Placement of Wood Chunks

[EGGARY]

I am having a hard time getting smoke during my cooks. I place chunks in various places inside the Lump Charcoal. After lighting, all the good smoke is going but it takes time to get it up to Temp. After I put the meat on the smoke doesn't last that long. The Beef Ribs I made tonight didn't have enough smoke flavor. I put in quite a few pieces if hickory. I didn't have true chunks.

How many chunks do I really need to get a good smoke flavor ? Placement of the Chunks ? Do they need to be soaked in water ? I usually don't.

Thanks.

[cpwebb]

Re: Placement of Wood Chunks

If I want a lot of smoke, I will place the chunks when I open the lid to place the meat - after the lump is up to temp. If I want less smoke I will place the chunks a few minutes before the meat, but again, after the lump is up to temp. I never start the fire with chunks mixed in with the lump.

[Paswesley]

Re: Placement of Wood Chunks

A lot of people try to avoid the white colored smoke that is released when smoking wood first begins to release its volatiles. After a while the blue smoke begins. It is during the blue smoke phase that I put my foods into Mable. The whitish smoke tends to have a bitter or acrid taste. Some people are more susceptible to off flavors than others.

My technique is to use an axe to create a thin (maybe an inch wide) slab of smoking wood, which I then lay over the hot coals. This tends to give me a long period of usable smoke. This works for me. Give it a try and see what you think.

[mguerra]

Re: Placement of Wood Chunks

Try Syzygies smoke pot. Search his posts for it.

[Cookie]

Re: Placement of Wood Chunks

My comments / suggestions:

1. If you have to use wood chips, you are going to have to use a foil pack or smoke pot. If not, the chips will ignite to easily and burn up quickly. Even using the foil packs / smoke pot method, I feel that you don't get nearly as much smoke flavor vs. using true chunks. I find it very difficult to get a foil pack / smoke pot smoking at temps below 250F. This is not a problem if you are using chunks.

2. For all cooks except very long low and slows, I don't add smoking wood until the KK is heat soaked at my target temp for the cook. I then add the smoking wood directly to a hot spot in the lump and wait for the billowing white stuff to fade to a "cleaner" smoke. For low and slows, I mix smoking wood throughout the lump so it is present in multiple phases of the cook.

It is hard to find wood chunks where I live, but they are far superior to chips. I've also used pellets via the foil pack method -- similar results to wood chips in my opinion. I just purchased chunks from fruita and am really impressed.

Brian