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Serious questions on wood for Low & Slow...
shadowrider
Posts: 108
How much?
How big?
I smoked a rack of St. Louis style spares on Memorial day. Very disappointed because they were falling off the bone, juicy goodness but had very little smoke taste. They had just enough that you could tell that some wood was there, but that's about it. I filled the egg to the top of the fire ring with RO, lit it in two places (3:00 & 9:00), let it get burning for about 30 minutes watching the temp, added two big chunks of hickory right at the edge of each red glowing area. The chunks were between baseball and softball size, added my AR rig, stone, drip pan and grill. Then I let it burn and stabilized the dome temp at 240F for a good 30 minutes more and by that time had the vents in the typical L&S position. Then I added the ribs to the top rack (above gasket) and commenced the cook. Temp was scary stable all through the cook, it never went above 250 or blow 225.
I thought for sure that those big chunks would get the job done. No water soaking for me and extremely well seasoned wood (at least a couple of years, probably more). The wood chunks were not even burned up and very little lump was used either, but the cook was basically text book 3-2-1. Actually just a little short on the 2 & 1 because..they were done!
Had I done the big packer brisket I have, I'd been downright pissed, but they were still good and got very eated.
Go easy on me, I'm coming off of an electric Cookshack which uses very little wood at all and is quite easy to get too much smoke, but I would have thought this cook would have been better than it was. I mean the ribs were great, just not smokey.
How big?
I smoked a rack of St. Louis style spares on Memorial day. Very disappointed because they were falling off the bone, juicy goodness but had very little smoke taste. They had just enough that you could tell that some wood was there, but that's about it. I filled the egg to the top of the fire ring with RO, lit it in two places (3:00 & 9:00), let it get burning for about 30 minutes watching the temp, added two big chunks of hickory right at the edge of each red glowing area. The chunks were between baseball and softball size, added my AR rig, stone, drip pan and grill. Then I let it burn and stabilized the dome temp at 240F for a good 30 minutes more and by that time had the vents in the typical L&S position. Then I added the ribs to the top rack (above gasket) and commenced the cook. Temp was scary stable all through the cook, it never went above 250 or blow 225.
I thought for sure that those big chunks would get the job done. No water soaking for me and extremely well seasoned wood (at least a couple of years, probably more). The wood chunks were not even burned up and very little lump was used either, but the cook was basically text book 3-2-1. Actually just a little short on the 2 & 1 because..they were done!
Had I done the big packer brisket I have, I'd been downright pissed, but they were still good and got very eated.
Go easy on me, I'm coming off of an electric Cookshack which uses very little wood at all and is quite easy to get too much smoke, but I would have thought this cook would have been better than it was. I mean the ribs were great, just not smokey.
Comments
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I have used a couple of different species of wood, all from Western.....couldn't taste a damn thing.
-
Bust up those softball/baseball sized chunks into something smaller and mix it among the lump. Or use something smaller like chips and mix them up.
As you said, they were hardly burned. So there was hardly any smoke. You can't predict where the fire will burn, so homogenize the smoke wood.
______________________________________________I love lamp.. -
Nola, that was another question I forgot to ask. Breaking them up. Each of those would have been broken into about 5 pieces in my Cookshack. I'll break them down to similar sizes and spread them out going forward.
