Wood chunks - How?


 
J

Jogan Thomas

TVWBB Member
As the title, when do you put them on? As soon as you reach temp? how long do you wait to put the meat on to avoid blue smoke
 
If the chunks are bark-free you can wait to put them on until you're ready to cook. If they have bark, some people prefer to burn off some of the bark before putting the meat on.

In my WSM the wood chunks are part of the layer of unlit coals, and then I pour the lit coals over the top.
 
Brad Olson said:
If the chunks are bark-free you can wait to put them on until you're ready to cook. If they have bark, some people prefer to burn off some of the bark before putting the meat on.

In my WSM the wood chunks are part of the layer of unlit coals, and then I pour the lit coals over the top.
Click to expand...

I have heard about this method, the chunks I have do have some bark on them, can I still include them in the layers, and do I put them near where the hole will go to drop the lit briquettes?
 
I incorporate them throughout the charcoal base layer of coal, several chunks, second layer, more chunks.
Then, I light the “door side” with a torch and assemble and get the whole thing buttoned up and take a nap!
Some bark does not seem to make a lot of difference from what I have found.
 
I do pretty much what Harry Soo recommends.

My chunks go on the charcoal grate, with some wood directly in the center at the bottom of the donut. Lit coals get poured on top so the wood starts lighting right away. I also put one chunk in the chimney so that is going from the outset as well.

Meat goes on right away with no waiting, which is what Harry recommends. My goal is to get the cooker dialed in and stable as soon as possible. If you wait to put the meat on (tick tock) then you have to wait even longer (tick tock) for the cooker to stabilize since adding a bunch of cold meat drags the temp down. Heating up the water (which I don't use) is another tick tock.

I do not worry at all about the TBS. I want lots of smoke early since cold damp meat absorbs smoke flavor best. My version of the "smoke boost" feature that Weber has on the SmokeFire.

YMMV.
 
Jogan Thomas said:
As the title, when do you put them on? As soon as you reach temp? how long do you wait to put the meat on to avoid blue smoke
Click to expand...

The blue smoke is actually what you're after. It's the billowing white smoke at the very beginning of the burn that you want to avoid. Once a fire is going well, there will be a thin blue smoke to even no smoke depending on how much wood you put in with the charcoal.

Personally, I incorporate some wood throughout my charcoal. I light it with a small amount of charcoal lit using a small chimney. Once I start the fire, I put the meat on. I must say, that I can tell the difference in the smoke taste when I do it this way, but I'm too lazy to care. If I had patience, I would let it burn a bit before putting the meat on to clear out that first burst of smoke. About a half hour would be good. I never worry about bark. If it's loose enough to peal off by hand, I would do so, but otherwise, I don't really care. Best to just buy wood with little to no bark.
 
Jim C in Denver said:
I do pretty much what Harry Soo recommends.

My chunks go on the charcoal grate, with some wood directly in the center at the bottom of the donut. Lit coals get poured on top so the wood starts lighting right away. I also put one chunk in the chimney so that is going from the outset as well.

Meat goes on right away with no waiting, which is what Harry recommends. My goal is to get the cooker dialed in and stable as soon as possible. If you wait to put the meat on (tick tock) then you have to wait even longer (tick tock) for the cooker to stabilize since adding a bunch of cold meat drags the temp down. Heating up the water (which I don't use) is another tick tock.

I do not worry at all about the TBS. I want lots of smoke early since cold damp meat absorbs smoke flavor best. My version of the "smoke boost" feature that Weber has on the SmokeFire.

YMMV.
Click to expand...

I think I will give this a go buddy, thanks for the response.
 
Jerry N. said:
The blue smoke is actually what you're after. It's the billowing white smoke at the very beginning of the burn that you want to avoid. Once a fire is going well, there will be a thin blue smoke to even no smoke depending on how much wood you put in with the charcoal.

Personally, I incorporate some wood throughout my charcoal. I light it with a small amount of charcoal lit using a small chimney. Once I start the fire, I put the meat on. I must say, that I can tell the difference in the smoke taste when I do it this way, but I'm too lazy to care. If I had patience, I would let it burn a bit before putting the meat on to clear out that first burst of smoke. About a half hour would be good. I never worry about bark. If it's loose enough to peal off by hand, I would do so, but otherwise, I don't really care. Best to just buy wood with little to no bark.
Click to expand...
Is it more of a bitter taste putting it straight on?

If the wood chunks are burried under the charcoal, won't you always get that intial white smoke?
 
Jerry N. said:
The blue smoke is actually what you're after. It's the billowing white smoke at the very beginning of the burn that you want to avoid. Once a fire is going well, there will be a thin blue smoke to even no smoke depending on how much wood you put in with the charcoal.

Personally, I incorporate some wood throughout my charcoal. I light it with a small amount of charcoal lit using a small chimney. Once I start the fire, I put the meat on. I must say, that I can tell the difference in the smoke taste when I do it this way, but I'm too lazy to care. If I had patience, I would let it burn a bit before putting the meat on to clear out that first burst of smoke. About a half hour would be good. I never worry about bark. If it's loose enough to peal off by hand, I would do so, but otherwise, I don't really care. Best to just buy wood with little to no bark.
Click to expand...
I agree. I don’t think the bark makes any difference.
 
If the wood chunks are burried under the charcoal, won't you always get that intial white smoke?

Here's my theory about the white smoke and waiting for the thin blue smoke.

If you are doing a Minion burn, then the coals and wood are constantly lighting up throughout the entire cook. So the new/white smoke is unavoidable even if you wait for an hour. Since that is always happening and people still get tasty results, my first hypothesis is that the white smoke is really not bad smoke.

But if you don't agree, then maybe what you really want to avoid are the huge plumes of white smoke that you get when a whole bunch of coals and wood first light up at the same time. In that case, let your starter coals and chunk go for a few minutes longer in the chimney. Once they are very well lit and the plumes subside, put them in the cooker and start cooking right away.

Having the chunks under the charcoal makes me feel like potential bad wood smoke is somehow getting "filtered" by the charcoal. Or that the chunks will burn/smolder more slowly than if put on top to burn very quickly. That probably has no basis in science, but it works for me.
 
I light my charcoal in my chimney then dump it on the unlit charcoal in the smoker. Once that is in I will usually put a few wood chunks on the lit charcoal and a few more on the unlit charcoal by the vents so that it gets the initial smoke plus more throughout the cook. Hope this helps!
 
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