What to do with these wood chips?


 
R

R Sullivan

New member
A friend got me an early christmas present of "cherry wood chips n chunks". The wood chips are extremely small, almost to the point of sawdust. Being a wood chunk user, I am at a loss as to how to use this wood? Tinfoil? Any tips appreciated.
 
R. When I use my gasser, or even sometimes when I charcoal grill, I like to use these little gems http://www.grillgrate.com/. I take either small chips or pellets, and drop them into the valleys of the grates. Because they get extremely hot, they smolder and release a flavorful smoke to your food, and because they aren't directly exposed to the flame, they don't catch on fire. Not the ideal way to get that smokey flavor, but it is a way to make the most of grilling on short notice. Just a suggestion. The foil pouch is always a fall back for using chips instead of chunks.
 
Fold a 6"x6" piece of foil into a pouch by folding the foil in half then crimping two of the open sides well to close. Add 1/2 cup or so of chips. Crimp the open side closed making the chips inside fairly well packed. Make a hole in the foil on one side about 1/8" big.

Place the pack hole side up on lit coals, one or two in a kettle, two or three in a WSM.
 
It's probably against a whole bunch of rules, but if I find my temps dropping and i need to add more coals, i usually throw in some chips which will burn quickly and generate some emergency heat. This I find useful on overnight cooks.
 
To my Red Wing, Minnesota friend - I have some of those and I use them to make lighter cubes. Take some paraffin wax and melt it. Take some wood chips and, using a mini-muffin pan, or one of the cardboard (not Styrofoam) egg cartons, fill each little mold/container about half to 2/3rd full of the fine chips, then remove the wax from the heat and let it cool just a bit (so it doesn't run straight through your cardboard if you are using egg crates) and then pour it over the chips in the molds. Let the muffin pan or egg carton cool (or put them in the fridge or freezer) until the wax has hardened.

You can pop the cubes out of the muffin pan or just use a pair of heavy shears to cut apart the egg crate and you have some nice, easy to use charcoal lighter cubes!

I've done this several times and the cubes work great in my ceramic cookers or underneath a chimney of charcoal.

Pat
 
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