To pre-burn or not to pre-burn wood?

[Armen G.]

My apologies to bring this subject up as it has been discussed in various places before. Nevertheless, I'm still confused/torn about the best way to proceed with the smoke wood while smoking meats. Is the "optimal" approach to pre-burn the wood and then add it to the coals (either Minion or Standard methods) in order to ensure "cleaner" smoke or do wood chunks have a relatively insignificant amount of bark and moisture to worry about the adverse effects (if any) of not pre-burning the wood?

I've smoked brisket, pork butt, and ribs without pre-burning and they all came out tasting great. However, I'm not sure if what tasted great could taste better if the wood was pre-burned. The various smokehouses I've spoken with locally all insist on pre-burning the wood, but they are using wood as their primary fuel source and in full logs which admittedly is different enough from the way I cook at home to take their advice with some hesitation when it comes to home smoking.

If I were to pre-burn the wood, what is the best way to do this? Would a chimney starter work well for this and do I pre-burn the wood until the bark has been burned significantly? What is the visual indicator that the wood has been sufficiently burned and is ready to use in the smoking process?

Thanks in advance for any insight!!

 

[Tom Chips]

Don't over think it. There is no need to pre burn your smoke wood. Just throw a few small chunks in to start. Problem solved. If you are worried about creating too much smoke and combustion early on, you can foil wrap your wood, and puncture it with a fork or something like that, prior to putting it on the coals.

Traditional BBQ in certain areas ( I believe the south, but could be wrong) people burned a hardwood in a tall cylinder or pile, and then shoveled hot coals under the cooking meat. By using this large quantity of wood as a fuel source you still get a nice smokey flavor.

 

[Matt_G]

If you're dealing with small pieces with bark-on, then pre-burning will likely help I think.

I had a few branches of Plum wood, small diameter, that I cut up. I had a lot in the 1-2" range that I didn't want to split or de-bark so I loaded my charcoal chimney and lit a few papers to pre-burn the bark, then splashed some water on lightly to extinguish.

The result is I'm able to add those pieces mid-smoke without dealing with any off flavors.

This kinda gets to the question of: what exactly is it about pieces of wood (if at all) that can give off flavors/aromas. I suspect that bark is a candidate.

If instead you are dealing with clean chunked wood (like the hickory I get in a 10# plastic bag) then it is harder to imagine how pre-burning that wood is going to help anything IMHO.

 

[Bryan S]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Tom Chips:
Don't over think it. There is no need to pre burn your smoke wood. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Exactly what Tom said.

Some of my observations. I have found out over the years instead of putting the smoke wood on top of the unlit, then dumping the lit on top of the smoke wood and unlit, I get better combustion from the start from the smoke wood, and with less white smoke if I dump the lit on top the unlit, then place the smoke wood over top of 2 lit pieces with an air gap under the smoke wood. I get the thin blue smoke pretty quick using this method.

 

[Bryan S]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Matt_G:
This kinda gets to the question of: what exactly is it about pieces of wood (if at all) that can give off flavors/aromas. I suspect that bark is a candidate. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Bark was used to be belived to cause off flavors, but the trend on that thought has been changing the past few years. I never de-bark anything, and have never noticed off flavors using wood that has bark on it, and wood that has been de-barked. I know there's some moisture and sap in the bark which is what you need to give you smoke flavor. If no sap is present and the wood has very little to no moisture content in it you will get basicly nothing from it. The ideal moisture content for smoke wood is 30% moisture. HTH

 

[Scooter B]

I do exactly what Brian talks about. I make sure my "lit" coals are good an hot when I put them in and then I place approx 1/2 my smokewood on those and add the other half part way thru the cook.

I think the idea of "pre-burning" is really a reminant of the old whole hog in a barrel days. If you burned sticks under a hog for the whole cook you would probably ruin it for all the smoke. My family use to do a fundraiser at a park every year and we always had a separate side fire and moved the coals over to the cooker.

 

[Shawn W]

Some barks are better removed, or the wood pre-burned IMO. I use a local birch (paper birch I think) sometimes. It's bark is very oily, burns easily when wet and lets off a heavy black smoke.