Wood questions....

johnrezz · November 2009

Does anyone ever use standard fire wood in the egg. I have a ton of cherry that I am burning in my fireplace. I understand that lighting lump is easier and is the only way to go for long slow cooks but for fireing pizza or grilling at high temp, why not just use wood??? if it works in a pizza oven...

another question on wood, I see that alot of people toss chips into the fire right when they put food on. dont you get that rancid taste if you dont let the wood burn for a little bit first? This summer I made a butt after I pull them i toss them in the sauce and put it back on to cook in the good stuff (E. Carolina style) I tossed some chips in and it came out tasting bad. I tend to smell the smoke coming out of my egg before I put anything in. If it smells good I put it in but it always smells bad for the first 25 min or so.....

I do alot of cooking on my egg and was just looking to try some new techniques and was curious what others do, plus lump is pretty damn pricey where I live.....

Firetruck · November 2009

John,
First I'm no expert on cooking with wood, but I would think that to do that you would need the wood to be extremely dry. less than 10% moisture and cut into small chunks. Without and outside source for firing the wood, it seems to me that it would smoulder and go out.

With regard to wood chips, I woud suggest using chunks instead. Just spread them out throughout the lump and they will burn slowly enough to keep the amount of smoke managable.

Little Steven · November 2009

John,

Couple of things about the egg and smoking wood. One is you need very little wood to get a good smoke flavour as compared to non ceramic smokers. Im my opinion you are right about letting the smoke burn clean with chunks or chips.
As far as using straight wood, it has been discussed here but I don't think it works out well. Bubba Tim makes his own lump by getting a really good fire going with the raw wood and shutting the egg down. Never tried it myself but that is how lump is treated. Maybe he will chime in.

Steve

Sun Devil Brett · November 2009

I put a good size lump or two( dry ) in and let the Egg get up to temp. them let it go for 30-40 minutes until all the heavy white smoke is gone. I look for a nice light bluish color before I throw on the cook of the day. Just my 2 cents, have a good day.

Ripnem · November 2009

I'm am thinking about slow cooking some wood to dry it out. I wonder how dry I can get it in 30 hrs at 250* I will most likely have to get a device to measure the moisture content to know anything.

Just wondering if anyone has any kiln wood drying knowledge.

SkySaw · November 2009

Lump is great for barbecue because it has already had many of the volatile organic compounds burned off. THis means that it can be burned inefficiently (choked) without releasing those vocs. Wood, however, needs to burn efficiently in order for those vocs to be burned rather than released in the smoke.

I believe this is why stick-burners, or those off-set barbecues are built the way they are; the fire-box at the side controls the heat in the pit by the size of the fire rather than the amount of oxygen reaching the fire. A cooler pit is achieved by burning less wood, and heat is increased by adding more wood, for the most part.

So, I think wood could work in an Egg provided that the temperature was maintained not through choking the fire, but by the number of sticks in the Egg. The problem with that is that it is not really easy to add more wood to an Egg with an indirect setup.

This brings it all back to using lump, and getting the wood smoke flavour through chunks/chips.

Mark

johnrezz · November 2009

Good points to all... I live in NW colorado at 7000 feet so having wood that is under 10% is common, Also I am a cabinet maker so I have moisture checkers. stuff on the side of the house is 6% right now......

I would not consider smoking with real logs but I was thinking about doing stuff like pizza or anything you cook hot and fast around 600 degrees, I am comparing it to the wood fired ovens that run at 700 degrees.

I do exactly I do use chunks about 2x2 or so, again I am a cabinet maker so there is never a shortage of hard wood drops......

Funny thinig, I hear everyone talking about using Alder for smoking or plank cooking fish, I can not bring myself to use it since I work so much in it and am SICK of smelling it in the shop..... maybe I will get over it when the wood trend changes.

One more thing...... has anyone used walnut? I do alot in it and wonder how it would taste, it smells great when you cut it, kind of sweet like chocolate....

J

James MB · November 2009

I'd be wary of walnut, I seem to recall some discussion about it making people sick. You might want to check out the virtual weber bullet site or do a search on here.
I guess you've been working in the walnut, sounds special. It makes me curious about what you make in alder, not sure we'd get big enough planks from the alder I'm familiar with.

Wood questions....

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