Wood instead of charcoal

[Chet Kreidler]

I have a neighbor that smokes on an off set grill and uses charcoal to get the fire started but then just uses small hardwood logs the rest of the way. Has anyone tried this with their WSM?

 

[TravisH]

The only time I saw wood used successfully was in a 22.5" with all vents open full and the door off. The wood was in flames. It was done to finish sauced ribs when the coals were about gone.

Otherwise, it just seemed to smolder, producing more smoke than heat.

 

[John Ford]

I do this on my horizontal , not a good idea on vertical . The wood has to burn to keep from forming lots of creosote. If burning in WSM gets way too hot!

 

[Clark "Harbormaster" Hodgson]

The WSM was not designed as a stick-burner. It is a charcoal smoker.

You can pre-burn your wood and shovel the burning coals into your WSM though.

 

[Tim L.]

As Clark said, you'd need to burn the wood down to coals first. When I lived in South Africa for a while we'd use this method exclusively for Braiis.