# Tell Me about Making and Using CharWood



## skunkwerx (Apr 26, 2017)

Background:  I cut firewood in my area, and have access to Oak, Cherry, and a few others.

As i process the firewood (for the woodstove) I toss aside chunks of heartwood for drying and later use in the smoker.

I use wood chunks more than chips and mix with charcoal in a charcoal basket, minion method. 

More recently I built a small 5 gallon charcoal maker (retort) from a metal can.  I put it in my firepit, and "cook" whatever wood I have on hand and produce some decent clean charcoal.  During the winter I stockpiled the equivalent of 5 or 6 large bags of homemade charcoal.  Have used it twice now, for Chicken, then Ribs,  and it is working pretty well.

Now about Charwood.   What I am looking to do is create a milder smokiness on some foods. The raw woods tends to put off greater smoke when first igniting, especially if added during the burn, when it's added more for fuel and heat than smoke.  I am interested in charwood and am wondering the best way to make my own charwood from some of the variety that I have on hand,  and, how to use it during the smoking process.

So, please fire away,  All ears at this point.  I appreciate any thoughts on the topic before i dive in.

Thanks!

Edit:  I have been searching on line, and a lot of people are using "home made charcoal" and "charwood" to mean the same thing.

What I was meaning above, in my question, was taking a piece of chunkwood, and somehow starting to burn it, so the outside is black and carbonized, so that when it is tossed into the Firebox of the smoker it doesn't have to go through the normal smokey start up that a raw piece of wood would go through.   Maybe i should call it "charred wood"    Anyone?


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## noboundaries (Apr 26, 2017)

You don't say what king of smoker you are using.  Since you are using chunks, not splits, and the minion method, it would be easy to assume you are using a UDS or WSM, possibly an offset with a small firebox.  In either case, pre-heating the wood will help with the smoke issue.   

In a UDS or WSM, burying cold wood chunks deep in the cold charcoal helps pre-heat them during the smoke.  For the wood close to the start of the fire, you'll still get white smoke that will settle out in an hour or so.  Then as the charcoal burns around your minion ring, the wood buried in the charcoal will pre-heat and start to carbonize as the fire nears. 

For an offset, you can place wood chunks on top of your firebox.  Not quite as safe as burying in charcoal, but larger wood chunks will work. 

I have a WSM and do not use the minion method.  On a long smoke I put down a single layer of charcoal, put several wood chunks on top of that, then another layer of charcoal, some more wood chunks, then another layer of charcoal and more wood chunks.  Then I dump hot charcoal on the center of my load.  If I'm going low n slow, I use 1/4 chimney.  Medium slow, 1/2 chimney, hot n fast, 3/4 to a full chimney.  It takes 30 minutes to an hour to start seeing hints of TBS, then I add the meat.


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