# Cooking With Fresh Hardwood Coals - Not Charcoal



## jbacker7 (May 26, 2020)

Long time lurker, first time poster here. This is a hard question to search.

I look at a lot of famous pitmasters' setups on YouTube etc. while daydreaming.

A lot of them burn their hardwood on an elevated platform in a continuous fire separate from their smoker. As the wood burns down, the coals fall out of the fire to the ground.

The pitmaster then scoops the hot coals out, and places them directly below the meat cooking, or in a firebox offset from the smoker.

I believe the idea is that like all outdoor cooking, hot coals burn more evenly, and more importantly, more cleanly than a straight piece of seasoned wood.

So couple questions:

1. Is anyone using this method to heat their pit or smoker at home?
2. Do you think that this extra step is worth it or is the resulting flavor the same as straight seasoned wood? Seems a lot easier to simply place wood directly into a firebox.
3. Do you guys think there is a big difference in doing this vs. using a lump charcoal? Again seems a lot easier to drop lump charcoal directly into a firebox.

Thanks!


----------



## unclebubbas bbq (May 26, 2020)

The flavor is entirely different, wood is different from lump charcoal, lump flavor is different from a commercial charcoal


----------



## Brokenhandle (May 26, 2020)

In my opinion they do it to maintain a more consistent heat source,  especially cooking large batches of meat especially in an open pit. Having to add more chunks of wood could lead to flare ups. If they are doing alot of meat the price of wood is probably much cheaper for them than buying large amounts of lump or charcoal. 

Ryan


----------



## lancep (May 26, 2020)

It really depends on the pit. Some pits like a brick pulley pit or a hog pit are designed to place the meat directly above the open heat source. In this case burning logs are not ideal so you would want to burn your wood down to embers and then shovel them into the pit.
       In a horizontal offset style pit, the heat source if offset from the cooking chamber. In this style, it is less labor intensive and more efficient to just add splits as needed to maintain a small clean fire just big enough to heat the cook chamber to your desired temp.
      Other pits like the mighty WSM are designed to burn charcoal, lump or briquettes, efficiently over long periods of time.  Often with chunks of hardwood to impart the smoke flavor.


----------



## thirdeye (May 26, 2020)

In the 60's and 70's both  Grandfathers used coals, one had a dedicated burn barrel, the other had a pit that had an approach large enough to burn logs, then the coals could be positioned wherever they were needed.  All the wood came from our ranch, so it made sense at the time.  I ran a stick burner for years, and just got tired of the ash clean-up.  Now I burn mostly lump, but I will use a mix of lump and briquettes in my drum smokers.   The drum flavor is altogether different than other live fire cookers, it is similar to open pit barbecue as fats drip into the coals.


----------



## bradger (May 26, 2020)

how funny this is posted i just took my fire pit out of retirement today. first time doing using it in about 2  years


----------

