Harry's method. I live near Harry, so I get my lump and wood chunks from his supplier Patty in Orange.
 
Yes, that's my conclusion. Too many voids. All the lump needs to be similar in size. No large pieces and no real small pieces. I'm thinking about mixing in some used charcoal to fill in the voids.

I'm gonna give this another go with another slab of whole spares. Refine the lump sizes. And I'm gonna keep the ribs on the WSM for the entire cook. On this cook, I wrapped and finished in the oven. I want to see what it does for 5 to 6 hours.
 
With my cook, the lump may have very well completely burned. It might've gone around like a snake although I think I would've had temp swings. But I cut it short at 3 hours. And there's more lump pieces under the ones on top, I think the smaller pieces fell through, but there were voids at the top. I need to finish my autopsy.
 
For longer cooks like Brisket/Butt/Beef Ribs I mainly use KBB (or B & B), but I'll use about five chunks of wood on bottom, and about five chunks on top. Mainly pecan or oak. If using mesquite chunks I might use a little less. I won't line 'em up perfectly or anything, and just wing it as I go. I also never have a problem with adding chunks and having the smoke thin out blue rather quickly. A little white for a short period of time has never harmed anything.
 
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Last smoke on a butt, I actually loaded a split across the bottom with a couple of fist size pieces to boot. It worked out quite nicely. Planning on a similar set up for this Thanksgiving brisket! It worked out beautifully.
 
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