Wood chunks for flavoring questions

[Guest]

Good Morning everyone
Great site as always, and thanks in advance for your help.
When using wood chunks for flavoring should they
soaked or dry ? Also do flaming wood chunks give
off a bad taste ?
Last but not least ,when wood chunks have turn into embers is this essentially hardwood charcoal and at that point how much smoke flavor will they produce.
Thaks again FredC.

 

[Mike Rockwood]

I always use wood chunks when they are dry.

The chunks shouldn't "flame". If you notice that they are flaming, then there's too much air/oxygen getting to the wood. The flames wouldn't give off any bad taste, just higher temps.

Any remains of the chunks, stay in the charcoal ring and used in the next cook. I view the remains as "lump".

 

[Doug Lax]

I have used chunks, mesquite and alder for grilling @ 500F + used in small amounts in moderation they give a nice flavor to grilled meats. Some of the lager competition cookers burn hardwood as the fuel source . they have had good results.

 

[Jim Minion]

If you have a lot of smoke that is the sign of a dirty fire. In an offset for example, the smoke coming out of the stack should be transparent.
In the South East there is a tradition of burning wood to coals and them adding it to the pit for cooking. The flavor those coals give off is all the smoke flavor the meat recieves.
With cookers like WSMs or ceramic cookers the amount of wood you use is much less than offsets because you have a situation where the wood is smoldering to a degree. Smoldering wood causes creosote, this smoke is very bitter and oily tasting if there is a large amount of it applied during the cook.
Seeing smoke is not what you are after, soaking wood to cause it to smolder is not helpful in low in slow.
Jim