Charcoal/Wood/Flavor Questions/Musings

NCSU-Q

I have always used hardwood lump charcoal (typically Royal Oak), and then have used chunks or chips of hickory, mesquite, or apple wood, depending on what type of meat I am cooking.... and always get great results, but... I have a few observations & some questions:

The hardwood charcoal obviously provides a good bit of natural smoke flavor on it's own; perhaps so much so that I am not seeing much flavor difference in the product when experimenting with different woods added to the lump.

Does anyone use briquettes (natural, with no starter fluid, etc. of course) instead of lump so that you can more easily use wood lumps/chips to influence flavor? Do the briquettes impart less smoke flavor so that you have to be more reliant on added wood?

If using lump, does it even make sense to bother with chunks/chips?

(for reference sake, when making butts for pulled pork, I use 3-4 chunks of hickory)

... or is my palate just not refined enough to tell the difference when I smoke over apple instead of hickory?

gdenby

It seems to me that most lump has a little bit of woodsy smoke aroma. Not surprising when every now and then there will be some pieces that have obviously not been turned to carbon.

I've only used briquettes a few times, but considering the amount of ash left from the binder, I wonder what quality of smoke the binder gives off?

The flavors from wood smoke come from the decomposition of lignin. Very hard dense woods have lots of lignin in them. I favor oak for a really pronounced smoke effect, and use the biggest chunks I can find. From what I understand, the secret to getting the most pronounced flavor is to keep the wood from outright burning. This is done by tight air flow control, at which the Egg excels.

I have considered trying to put wood in a stoneware bowl so it is even less able to flame.

Also, while the smoke is deposited on the meat for as long as there is smoke, the meat must remain moist to absorb the chemicals down into the tissue.

crghc98

I believe many of the bakers use Wicked Good because it has a very light flavor...

I would try to find a neutral lump as opposed to using briquettes which have binders and additives in them and still have an amount of carbonized wood....