Adding Wood Chips or Wood Chunks?

corey24 · February 2014

First of what do most of you guys use - the chips or chunks?

Secondly and most importantly at what point to you add them? I have been adding just before adding meat to grill. Which to me is a pain. For slow cooks you must remove grate and place setter and add chips. By this time you have lost lots of temp and have to wait. I feel like if you add the wood at the beginning when you first close lid it will all be burned up before cooking. Especially the chips. I never have time to soak chips for the longer smoke time.

dldawes1 · February 2014

Folks here have different opinions/methods, but I think the majority of the folks here do not add wood after the fire is started. Situating chunks throughout the lump before starting allows smoke to be distributed throughout the cook. I am still new but I think that once the VOCs burn off the lump after initial lighting stage ( 10-15 minutes) the wood VOCs that need to be eliminated are also burned off. ( This is my understanding).

Chunk vs chips.....long cooks prefer chunks, fast cooks...chips or chunks. I have found that distributing chunks throughout the lump will reserve some chunks for the next several cooks and additional chunk is not needed.

This is just my observaion and opinion. There are much more experienced and knowledgeable folks here.

Donnie

boatbum · February 2014

Mix with the charcoal before lighting.

SGH · February 2014

I prefer chunks but thats just me. When doing a low and slow I light my lump in the in the center only and let it burn about 10 minutes. Then I put 2 fist sized chunks on the lit lump after the flames have died down. Then I add plate setter and grate and wait for the the white smoke to clear and the egg to come up to desired temp. I have had good results with this method. Im sure some prefer chips but they are to much of a pain to me. Hope this helps.

corey24 · February 2014

thanks guys, I just thought if I added before cooking it would all burn out before I actually put meat on 20-40 minutes later.

pgprescott · February 2014

Clean your grates when done cooking, then leave the PS out along with the grates until ready to add wood. I like chunks for longer heavy smoke and. Hips for more delicate cooks like chicken etc. remember, the meat can really only take so much smoke. If you are doing a long cook and the chunks are not smoking vigorously, don't worry, you will have already imparted adequate smoke. Mixing the chunks in as above for longer cooks is also a good tip

boatbum · February 2014

corey24 said:

thanks guys, I just thought if I added before cooking it would all burn out before I actually put meat on 20-40 minutes later.

Spread out the chunks, new ones will light up as the fire spreads. Even though you don't see white smoke coming out - you are still getting smoky flavor. If you find you are not getting enough smoke - do more chunks.

Careful though, this is a pretty efficient smoke generating machine. It is not hard to "over"smoke something.

For a low and slow, I might use 6 to 8 chunks spread out in the charcoal.

lousubcap · February 2014

Chips or chunks-as long as the quantity of wood burned is the same you will get the same amount of smoke. I roughly equate a good handful of chips to a chunk (unscientific). All all good advice on spreading throughout the lump load-that way where there is fire there is smoke. FWIW-

SMITTYtheSMOKER · February 2014

I like to smoke the long cooks with one chunk of smoke wood just before meat goes on. I prefer chunks over chips, but I only use smoke wood for longer cooks. Experiment and enjoy.

Adding Wood Chips or Wood Chunks?

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