what's the upper limit for the wood/charcoal ratio?

twd000 · May 2017

We know the Egg is designed to run on hardwood charcoal, plus wood chips or chunk for smoke flavor. Some folks toss in a small handful of chips on a short smoke, other times I see people bury half a dozen or more 3" square wood chunks in the charcoal bed for long cooks. How much wood is "too much"? I know you can over-smoke your food if you don't wait for the initial white smoke to dissipate before putting it on the grill. But assuming you wait for thin, blue smoke, all the wood gas has dissipated, and what started as wood is now basically hardwood charcoal. I have ~10 cords of very dry red oak firewood in my yard. It's a heck of alot cheaper per pound than any decent brand of hardwood lump charcoal. I have been using the oak as my smoke wood, into 3" square chunks on my chop saw. I like the high heat I can achieve with a lot of wood mixed in, especially pizza and steak-searing. At what point does "smoke wood" become "wood-fired"? 20% of the firebox volume? 30/40/50%?

stlcharcoal · May 2017

This doesn't answer your question, but for people that ask why not just use 100% wood chunks......

The problem is that you'll have a lot of trouble maintaining the lower temps on the wood. If you can maintain, it's not going to last as long because it takes 6# of wood to make 1# of charcoal (lot less BTU's per volume as well.)

Also, any super hot temps will be accompanied by ton of flames, smoke, and ash......only after the wood burns down enough to basically turn into charcoal.

I know, spoken like a true charcoal sales man.

I would figure about 20-30% by volume would be about the most you would want to do. That's just a guess though. Not all of it is going to burn, and you'll pretty much be carbonizing it.

lousubcap · May 2017

First up, welcome aboard and enjoy the journey. Above all, have fun.
I will defer to @stlcharcoal 's comments as he does know a thing or more about charcoal. He is "Rockwood Lump Charcoal".
Sounds like the perfect reason to add a stick burner to the arsenal.

slovelad · May 2017

Why not just use propane and propane accessories

twd000 · May 2017

stlcharcoal said:

This doesn't answer your question, but for people that ask why not just use 100% wood chunks......

The problem is that you'll have a lot of trouble maintaining the lower temps on the wood. If you can maintain, it's not going to last as long because it takes 6# of wood to make 1# of charcoal (lot less BTU's per volume as well.)

Also, any super hot temps will be accompanied by ton of flames, smoke, and ash......only after the wood burns down enough to basically turn into charcoal.

I know, spoken like a true charcoal sales man.

I would figure about 20-30% by volume would be about the most you would want to do. That's just a guess though. Not all of it is going to burn, and you'll pretty much be carbonizing it.

Thanks for the reply. I suspect you're right about using a lot of wood on a low and slow cook - not a good idea due to temperature regulations problems.

I'm more interested in it for hot and fast cooks, where the entire bowl of fuel is engulfed at once.

Re: carbonizing the wood - that's exactly what happened on my last pizza cook. After I cooked my last pie, I snuffed out the flame with the damper and lid. Came back the next day, and the two huge chunks of oak had become charcoal. Pure black, brittle, carbon.

twd000 · May 2017

lousubcap said:

First up, welcome aboard and enjoy the journey. Above all, have fun.
I will defer to @stlcharcoal 's comments as he does know a thing or more about charcoal. He is "Rockwood Lump Charcoal".
Sounds like the perfect reason to add a stick burner to the arsenal.

Sorry, I'm a one-grill man at this point. Sold off of propane grill and Weber Smokey Mountain prior to moving cross-country. Replaced them both with a BGE and happy with the simplicity of having one grill on the patio.

Skiddymarker · May 2017

"happy with the simplicity of having one grill on the patio" - you are not going to fit in well here at all, Welcome just the same!

jtcBoynton · May 2017

Last I heard, charcoal burns hotter than wood. For searing a steak charcoal will be better than wood if you can get the steak close to the burning lump (radiant heat falls off dramatically with distance).

For pizza the the great thing about a wood burning pizza oven is that flames are directed over the top of the pizza. This helps move the heat of the fire more than just by radiant heat you would get from charcoal. I would hate to see the fire needed to get flames up from the fire box of an egg to flow over the top of a pizza. Out of control comes to mind.

I can't see any advantage to using wood as the heat source in an egg. Save it for flavor.

twd000 · May 2017

jtcBoynton said:

Last I heard, charcoal burns hotter than wood. For searing a steak charcoal will be better than wood if you can get the steak close to the burning lump (radiant heat falls off dramatically with distance).

For pizza the the great thing about a wood burning pizza oven is that flames are directed over the top of the pizza. This helps move the heat of the fire more than just by radiant heat you would get from charcoal. I would hate to see the fire needed to get flames up from the fire box of an egg to flow over the top of a pizza. Out of control comes to mind.

I can't see any advantage to using wood as the heat source in an egg. Save it for flavor.

I think you're getting at an important distinction here; it isn't just the heat- it's heat @ a certain distance. As you noted, radiant heat falls off quickly with R^4 distance. However convective heat (active flames) falls off more slowly at distance. When I cook pizza, I have two stones between the flames and the pizza, to prevent the crust from burning before the cheese is melted.

Are open flames an issue with the BGE? I've seen plenty of people's photos with flames shooting out of the top exhaust port: http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1174082/how-hot-can-your-egg-get

jtcBoynton · May 2017

They make great pictures. But I'm not too sure anyone is actually cooking under those situations. Controlling your fire/heat is important for properly cooking most anything.

