How do you use a smoker (bbq) properly?

Question

Wet the wood, use it dry, do you use charcoal at all?

Answer 1

When you smoke (bbq) you need a source of heat and a source of flavorful smoke.

1. Main source of heat
Your main objective is to cook with indirect heat and maintain a temperature between 200F to 250 F.

I use charcoal because it's easy and I don't have a source of wood.

For wood, I would use dried wood chunks from actual trees. No lumber yard stuff - left over 2x4's or scrap wood.

2. Smoke to produce flavor
If you're using wood, such as, hickory, oak, fruit tree wood then you most likely will not need wood chips. The wood should be dry and will produce the flavor.

Wood chips - I use wood chips and charcoal since I don't have a source of wood.

I've heard different things about whether you soak the wood chips or leave them dry.

Wet - causes incomplete combustion which increases the carcinogens and soot in the smoke.

I, personally, use dry wood chips in a wrapped into a pouch made from heavy duty aluminum foil with a small hole poked in the pouch so the smoke can escape. Lay the pouch next to the hot coals, it doesn't have to be atop of the coals.

When you're smoking, the smoke coming out of the chimney should be very faint and wispy, which means you're not wasting the "smoke". If it looks like you're sending up smoke signals then you need to cut back on the wood chips.

If you're using charcoal, but have a chunk of wood about the size of a softball. You can lay the wood next to the coals so it smolders and produce smoke. That should be enough smoke for the batch you're smoking.

Answer 2

We have a weber smoker and we use charcoal and wet wood chips, which is recommended from the manufacturer. We pour the wood chips into a bowl and cover with water. You add charcoal and wait for it to come to the proper temperature and it becomes ash colored and then add wood chips as your food cooks. The more wood chips you add as your food is cooking, the more intense the smoke flavor. As matter of fact, I'm doing a brisket this Sunday. I don't use the smoker a lot, but when I do it's usually an all day project, which is probably why it's not too often :o)! If you have problems, check the companies web site (who manufactured the smoker you have) or I've found the about.com website to be very helpful (recipes and tips on smoking) Good luck.

Answer 3

I use charcoal when I am hot smoking, temps over 125 degrees. for cold smoking i use an electric charcoal starter and lay an aluminum pan with the wood chips on top of it.

Answer 4

we fire the pit with charcoal, and keep stoking it with additional coals all day to keep the temperature constant.

for flavoring, we put hand fulls of soaked & drained wood chips in as we stoke, or, if you are lucky enough to have large chunks of the wood you are using (hickory, mesquite, apple, etc...) then put them in dry.

if you have access to large amounts of cured smoking wood (again, the types listed above, pecan, any fruit or nut wood will do, as long as it is cut and split, and not treated lumber) then you can use that to fire your smoker as well. if you are using the cold smoke method (fire pit is in a separate chamber than smoking chamber) this will be your best bet - you will get the maximum amount of flavor from your smoke this way.

Answer 5

The wood you use makes a difference in the flavor of the food. .. soak the wood. . more info at this site

http://www.thesmokerking.com/page1d.html