I forgot to mention that in this cook I did add a handfull of apple chips by just sprinkling them over the top of the lump before lighting. -
smaller pieces like nola said, chop them up. did the guests taste the smoke, usually the cook hovering over the egg doesnt taste it, gets desensitized to it, it you taste the leftovers the next day you realize there was plenty of smoke
fukahwee maineyou can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it -
Everyone seems to scoff at chips. But i guarantee you more smoke with a hal pound of chips than a half pound chunk
fire moves, mostly downward toward incoming air. So spread chips and small chunks in a column near the center, vertically. You'll also have more smoke running a bit hotter, maybe 275-300, or after opening the lid and alloing a fresh volume of air (like, if you mop or rearrange the meat)
[social media disclaimer: irony and sarcasm may be used in some or all of user's posts; emoticon usage is intended to indicate moderately jocular social interaction; the comments toward users, their usernames, and the real people (living or dead) that they refer to are not intended to be adversarial in nature; those replying to this user are entering into a tacit agreement that they are real-life or social-media acquaintances and/or have agreed to or tacitly agreed to perpetrate occasional good-natured ribbing between and among themselves and others] -
Rowlett, Texas
Griffin's Grub or you can find me on Facebook
The Supreme Potentate, Sovereign Commander and Sultan of Wings
-
Yeah, yeah... What @Griffin said....------------------------------
Thomasville, NC
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Griffin said:
This is a great illustration Griffin. I am a visual learner and this helps tremendously.XL, Large, Medium, and Mini Max
Northern Virgina -
what griffin said.
(because it's my sketch.)
hahaha
[social media disclaimer: irony and sarcasm may be used in some or all of user's posts; emoticon usage is intended to indicate moderately jocular social interaction; the comments toward users, their usernames, and the real people (living or dead) that they refer to are not intended to be adversarial in nature; those replying to this user are entering into a tacit agreement that they are real-life or social-media acquaintances and/or have agreed to or tacitly agreed to perpetrate occasional good-natured ribbing between and among themselves and others] -
I used to have exactly the same problem, was quite disappointed in how not smoky my ribs were. My solution works for me, and I'm very happy now. I've seen one or two others here say they do the same thing, but none in this discussion, yet, so here goes:
I tried everything mentioned above. Nada. I mixed chips all through the lump. I mixed chips and chunks all through the lump. It was all OK, but not good enough.
What I do now is this:- Fill lump to the top of the fire box, light in one place in the center, no plate setter, no wood, lower vent wide open, no top cap. When the dome temp gets near my target, I adjust the vents to what I expect will keep it at the temperature I want.
- When I'm ready to put the ribs on, only then I put 4 or 5 chunks of hickory (I like it) radially around the part that's burning. My chunks tend to be about 5" long, maybe half the size of your wrist or a little bigger. So I put the tips of those near the fire. Then I put in the plate setter, drip pan, grid, and ribs. The wood isn't there and doesn't start smoking until the ribs are in the Egg.
- The fire goes deeper and wider as the cook progresses, and the chunks are oriented so they keep smoldering throughout the cook.
I've also noticed that if I keep the temp down to 200, I see a little bit of smoke throughout most of the cook. But in cooks where I've been in a little more of a hurry and raised the temp to 275 or so, I've seen a LOT more blue smoke throughout the cook! I've read that the BGE is a low oxygen environment which makes less smoke than a stick burner, for example, and I think maybe a bit more airflow and higher temp makes more smoke. Anyway, this is working for me. -
Hi, Jeff. hahahaDarby_Crenshaw said:what griffin said.
(because it's my sketch.)
hahahaI hate it when I go to the kitchen for food and all I find are ingredients!
MichaelCentral Connecticut -
finally figured it out/ i thought the seven or eight times it was already mentioned might have given it away....
hahaha
no names though, please.
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not very observant, i guess.Darby_Crenshaw said:finally figured it out/ i thought the seven or eight times it was already mentioned might have given it away....
hahahaI hate it when I go to the kitchen for food and all I find are ingredients!
MichaelCentral Connecticut -
I feel like I'm in the presence of stardom or royalty now...------------------------------
Thomasville, NC
My YouTube Channel - The Hungry Hussey
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Chigger Creek chunks are the perfect size for the eggs. Good quality wood, many flavors.
Use chips for the eggs alot too. Found some small hickory chunks and chips for cheap at Schnucks recently.
BrandonQuad Cities
"If yer gonna denigrate, familiarity with the subject is helpful." -
Well I put a butt on today. I chopped up the wood in smaller pieces, used more of them and put two handfuls of apple chips throuout the lump. Also running it a bit hotter. If this isn't enough smoke I'm blaming the blood moon for jacking up the space time continuum.
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