In a wood burning pizza oven the fire and flames are to the side of the pizza and the flames are easily (and in a controlled manner) directed over the pizza. In an egg the fire and flames are below the pizza, where you do not want them. It is not easy (and in a controlled way) to get the flames over the pizza.

lkapigian · May 2017

The Egg is more of a "Smoldering" fire , and would think you would have temp issues as said before....heck, I hardly even throw any wood chunks as between the lump, and a well seasoned cooker, I get plenty of flavor.....Like you said, we are already burning wood AKA Lump, I don't see the reason to add much more

cssmd27 · May 2017

I know someone that uses ONLY wood in his BGE. He is a professional pit master (side job/hobby) with his offset, so he has access to a LOT of wood. But, he uses a BGE most nights at home. He lights it up and lets it burn down a bit before cooking on it. A big distinction is that he's not doing any extended low and slow cooks with it. More grilling or sub 2 hour cooks. It sounded intriguing, but I'm not sure there is a benefit.

jtcBoynton · May 2017

The only benefit of going 100% wood is a cost savings if you have a supply of wood on your property.

saluki2007 · May 2017

jtcBoynton said:

They make great pictures. But I'm not too sure anyone is actually cooking under those situations. Controlling your fire/heat is important for properly cooking most anything.

In a wood burning pizza oven the fire and flames are to the side of the pizza and the flames are easily (and in a controlled manner) directed over the pizza. In an egg the fire and flames are below the pizza, where you do not want them. It is not easy (and in a controlled way) to get the flames over the pizza.

To add to this, I don't think there would be a safe way to burp the egg at that point. That would be a bomb just waiting to blow all your hair way.

twd000 · May 2017

jtcBoynton said:

The only benefit of going 100% wood is a cost savings if you have a supply of wood on your property.

That's my situation. I hoard firewood like you guys hoard charcoal!

twd000 · May 2017

cssmd27 said:

I know someone that uses ONLY wood in his BGE. He is a professional pit master (side job/hobby) with his offset, so he has access to a LOT of wood. But, he uses a BGE most nights at home. He lights it up and lets it burn down a bit before cooking on it. A big distinction is that he's not doing any extended low and slow cooks with it. More grilling or sub 2 hour cooks. It sounded intriguing, but I'm not sure there is a benefit.

Very interesting. I would use it for hot & fast cooks as well. What is his reasoning? Just to save money on charcoal? I assume he has managed to find some way to regulate the temperature without any flare-ups?

twd000 · May 2017

twd000 said:

jtcBoynton said:

The only benefit of going 100% wood is a cost savings if you have a supply of wood on your property.

That's my situation. I hoard firewood like you guys hoard charcoal!

And it isn't so much the cost savings, as the convenience for me. I am notorious for failing to plan ahead and have enough charcoal on hand when the urge to smoke hits me. But it's a lot easier to walk over to the wood pile for fuel, than driving to the store to buy a bag of charcoal.

gdenby · May 2017

I'm inclined to think using the Egg to contain a wood fire is probably not a good thing.

The fire in the Egg is controlled by the air flow. Wood fires require quite a lot of air flow, and unless the dome is open, I doubt there would be enough oxygen to support anything more than a smoldering fire.

I haven't used a stick burner, but from what I've seen, the wood in those is usually burnt down to coals before the food goes in, and more wood is added bit by bit to keep from producing too much "bad" smoke.

Old brick pits I've seen have a separate chamber to reduce the wood to coals, which are then placed under the cooking chamber floor.

The wood fire pizza place I go to says the air temp above the pizzas is above 1400F, and on the slab, in excess of 900. They only do searing, as it were.

When I've done campfire cooking, I've learned that open flames are only useful if I'm willing to risk a grease fire on the meat. Otherwise, I cook over the wood once its down to glowing embers.

When I've added a large hunk of wood, a branch about 5" - 6" and thick, and 12" long, the food was pretty much ruined. I did get a nice big piece of lump for the next cook, tho'. When I've used pieces no more than 2" thick, and 6" long, the food was fine, and I got some extra lump that way.

twd000 · May 2017

gdenby said:

I'm inclined to think using the Egg to contain a wood fire is probably not a good thing.

The fire in the Egg is controlled by the air flow. Wood fires require quite a lot of air flow, and unless the dome is open, I doubt there would be enough oxygen to support anything more than a smoldering fire.

I haven't used a stick burner, but from what I've seen, the wood in those is usually burnt down to coals before the food goes in, and more wood is added bit by bit to keep from producing too much "bad" smoke.

Old brick pits I've seen have a separate chamber to reduce the wood to coals, which are then placed under the cooking chamber floor.

The wood fire pizza place I go to says the air temp above the pizzas is above 1400F, and on the slab, in excess of 900. They only do searing, as it were.

When I've done campfire cooking, I've learned that open flames are only useful if I'm willing to risk a grease fire on the meat. Otherwise, I cook over the wood once its down to glowing embers.

When I've added a large hunk of wood, a branch about 5" - 6" and thick, and 12" long, the food was pretty much ruined. I did get a nice big piece of lump for the next cook, tho'. When I've used pieces no more than 2" thick, and 6" long, the food was fine, and I got some extra lump that way.

My experience agrees with your. Largish chunks are fine, and actually give you some free charcoal, but there is an upper limit where the wood just outputs too much smoke.

GrateEggspectations · May 2017

All wood, no charcoal (i.e., stick burner).

In my experience, on the Egg, the biggest factor in having too much smoke flavour on a given cook is timing. I can load up on smoke on the front end of a cook without issue (and with great results), but if I introduce smoke late in a cook, results are not pretty. "Late" smoke produces an acrid, sour flavour that ruins any and all edibles that are exposed to it. This has been my experience.

what's the upper limit for the wood/charcoal ratio?

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