About me, and a quick question for anyone willing to help me.

[brettzky]

Hello everyone , my name is Brett, and I write to you from Ontario, Canada. I am relatively new to smoking meat, and I just love it!!! I have a question for you, when I have been smoking, I have been putting my moist woodchips directly on the hot coals, but have found that this only lasts a few minutes ( sweet smell, an smoke). A friend at work mentioned I should use a smoker box, but where do I place the box?? Beside coals?? Top rack?? Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

[uncle eddie]

The goal is to get the wood chips to smolder - and chips burn up fast.  Have you considered using wood chunks?  

When I do use chips, I usually choke down the air on the BBQ to keep them from flaring up - but this only gives me about 10 or 15 minutes of smoke.  I don't bother soaking them either...but soaking is fine too.

When I use chunks I will put them on the edge of the coals such that they smolder.  Sometimes I will toss a handful of chips on as an assist.  

Good luck!

 

[seenred]

Hello Brett and welcome!  I agree with Eddie that in a charcoal smoker, larger chunks of wood (from fist-sized up to small splits) work better than wood chips.  If you already have chips and you really need to use them, try making a fist-sized foil pouch full of chips...close it up nice and tight and poke 3 or 4 holes in the top side, then toss this on your coals.  

I know there are still some folks who do it, but IMHO, soaking wood chips in water is a waste of time.  Any water present in your wood has to evaporate before combustion will start to produce smoke.  Until all the water evaporates, the only thing being produced is steam.

Hope that helps...Happy Smoking!  

Red

 

[brettzky]

Thanks guys , really appreciate the help.

 

[brettzky]

Another quick question, can you buy flavoured wood chunks?? For instance, miquite, Apple etc....

 

[jasper7]

Hey brettsky, welcome to the site.  You should be able to find wood chunks for smoking at Canadian Tire, or Home Depot, ect.  Depending where you are in OT, you could pick up fruit woods, maple, or oak, from people trimming trees.  If your in northern OT birch will work, hope this helps.

 

[brettzky]

Thanks for the help.

 

[wade]

Hi Brett. One piece of information that we are missing is what kind of smoker do you have, This will affect the best way of using the chips

 

[brettzky]

Oh, sorry about that. I have a kingsford smoker.

 

[wade]

Here is a Kingsford video that you may find useful that uses chips on their smoker



Remember you do not need smoke all of the time. The most important period is at the beginning of the smoke. After 2 or 3 hours you get diminishing returns with the smoke regarding flavour - and many people even foil their meat after this time anyway.

 

[venture]

I don't much like chips.  However, I will occasionally use a few only in grilling when I want just a little more smoke flavor.  I wrap them in aluminum foil with a small hole or two and place them at the edge of my fire so they are not completely sitting atop the fire. 

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[jeremi]

Not much to add here since a lot of the important points of smoking have been covered by the pros here, so I'll just offer up my opinion.Wood chunks are definitely the way to go if you can get them.That initial infusion of smoke on the surface of the meat is crucial to me so I want a thick and consistent cloud cycling in my smoker to maximize this process. I find chips to be inconsistent is this area. The flavor profile from using actual hardwood is second to none and pretty much standard if your are working with the bad boy cuts of meat used in smoking.  As Venture mentioned above, chips work well if all you need is a little smoke flavor or if your only grilling a small piece of meat or fish. Happy Smoking!

 

[brettzky]

Thanks again everyone , so much too mull over, I guess I can try different ideas every smoke. You people rock!!

 

[gary s]

  Good morning and welcome to the forum, from another hot day here in East Texas, and the best site on the web. Lots of great people with tons of information on just about  everything.  

I always used chunks in my ECB (Kinda like your Kingsford)

Gary

 

[SmokinAl]

  to SMF!

Glad to have you with us!

Yep use chunks or small splits.

Al