Smoking Wood Chips - Wet or Dry?
Q: Hi Jeff, I have a question about exactly how to use the wood chips when smoking. I have a grill with a side box for smoking. The brand of chips I have says to use the chips dry, but I always though they were supposed to be soaked--am I wrong here? Should I put the chips directly on the coals or should they be wrapped in foil? Also, do I need to add more chips as I'm smoking or just hot coals?
A: Lots of folks soak their wood chips however the water has to evaporate before it will begin to smolder and smoke so to me it does not make sense to soak them in most circumstances.
For the best results,I would take a good sized hand full and wrap them in foil.. poke a few holes in the top and lay it right on the coals.
You want to apply smoke for about 1/3 of the cooking time or until the meat reaches approximately 140 degrees. This may require several foil packages of chips depending on how long it takes them to burn up.
Make sure there is plenty of airflow to prevent the buildup of creosote.. just make sure your damper/intake are both open at least 3/4 of the way.
The trick is to build a small enough fire to allow that much airflow without the temps going off the charts with you.. if you have to close the intake down to 1/2 or then that is ok just make sure the damper stays open real good and you should be fine.
How much you can allow is different for every smoker and as you gain proficiency you will learn just how much you can do without oversmoking the meat.
You will need to add more hot coals periodically to maintain temperatures in the smoker.. I use a charcoal chimney but you can use any type of metal container to make more hot coals and add them to the firebox as needed.
For more information on cooking with charcoal see my page on "How to Build a Fire with Charcoal"
Visit Smoking-Meat.com for hundreds of great tutorials and guides on smoking meat.
The Technorati Tag for this post is Smoking Wood Chips
A: Lots of folks soak their wood chips however the water has to evaporate before it will begin to smolder and smoke so to me it does not make sense to soak them in most circumstances.
For the best results,I would take a good sized hand full and wrap them in foil.. poke a few holes in the top and lay it right on the coals.
You want to apply smoke for about 1/3 of the cooking time or until the meat reaches approximately 140 degrees. This may require several foil packages of chips depending on how long it takes them to burn up.
Make sure there is plenty of airflow to prevent the buildup of creosote.. just make sure your damper/intake are both open at least 3/4 of the way.
The trick is to build a small enough fire to allow that much airflow without the temps going off the charts with you.. if you have to close the intake down to 1/2 or then that is ok just make sure the damper stays open real good and you should be fine.
How much you can allow is different for every smoker and as you gain proficiency you will learn just how much you can do without oversmoking the meat.
You will need to add more hot coals periodically to maintain temperatures in the smoker.. I use a charcoal chimney but you can use any type of metal container to make more hot coals and add them to the firebox as needed.
For more information on cooking with charcoal see my page on "How to Build a Fire with Charcoal"
Visit Smoking-Meat.com for hundreds of great tutorials and guides on smoking meat.
The Technorati Tag for this post is Smoking Wood Chips
posted by Jeff at 11:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home